Saturday Morning Housecleaning

It's 11:46am as I type this, and somettime during the next hour, Hob, the Welshman and the Fox will be gathering at my place for our first-time-ever sojourn to the Science Fiction Museum.

This, of course, has meant that I've spent all morning cleaning house -- with the cheerful and able assistance of my daughter, who didn't make one peep or moue of complaint when I turned off Saturday morning TV so she could do her part.

The dishes are done, the countertops have been wiped down, the floors have been vaccuumed, the sofa vaccuumed, the trash taken out, the entryway cleared of to-go-out recycling, and etc.

And while cleaning the bathroom I've discovered that the scrubby-textured kitchen wipes from Scotch Brite are the best-ever tool for cleaning the too-long-neglected corners and edges of my bathroom floor: scrub, wipe, toss!

I've also been reminded that one of the best ways to clean my house on all levels is to light some nice candles and get all the windows open. My basement doesn't ventilate all that well, and getting a current of air going through the place is something I need to do more often.

Writing Assignment

At some point during this afternoon's 'bunch of old friends sitting around talking' session, the random firing of weirdly-wired synapses resulted in this book title:

Tall Beer, Short Penguin

Later, this sentence -- "If it hadn't been for the cannibals living next door, we would have had quite a problem with the bodies" -- was named "best first line for a story" -- and promptly given a shotgun wedding to "Tall Beer, Short Penguin."

There's a prize (as yet unspecified) for whichever of us writes the best story combining the two.

I think I'm going to need vodka. . . lots of vodka.

The SciFi Museum

Any science fiction geeks in the Puget Sound area who have not yet visited the Museum of Science Fiction, which is attached to the Experience Music Project at the Seattle Center, need to carve out a couple of hours and do so.

They cram quite a bit of material into a rather small space, but it's a loving celebration of the entire history of science fiction. There are old, old books and pulp magazines, props, costumes, film, scripts, original art, movie posters, music, photographs. . .

I enjoyed myself, but the best moments were those I spent before a small display holding actual props from the original Star Trek. In front of a large photo of Spock, Kirk, and McCoy were Spock's tricorder, Kirk's communicator, and McCoy's medical scanner. They were rather beaten-up, but as I stood and looked at them I felt a powerful wave of emotion: an unexpected combination of nostalgia and gratitude for all that those objects symbolized.

I wasn't fond of Star Trek in the beginning. When I was very young, it scared me. (Heck, the Abominable Snowman on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer sent me scurrying behind the couch!) But when I grew older, I came to love it for its idealism and adventure, and the friendship and loyalty between the 'holy triumvirate'. I would not have expected those props to have an emotional impact, but they did.

Another highlight was seeing costumes worn by Delenn, G'Kar and Mollari from Babylon-5 -- and Delenn's outfit was my favorite from the show: the purple and pink layered robes with the crystal rod brooch and jeweled belt.

Also not to be missed is the very large model of the Alien Queen -- the stuff of nightmares. Her display is right next to one of the costumes worn by Evolution the Chimp who played Muffit in the original Battlestar Galactica -- also the stuff of nightmares, if you ask me.

One wall is designed to look like a large viewing port, and you can look out onto a busy space-lane, where ships from Star Trek, Star Wars, B5, Red Dwarf, Close Encounters, ET, and others all cross paths. Individual display controls allow you to select a ship and get full information on it (bringing it into prominence on the large screen), while a Big Brother voice describes the ship and its significance within the context of its own universe. ("Even in troubled times, the Imperial Star Destroyer conveys the power and authority of the Empire. . . ") Most impressive.