Many Updates!

So I've been pretty much burned out since Star Wars Celebration VI... I was let go from my job 2 days after after our group (GFLUG) displayed at Star Wars Celebration VI.  I had a lot of fun at the event, that turned quickly into figuring out my next life move would be.  Fortunately for us, I managed to find a job pretty quickly (as a contractor), with minimal impact to our family.

At the beginning of October, another GFLUG member (Michael Zehr) and I ended up doing a small LEGO display at the Winter Garden Music Festival. Michael's Winter Garden in minifig scale looks wonderful, especially the train station... About that time I started experimenting with the iPhone's new panoramic feature and dabbling with Instagram again.

With the new job, I was a little worried about a vacation we had planned with some friends for later October -- we were going to California, with trips to Legoland and Disneyland.  My wife and I really wanted to check out the new Cars Land and we were not disappointed.  We were also not disappointed with the Star Wars Miniland at Legoland -- we hadn't seen it since it opened.  Oh! and Erika, Joe and I met up with some of the SandLUG peoples down in San Diego -- I was great getting seeing everyone again.

BrickHaven 2012 came and went -- it was a little bit of a bust, but for some GFLUG members, it was a chance to catch up with a few friends from out of town... In a sense, it was doomed from the beginning.  On one hand, it had a few exciting things going for it -- it was Legoland Florida's 1st anniversary, Brick-or-Treat, and the park announce it was getting a Star Wars miniland to open up sometime in October.  The other hand, it really only gave AFOLs less than a few months to plan for, with uncertainties about details -- part of which I take some responsibility for... more on this later.

Festival of the Masters' theme this year was "The 80s" for the 80th anniversary of LEGO -- there was some great 80's themed models.  Some honorable mentions -- Pitfall by Erika Fiorenza, Lite Bright by Sydney MacDonald, Jem and the Holograms vs. The Misfits by Amber & Roger, but I think the one that stole everyone's heart was Q-Bert by Mark Staffa -- and I think Disney releasing the Wreck-It Ralph movie had a lot to do with it.

...I was so burned out, I ended up recycling a MOC from Star Wars Celebration VI: Han in Carbonite Minifig Carrying Case.  I'm a little disappointed in myself; FotM is generally where I build something new and something very different.