The Good and the Bad

Well, it's all about balance.

Bringing the year to a close is always hard - you have to say good-bye to the old, knowing that what has passed will never pass this way again, not in the same way.

But then, you also get to welcome in the new, and that can be pretty good.

Let's start with that, then.



The Good: The 2011 Midwest Witches' Ball 

OK... I'm late. The Ball was actually back in October. That I'm only just writing about it now should give you some sense of the chaotic condition of my life lately.

But it was a blast! In fact, it was so much fun that, in my memory, it looks like this -




In my clearer memories (which mostly come from early in the evening), I see things like this:

 

This is Amanda and Nathan. Amanda and Nathan are the people who won the boxed athame set which I donated and blogged about earlier.

These are some great people - I got to talk with them for a while, and I'm very glad that they won! I hope they enjoy it for a long time to come.

And they have the absolute coolest costumes! Aren't they great? The theme of this year's ball was Through the Looking Glass. 

This is my friend, Monk the White Rabbit, and his royal wife, the Red Queen. 

 I was a white rabbit too - but I was a bad bunny. Here's me as the White Rabbit Bunny Warrior of Death putting the smooth moves on my wife in the hotel lobby: 

This year, there was a vending event prior to the ball where sponsors could put up their wares for show and tell. 

Here's the fabulous Splendid Fish Studio display, manned by my wife: 

The vending was fantastic - here, like at the Goblin Market, you can get things you didn't even know exist. The big sellers for me were female springbok horns. I could barely keep these on the table long enough to sell them! I do have more now, though, so if you couldn't get one then, you might be able to get one now along with a lot of other unusual items at (www.magistercrow.etsy.com),

The Bad: Old Mr. Jenkins

 

Old Mr. Jenkins, the studio cat, passed away this month.

We're going to miss him a lot, although four of his daughters still live with us.

He was doing pretty well, right up until the end. When he got to the point where he could no longer eat or drink, we knew it was time.

I have no idea how old this cat was. We had him for eight years, and he was already old when we got him - we ended up taking him in because we knew he couldn't survive another Michigan winter outdoors, and so he ended up his life living in a luxury that he would have never been able to imagine while living on the streets.

He paid us back with the pleasure of his purr, and the touch of his fur.

We consider the debt paid in full.