It's been a productive day so far; we got a new prop in the mail for the next Half-Life shoot (which is coming soon, I promise!) and I spent the afternoon sewing a cooler blanket back together for a friend of mine. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my sewing machine? Most modern machines would never be able to handle the load of several layers of heavy-duty nylon and fleece and webbing, because all they gear them with now is plastic and plastic is worthless for taking load. This is why I own a Husquvarna sewing machine from the 70s, which is geared in metal and nylon, in order to last next-door to forever. It has a low gear that gives you five times the power for a fifth of the speed, and will happily trundle through as many layers of anything that you can fit under the presser foot. Which is good, because the repairs to the cooler were extensive; we had caught most of Curse of Frankenstein last night and it was that kind of a job. I'm not sure what, precisely, the horse in question did to it, but it was ripped to shreds. Catastrophic spontaneous disrobing, I assume :) At any rate, it took me four hours to piece it back together, cut patches, pin the patches in place, sew the patches on, adjust the patches while sewing (fleece stretches, which means your measurements have to constantly be adjusted) sew the edges of the torn pieces down for cosmetic effect (although it's never going to look new again, let me tell you) reattach the surcingle (yes, it was *that* destroyed) and replace the catch on said surcingle, which involved picking the stitching out, removing the borked end, and putting a new one on. So yes, complicated job. The other blanket I have to fix will be a cake walk; it just needs a catch replaced, which ought to take about fifteen minutes. I'm saving it for tomorrow, though; it's a beautiful evening for a quick run out in the kayak.