*sigh* The house is quiet and empty, after a long, busy, stressy weekend.

Friday I did a lot of cleaning and prep work for the event, houseguests, and the Strawberry Party, plus a run out to site to drop off banners, the high seat, and miscellaneous other critical items. (I did not get to quite everything I had wanted to do but since we had lost power on Thursday night I was somewhat behind on my chores to begin with.) I made experimental sourdough bread and sloe cheese as I was waiting for folks, and they turned out acceptable, if not quite what I was looking for, but such is the nature of experimental cooking. All the expected guests got in safely and we even had some folks who were staying at a local hotel drop by for awhile for a Scotch tasting. Once the guests were back at their hotel or abed downstairs, I made a quick run out to the grocery store, showered, and then hit the hay myself around 2AM.

Saturday morning came entirely too early - I started getting "can you bring..." texts and emails about ten minutes before my alarm went off, and that set the tone for the day - things were busy-busy-go-go-go!, but that was probably for the best anyway. I'd planned to get on site by 8AM, figured it would be more like 8:30, but finally got there around 9AM. The first part of the morning was consumed with dropping off requested items then setting up the A&S and getting the entrants settled. I had set up four 8' long tables, thinking that would be one more than necessary, but by the end of the afternoon, all the available space and some of the windowsills were full! Somewhere I have a complete count of all the entrants, but we easily had thirty very high quality entries, so I was mightily pleased. When HrRM's champion was not on site right before court, for a brief, shining moment, it looked like I might be able to carry the axe into court, but then he showed up at the last moment and the axe was wrested from me again. (*pout*) Ah well, Coronations involve enough up-and-down for me anyway - between being called for the end-of-reign thanks, the creation of a new Pyxis, and the oaths, I spent a lot of time pacing the aisle. :P goldfrog  and R's last court was simple, but touching - I'll miss having them on the throne, even though I'm sure S&A will do a fine job themselves.

After court, I checked in with A&S again, got only a few moments to chat with friends from near and far, then went to investigate lunch. I was hoping to fight and so decided to pass on the Scotch egg and instead settled for a granola bar for lunch before hitting the rapier field. The Queen Mum's tourney was a lot of fun, but I am still woefully out of practice and so slooooow and messy. :/ However, I brought out the pretty buckler for the first time in about two years, so there were a lot of folks who had not seen it before and I got a lot of compliments on it. I got to play with Duke T, fencert , and some other fun fights before having to bow out of the tourney to attend the WW meeting. The meeting went well, with nothing earthshattering, but some good groundwork laid. Then I had about 20 minutes free wherein I went to go check on dread_ex  and was hoping to see cass_lee 's pelican-y business, but I had to go attend TRMs at the A&S before the principles were able to be collected. As part of the A&S display, I had all the entrants who were able attend their work at 4PM for the opportunity to discuss it directly with TRMs. I think it went over well and gave TRM the chance to meet some of the artisans and learn a bit more about their arts. After TRMs departed, I met with a small panel of peers to choose the Peer's Prize winner and counted all the beans to determine the Populace Prize winner. Right quick, it was time for court prep and evening court. There were some very pleasing bits of business on the docket, but many of them are confidential for now, so I'll keep them to myself. I can report that the winner of the Populace Prize was S for his wire weave, the winner of the Peer's Prize was rezansky  for his handsewn and embroidered tunic, and the winner of the Royal Prize was G for his multi-item entry. It was a near thing in almost all of the categories, though, since there were so many really excellent entries - both TRMs and the Peers had to discuss at some length before making a decision and the choice was in part dictated by HrRM's wish that each category have a different winner. 

Following evening court, valkyr8 and I discussed new bags for the Jara High seats as the ones that I made simply are not working. I got the car partially packed and then headed down for feast. Wow! Feast was one to remember and arebekah  really outdid herself! In addition to the truly tasty set menu, over a dozen guest cooks presented a dish to the head table and one of the lower tables to be judged on taste and presentation. The lovely and talented relativelylucid's pudding won for taste (yum! and I usually don't like that sort of thing) and the E&A team won for presentation. I do have to say that tcsumner had a really marvellous hyppocras, though - I'm afraid that coming so late in the feast, it may have suffered from sensory overload. :P I packed up with all haste and headed home, where the Strawberry Party was already in full swing. I quickly put to rights the few things that still needed to be set up or corrected (the original plan for set-up crew had been foiled by car trouble but things had gotten more-or-less rolling anyway) and then started pouring the frilly drinks. cass_lee  and one of the party guests kindly went out for more ice and strawberries when it became obvious how much had already been eaten by the time I got in. However, they returned quickly and the sweet freezy drinks flowed freely. Usually, I outlast my guests' energy, but between being sore from fighting, the giant dinner, and otherwise it having been a very taxing day, I shooed out the last of the guests around 2:30 when I simply could not stay awake any longer.

I was out so completely, I never even heard katrionans  and her brood leave, nor did I hear iarroganti  moving about and once again being so helpful with the party clean up, nor did I hear corvusjoyous  come in and drop off my oven, roaster and other assorted things lent to the feast. :P Thanks for your assistance, folks, and I'm sorry I was a bad hostess - I finally came to sometime around noon and then with barely enough time to have lunch with the last of the guests and see him out the door.

The rest of today contiinues to be busy - more clean up, dinner to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday, then General Meeting. Ooof. Off I go!

I just had the second "you changed my life" conversation in a fortnight. It's neat to get that sort of validation, especially when my own life does not always proceed according to plan. At least in my muddling through life, I'm managing to throw some good out into the world...

I just want to say, for the record, gflower rocks. She was the perfect date - dinner, tea, bad-for-me munchies and even flowers!

Thanks for the fun night, lady! It was most appreciated!

The weekend was full of storms, some quite violent. The one that hit as I was approaching town had remarkably heavy rain from sunny skies and so yielded some very stunning rainbows, including a full bow and two accessory secondary bows. Sadly, they had mostly faded by the time I pulled over and dug out the blasted camera.

What a lovely weekend! I was full of fail for a huge chunk of the weekend and still managed to have a great time.

Friday, I met up with goldfrog, Mistress S and cass_lee and started driving for Montello. I had forgotten one or two minor things, which already had me feeling dum, but for which we had found workable solutions.... when I realized I had outsmarted myself. I had put the Sleeve in the one place that I could not, would not forget it - in a safe pocket in my car. Problem: I had at the last minute decided to carpool with the ladies and neglected to move said garment into cass_lee's van. Fail. Epic Fail. Since we were already significantly on our way, we tried to problem solve. We decided to press on, since we were almost there and fish was calling... While we were enjoying the best fish fry in the Midwest, the lovely mightyjesse stopped where I had the car parked to check whether I had actually locked it. Sadly, yup, I had actually succeeded with that. :P We were discussing driving back to Madison when I got an idea - I convinced AAA that it would be OK for them to open up my vehicle for my roommate fencingkitty even if I was not there. The operator was not thrilled with this plan, but was ble to be cajoled. Happily, that plan worked.... except that my car apparently has an alarm on it (who knew? :P) and it went off as soon as they opened the car and would not allow the car to be relocked. I thought about it a bit and decided that I didn't care that it remain unlocked - the most expensive thing I had in there was $50 worth of linen and the only person in that neighborhood who would know or care was already int he van with me. That problem solved, the rest of the night proceeded happily and with little to no incident. I chatted with a collection of most excellent ladies while I finished goldfrog's gown - the wonderful arebekah kindly did the hateful, hateful buttonholes, but the rest is all hand-finished in blind stitches. (I have the dress back for some minor improvements/seam finishings, so if I have time, I think I'll hand cover the buttonholes...) I got to bed at a reasonable hour (at least by my reckoning) but late enough to have had quality fun.

Saturday, I got up and enjoyed a lovely breakfast with ladies from the Bad Baroness apartments before dressing myself and goldfrogfor the Princess' Sleeve Tourney. As always, it was a wonderful tourney to watch and I particularly liked her method of choosing her Sleeveholder. In the end, Vincent had the day and I hope he serves her well. After the tourney, we had a wondrous lunch provided by arebekah and former_callixte and then I watched a bit more fencing since the melees had started and spent some time delivering gifties and lost and found items. Then, it was clearly time to send Eithni home. Marion had a nice little nap and then appeared down by the field in time to watch the last of the pick up fights. Then there was the Baronesses' Happy Hour with chocolate Martinis for all, followed by a lovely dinner in the restaurant. damej alluded to a drink related incident in her account of the evening: I ordered with dinner, as is often my wont, both an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic option, in this case a mojito and a Diet Coke. The very new waitress somehow convinced dear Lazarus Gage that one of his friends had seriously ordered a "mojito-and-Diet-Coke." When it arrived, I promptly asked to have it rectified, but the mistake drink was passed around. It actually was not too bad, tasting something like an alcoholic Diet Coke with lime, but 'Rigo decided this was Just The Thing and proceeded to order several of the new drinks... We dubbed the drink a Co-jito and the version the most wise Don Gauge mixed up for Rigo a Rigo-jito. ;)

The evening party was lovely - ego_id_non_feci did a wonderful job - there is a special mix of laughter, starlight, and fire that always makes for a good evening. Many partook of the gambling and other pursuits, but while Marion may sometimes be a bad girl, she is at heart a good English Protestant girl and was appropriately scandalized at the goings on... Gambling and loose women! Marion may be very naughty, but even she is no man's doxy!

When the mosquitoes got to us, we moved indoors, where townies and a bachelorette party provided ample entertainment. Also as alluded to by damej here is a photo of the freakish item of the night - the Phallus of Unusual Size.



goldfrog and I decided to send it to R to see what his Shinto persona would make of it. ;) The night wound down earlier than I would have expected, but in a pleasantly drama-free sort of way. The worst behavior was probably 'Rigo eating a pine cone... you had to be there...

Sunday began, as it often does, somewhat later than the schedule implied. fencingkitty's melee scenario went off wonderfully. Yup, thats the story. ;) There were some successful authorizations that morning, though, including the lovely and talented ego_id_non_feci! Congrats, lady! Then the Open School Challenge was held, with many good bouts and a win for the School of Tyranny, thanks to their mercenary forces from the Midrealm. At that point, the Bad Baronesses decided to pack up and head for home. We considered driving to Milwaukee to meet up with gwyneth1362, but decided we all needed a shower and a nap and less time in the car, so after an appropriate interval, we reconvened at my house for tacos, to be joined by all their respective men as they were available, since R and Sir D were off at Ages and delayed by the black hole of time and money that is SR Harris...

Today, I spent the better part of the day toiling under the sun like a fool with my hired minion, bookotgrove. He was a rented mule for the day, and I worked him accordingly. :P However, he was good natured about it (even bringing me Strongbow!) and we got really rather a lot of work done in the yard and garage. (More work needs doing, though, and I need a babysitter to make sure the bees don't get me dead, so if any of you are looking for minionage (payable in cash, linen, or other barter), let me know...) After a very long, very hot, very well deserved shower, I had a HUGE and utterly gratuitous bacon cheddar burger at Red Robin with fencertand mightyjesse. Round out the night with drinks and conversation at my place with those two plus fencingkitty and you have the makings of a very good, if tiring, weekend. Thank you to everyone who made it possible and delightful!

This weekend I journeyed West to attend Quest, an event I have never before attended, but about which I have heard many good reports. Indeed, it was a delightful experience and I can highly recommend the event to all.

Thursday morning, fencingkittydropped me off at the airport and I flew from Madison to Minneapolis. Since I had a four hour layover, I left the airport and took the train over to the Maul of America, were I met up with teffan and ladybirdkiller and bebe_lily. bebe_lily is just the cutest thing ever and is such a little flirt! We had a lovely lunch together and some mall strolling before I needed to head back to the airport. The TSA people had a bit of a conniption fit over my penannular brooch even though it is not truely sharp, just pointed, and the Madison TSA had expressed no issue with it. Silly screeners. Anyway, the next leg of the journey, from Minneapolis to Rapid City was pretty rough going. I was feeling a little queasy because of the turbulence, but - I eventually tuned it out and slept out the flight. Once in Rapid City, a lovely local lady, Juliana Foxcroft, picked me up and took me out to site. The site was beautiful - in the middle of nowhere (although right up against the highway) with trees and interesting bluffs all around. I started to settle into the cabin, but then did not immediately unpack when it became clear that the cabin was going to be significantly more full than I had imagined. I had thought we were going to have five people, but the plan apparently included up to ten and the true total ended up somewhere around seven, so there was a certain amount of room-sharing and floor-camping that went on. Then there was a bit of milling about and getting a feel for the site and Thursday was capped off with a run into town for necessities (read: booze).

Friday, I rose early and went to teach my class "The Pictish World." Sadly, at 9AM, there was really only one interested young lady, but we had a fun, informal discussion about the Picts, simply allowing the class to meander wherever her interest took us. Eventually, I acquired two more students, but it was still somewhat of a disappointing turnout. The middle of the day was spent watching the tourney (where hrodir01 came in second again ;P), sewing, and talking to saraidh about plans for WW. In the afternoon, I went to the class space to teach my "How to Build a Period Kit" class, but the only folks to show were the choir, so we chatted a bit amongst ourselves, but did not really proceed with a formal class. At that point, I decided to change my breadmaking class back to a demo format, since I was not interested in getting up early again on Saturday to "teach" when attendance at classes was so low at that time of day. I spoke with the autocrat about the change and then the rest of Friday afternoon was spent shopping. I bought a chunk of fabric from Tatiana that may be cotton or linen (but is lovely in either case), a new mug, and some delicious handwoven legwraps from a weaver. (She also had some scrumptious handwoven yardage, but I sadly ended up waffling for too long and all of the pattern I was looking at was sold before I committed to the purchase.) The site already reminded me of Michael St Christian's resort, but the fish fry dinner at the restaurant sealed the deal. The end of the evening was spent taking a nap and then drinking and wandering idly - quite a pleasant end to a relaxing day.

Saturday, I slept in some and then wandered over to observe the fighting again. A little sewing circle sprung up with missdoom knitting a cap, saraidhand kolbrunna working on projects I do not recall, pixel39 finishing new garb for E, and I working on handsewing down an embroidered contrast collar on a tunic for hrodir01. Other folk wandered in and out as they had time and inclination, but we always maintained a respectable crafty circle. Eventually, I wandered over to the A&S and spent some time judging and discussing the pieces. In particular, I spoke with Fiona of the Harp and the local A&S minister about Fiona's entry and an Elizabethan gown. Later in the day, I got the opportunity to discuss the gown and Elizabethan costuming in general with the gown's maker and I hope the net result was helpful. (Oi. The "mean ol' Laurel" schtick is supposed to really be schtick... well, except for when dealing with the apprenti ;P) After the fighting was done,hrodir01 and I walked down to look at the pretty ponies before getting ready for court. The King and Queen of Artemesia were there as well as our own King Lars, but court was still reasonably short, which was nice, and full of fun. Afterward, I participated in a "quest" for the munchkins as the Laurel they were to seek and - once that duty was discharged - went into town for dinner at Outback. The service left much to be desired, but the company was great fun. His Majesty, Sir Tom, hrodir01, and various other squires and fighters made up the group. I felt a bit out of place, being the only non-fighter, but it was nice to hear His Majesty had strayed a bit from the armored field to participate in Thrown Weapons and Archery and to watch some of the rapier activities. As soon as we were able to escape the Outback, we headed back to site as fast as the density of deer near the road would allow. I performed my breadmaking demo and delivered hot bits of bread all over site to rave reviews. While I did not involve anyone else in the actual making process, I did hand out most of the copies of my "class" handout that included the recipe and some background, so I am calling that a win. Again, some wandering and talking ended a lovely night.

All too soon it was morning and time to tidy up the cabin and take our leaves. Most of the Middle and Eastern Northshielders were gone well before I had to catch a ride to the airport, so I spent some more time talking to Fiona and Isabeau and enjoying the sunshine. The journey home was reasonably uneventful, with only a bit of idle time after being dropped off at the airport but before my flight, which I used to catch up on emails. One odd thing I encountered, though, was in the Minneapolis Airport - in the ladies' room they had an odd contraption called a Dyson Airblade. Essentially, it was supposed to be a quick hand-drying machine that would squeegee the water off your hands with a "blade" of air. It did not work terribly well and so I am unimpressed, although it is a neat idea. Round out the night with a quick flight home to Madison, dinner with fencingkitty, email and LJ catchup, and now it is time for a shower and bed!

In all, the weekend did not proceed exactly as I had imagined, but it was a good one, and I look forward to attending Quest again - if not next year, then soon.

Wow, what a weekend!

Friday night I allowed myself to be convinced that the quickest way from Jararvellir (Madison) to Caer Anterth Mawr (Milwaukee) was via Scharenberg's White Lake Resort (Montello, WI). :P (An hour in completely the wrong direction, for those of you not familiar with Wisconsin geography.)  The company and the fish fry made the detour more than worthwhile, however. Mmmm... Fish fry. I am a true Wisconsin girl - I love me a good fish fry and the one out at the Resort is one of the best I've ever had. In addition to tasty food, the Resort is slowly going high-tech - they have a new POS system that, provided the orders are entered correctly, gives the kitchen a legible printout of the order then quickly and accurately calculates the bill for each table or seat. Plus a bartender with drink ESP, what more could one want? *grin*

After a few pleasant hours (a couple more than I'd originally planned - so much for dinner at 5, on the road by 7:30!), teffan, jenakaekat, and I hit the road for Jara. We picked up my stuff and then proceeded to the hotel where we met up with hrodir01and his squire and reasonably quickly headed to bed.

Saturday was amazing - we woke up reasonably close to on time, had a quick breakfast, and then got to site. Luckily, as we were passing over 1-94 West with the plan to take it one exit west, I noticed the huge traffic jam below in time to tell teffan"Abort, abort!" and pull out of the on-ramp lane. We drove a few blocks in the wrong direction while re-triangulating, but still made it to site via the scenic route much faster than miring ourselves in the interstate disaster zone. Once on site, it was a quick matter to unload, set up, deliver my various gifties, sell this week's pile o' linen, and get dressed for the tourney. hrodir01was gong to wear his red tunic, so I wore my favorite green wool one that arebekahmade me to be complimentary and for luck. Our little munchie table was a blend of good sense (sekanjabin syrup, water, and pretzels), geekery (dried currants and speltberries) and whimsy (goldfish) but otherwise our presence was simple and our entourage consisted of hrodir01's squire (ilaifirenot being in attendance, mightyjessebeing in another procession, and Kaitlyn being fought for in her own right). I am in favor of minimal entourages in Crown tourneys, so this suited me just fine, however. I had brought some linen napkins to be my fidget for the day, figuring I could not screw up a simple hem, no matter how nervous I might get, but it seems I simply sew slowly when so distracted and so I probably look to be carrying a large hankie or small security blanket in many of the photos.

Once the tourney started, it proceeded with blinding speed. The fighting was good, efficient and clean. The tenor of the event was lively and bright, not tense as some in recent history have been, and I think the relaxed atmosphere made for a more enjoyable experience. Still, we very quickly arrived at the semi-finals and then, almost suddenly, the finals. It was a really special experience to find myself and hrodir01in the finals with goldfrogand R as the other combatants. aaron_pikefought for me in Crown once before and that was nerve-wracking enough just through the body of the tourney, nevermind the finals. There was a great comfort in know that, while I would like very dearly to be queen, the tourney had reached a point where it could not end in a way that would not make me content with the outcome. So it was with laughter and joy mixed well with anticipation that I watched the finals. hrodir01and R did not take it easy on us ladies, however, taking the contest to the last of the three bouts. (There is nothing so maddening as watching something so dear and being able to do naught but watch...) In the end, however, it was R who had the day, and goldfrogwho leapt from the throne with glee. I cannot  say I am not disappointed not to be queen, but at the same time I cannot be disappointed in the outcome of the tourney, either. R and goldfroghave reigned before, and well. They will do a splendid job this time too and I bet she'll even let me play Princess Barbie with her, so it is a win-win situation all around. I was honored that hrodir01chose to fight for me, and gods willing, someday we will be standing there again...

The up side to not winning the tourney was that while Their newly minted Highnesses were in meetings, hrodir01and I got to enjoy the latter half of the event, including some sewing-crafty time and tasty kamikazis. Feast was simply un-freaking-believable. I'm biased, the feastocrat being my student, but everyone I spoke to was impressed and even hrodir01who had been disappointed to miss out on a Machine Shed steak, was more than content with the offerings. After feast, we quickly cleared site, had a quick soak in the hot tub, and enjoyed an evening of drinks and conversation at the postrevel that sprung up in our room.

Today was occupied by the drive home, lunch with belmikeyat Ella's and a trip to a fiber crack-house with mightyjesse. All in all, a most excellent weekend.

Work sucked beyond all telling, but since then, things have been looking up:

The weather is beautiful, as if we might actually have Spring. (Good job, May Queen!)

Chucky has asparagus that did not get used in the feast that he will be dropping off later tonight. Tasty dinner for me!

I got a phone call from SR Harris - I won a $100 shopping "spree". The lady was knowing when I laughed. "OK, dent in the bill," she said. :) Fabric joy!

This weekend was Jararvellir's 35th Anniversary and May Day Event and it was a most joyful celebration.

On Friday, I came home from work later than usual thanks to the previously mentioned issues at work, so I was already a bit behind. Unfortunately, this meant I skipped out of set-up because I would not have arrived before the bulk of the work was done. Luckily, I had given the banners to damej on Wednesday and I been pretty efficient all week long, so I was in reasonably good shape with the rest of my projects. I quickly did the last bit of cleaning, some detail work on my new garb, final court-tweaks, grocery shopping for the postrevel and last-minute packing. It was a busy evening, but ego_id_non_feci kept me company, so the evening flew. An interesting commentary on my life - when it became clear that I was not going to find my favorite linen chemise without an intensive search, I whipped out a new one. :P Granted, it was less finished than I generally would consider acceptable, but noone was going to check whether I hand-finished the seams when all the sewn bits were hidden by the doublet. Shhh... my little secret - I still use a machine - even on the visible bits - when I'm in a hurry. ;)

Saturday morning started quite early - I'm not a morning person and never will be - but the drive down to Stoughton was pleasant. corvusjoyous, T, teffan, and a few other folks helped me haul things in and set up with all speed. (Thanks also to the houseguests who brought me my forgotten shoes and necklace later in the morning.) With teffan's further help, I stuffed myself into my new birthday dress and properly started the day.




As was usual for a Jara event, I had many commitments throughout the day, but I did get to attend several classes, including both by Bob Charron/Duke Conn. I also got to visit with our visitors from afar - hbevert, Heinrich, and frausensei- and many folks we do not see nearly often enough these days. As a special treat, ALL of Northshield's Baronage was in attendance - not just a representative from each Barony - ALL of the Baronage. There was a multitude of jokes about drawing up charters in the absence of the Crown. Sadly, it did not occur to me to request a family picture until some of my cousins had already left.

Court was a splendid delight. Their Majesties had granted me the power to bestow Awards of Arms and I was most pleased to be the one to recognize jinglymushroom and lostvirtue. In particular, it was a lot of fun to "get" Mushroom. We set it up so that she thought I was going to torture her brother, ilaifire (which we got into the deal as well, but that was incidental) and ensured she was in court and unable to hide when her presence was requested. I had specially commissioned a scroll to be done by CW, one of my favorite scribes, with the wording translated into Russian and read into court by rezansky. As part of the day's activities, several Baronial Championships were held - relativelylucid is the new Arts and Sciences Champion, Robert the Stout will serve as Armored Champion, and Hroswitha as the Rapier Champion - I had considered both the entrant's performance on their respective field of endeavor and, in the spirit of the event's theme of trying something new, whether they participated in other activities as well, particularly during the One Kingdom hour. The Baronage of Northshield each came forward with lovely gifts for the Barony of Jararvellir - everything from largess to food and drink to knowledge in the form of paying the honorarium for the guest speaker. A few old scrolls were also delivered, I ran through the Baronial business, and there were a few more items of amusement/abuse, in particular of a particular Jara Duke with a dislike for combat archery. ;) A good and most satisfying Court. Sometimes I truly love my job.

After court we had the May Pole dance to kick off the Dance Ball. While I had received many recommendations to makeilaifire the new May Queen, I decided that would look like favoritism, no matter how much it amused me, and so I had ego_id_non_feci brought out of the kitchen and announced as the new May Queen. She was stunning in her new blue Italian and the floral wreath suited her well.

Just before feast, the Jara choir performed and provided a very emotional performance - Owen's Evensong always stirs the melancholy in my soul but the Jara fight song (in Latin and English) always amuses and delights me. Feast was GOOD and there was plenty to eat of all. As is my habit, I tried just a tiny little nibble of everything and a bit more of my favorites and still left the feast stuffed and happy that I had changed out of the corset beforehand. After gathering my things and doing some basic clean-up, I headed home to open up for the postrevel. Before long, the living room was full of rowdy goodness. I was exhausted, however, and so nodded off for a bit... Happily, this meant that I was reinvigorated later in the evening and even hit the Inferno for about an hour.

This morning, I got up early and headed back to site for clean up. I was by no means the first one there, but I endeavored to be helpful nonetheless. damej and I got breakfast while waiting for the site steward to return and inspect our cleanup work. Once back in Madison I crashed hard. (I'm not entirely certain I ought to have been driving those last few miles :P) I think I am in love with ego_id_non_feci - while I was comatose, she reset the guest room and washed the party dishes. There were not too many this time, but it still was a godsend. The afternoon was spent in goodbyes and preliminary clean-up, then Jara's General Meeting. After a dinner with kumakun and fencingkitty, some birdie crazy time, and some email catch-up, I am ready for a shower, then bed. The rest of the clean up will have to wait until tomorrow. It is now time to end a lovely weekend - thank you to everyone who came and made this a special event for the Barony!

Thank you to everyone who has inquired about poor Tweet. The first 24 hours were the riskiest and she has made it through those at least. She's still not a happy 'keet and is obviously a little cranky and cold. When I tried to dose her this afternoon, she tried to bite me (good sign, for her) but then decided my nice warm hand was not worth fighting and settled down (odd) and then let me tuck her into my jacket where she could snuggle up to me while I read (very odd). I have fencingkitty s heating pad on top of the cage and the top perch pulled way up high and that seems to be helping. We'll see how things go - she's not out of the woods yet, but things are more hopeful than when I went to bed yesterday with a 50/50 chance of only having four birdies in the morning. :(

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It has been a rough couple days, but practice and social were really good experiences tonight. I got to talk with folks, hear a lot of good wishes for poor Tweet, do some plotting for the coming months, and eat some very tasty food. An unasked for but most appreciated gesture at the end of social and some amusing conversations at home before bed made what had been a difficult day an actually pretty pleasant one. Thank you all.




EDIT: Thurs 9:30 AM - she's eating like a champ this morning and came down off the favorite perch. She's still clearly not at 100% and still looking greasy/bedraggled, but less unhappy than previous.

EDIT: Fri 2 AM - Hm... She's still doing the puffed up and chilly thing, but has been eating and successfully making Derelei keep his distance, so I think she's steadily improving...

Humidity!

Today's thing was a whole lot of fun, mostly because it was part of a playdate with damej to Olbrich Gardens to play with our cameras. I have not done anything creative with my camera in some time - it is usually an artifact and project recording tool, not an art medium. I do love my macro function, though, and so some of the best photos are of individual or small groups of flowers. I was more focused on chatting and the flowers themselves so I did not record the names of any of the species. Sorry, I'm anal retentive about documenting sources in museums, but in gardens it is less critical to my mind.

May these images bring you warmth, however awful the weather outside may be!


The obligatory waterfall picture


This was one of my favorites...








Fishies!


The sun was coming in at just the right angle to catch the water in the air and the color of the flowers and turn the sunbeams multi-colored. It does not show up very well here, it looks better full-screen, but it was very nifty to see and fun to try to capture.

So, it has been a busy couple days to weeks and I have a number of things I have been wanting to blog, so here comes a brain dump. Heavily cut for those who don't care or only want to read a topic or two...

It has been a pretty good weekend...

Friday I cleaned like crazy and did some decorating for the Mad Scientist party and then valkyr8 arrived on time and safe, despite the nasty weather.

Saturday I slept in a bit and then went to It's Only a Flesh Wound. That was a pleasant event with enough fighting to satisfy even most of the die-hard fighters. Even better, I think it might be just the site to hold a Golden Seamstress- type event! I will be traveling to the original in a few weeks and have permission to steal the concept, so look for a Golden Seamstresses Northshield in the not-too-distant future!

After the event,goldfrog and her man hosted dinner at their place, which allowed me to eat and then quickly run back to my place to do final prep for the party. The party itself was a reasonable success, although I found out belatedly that not all the invites got delivered. *pout* If you didn't get an invite, my apologies - I was trying to avoid inviting the whole world and so didn't do the general post here or on the Jara list, but apparently even some of the personal invites went astray. *sigh*

Anyway, there was weird and gross food to be sampled and many people played along and came in lab gear. Thanks to my co-birthday girlvalkyr8 for sharing her day with me and bringing a lot of props. Thanks to fencert for bringing other essential props that I thought I'd have to do without. Another happy birthday to aaron_pike who shares a birthday with me and didn't kill me for ratting him out to Their Highnesses and still came to the party with his lovely lady. Thanks to everyone who came and especially those who brought weird food - arebekah's red velvet-pumpkin-bacon eye was particularly... spectacular. And, of course, thanks to the wonderful inhabitants of Eithni's Home for Wayward Girls for putting up with my silly theme party and the sticky juice "blood," suspiciously colored drinks, and miscellaneous party detritus that accompanies these things...

Today, I had planned to go to Cocoliquot for lunch with a bunch of folks, which ended up beingvalkyr8, goldfrog, goldfrog's guy, and damej, but they were closed due to a water main break. Sadness, particularly since they were running the restaurant week special ad will soon be closing. However, Brocach was a sufficiently satisfactory replacement. Besides,gflower and I will probably go there on Tuesday night anyway. :) Then our little group, minus damej went to Vom Fass to sample oils, vinegars, and fine spirits. What fun for foodies! valkyr8 and I rounded out the afternoon with a visit to Gayfeather Fabrics where I acquired some lovely blue wool - some for a project for gwyneth1362 and some for a Jara-themed gown... arebekah - I think G talked me into making a cotehardie, so I may be seeking your services soon....

The rest of today was spent cleaning and otherwise recovering from the weekend. The house has mostly been put to rights and I'll finish the last of the dishes and putting stuff away process tomorrow. :) Thank you to everyone who made this a special weekend! The flowers, gifts, books, and well-wishes were most appreciated!

I have gotten three things I have very much wanted tonight -

1) I have a front closet! It is now just for coats and outerwear, complete with gorgeous cherry wood and black metal hangers. Larger parties will still need to resort to coat piles, but there are now two dozen hangers just awaiting guests' coats to hold. The baronial banners have gone upstairs to live in the guest room...

2) I have a guest room/library! Granted, ideally, I would like to have both a library and a guest room, but for now the combination will do. ;) I am just so pleased that, once offered welcome and guest-right, I have a snug little place to put my guests. I can now house two in reasonable luxury on feather beds covered in down comforters, around four before we need to begin filling couches, at least eight before anyone hits the floor. Half the guest room closet is reserved for guests' effects and extra bedding, the other half for the Barony's more fragile fiber-related items.

3) My house was full of love and laughter, even if it did not belong to me... There is a joy and deep contentment in my soul to see happiness and love shared between those who so richly deserve it. A much less intangible and much more valuable thing than either of the other above sources of happiness.

cealfind's mother rocks. She posted a little rant on the NS Hall telling people to quit their public whining about WW and the new site which was in of itself an awesome post, but I particularly loved her closing:

"BTW - don't bother to chastise me in this list or privately, what you think of me is none of my business."

*giggle* Awesome!

Wow, what a weekend!

I spent last week sewing like a damned fool - half because I had not been able to do my Twelfth Night gifts until then and half because I took on an (at the time) last minute secret commission. Luckily, the stars aligned and I was feeling pretty good and was able to reschedule a few things to give me enough time to pull off most of my Twelfth Night plans...

The maniacal sewing was largely due to taking on a commission to do gflower's Laureling "cloak." I was so completely overjoyed to hear the news - within half an hour of her elevation being announced, I had volunteered to do sew the cloak. After evaluating my stash, however, I decided that a hood was more appropriate to her persona and the fabric I had on hand. The face fabric is a fine black lambswool and the lining a soft green linen. The embroidered leaves are done in Rainbow Linen (thanks, arebekah!) and the applique in silk floss  on a linen field. Unlike many of my recent projects, there are no in-process photos - there simply was not time! There was, however, time to make a tiny matching hood for Colleen. *grin* A girl must have priorities!

Congratulations to the lovely and most deserving gflower!

I had my own Laurel-ly happiness for the day - ilaifire became my apprentice. He is technically my second apprentice, but I share the lovely mightyjesse with an Eastern Laurel and ilaifire is mine, all MINE. Bwahahaha.... *cough* Erm. Yeah. ;) He has been a wonderful student thus far and I am looking forward to continuing to work with him. He is such a nice, energetic, and talented boy - I am very proud to have him as an apprentice.

(Photo here when the NS Gallery stops hating me!)
EDIT: It decided to love me at 2AM :P


The rest of the day was a blur of laughter and talking and munching... I got to spend some time with friends rarely seen and even got to hang out a bit with jtdiii, when he wasn't hiding outside in the subzero temperatures. :P

One of my favorite activities of Twelfth Night is the prezzies! I love to give gifts to people, especially when I know I have just the right thing for someone dear... To those of you who I told my Twelfth Night gifts would be bottle covers, my apologies - I am keeping that idea for next year. Instead, it was a hodge-podge of toys and treats - chocolate of several sorts, peppermint sticks (regular, giant, and with gummy creatures), thimbles, knitting needles, fighter bags, sewing kits, first aid kits, scissors, chess games, checker games, beeswax, books, boxes, and more... In other words, a great big toybox full of goodies for people to choose from. Then I had special gifts for a selection of folks, little treasures stowed away over the course of the year. (OK, over the course of the last three months. I'm terrible at holding onto a gift for someone - I'm just to eager to give it and see their face!)

In return, I got an amazing array of goodies - cookies that were quickly devoured, a little snowglobe that sadly did not make it home in one piece, TWO beautiful froggie ornaments, an awesome book on the Lewis Chessmen, a stick for beating apprent... er... porridge, and more. Yay, prezzies! Thanks to everyone who brought me toys! I was able to catch up with nearly everyone I needed to see and hope to catch the remaining few over the course of the next week or so. If I missed you at the event, Happy Twelfth Night!

Sunday was a trip to SR Harris (of course), dropping off jtdiii at the airport, a lovely tour of IKEA, a quick stop at valkyr8's house and a long, long drive home... I good, if exhausting weekend...

Tidbits from here and there around the East Coast trip - the trimmings and selvages as it were...



Friends Old and New

One of the best parts of my trip to the East Coast was time spent with friends. I got to spend a lot of time with jtdiii but I also got to meet and catch up with a lot of other folks. We spent New Year's Eve at a local SCA house party, which seem to be the same the Knowne World over - large house, multiple roommates, LOTS of food, a moderate amount of alcohol. I got to meet a lot of people from the East Coast groups and enjoy hearing about the local activities and stories. As a special delight, I spent a significant part of the night on a squishy couch, geeking out about early period metalwork with Cariadoc of the Bow. Sadly, I had not brought my laptop to the party, so my ability to share the geekiness was limited to what I could remember or pull up on my iPhone. The following day was even better - I spent the morning wandering the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with jtdiii and mtgordon. I had not seen mtgordon for about seven years, since he was last in town for a friend's wedding. It was wonderful to see him and spend some time catching up. Then, we went back to his apartment and I got to meet his wife, son, and mother-in-law. Hi little son is so cute! Even if he didn't seem so sure of me, scowling up at me and only cautiously approaching the strange girl. *grin* Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the conversation and company overpowered my shutterbug tendencies and I failed to take any photos.  I know that mtgordon has a lot of photos online, and now some video too, so if you know him and want to see the spawn, drop him a line. Seeing him was definitely a highlight of the trip...



Inter-Kingdom Anthropolgy - East Kingdom 12th Night
On my trip, I also had the opportunity to attend the East Kingdom's Twelfth Night. It was a fun, low key event. I picked up several nice little treasures in the merchants, got to see that defector, rufinia, and got to observe SCA life in the East. I had been hoping to go to the Laurel meeting, but missed it, in part because I kept seeing Ice wandering about the event. However, apparently in the East the King does not go to the Laurel meetings, that is a job for the Prince. Since it was a Twelfth Night, they were serving a King Cake with the lunch buffet. The tradition is that the finder of the bean baked into the cake becomes the King or Queen of Misrule for the day.



Sadly, they chose to award a prize to the finder, instead of a crown. *sigh* I got a lovely little deck of cards, but was sad to not have the opportunity to create some havock - that IS my specialty, after all! ;)




Going places - Miscellaneous Sites seen

In addition to the other places mentioned in previous blogs, I visited several other places on my trip. I stopped into the Elizabeth Ann Seaton home, in large part out of curiosity about these tiny red brick buildings huddled at the foot of metal and glass skyscrapers. Elizabeth Ann Seaton is the first American to be canonized a saint, so I picked up a few holy cards for my mom and other devout relatives.

Of course, in my travels around the city, I passed through Grand Central Station on several occasions. On a couple occasions, I wandered around a bit, admiring the architecture, the painted ceiling, and - of course - the beautiful chandeliers!



One of the more surprising little jewels was the New York Medical Library  -  they had some interesting displays about medical equipment from the 20's, but the real joy was seeing their newly-restored Flemish Tapestry. If you should have the opportunity to go see it yourself, be forewarned that it is mostly a medical library and they are not used to tourists. They will ask you to sign in the building's lobby and check your jacket and purse with the front desk of the library, but they will allow you to take photos of the tapestry.



The Museum of the City of New York was right next door to the Medical Library, so I thought it would be fun to dally there for a bit as well. The museum was largely a disappointment, however. The exhibit on antique toys was interesting, but limited. The top floor was filled with recreations of rooms from the Rockefeller mansions, and was probably the best part of the museum, but probably not worth the price of admission by itself. I would not recommend going unless you have an interest in one of the special exhibits.



Things I missed...

Of course, even with a lot of time on the East Coast, there were a lot of things I did not have the opportunity to see. Most of Boston was canceled because of  weather and other misfortunes, so the MFA and the "Freedom Trail" are things for a later, and hopefully warmer, visit. I did get to the Met, but even spending seven solid hours there (and deciding that I could sacrifice lunch to the need to see more of the exhibits), I could have spent another week there. I never did get to the Cloisters, in part because of other priorities and again in part because of the weather making the outside gardens inaccessible, so that is also a must-see for a future trip. Likewise, I saw very little of Central Park, which would be fun to stroll some time... when it is warm... and dry... :P And while I did acquire a huge amount of fabric, I will, of course, need to visit the fabric stores again. ;) After all, 10 yards have already found a home with mightyjesse, more went to PJ as a belated birthday present, three more are slated for Twelfth Night gifts as-is, and several more have already been cut and sewn into Twelfth Night gifts for next weekend. See? I clearly need more... Both more fabric and more East Coast! :)

Suddenly I'm six again, sent home by the Principal/VP. The drive home was ten kinds of special but now I am here and finally warm again. I want a snowblower, but the city sees to be strangely sold out. ;)

 
EDIT: Midnight: Snowblower purchased, but of limited use since the main problem is the ice underneath, some from cars driving on the snow, some from the freezing rain this morning. Now my body hates me. An hour and a half of shoveling after already having pushed multiple car out of the snow over the day today meant that when I sat down "to warm up" at quarter to eight, Wren woke me up at midnight. :P Owie.