Leave a Comment
It's been two weeks since I updated...
2005-09-22 - 4:04 p.m.
Again, I am the slackinator of updating.
So, when last we left off, I had returned from the Coronation and
Family weekend and was ramping up for the MoD (Masters of
Defense.) I made a batch of gingerbread
cookies (that I know at least one lady ate and enjoyed) and a batch of
my sandbakkel cookies, some filled with jam to be more tart-like, but I
don't think they held up too well under the sun. Lots of cookies,
lots of uncharacteristic baking time for me, but it was fun and for a
good cause.
I had all sorts of plans for assisting with the bake sale, being
social, helping with the charity tournament, and playing hostess under
our tent. Instead, after setting up the tent, getting dressed,
attending to her Triple-excellency's hair, I again found myself at the
MOL table working the MoD Tournament. Deja vu. Certainly
having run it last year and a quick mind-meld with the marshal in
charge helped me be prepared. So again we had at least 33
fighters on the field, and at times even had the numbers to have all
four fields going. Notes for
next year, if this is done next year, the waterbearers need to be on
the side of the field instead of in the center like the MOLs.
First of all, water and paper do not mix well. Second of all, it
meant that all the under age ladies who wanted to help out waterbearing
couldn't technically step on the field to refill their own
bottles. Certainly didn't help that the poor lead waterbearer
twisted her ankle as she was loading the equipment that morning.
I felt so bad for her. I also heard some complaints that
not all of everyone's wins were recorded. Well, the MOLs only
write down what we are told. If your opponent did not report your
wins, that can't be helped by me behind a table. I watched many
fights and caught a bunch of the non-reported wins, but I only have two
eyes hooked up to one brain. But all in all it seemed to run
well. The semis were between Galmr and Roland and Colin and Corby. Finals were
between Galmr and Corby, where Corby was victorious. That was
kinda cool since even though he used to do lots of fencing back when he
was in school, he just re-authorized epee and schlager at Assessments
in July of this year. It's all about playing the game
right. All in all I think it is a fine tourney style, and
definitely encouraged cross-over. Tara and Alan ended up running
the charity tournament, which did well and folks seemed to have a
really good time with.
Afterwards we broke down and loaded our tent and stuff into the
truck. (We managed to get rid of some old garb, a picnic basket,
a table, a helm and a sword, which was great, and we tossed any
donations for that stuff into the pot to go to Lowe's.)
Then we helped Kynny load some of his stuff into his van. Then I
noticed that part of the tourney fence was still up, so I helped take
that down, and stack the pieces with the others. Then we helped
Aelfgar with some deconstruction and loading of pavilion parts into his
truck and all sorts of other breakdown tasks. Breakdown was a bit
trying since Reynard had to leave in the middle of the day and he keeps
the power tools in his truck that went with him. Made it more
difficult and longer, but not insurmountable. Finally when
everything that could be loaded was, and the tourney fence was all
stacked and such, we headed out of there around 7:45 (Poor Bob missed all of feast {and quality
dinner time with his sweetheart} in order to break the field down since
Lochmere had to be off site that night) and ordered a pizza
while we were en-route. We changed out of garb, ate pizza, and
watched something in the basement before crashing hard. I'm very
glad that the rust from tent stakes came out of my chemise sleeves...
Sunday was a demo at the Takoma Park
Folk Festival. Most of the booths seemed to be religious or
political in agenda, but we were more hobby/entertainment. I made
sure to pack everything in a rolling suitcase so if I had to park far
away (and I did) then I could easily haul everything there. We
got to listen to fine music on the stage near us. I enjoyed Thai
food for lunch. I got to show off some of my string related
projects, as well as set-up my Miguel loom with another sprang
project. Apparently Grainne was bitter that I get the middle of
my sprang projects to tightly packed and I told her it was all patience
and picking it with a stick. I should eventually take some
pictures and upload them of the sprang goodness. I think I truly
appreciate the instant gratification aspect of this art.
No spending hours warping a loom and then more hours weaving a
project.
No meticulous counting of stitches and dropping them while not paying
attention to the knitting.
No being tied to one place for an hour for fingerloop braiding.
3 hours, start to finish, warp the loom, twist the threads, bind off
the pouch, hootie hoo, done! And you can stop in the middle,
really, I can stop any time...
So, I warped up and made another sprang pouch that I gave to Bess,
which was also a great demo piece to show to kids and adults alike and
kept my hands busy. After 6 hours at the demo, even with the fine
folks, I was tapped out. Cleaned up in a snap, rolled my stuff
back to the car and went out to Indian food with the Hun-e-B, Grainne and
Ynes, which was tasty and fun to boot.
But then the tapped out feeling set in seriously. I was
peopled-out, and that takes quite a lot being the social creature that
I am.
Monday was laundry and recovery. Tuesday I meant to go to the
Roxbury Meeting, but even the lure of precious pink poodle Pookie time
could not lure me from my comfy chair. The entire following week
I didn't have it in me to deal with people. Heck, I took
Wednesday off since I wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to see
another human other than my Alan. Thurs I revived some for
practice, and actually singing was a big help, but Alan and I decided
that we'd not do any SCA event that coming weekend.
So, Friday night we brought Outback takeaway to
the Roland and Theo since
they agreed to take a small present to Cat for her
prize at the Chalice event.
Saturday I got to sleep in, oh glorious sleeping in until 10am, when my
sweetie awakened me with the crisp sound of a freshly opened Diet
Coke. Then we got inspired to clean some in the bedroom, take the
regalia items from Coronation to Royal Storage, went by IKEA to look at pots for the
patio, and also found a small glass
front cabinet for storing glassware in the bar in the AS-IS
section. We came home, installed IKEA items, had a good time, had
a nap, ordered sushi and watched Gone in 60 Seconds down in the
basement. After Alan crashed in bed I stayed up and had a wild
hair about re-organizing our bedroom closet, and looked up stuff from
IKEA (and then priced it! yipe!) but came away with a kernel of a good
idea.
Sunday saw us having more planning, and heading off west to a Michael's to drop
off the lovely Sienese fresco
print for framing, then to Pier
1 to look at possible night stands, and then to the Container Store.
Ohh... the Container Store has their shelving (including closet basics)
25% off. Can you say storage heaven? So we got the goods to
do half of our closet (figuring that if we liked it, then we could do
the other half before 10/23 and still get the discount. And it is
good. We have way more usable space, and in the process of taking
everything out and putting it back, weeded out quite a bit of
older/smaller stuff. I'm thinking of looking into doing the other
half this Sunday. After we installed the new half-a-closet, I got
to put my stuff back just in time to head off to the Storvik business
meeting. It was nice to see folks, but the less said about
business meetings, the less bored we'll be. The best thing to
come out of the meeting was that I have a replacement and as on Oct.
1st, I won't have seneschal duties, acting or otherwise, anymore.
Monday was shoe shopping to kill time before the 7pm practice, where I
found two lovely pairs of shoes at the local Rack
Room. I know, color me surprised. But even more
surprising is that I then went into Target and came away purchasing
nothing. I looked intently at more shoes, only to be
thwarted. I even tried on some clothes, but left them all with
the fitting room staff. This must be a record, or a bad
omen. I never go into Target and come away empty handed.
Then I set off to practice to sign stuff for Kim and pass off files,
and stuff.
To the fighters there, I must apologize. Aside from chatting with
William, I simply sat in my truck and waited til work needed to be
done. I thought of going up and being friendly, but I didn't want
to interrupt those putting on armour. I think I was still
suffering some from being peopled out. I didn't mean to be
antisocial, and I think very highly of you all, I just couldn't do much
more than sit on my truck and wait til work came to me. Tuesday
was helping Tara with her storage room, and Wednesday was grocery
shopping, laundry, and catching up on Rome, as well as seeing the first
episode of Weeds
on Showtime On Demand. I have to say, I love, love, love the On
Demand. It is faboo.
This weekend will be more non-sca projects, hopefully completing the
closet, maybe some painting. Y'know, fun stuff that doesn't involve
funny clothes, unless you think my overalls are funny.
<< - >>
