🥳

 

Counting Down to 20 #3

 

Counting Down to 20 # 2

 

Counting Down to 20 # 1

 

🥧 Celebrating Pi Day 𝝅

 Wishing all well and celebrating Pi day 2025, loyal readers! On deck for 2026:

A/M 20th Anniversary Edition, 

celebrating 20 years since the 1st edition. 

︵‿︵‿*20*‿︵‿︵

🎉 Welcoming 2025 🎉

Wishing you, dear readers, a wonderful year as we ring in 2025 🎉 thank you so much for joining us on this sometimes quixotic, hopefully memorable digital journey!

This year is very special for the blog because we are celebrating its 20th birthday*🎂

Fun piece of trivia: July 19, 2005 is the exact birthday, when we officially began development (Thanks POP/IMAP)! 

Still our most popular post, please enjoy "A Brief History of Nino's Block"! 

https://stanza28.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-brief-history-of-ninos-block.html

And Renwick is catching up to it 🦮. You can find Renwick here:

https://stanza28.blogspot.com/2021/08/renwick-exorcist-i.html

Coming up later this year:

"The Christmas Kittens: A Winter Tale in 3 Parts" and some other fun surprises as well. 

Find and enjoy the stanza28™ Fausse Arcade at:

https://stanza28.creator-spring.com/ and finally, thank you past contributors; it's future time 😉.  

*For the nostalgic, here is a link to our first blog post: https://stanza28.blogspot.com/2006/09/blog-post.html

The Making of a GOAT Scarf

 

Prereqs:

A cashmere sweater for upcycling ( I used a purple jumper, presumably from a purple Kashmiri GOAT).

A silk dress for upcycling ( I used a sleeveless dress, about an inch below the knee length).

Needle, thread & iron.

Step 1. 

Lay the sweater flat, cut the sweater across the chest in a straight line, just below the armholes. Take the bottom piece and cut open either the right or left side, whatever your preference, and iron flat (The remaining piece, use as a shrug).

Step 2. 

Lay the dress flat, pin the sweater piece lengthwise along the front of the dress and cut an equally wide & long length of the dress (add an inch on each side for a seam allowance). Iron silk remnant flat.

Step 3. 

Pin the two fabrics together good sides in, sew the edges together, leave about 4 inches at the bottom open. Iron flat. Turn inside out by hand. Finish by handstiching the remaining 4 inches. 

Enjoy your GOAT scarf :) 

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium III

 

Fegefeuer’s Blackout

A trembling and shaking began to overcome Fegefeuer’s Emporium. There was a loud rumbling thunderous sound as Fegefeuer’s eyes widened and perspiration collected on his brow, and then shock.

At first Fegefeuer had though it was a rare Las Vegas earthquake, however the sight he now beheld said different.

The rumbling continued, and the smoke Fegefuere had so assiduously arranged for had begun to billow away from an emerging center of activity, not far from the first aisle of the Emporium. Fegefeuer could not believe what he was seeing, and he struggled to retain his composure. 

In the center of what had been the first aisle, the ground was opening and light and stone were emerging, and dirt spewed out, like a darkened volcano. The fog continued to clear and a hill began to emerge and grow out of the chasm that had erupted. It was more than a crack in the floor of the first aisle; the first aisle was gone, the carpeting was gone and a craggy hill was rapidly emerging and growing into a two story, then three story, hill.

The fog continued to clear. Fegefeuer was terrified. Still attempting to compose himself, he outstretched his hand before him.

The hill continued to emerge from the ground and pierced and then collapsed the roof of the Emporium. Streams of intense sunlight crashed the tableau. A grinding sound continued, and then louder, and louder still, and finally the desert sky was suddenly visible above Fegefeuer, who looked up in trembling horror. 

Everything then became dark, as the streaming light disappeared and Fegefeuer caught his breath and clutched his hand to his chest in the unexpected moonlit desert evening.

What is happening? His mind's eye fluttered.

Below the Emporium was Fegefeuer’s cellar, where seven rows of desks and computer equipment sat, accommodating Fegefeuer’s other pursuit. When Fegefeuer wasn’t selling pool noodles he was composing and debugging lines upon lines of computer code under Las Vegas Boulevard.

His patient and analytical mind was not comprehending the vision before him. Where was the cellar? What had happened to the roof of the Emporium? How had this glittering, nearly black hill come to extrude from where the first aisle of his Emporium had been, just a few seconds ago? He clutched his chest again, wondering if he was having a stroke or a heart attack and astonished as to why he had no idea how to answer this question.

It was dark and Fegefeuer heard what sounded like shattering glass, only much louder, and he took a few steps backwards, disbelief quickly evolving into unmitigated panic.

All of the smoke gone, he looked up the glittering hill possibly six or seven stories tall, now towering before him, the parking lot nowhere to be seen, and Fegefeuere walked towards the hill, still clutching his chest and still beheld by terror and panic.

The next moment Fegefeuer was able to clearly recall went like this: he was flat on his back, in the cellar of the Emporium. He slowly looked up and saw the stairs that led to the end of the first aisle of the Emporium, which was again visible, one level above him. The lights were all out and it was stiflingly and uncharacteristically warm in the cellar. Seven rows of desks and computer equipment sat silently, with no humming, and emitting no flashing lights whatsoever. Haltingly, Fegefeuer forced himself off the linoleum cellar floor. He strained to reorient himself. Through sheer force of will, he reached for the water dispenser in the cellar. He poured a cup of it over his head, then another, and another. 

There was no longer a glittering stone hill towering before him, and the illuminated dessert sky no longer shone above, it was replaced again by the nondescript ceiling of the cellar. The lights and everything else in the cellar were still all shut off. Fegefeuer, haltingly, made his way up the stairs and incredulously looked all the way across the Emporium.

The smoke from the fog machine continued to scent the air, and it was still dark, and this brought a sense of certitude to Fegefeuer’s perception.

He had made his way up the stairs in the dark easily, from memory, and also because glow in the dark paint illuminated the path on the stairs and the exits. Now, behind the register, Fegefeuer retrieved and extinguished his flashlight, and began to more carefully survey his surroundings.

Nothing looked amiss, however it was warmer, much warmer than usual in the Emporium. Everything was turned off; the overhead lights, the air conditioning. The entertainment system, which provided atmospheric moody music was similarly silenced. Slowly, as Fegefeuer continued to regain his sense of composure, he noted and listened intently to growingly clear sounds of Strip traffic just outside.

Had the heat caused him to faint and hallucinate? As his mind continued to rapidly consider the possibilities, a whirring sound caught his attention; everything suddenly blinked back on; the lights, the air conditioning, the sound system.

Still confused, however, also exhaling in sincerely held relief, Fegefeuer made his way to the front door of the Emporium, and locked it, almost simultaneously flipping the old fashioned door sign to indicate the Emporium was closed. Fegefeuer turned back around and walked back towards the cash register, quickly considering that he needed a few moments to collect his thoughts, to decide if he needed an ambulance, to consider if everything might shut off again, and what he would do if it did... he was mentally scanning all of these possible eventualities when Fegefeuer noticed, across from the register, atop the burled walnut wall unit; the terrarium sat, EMPTY. 

The red, white and black milksnake Fegefeuer had named after himself had left its enclosure. Fegefeuer the Snake had exited the Emporium.

Part 2

Vencesla at the SPA

In the dimly lit spa waiting room, Vencesla was informed that her spa appointment had to be rescheduled. The hotel casino was experiencing a blackout, and they had been instructed to evacuate.

A full half hour later Vencesla sat in a pool lounger behind her hotel, awaiting permission to return to her room. The spa level was near the ground floor, so it had only been several small flights of stairs and hallway before Vencesla had been escorted to the rear courtyard of her lush accommodations. She absently watched some adults as they yelled “Marco!" “Polo!” in the dusking afternoon sun. There had been some splashing commotion afterward and she shifted her attention to her well laid plans; her spa appointment cancelled, and it seemed there was still some unrest at the resort. A man approached Vencesla, taking a seat in the lounger next to hers.

“Didn’t I see you at the “Will Call” earlier?
“Yes, I’m Vencesla.”
"Hello, I’m Keegan. I think our show tonight will probably be rescheduled due to this blackout.”

“Are you a Bunny Dolores fan?” Vencesla inquired, absolutely enchanted with this soft spoken gentleman who had struck up a conversation.

“Say, Vencesla, would you like to join me and my sister and her fiancé for dinner this evening? The show’s definitely cancelled. My sister is here on vacation with her fiancé. I was just in the pool with them, they have been engaged for a while, with no date set, and just before, he just started having chest pains while we were playing “Marco Polo.” We were passing the time until they give the all clear to return to their room. They decided to get married tonight. I sure could use an additional witness. We are getting a car to a place down the strip and then dinner in a little while. Would you like that? Two Bunny Dolores fans witnessing an impromptu wedding?”

“I would like that, thank you. Right now, or...?" 

Overhead, the public address system was informing the resort guests they could return to their rooms.

“Can you meet the party at the Concierge at 6PM? We will all leave from there.” Keegan gave Vencesla a confident smile.

After Fegefeuer’s Blackout 

Fegefeuer, in the aftermath of his blackout had decided against a hospital. He concluded instead to steady his nerves with a semi long drive north.

He felt almost as if he was being pulled there. He drove away from the Emporium, the sign on the door reading “Closed Due to Blackout.” He thought about Fegefeuer the Milksnake and wondered how the terrarium had shattered in the dark of what he had experienced earlier. He drove, past Charleston Peak, and continued north.

The Alien in the Desert

North of the glittering city, Hortense arrived at the alien cemetery. Hortense was more at peace now, the unease from earlier was subsiding as an earth automobile stopped, and a human emerged, a few hundred feet from where Hortense watched. 

Precious & Alfonse in the Hotel Lobby III

“You have a date for our impromptu wedding.” Precious repeated back to her brother, skeptically, but not unhappily.

“Wait til you see her, sis! It’s fate she should join us, our show was cancelled tonight because of the blackout.”

“Well, the car is going to be here any minute. What time did you tell her to meet us?”

“There she is!” Precious followed her younger sibling’s enthusiastic gaze to an approaching petite woman, who was smiling calmly as she approached them. 

“Thanks to my little brother, I have a Bridesmaid! So happy to meet you, Vencesla!”

“Congratulations!”

Alfonse smiled quietly as the festively attired party walked away from the Concierge, a happy group. Moments later they arrived at the valet, and briefly thereafter, in the waning sun of the American desert, the party arrived at a walk in wedding chapel. 

Later, in a secluded booth at a steak house of grand repute the jovial, impromptu group toasted to Precious and Alfonse. They had been served champagne by the staff, who had been extremely accommodating about the recent nuptials. Their car awaited in the parking lot, and Precious was feeling a sense of relaxation as she took her husband’s hand and they made their way from the booth and back to the parking lot. 

Alfonse, who had been subdued all night, suddenly slumped, his head rotating from one side to the other before he fell to the ground.

Precious cried out for her brother. Keegan had been walking behind his older sister, happily chatting with the lovely Vencesla and he and Vencesla had locked eyes, in panic, when Alfonse had crumpled to the ground. 

The Alien in the Desert II

Hortense outstretched its upper appendage, sensing Fegefeuer as he approached in the darkness. Fegefuer gasped as his senses fully appreciated that this was no usual encounter in the desert. As Hortense' appendage continued to unfurl towards Fegefuer, their bodies touched and a sudden white bright flash of glittering light encapsulated them both, and, just as quickly disappeared. Hortense was gone, dematerialized. Fegefuer was gone, dematerialized. 

Fegefuer's car sat, abandoned in the desert, and in the distance, a milksnake crawled into the night. 

Precious, Her Brother, Vencesla in the ER

He wagered at a slot machine across the parking lot from the ER, where his sister, Precious, waited. Vencesla sat by him quietly, praying silently.

"I want you to visit me next month, Keegan. Stay at my home, I will show you the city and everything in it."

He smiled at Vencesla, appreciative for this gesture at a moment when so much was in flux. 

"I accept, Vencesla, I will stay at your home, we will go out and see the sights!" He touched her hand, and quietly shifted his gaze to the Emergency Room entrance across the parking lot. Precious was emerging from the double glass doors. She had awoken this morning on vacation, single. She had been informed that she was now a widow, and the only next of kin to her recently deceased husband's children.

Keegan and Vencesla walked across the parking lot and embraced Precious. Keegan held his sister close and no one said anything. 

(Editor's note: The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium is fiction.)

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium I

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium II (Available December 20, 2023)

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium III (Available January 20, 2024)

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium II

 The Alien 

Although it did not sense light in the same way the humans did, the Alien (earth name: Hortense) knew there was a difference between the waking time and the sleeping time. The latter tended to guarantee Hortense’s security as it explored the barren and it thought, beautiful desertscape which the humans referred to as “Las Vegas.” 

Hortense was not visible to the usual human eye. Some humans could see it though, it had deduced, displeased, one late night as its placid stroll through the desert had been unceremoniously disturbed, soiled really, by a screaming earthling teenager who, apparently through some genetic mutation, was able to detect its nearly three story high presence as Hortense had been enjoying its vacation from its distant home. 

The teenaged mutant human female had been with her earthling male companion of similar age and rotundness, who could not see Hortense, and a terse argument between the couple had ensued. 

The alien missed its significant other, who had not been able to make the journey due to administrative issues with work at the time Hortense had departed its home, magnitudes of light years from Earth. 

In addition to having its equanimity disturbed the night before, by having been observed in the desert by the mutant human as Hortense had attempted to leisure, it also was currently experiencing a sense of unease. The waking time had just quite abruptly become the sleeping time. Hortense had reviewed a detailed schedule of when this was supposed to occur and the sudden darkness it was now witnessing was not on that schedule, undoubtedly. 

Where was that graveyard again? With the aid of its exogalactic phone, Hortense navigated toward the alien graveyard in the unanticipated dark of the American desert. Hortense had heard it was a must see if one was to vacation in these parts. As it had been making its way to the graveyard, Hortense had sensed something unusual about the building in which Fegefuere's Emporium resided. Hortense had unexpectedly sensed the glittering building posed a threat to its existence.  

The cumulative effects of: the waking time quite abruptly becoming the sleeping time, the panicked teenaged mutant, and also the unease it felt as it passed the Emporium, was a foreboding, an unexpected sense of oddity and unease which Hortense was determined to overcome, lest it undermine its trip.

Would this abrupt change of light further disrupt its vacation it wondered, inwardly groaning at the expense of interstellar travel. 

Vencesla In her hotel room 

Vencesla relaxed in her hotel room, in her favorite red satin bathrobe, emblazoned with her family crest, smiling up at the ceiling, greatly delighted by her accommodations. She would take the escalator to her spa appointment in less than an hour and was greatly anticipating this treat of relaxation. What kinds of products do they make available for purchase, she wondered, dreamily gazing up at the Art Deco lighting in her strip facing suite. 

The night before, Vencesla had seen her Grandfather in a dream, which almost never happened. Grandfather was burning in hell and had urged her to pray for her mother, his daughter, so her afterlife could be better, perhaps comprised of cooking and dancing rather than eternal hellfire and damnation. 

Vencesla, with effort, remembered with an increasing degree of specificity the unfamiliar and extremely vivid dream, recalling suddenly that in the dream she had been holding his hand as a little girl. This caused Vencesla to shudder involuntarily, recalling the many times Grandfather's behavior had terrorized her. She had spent her childhood at his enormous home. He made up lurid lies and told them to her mother in front of little Vencesla and she had grown up with ever aggrandizing fear when her mother continued to  accept all of it and never questioned him. Grandfather had often acted with the intention of instilling fear in Vencesla, and in isolating her. The memory of it, of him, his power over her, had abated as the years without him accumulated, however, unexpected reminders of him were still cause for cognitive dissonance. 

Vencesla smiled and patted her pillow, thinking of the cab she had taken to where she had collected her rental car. Grandfather would have been angered beyond toleration to know Vencesla was driving a car on her own; he had not allowed her mother ever to operate a car, and even now, years after his death, Vencesla’s mother did not operate machinery on her own. 

Perhaps driving freely through the Las Vegas dessert, albeit very carefully, is what had brought forth the dream from her unconscious, she mused, as she quietly rode the escalator to the spa level. 

Vencesla experienced a nasty jolt when, upon entering the spa, she was greeted by a male spa attendant who bore a startling resemblance to her late grandfather. 

As Vencesla made her way to the spa, back home, Vencesla’s mother took her last breath, felled by an aortic catastrophe. However, Vencesla would not learn of this until later. 

Another spa attendant, a woman, led Vencesla away from the Grandfather doppelgänger, to a comfortable waiting area where Vencesla was given a preparation of lemon and hot water and she sat, attempting to shake off the feeling of anxious foreboding she had intensely experienced moments earlier, upon having seen the Grandfather doppelgänger. 

As Vencesla was selecting a magazine to peruse, seated in a spa issued fluffy robe, the entire spa went dark. Dios mio, she thought, frowning and clenching her jaw and placing her hands to her lips, how foolish of her to have believed, even for a moment, that seeing him in a dream would not portend greater troubles. 

The last blackout for Vencesla had been back home at one of the local malls, and although she had been okay, Vencesla had later learned that several people had been mugged in the chaos. No stores had been looted, however, unlike when a much longer and more terrifying blackout had taken place two years prior. 

Vencesla’s heart raced as her body unconsciously recoiled, in anticipation of a worst case scenario perhaps beyond anything she had even contemplated. The mirrored ceiling above her, which only a few brief moments before had delighted her, now reflected back the startled face of a terrified, petite, young lady. 

Just as unexpectedly, a series of emergency lights began to dimly illuminate the spa waiting room. Vencesla was as astonished as she was relieved by the speed at which the blackout in the desert had been met with preparation. 

Precious & Alfonse in the Hotel Lobby II 

“Do you think it’s for a movie, Alfonse?” 

Puzzled, Precious surveyed the glitzy din in the lobby of the five star hotel. Even as darkness had enveloped the large lounge, many patrons seemed to continue partaking. 

As it was not visible to her from the two tone velvet, damask and crystal adorned bar, Precious could not tell if the gambling on the casino floor had been interrupted.

Alfonse had gotten up and Precious was able to make out his silhouette in the darkened lounge. The dim lighting was the reason she initially thought they had inadvertently entered a film shoot in progress. 

It happened all the time at home, she thought, quizzically surveying her surroundings. 

Fegefeuer’s Blackout 

A trembling and shaking began to overcome Fegefeuer’s Emporium. There was a loud rumbling thunderous sound as Fegefeuer’s eyes widened and perspiration collected on his brow, and then shock. 

At first Fegefeuer had though it was a rare Las Vegas earthquake, however the sight he now beheld said different. 

The rumbling continued, and the smoke Fegefuere had so assiduously arranged for had begun to billow away from an emerging center of activity, not far from the first aisle of the Emporium. Fegefeuer could not believe what he was seeing, and he struggled to retain his composure. 

In the center of what had been the first aisle, the ground was opening and light and stone were emerging, and dirt spewed out, like a darkened volcano. The fog continued to clear and a hill began to emerge and grow out of the chasm that had erupted. It was more than a crack in the floor of the first aisle; the first aisle was gone, the carpeting was gone and a craggy hill was rapidly emerging and growing into a two story, then three story, hill. 

The fog continued to clear. Fegefeuer was terrified. Still attempting to compose himself, he outstretched his hand before him.

The hill continued to emerge from the ground and pierced and then collapsed the roof of the Emporium. Streams of intense sunlight crashed the tableau. 

A grinding sound continued, and then louder, and louder, and finally the desert sky was suddenly visible to Fegefeuer, who looked up in trembling horror. 

Everything then became dark, as the streaming light disappeared and Fegefeuer caught his breath and clutched his hand to his chest in the unexpected moonlit desert evening. 

What is happening? His mind raced.

Below the Emporium was Fegefeuer's cellar, where seven rows of desks and computer equipment sat, accommodating Fegefeuer's other pursuit. When Fegefeuer wasn't selling pool noodles he was composing and debugging lines upon lines of computer code under Las Vegas Boulevard.

To Be Continued

(Editor's Note: The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium is fiction)

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium I

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium II (Available December 20, 2023)

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium III (Available January 20, 2024)