Genevieve

Waking Sleeping Sign Repose Wish
The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam...

Leave a Comment

got my big truck fix!
2002-07-16 - 4:13 p.m.

Have you ever noticed that the tail lights of the Mazda Miata are hourglass shaped? Is it just me that thinks black widow when I see a black Miata from behind?

I got to play with a baby last night. Sorry Wen, Andrew actually did bring Sorcha and Regan with him this week to practice. She was so cute and snuggly, and small and mostly quiet. Yup, I love other people's children. Of course I went to practice for the sole reason of returning Ragnarr's black hammer that got left behind at Assessment. But Rags must have been on fire, since I waited and waited for him to get off the "field" and he kept on fighting and fighting, so it was close to 9pm before I headed out from practice. I meant to go shopping, but got waylayed by baby-cuteness.

Alan and I have new furniture, I love visiting Hickory. More importantly I had a great if brief time with my sister, Clint and the nieces. Okay, my details of this weekend should be brief. They do say that Brevity is the soul of wit, but I never claimed to be witty, just crazy.

Long drive down to Conover, NC, broken up with Harry Potter and the Chamber or Secrets and a cell phone call from the Q. I arrived around 10:30pm, and stayed up late chatting with my sister until 12:30am and then reading until 1:30. Dragged butt out of bed as niece-Bethany was laying down for morning nap, and my sister with her. So I took a shower, had some breakfast and let the dog out, and sat around and read more. Then we went to the factory to look at furniture. I love Clint, I truly do. I got to look at my beautiful new loveseat for the living room, burgundy buffalo calf skin leather. It's our wedding presents from his dad. It looks great in our living room by the way. Silly Clint was lamenting the fact that none of the leathers types and colors in our house matched, I told him I like the variety and ecleticism. Like neopolitain ice cream where you get to sample different types instead of just plain ole vanilla.

Then they threw another chair my way. See, they made it in the wrong style #, had it off by one, so extra chair needed a home, and I'm not one to let a lovely leather chair go homeless. (No, you can't have it, it's mine and it is sinfully comfortable.) So, we decided that it also needed a back pillow, cause it is great for lounging, but if you did want to sit forward, a back pillow would be good. After diving in the pillow boxes for half an hour, we found a size and shape that worked well, but totally wrong color and style, so Clint took me over to the fabric stash and I picked a gold silk dupioni to have them make me a custom made pillow for my new chair. And it too is lovely. After that sis and I went and rented a trailer, and then went to our parents' storage unit and loaded it all, save one antique dresser, into the truck and trailer to haul it all away. Never got to Judy's place to scope out nice furniture. Did end up taking home a bunch of other stuff, including an entire bedroom set, save a mattress, for Shane and Gina. We made it all in the truck and trailer, but should have secured it all better. As is was, one of the legs of the new chair got a bit beat up, but it's hidden in the carpet and small. Friday night was a bit of repacking the trailer to relieve my sister of our mother's buffet, and Clint brought us home steak dinners. You see why I love this man. Then we stayed up way to late after the kids went to bed and chatted until midnight again.

Saturday I got up at 6am, got on the road to Roanoke, and was on site by 11am. Truck was understandably slower with trailer of furniture, but lots of the furniture was mostly air pockets, so I was able to maintian at least 65 most of the way. Hated being the slow one those few times though. Assessment was entertaining. Since the site, while lovely, was someone's horse pasture there were various quirks about the site that got tiresome. First of all, lots of rolling hills, perfect for pasture, not so great for tents, or Pell Mell for that matter. Various lines of trees provided some nice perimeter shade (near the brambles, poison ivy and ticks) but also blocked the much needed breeze. It was a hike up or down the rolling hills to get to a potty, the parking, and the merchants. The roads were perfect for trucks and tractors, but needless to say some folks feared for their cars and I feared (rightly so) for the furniture in said trailer jostling around more than it did on the highway. Oh, and their project to breed mosquitoes and ticks was very successful, they were everywhere. I mean everywhere. Luckily, I managed to not get bit by a tick, and no skeeters either after applying Repel to legs and hair. The brambles that got wrapped around my ankle and tied up in my skirt was a bit of a pain though. Oh, and I forgot to mention the steaming divits. Yup, horse pasture, you do the math. And it was humid, quite humid. So, why did I do this then? I really did have a lovely time. There was great company, I set up my gold dayshade with table, two chairs, bench, and cooler. I got to lay out snacks for those around me, who seemed to enjoy them. I got to teach Lauren how to work a lucet, so will have to find her one at Pennsic to keep her occupied. I got to sit in on the speed GD meeting, which actually wasn't as bad as ones in the past. I got to play with the Maxie-Dog, run around a bit, make her lay down and be good. Good Max! I got to see the look on both Cuan and Padraiga's faces when I gave him his new Three Dog Bakery shirt. It says "Dogs Rule" on the front with three cartoon doggies; one in a crown, one is a princess henin, and one in a jester's hat, juggling. On the back it say "We pitty the kitties" with the 3Dog logo. I thought it was especially cool since we are fighting with the Mid, against the Eastern Tygers this year at war. Maybe since he has two shirts, he'll wear them out a little slower now. Every time I've seen him he's been wearing the "Will fetch for treats" shirt, except when he came to our wedding, thankfully. Love the Cu.

Stayed for feast with Edwin and Orlando, Corbie and Susie getting invited up to high table. The feast was absolutely amazing! I only added salt to one dish, which is saying something. First came out the most tender roast beef with a garlic sauce to kill for. I was offending myself on the drive back to Edwin's later. Then there was a pork tart, and chicken with this pigeon sauce that was nice and strong. Maybe it was the cook's way to keep the mosquitoes away. Given the primitive kitchen facilities, the feast was beyond compare, and worth every bit of praise. The head cook, incidentally turned 21 yesterday, so Cuan, with the crowd assembled, sang her Happy Birthday, the traditional way, not the gooby overdone Mongol Birthday song. Cuan was of course in fine form. He called her out and asked if she would be indeed celebrating her twenty-first birthday on monday. After she nodded, he said "And not yet wed?!?" and launched into a diatribe about something being wrong with the men of Black Diamond when a woman of her obvious talents in the kitchen was still without a suitor. It was hilarious, she took it in very good stead, and everyone had a good time so that not even the rain could dampen our spirits.

After feast, we struck the dayshade, and headed on out to Craig and Francis's place. I won't mention the game of chase that involved a pulling a U-turn with truck and trailer on the curb since we were lost, and it was some form of cruel joke, I know this. We got back to their lovely 1920's era house, with lots of lovely wardrobes and showered and stayed up looking at books from Germany around the sleeping Susie until we all gave up and went to bed.

I slept like a rock. This is one thing I know. I woke up at 6am not having moved an inch, rolled over and zonked hard until 7:30 when I got up and couldn't go back to sleep. I packed up all my stuff, read a bit til others got up, had a lovely relaxing morning, and then got on the road by 10:30 to be home by 3pm to unload the truck. (Craig makes these great oatmeal biscuits for breakfast that kept us going for a while. Great with butter slathered on top.) Roland came over on Sunday afternoon and helped Alan unload the truck and trailer, and then we plied him with cider, but he wisely departed before we completely bonded with the new furniture.

All told, we have these new additions to the house. A new leather chair and loveseat, two matching antique cherry veneer night stands, mom's china cabinet, mom's buffet for a bar in the family room, and the antique "spool" bed frame that we erected around the guest bed/futon to make it look a little more polished. Fabulous bed, really, but this way, without using the slats, theoretically, we'll put less stress on the frame. Trips to hickory don't suck. And Daddy was very happy we emptied out his storage unit to save him $30 a month. Of course, $30 a month couldn't get you that sort of sweet storage space here, no siree bob.

I said I would try to be brief, I lied. So sorry, but I never claimed stake to any wit...

<< - >>



www.flickr.com

Host Profile Share Me

SCA Diary Ring
Join Now Ring Hub Random Previous Next