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Drivers are being warned of more delays at the Forth Road Bridge over the weekend while an access cradle used in recent emergency repairs is removed.

The cradle was used during works two weeks ago, to replace two large bolts near the top of the north tower.

It has to be removed in daylight for safety reasons. It will involve contraflows between 03:00 and noon on Saturday and Sunday.

Traffic will be restricted to a single lane in each direction.

Officials said they expect “long delays in both directions”.

Barry Colford, chief engineer and bridgemaster, said: “Thanks to the travelling public taking account of our advice last time, delays were less than we might have expected.

“However, we are very aware of the pressures on the transport system at holiday times and would ask people to be mindful of potential delays.

“This is essential work, but if it is delayed by bad weather, it will be postponed for a few weeks.”

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Couple of weeks ago we were posting about the Italian restaurant VAPIANO in the MOM Park. There is an other VAPIANO in the downtown area, too.

Posted from Bécsi street 5..

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Singing City at the Budapest Spring Festival. The conductor Gergely Kesselyák has created a great atmosphere there involving the audience into the singing. You can see two short videos of the event here.

Posted from Budapest, Budapest, Hungary.

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This coffin I found yesterday in the downtown. I can’t decide if this is a performance for protecting copy rights or a symbolic farewell of an old technology.

Posted from Deák square.

wlhr Fun, TEST art, budapest, budapest photo, budapest photos, coffin, copy-rights, downtown, events in budapest, Fun, performance, symbolic-farewell

People watching live concert at the Budapest Spring Festival.

Posted from Budapest, Budapest, Hungary.

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Vending machine for Public Transportation tickets at the Margaret bridge.

wlhr TEST bkv, budapest, budapest photo, budapest photos, margaret, public, public-transportation, transportation, vending

With a 40-ft Sonic the Hedgehog at its helm, the 85th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade kicked off in spectacular style.
Three million spectators watched as fourteen giant helium balloons, including Buzz Lightyear and SpongeBob SquarePants, bobbed their way through the streets of Manhattan.
The nation’s biggest singing stars also came out to entertain the crowds, including award-winning singers Cee Lo Green, Mary J.Blige and Neil Diamond.

The Mickey Mouse balloon floats through Times Square during the 85th Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade in New York
The SpongeBob SquarePants’ balloon floats through Times Square

To infinity and beyond; The Buzz Lightyear followed Spongebob

The Uncle Sam balloon makes its way through Times Square

And they’re off! The Sonic the Hedgehog giant balloon floats down Central Park West during the 85th Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade in New York City

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Women dressed as sunflowers celebrate Weiberfastnacht (Women’s Carnival) in Cologne, Germany. Women’s Carnival marks the start of a week of street festivals that reach a high point with mass processions on Rosenmontag (Rose Monday) on the Shrove Monday before Ash Wednesday.

admin For Life, Fun

If you thought the Lantern Festival of China is just a day for family reunions and eating some yuanxiao, then, you are wrong. It is actually the Chinese carnival.

The Chinese traditional Lantern Festival, Yuanxiao Festival in Chinese, which is on 15th day of the Chinese Lunar Calendar and falls on Feb. 17 this year, is actually not just about getting together with family but also means a date that all people should cheer up and celebrate. It is an ancient Chinese carnival.

Cao Baoming, the vice president of Chinese Folk Literature and Art Society, said that the Yuanxiao Festival, also known as “Shangyuan Festival” and “Lantern Festival,” had become a popular folk custom during the Han dynasty more than 2,000 years ago.

The festival is usually considered as the last peak of Spring Festival because people will start their life in the new year officially after the day. People of the whole country will cheer up to celebrate it and also they will pray that Heaven will offer them seasonable weather for a healthy harvest in the new year. Therefore, the custom of joining for celebrations at Yuanxiao Festival is widely spread among ordinary people.

Every year, when the day comes, people will go out of their own houses to the streets to look at various lanterns, guess lantern riddles and watch performances of Dragon Dances, Lion Dances, stilt-walking, fireworks show and so on. Some of those traditional custom and activities are national intangible cultural heritages now.

Actually, the Lantern Festival is not a single festival, and it only could be understood in the context of the Spring Festival.

The Spring Festival eve is usually a night that people stay at home to wait for new coming of the new year. From then until the end of Lantern Festival, it is actually a whole process of people expanding their spaces of activities as well as interpersonal relationships.

During days from Jan.1 to Jan. 4 on the Chinese Lunar Calendar, people usually gather around family members, relatives and then to friends. From Jan, 5, which is called “Break Five,” the whole of society begins to return to normal. For example, people return to farmland for work and stores open again for business. On the day of Jan. 15, the Lantern Festival, all people should join in the celebrations, and the day is considered as a day that all people confirm their mutual relationships.

The day is a carnival for the whole of society. Even old women who were usually not allowed to go outside can dress themselves up and join people in the streets. Some youth would also take the day as a precious opportunity for seeing ones they love.

Apart from public entertainment, the main activities people do in the day are paying tribute to various Chinese gods hoping they could have a good year.

Cao Baoming also said people had a three-day holiday in the Tang dynasty when the festival came, and it was five and 10 days in the Song and Ming dynasties, respectively. And all of the people celebrating Lantern Festival pushes the festive mood of Spring Festival to its peak.

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Late October is the most joyous and also the most stressful time of the blogging year for me. On one hand, the Super-Crafty Halloween Costume Contest is our favorite audience participation event. It’s very creative, always surprising and even most of the trolls seem to begrudgingly enjoy themselves.
Baby Gaga says: Thanks mom for not going with the gown made of meat.

Courtesy Sarah Morton

Baby Gaga says: “Thanks mom for not going with the gown made of meat.”

On the other, so many of the handmade costumes are amazing that it’s nearly impossible to pick winners. In the end, the judging feels almost arbitrary.

With that said, screw all of you. Below are the first entries in the Super-Crafty Halloween Costume Contest, and they’re better than ever. Great to see several entries in the group theme division. I was also happy to hear from multiple long-time The Poop readers who said they made their costumes in part because of the contest. I’ll be adding more throughout the week — check back often! Look for a full list of contestants on Monday and we’ll announce the winners some time later next week.

For those who are new, the Super-Crafty Halloween Costume Contest was created three years ago after a discussion on The Poop about the lost art of making costumes by hand among this generation of busy parents. The rules for the contest are here. In previous years, I haven’t been able to post all of the entrants because of technical issues and sheer volume. But if yours doesn’t get posted, feel free to send me a reminder at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com.

Thanks to everyone who has entered so far! Enjoy the craftiness!

Courtesy Jody Knight

Home made, Kia Superbowl commercial crew. How do you like me now?

Thanks,

Jody Knight

Courtesy Kirsten Macintyre

Hi Peter,

Attached are my kids’ Halloween costumes for this year. Kate (9) is the Cracker Jack sailor, and her brother Alex (7) is the toy surprise in the Cracker Jack box.

Kate is a Scottish highland dancer, so her sailor getup does double-duty (she wears it year-round for performances). It was her idea to make her brother into a toy surprise. He objected to the idea until I told him the adults would think it was cute and he’d get more candy. Then he was all for it.

Alex’s costume is made with about $5 in materials: Batting, duct tape and a few enlargements on the copy machine.

Kirsten Macintyre

PS: In researching this, I discovered that the sailor’s name is officially “Jack” (well, duh) and the dog’s name is “Bingo.” Who knew?

Courtesy Linda Baker

The cutest Jimmy Hendrix you’ll ever see!!!

Thank you,

Courtesy Allison Pretto

Hi P-Fresh,

Here is James Edward “Cookie” Prater, 18 months, in his chocolate chip cookie costume for Halloween 2010.

The backstory on this is as follows:

When our third son arrived, we named him James, but by the time he was nine months old, he was known to one and all as “Cookie,” because he is so darn sweet. (I don’t think the third kid has a choice but to be really agreeable.)

This year there was never any doubt what Cookie would be for Halloween. Cookie had to be a cookie! The problem was, I could find only one ready-made cookie costume. It was at Pottery Barn and cost $59.99. I KNOW!!!!

I figured, considering the fact that a cookie costume is basically a bunch of CIRCLES SEWN TOGETHER, even *I* could do better (or at least cheaper) than Pottery Barn. And so, here you see the result. I sent the second shot so that you could get an idea of the construction: The cookie costume is basically two felt pillows connected with ties, sandwich-board style.

For the record, Cookie appreciates his costume. He walks around gleefully announcing, “Coo-kee!”

Sincerely,

Allison Pretto
San Leandro

Courtesy Rosalie Shaw

My younger son told me he wanted to be a Giant’s Foam finger. The costume was all his idea; since I had to buy so much orange paint I had leftover and my older son wanted to be a “Lego” and he was fine with it being orange too!

Rosalie Shaw

Courtesy Keelie Duncan

Here is my 7 month old Penelope wearing her Twink the sprite costume. I handmade her costume using a pattern I drafted up. It took a ton of trial and error but it turned out adorable! This Halloween she makes the perfect sidekick to my own Rainbow Brite attire.

-Keelie

Courtesy Jody Handley

You’ll have to believe me that I made this this week. (check my blog for details!) Thanks so much for this contest, by the by — it’s what finally fully inspired me to take the crafty plunge.

Courtesy Esme Shaller

Hi Peter,

As always, the Poop continues to be amazing, so thank you. I have been MIA from the comments for the last few months because we went ahead and had a second kid and as you know, things got busy! HOWEVER, the silver lining is that you have unveiled the group division category just in time for my two daughters to enter.

Longtime Poop readers may remember me as the mom who dressed her baby as an ear of corn back in 2008. All of my costumes are basically glue gun and felt, so once next year hits and the will-be-three year old makes a request, I hope it’s another inanimate object, preferably food.

Here are Keely, two, and June, four months. Keely is a slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie, and June is the a la mode. The hardest part about this project was getting the two of them and the costumes all presentable in one photo, so I have attached 3 for you to choose from — one of just the costumes, one of both of them in them that is in focus, and one that is a little fuzzy but I had to send just do you could see how much fun they were having. The pie looks better standing up, but I couldn’t incorporate the baby that way, so whatever.

Keep up the great work and Happy Halloween!

Esme Shaller

Courtesy Llela Tan-Walsh

Hi Peter,

Our soon to be 3-year old son (Blaise) is into Super Mario Brothers since my husband bought the video game early this month. We decided that he will be cute as one of the toadstool mushroom (the blue one) instead of the typical mario or luigi. Everything was hand crafted except for the white turtle neck and pants. I tried to take a picture of my son with today’s “The Poop” with Mike Adamick’s Frances England blog.

Regards,

Llela

Courtesy Brent Woodard

Peter,

Attached you will find our take on the Star Wars group. Especially take note of “Luke Skywalker” and “Yoda” in the front row — these are my godchildren, who I make costumes for each year for their birthday which happens in October. I got especially good reviews for my Yoda feet. Unfortunately, “Luke” isn’t wearing the boots that were made for the costume because we are in-doors.

Also part of the group — “Uncle Owen”, “Aunt Beru”, “Obi-wan”, “Darth Vader”, “Princess Leia”, a pregnant “Han Solo”, “Anakin Skywalker” (which is me), and “George Lucas.”

Thanks,

Brent Woodard

Anonymous

… Those are chopsticks in her hair.

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Courtesy Crystal Keene

Hey Peter,

This is a photo I took last Halloween of my son dressed as Jango Fett and his dog Caesar dressed as Yoda. I thought it was fitting after the recent post. Also WirelessAndy asked if there was a photo floating around.

Lasvegasmom aka Crystal

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Courtesy Heather Summerer

Courtesy Heather Summerer

Attached is the original chick costume worn in 2005. I remade it to fit my second child in 2009. It is two onesies sewn together at the legs and neck after being stuffed with batting. Take feather boas and wind them around use big slip stitches to hold them in place. In 2009, my oldest daughter wanted to be a pig, Mom was a cow and Dad was farmer. I learned quick to get to the house at the same time as my daughter or she would announce to my neighbors … “My Mom is a cow!” Nice. Made the pig too. My husband is a saint.

Heather Summerer

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Courtesy Debbie Lee

It’s a little early, but here is my daughter’s costume for this year. She’s a California roll, because when I was pregnant with her I always craved sushi but was never allowed to eat it (apparently imitation crabmeat = sandwich meat = risk of listeria).

Debbie

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Courtesy Sarah Morton

Baby Gaga …

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Courtesy Amy Alamar

It started with a pumpkin. I had my first child and had just learned to sew and I was set on making my baby the cutest pumpkin ever! How else would I call him pumpkin with any integrity? So, I set in motion, first the fabric store, next another fabric store that had better orange felt. The construction process, with my mother’s help of course, took about two full days as I recall. But, then there was securing a matching fabric dye for the long johns to be worn underneath — not to mention the socks. Lo and behold, he was the great pumpkin Charlie Brown! It became tradition, each August my mother and I would set out to make Halloween costumes before my mother would head home for football season.

Fast forward, one daughter, one son, three nephews, and one niece later … The kids wanted “Star Wars,” so we went “Star Wars.” My mother had to sit this one out, but thank goodness my Aunt was in town and is very handy with altering patterns, because, while it may come as a surprise, they don’t sell Chewbacca and R2D2 costume patterns.

Now here’s the kicker: My aunt goes back to DC and my curmudgeon of a brother-in-law who will never dress up pipes in, “Ooh, make me an Emperor Costume.” So in addition to seven wee costumes (two not pictured because they live in LA) I made two XL ones (my husband and brother-in-law), mind you, the sleeves of the XL cloaks were larger than my 5 foot frame.

Take care,

Amy Alamar

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PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes has nothing to do with parenting. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/parenting/detail?entry_id=75451#ixzz13XcmB8CR

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