Apparently this weekend was the 25th MTA held at Jamestown. I guess after making a big fuss for the 400th Anniversary, celebrating a 25th seemed kinda eh. But it was cool to see the variety of camps and troops. I hadn't seen the grand parade before, so I played paparazzi a bit on Sunday towards the end of the day.


After all the stress of ramping up and surviving the 400th, it was nice to be a bit more laid back. Lara, the new fort manager, asked us what we wanted to do and let us have our ease. Since Sandy's mom was in the Barracks, it seemed a bit crowded on Saturday, so I spent time knitting on my Tudor stocking outside the Buttery to draw folks in, checked on Dexter doing medical demos in the Gov's house to spell him a bit, and pretty much bounced around. I did have a small triumph in that the apricot almond custard needed to be removed from the Dutch Oven while Sandy and Carla were out looking at the sutlers and it was just Diane and myself. So, I managed to lift the pie plate out without cracking and dropping anything, and also without burning myself. Hooray! The food that was made on Saturday was extremely yummy and even sustained us some into Sunday.

Sunday was a smaller staff, so I worked with Jennie and Lara in the Barracks cooking simple pottages. I was able to take a few breaks and visit with others, drool over Eadric's pottery, chat with the nice folks of Grey's Company, buy the last of the amazing Canadian's knives (although I still need to arrange payment), and at Alan's direction, bought a nice chafing dish and pitcher so Alan can start doing period coffee preparation at events instead of using the camp stove and metal coffeepot. Yes ladies, I was asked to buy more pottery. Force my hand...

Alan and I exited the fort around 4:30pm, changed and got on the road home. We didn't encounter much traffic since we took 301 home to avoid the stretch of hell between Fredericksburg and Springfield, but we were dogged tired when we did get home. I've got an aching neck and sore feets, and Alan has an aching shoulder from a pinched nerve in his neck that he's visiting the chiropractor for. We've survived James Fort yet again, to play another weekend.

 The weekend was fun, but I've got a terrible cough now and have for the past two days. Took a sick day today, napped for 3 hours, will likely head to bed early-ish tonight.

Friday night we took Mike and Kirsten out to Mannequin Pis for tasty Belgian food and a fun relaxing dinner out for a change. Yummy escargot, pleasantly strong gamey flavored wild boar sausage, and the yummy pot of chocolate, with the black currant lambic to drink. Little slice of heaven.

Saturday was Yule, so we had to make some dishes to take. After a breakfast of waffles, Kirsten helped me start a crockpot of split pea soup with parsnips and a hambone, and we put together two cheese tarts. Since we had dough left over, and some ribe pears, Kirsten put together a few ginger and pear mini-tarts. But then I had over ripe bananas, so we put Corby to work on some banana-nut muffins. Only the soup and cheese tarts went to Yule, but the pear tarts and muffins were quite tasty for snacks and breakfast the next day.

We headed up to Yule a little later that afternoon to allow others sufficient naptime, and made it in time to chat a bit before the evening got started. The murder mystery was well planned out and rumors of rotten Spaniards and the impending Armada attack abounded. The food was fabulous, especially the beet tart and the spinach tart. There was a well timed culmination of all the clues and the final dramatic blow up to coincide with the end of the meal and transition into gaming and gossiping for the evening. Everyone looked fabulous and did an excellent job of staying in person, even discussion of Marvin's small Eastern bowles coach, the wii one.

I can't recall what we did on Sunday. It must have been fun and/or relaxing. There was a snuggly fire in the fireplace, some delivery pizza and I think a viewing of Shrek 3. Monday was a blissful day off, so I took Mike and Kirsten shopping at Costco for stuff, especially since we needed more tissue boxes in the house. They seemed to have a good time and stocked up on more than a few basics. Corby got on the road home to the pups, and Kirsten and I decided to brave the Container Store in search of boxes to use as drawers for storing our DVDs down in the basement. Sadly our search of the entire Container Store and IKEA online turned up no boxes measuring 16w x 15d x 9h. Alas I think they will have to be custom made.

Squire Philip came up to attend the Monday night fighter practice, and help Kirsten with some projects around our house, before attending the Tuesday night practice as well. I woke up feeling like crud yesterday, but got up and went to work since I knew I was sleeping in the way of progress. While the attic stairs installation will take a bit more than originally estimated (since a ceiling joist runs directly perpendicular to the door in the green room) so a box will have to built and that project will take longer than time allowed. Luckily they did fix the crack in our bedroom ceiling, and with Kirsten's masterful drywall skillz, it looks fabulous, and just requires a coat of paint. Scott even fixed our bedroom door and the hall bathroom door so they actually latch, since he wasn't busy installing the attic stairs. I admired the work of others and crashed in the basement for a nap under our snuggly Kirsten-quilt.

And I think that gets us caught up. hooray, new episode of Project Runway is on.

Hamlet was terrible. There is a first time for everything. And this was our first time walking out on a play at intermission. We felt better about it when we saw others in the garage also lamenting the terribleness of the production/acting. sigh. Thai dinner was good though. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, this afternoon I was inspired by the Which lolcats are You? test, and asim's links to lolbuffy and lolfirefly, and I now give you 
lolbandes

Suggestions cheerfully accepted.

BTW, I got this on the lolcats test

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Okay, so catching up...

Last weekend was a Bandes workshop at the Morgan's new place in Ruckersville. Alan and I decided, based on the typical Friday traffic and the anticipated July 4th week vacation traffic, that we'd just get up and leave early on Saturday morning. So we ate chinese delivery, and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the basement. Alan snoozed through much of it and I woke him for the particularly good parts. I'm sure he was grateful. :) It was a lovely relaxing Friday night spent at home just the two of us.

Saturday dawned early and we got up, showered, packed and got on the road around 8am to get to the Morgan's timber-framed home of wonderful architechtual goodness a little after 10. We were greeted by the bear-dogs and poked around a bit before settling down for persona definition goodness, led by the attack_laurel . This was lots of fun figuring out the details of our personas, especially with respect to what we would have known. For example, we might not know our friends middle names, but we'd definitely know our parents' names, where they are/from, as well as the local friends and shopping opportunities, etc. Alan and I got a great start on ours. After lunch and much socializing, I crept upstairs and nodded off for a little nap before returning to the crew. We had a yummy dinner of salmon and sides, and I got to play around with embroidery a bit more.  We eventually made our late way back to Mike and Kirsten's to play with their dogs and crash out cold for the night. 

Sadly, frogs kept me awake much of the night. Stupid pond frogs. Dunno why, but I haven't been sleeping as soundly lately as I usually do. Hmm... perhaps I need to take a certain medication earlier in the evening before bed. But anyway, when the little bastards did finally shut up, I slept in until after 8am and it was glorious. Corby then introduced me to his Wii. He has a clever tactic. He makes a Mii for you which isn't quite right, and therefore you HAVE to dive in to fix it, and then fix Alan's and then fix Cuan, and then make one for the Angel of Death and Hot Bob. wow.. break for breakfast and then back to the Wii for trying out Wii sports. I am the Queen of Wii Bowling! I suck at Tennis. I was okay at golf, if terrible on the putting green. And I rocked the boxing, but am not allowed to play that since my victory dance almost took out one of their ceiling fan lights. opps. It was very addictive, and I was quite sore on my right side Monday morning. I told Alan we're not allowed to get one, since it was so addictive, but Corby is allowed to bring his to visit and we'll try it connected to the big screen downstairs. hmmm... how to play without blocking the projected image...

I finally pulled myself away from the Wii, and Alan and I got showered and on the road after a little minor pre-demolition exploration. The previous owners of that house are fascinating.

We eventually got home and while Alan mowed the lawn, I napped. Then we finally headed up to Baltimore to visit Mikey again at the rehab place. He was a bit tired from a lack of sleep, but was doing well, was moving his legs more, and we just sat and chatted and watched parts of Dodgeball for about 2 hours. It was great to see him and other friends and visit. Glad he's doing well. I know it must be frustrating as all get out, and he's likely sick of the place already, but he's getting better. What also really helped was earlier visits from Their Royal Majesties and crew as well as Their Excellencies' Lochmere. Hooray to feel loved, if a bit helpless. I made sure to order new flowers for his room since the earlier ones were fading a bit. Must check that they got there. 

Anyway, it was a lovely weekend full of friends, friend's animals and lots of laughter. Hard to complain about.

Normally I'm a fairly happy person. Lately though I've had people, from a gentleman at NOTT to a grocery store clerk, reminding me to smile. Normally I do, so that just reminded me that lately it hurts to smile, so I've apparently been looking grumpy. The TMJ is back to bugging me, and has been ramping up for the past three weeks. So I went to the doctor to get a stronger relaxant for nighttime on a temporary basis. I also called the specialist cranial sacral massage therapist, and have an appointment on Friday morning. In the meantime, soft foods and stress reduction, or something.

On a happy note though, the navy linen petticoat is completely hand sewn and is finished. First I sewed up the waistband with top stitching, then I finished the edges of the skirt rectangle with a running stitch. Next was the gathering, pinning and sewing down of the cartridge pleats. Then the front seam of the skirt was whip stitched up. Lastly the eyelets were added to the front of the waistband with blue linen thread, a lacing cord was fingerloop braided of the same blue linen, and then the hem was whipstitched in place. whoohoo. Progress went the fastest on Saturday during the Bandes workshop.

Saturday was the Bandes workshop at our place where targets got worked on, sewing, braiding and knitting got played with, and Gareth seemed to have a grand time playing with the pups and keeping an eye on them. It was fun to see folks, and while nothing grand got accomplished, many little things were done. Then we tidied up a bit for the Kynny and Freddy birthday party. There were wings, dips, and a groaning board of sushi, and a good time was had by all. Kirsten and I were up chatting until 4am, and Alan was up with the cadets much later. So Sunday was full of sleeping in, brunch of french toast, strawberries, sausage and bacon, and then naps later in the afternoon. I did manage a quick run by Michael's to utilize the 50% off coupon for framing of my recent scrolls.

Monday, UMUC did a small memorial service and moment of silence for the fallen from a week ago at Virginia Tech. I got asked to participate as a VT alumni. After the moment of silence, each victim's name was read aloud, a bell was rang and those of us in line took an orange rose from the podium to the pedestal of the sculpture in the center of the courtyard. I got to lay a rose down for Reema, the youngest victim. I couldn't help but think that the folks in line were too many, but it is amazing how much space 32 people take up. That in itself was a wake-up, trying to imagine our community without the other 31 folks in line was daunting. It certainly sent home the message that the impact will radiate out.

But on a final happy note, I bought some 14's from Old Navy yesterday. Whoohoo! Guess this means I really need to purge the 18s from the closet, a happy task indeed. I just need to find the time.

Had an excellent time at the Jamestown Volunteer Training weekend. The classes were great, gave me a new perspective on how to approach working at Jamestown, and I got to see many friends, some I hadn't seen in a while. I posted pictures from Saturday night and Sunday on my flickr page. I really need to bring and use my camera more often to events of every nature. Of the 40ish in attendance, at least 25 were Gardiner's, possibly more and my mental count is off. I wished I could have taken the Women in 17th Cent class, but I'm very glad I was forced to take Jim's Intro to Onsite Learning. The Gallery tour by Callie was awesome. Last November Alan and I skipped the last part of the exhibit, but had I known there were cool houses to explore and extant textiles I wouldn't be kicking myself now. Very cool. Cyndy and I actually took a quick tour of the textile areas again at the end on Sunday, and went to see the film as well. They have done a great job with the Jamestown overhaul and it is quite a thing to see. It was interesting also seeing the other areas outside of the fort like the Powhatan village, the ships and the Riverfront Discovery area. When I get a chance, I'd like to explore them more when it's not freezing cold. I also wish I had made the time to go back to the gift shop to pick up that book on the Jamestown digs by Kelso. Perhaps in March.

Items I was most covetous of this weekend include Kit's new blue Dutch Cloak and Roland's knit wool socks from a UK reenactors faire. 

Worst parts of the weekend were dealing with back pain (half a flex in the middle of the day each day helped) and driving home in the icky if insignificant weather on Sunday night and missing Rome. I'll have to watch it On-Demand sometime before next Sunday.

I was thinking about doing the 101 question meme and took the Heroes quiz (I'm Audrey the female cop btw), but really, I just want to lay down on a heating pad and/or take a nap. I did get a new wool doublet for Alan to the needing buttonholes and buttons stage by the end of the weekend. I've got a cloak to make this week, a play on Wed, which means laundry is bumped up to Tuesday night, and stuff to do for KA&SFest, as well as figure out my road/crash plan now that my previous plan has been shaken up. Oh, and I have so much I want to do by MTA, but I've also got to pack and head to Gulf Wars for a week. Can't say I'm complaining about that, but much to do, and all I wanna do is sleep.

EDIT: The reason I used the sail icon was that the ships at the docks and the general feeling of escape has made me want to go sailing again. Really wanna go sail, besides I have the WRECK hat to wear on-board thanks to the Mellins. Maybe I'm just longing for a swim.

Tonight, I finally got off my duff and took down the Christmas tree. The final bit of de-decking is done and the tree and decorations are loaded back into the attic. Every time I put the ornaments back in the box I swear they will never all fit, but each year they do, even with the few new additions each year. Pitiful truly, taking down the tree on the 23rd is far too late. I'll blame the colds, etc. yeah, that's the ticket. I have to confess to mselspetthat the very pretty glass ornament she gave me at Twelfth Night got hung up in the guest room window so I can see it each morning when I look down the hall, instead of packing it away for a year. But it is so pretty catching the light...

Speaking of the guest room, I also finally got around to tidying it up as well. Since Crown it's become a bit of a garb/accessory dumping ground, and was in dire need of a cleaning since we get theblueleaderup tomorrow night for projects this weekend. Nothing like company to inspire a bit of cleaning. 

Saturday was lovely as we did two events in one day. In the morning Alan and I got gussied up in our Elizabethan and headed out to the Storvik Investiture to see Shecky and Bess step down from a good run on the baronial seats, and the installation of Rorik and Janina, who will also be good for the group. Got to see lots of folks from just quick hello's to a nice chat with Helmut and kyneburhand the congratulations. Sadly we didn't have time to get into Eadric's vigil, but left him a note. And apparently we missed quite the evening court, so congrats to everyone recognized then.
But alas, especially with the news of a required detour to avoid a fallen tree and not knowing how long said detour would take, we had to take off in the afternoon to make our second engagement, the Bandes Yule in Abingdon.

Yule was quite fun. Unfortunately I still have a few slices of the two cheese tarts I made in the fridge. But the food was excellent, we had some new folks that I hope had a good time, and the mystery was a good way to spark conversation even if in the end we quit caring and just gossiped in persona instead. Had fun playing cards, even if I didn't win a single hand of Put or Primero. I think I'm taking my money to the goose board or somewhere else next time. Alan and I joked that we split the vices, he drinks and smokes and I gamble and gossip, at Bandes events anyways. It's fun getting the chance to be in persona occasionally, but I do find it tough for a whole day or longer. None the less, it was enjoyable, got to see friends old and new that I don't often see, and even pick on Zeke/dreadbaronfor his new nickname. Like MENG, I didn't cleverly come up with it, but I'll definitely propagate it. :) But best of all, I got the most faboo Yule gift from Father Christmas (who looked astonishingly like Zeke in a cloak). Normally there are small gifts from buckles and games to candles and machine embroidered sweet bags. This year I got a set of nice beeswax candles, but Zeke got a nice set of ladies' fingerless knit gloves, which would not fit his gorilla hands. So we switched. Rock on! Jane (moi in the Bandes) did a little happy dance and even wore them on the drive home. It seemed that we had forgotten mundane clothes to change into, so comfy if constraining garb all day was our fate. Got home and piled almost immediately into the comfy flannel sheeted bed.

Sunday I slept in until 9:30. Bliss. Then we met with Freddy and Alice for brunch at the Ram's Head Tavern, and ended up hanging out for about 4 hours. We miss those guys and had a great time catching up. We enjoyed everything from eggs and crab cakes to beers and bar talk. Eventually I looked out the window to see a nice covering of the deck in snow and practically squealed with glee. We made it home safely, though slowly, after a brief stop at Alan's new fish place to see if we could find a new male Ram cichlid to go with our now lonely female (struck out) and a new heater.

All in all it was a good weekend, and I am looking forward to a relatively quiet weekend at home coming up, except for a fun jaunt to salviati's, assuming the Tommy-man is doing better.

But at least I also got my calendar on my webpage updated. Isn't everyone scheduled out through the middle of June already?