We survived another Landing Days at Jamestown, but this time the trek home was the most dangerous part of the weekend.

Since attack_laurel's Bob was unable to attend Landing Days this year, we had her-entertaining-self along for the ride. Last week had been a tough one and I was waffling on going to Jamestown this weekend, but as we were waiting for traffic to die down and Alan to complete his conference call, she and I chatted until I finally snapped and started packing. We got on the road kinda late, but meant that we had no traffic to deal with on the after-rush hour drive down. Our room was fine, if you don't care about having a fan in the bathroom, and at least nice and spacious.

Saturday was lovely, and I got to spend most of my day hanging out with Carla and stringmonkey in the barracks. They made food, a couple of dishes in the dutch ovens, but I mostly sat near the herbs and tried to engage visitors in identifying them. I plucked some rosemary, thyme, sage, hyssop, mint and lemon balm, and a staff member had picked an impressive fennel stalk, which was used in the pork, apple and onion dish. After the busy day was done we retired back to the LaQ and tried to motivate towards the shower, and rounded the day out with take-out from Red, Hot and Blue, and hanging out with friends, and even social time with Lara, Fred, Cin and folks. I did bend Cin's ear on sprang, but need to find some of the 18th Century examples for her to explore for use at Yorktown. I also played with my knitting and screwed it up twice, and eventually got it right after a bit of ripping out of rows with a bit of stringmonkey guidance.

Sunday ended up being cooler and comfortable and quieter, but not without fun. I spent much of the day with attack_laurel in the Governor's House so we could take turns and spell each other to take breaks. She worked on hemming curtains for the bed and trimming a cushion, and I did knitting, sewing and some servant-like cleaning up of cobwebs, and such. It was a good day, and we even got to start the day with a bus load of visitors from England. I was even able to take a little bit of time to do some shopping in the gift shop for some books and pamphlets. Alas a tornado watch was announced, and as attendance was down, we did decide to take our tired selves out about an hour early.

The drive home ended up being the worst part. I-64 became progressively packed, so we dove off for 17N to 301N which had much less traffic, but became slow due to the rain. There was also a bit of a back-up crossing the Nice bridge over the Potomac's choppy waters, but luckily there was no accident, just volume. Alan drove the first part and we took a break for dinner at the Outback in La Plata, before I drove the last bit in the driving rain on the beltway home. Despite leaving around 5pm, and noting that we did take an hour break, we still didn't get home until after 10pm. Once home and unpacked in as much as we cared to, we fell in bed and slept the sleep of the ded.

I am glad I went, and had a lovely time with friends, but am justifiably sore, with sore hands and arms from the knitting, sewing, cleaning, and gripping of the steering wheel to guide us home safe. It was awesome to see attack_laurel's lacing of the petticoat to the bodies in action. Really inspiring to make a new petticoat and bodies, but I should finish my new shift and convert an old serviceable back-closing petticoat to front closing so I can try lacing it in as well.

Upcoming is a fun trip to the MFA and more embroidery at Plimoth! excellent.

Brain fart. It is 5:20, and I am obviously not making my 5pm acupuncture appointment. DOH! I hate it when I flake out. But I called and apologized and rescheduled for Thursday. I'm sure there is a fee for forgetting an appointment and I wouldn't blame them. sigh.
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Remember this: "Oh, and yes, I do look over the sign-in sheets and will call out anyone I see who I noticed did not sign in." from Thursday's post?
Yeah, had to do that a couple of times. It is probably true that not all MOLs will continuously scan the field all day to check and see if they spot someone who didn't sign in, but I do. Heraldry works. Frankly it is not our jobs, but one I can't help but do. Oh, and the proper response to being called out from not signing in the weekend before is "Yes, I know, I'm sorry. I will do my best to not let it happen again."  Your answer should not be "yeah, I was running late, and besides, its only fencing..."  Really wrong answer buddy and you do not make friends with that sentiment.

Okay, it's not like it is difficult. You bloodly well will sign in at the list table when there is a tourney you want to get your name in. Why does that seem to be the only motivation? Are we not normally happy and smiley and glad to see you when you come to us at the tables? The rules haven't changed in years. If you want to fight at an official SCA event, you have to sign in at the list tables. You don't even have to be a member anymore. All you need is a fighter card and the ability to sign a waiver. How easy do we have to make it? (No, I will not roam around the list field going from shade to shade offering to sign you in.) End of story.

Yes, color me a bit frustrated at having to hunt down and report fighters for not signing in.

Again, I say Thank You to the 95% of fighters who are patient, kind and just who do sign-in every time. You stand as a good example to others, and have my gratitude.
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Tournament of Chivalry boasted 84 fighters upon the field, 20 of whom were knights. 3 members of the Order of Chivalry took the black and gold staff to marshal all day instead of fight, with several other volunteers, so that those 84 could fight in safety. I think this must have been the first Tournament of Chivalry to have enough marshals, as Alan signed in to marshal if needed, but relaxed in shade instead. Folks did seem to have a fun time both on and off the field. I just made it over to our dayshade to witness Sir Corby taking Girard as a squire of his household, and welcome him to the fold. I was blessed with excellent company at the list table as Gabrell helped me sign in fighters, and random other entertaining folks brought food and stopped by for a visit.

We departed the site fairly early to retire back to our house for cleaning up, starting the grill and eating some of the metric ton of food I made available. I forgot the chips though. We had a lovely full house of friends and "family" and much chatting took place throughout the evening. Eventually, all the tired folks crawled up to bed, I gave Gabrell a ride back home, and read a bit before hitting the sack myself. Sunday dawned nice and rainy, and everyone beat me out of bed to wakefulness but Corby. We made a breakfast of left over sausages and burger meat, scrambled eggs, and waffles. Mmm... waffles. Alan then napped on the couch as I checked email, and as soon as I turned off all the lights and TV, and went to nap on the living-room couch, he awoke, so I got to snuggle into a pre-warmed couch for my nap.  We watched some of John Adams, did the dishes and clean up, started the laundry,  and did more clean-up for the rest of the evening. I then read a bit, but my brain decided at midnight that the kitchen floors must be cleaned, so I swept and swept, and spot cleaned a few places before finally crashing in bed and calling it a weekend.
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Since we've decided we're not going to Crown, I contacted Ingvild and offered to come up and help out at the MD Sheep and Wool Festival in the Medieval and Renaissance Textiles Showcase tent. I've been assigned sprang to demo, which should be a ton of fun, and has me inspired to pull out the loom again and play with it some more so I'll have more examples to display. I wonder if I could set-up the banner stand Alan made for whipcording at the Children's Fete last year for a really tall loom to work on a belt or sash or something? The mind reels. Is it safe to assume we are to be in garb for the demo? Who else can I look forward to seeing there?

I love my truck...
I love my truck...
I love my truck...

Hadn't filled up in a while. Gas was 3.38/gallon on the way home from Kynny's birthday dinner, and that was at the cheap place.

sigh.

On the plus side, I was able to donate the two large bags of styrofoam peanuts from our pottery shipment to a shipping and packaging store, so that they will be reused. And the rest of the packaging was recyclable cardboard. yay.

When I got home and brought in the trash bins, I was attacked by the bushes flanking the path to our back gate, so after stowing the bins, I got the loppers and attacked them with vim and vigor (or piss and vinegar) and cut them back so I could walk between them safely. Sadly, I can only cut the boxwood back so far or else it looks ugly (Alan thought trimming it twice a year was enough...), but I felt no problem mutilating the side of our neighbor's thorny shrub that was encroaching in my path, and at least tried to smooth it up and over the top so it doesn't eventually form a little thorny arbor overhead. I did leave the raked pile of clippings for Alan to collect and truck up the hill and over the fence to the brush pile, cause I'm like that.

I will be at the MOL table at TOC this weekend, so again, find me or avoid me there. Alas, you fighters and marshals who wish to take the field will not be able to avoid me. Oh, and yes, I do look over the sign-in sheets and will call out anyone I see who I noticed did not sign in. Yes, I am looking at you, person who forgot to sign in last weekend who I expect to see on Saturday...
And be nice to my MOL in training, since he just autocratted NOTT last weekend.

Night on the Town was lots of fun.

However, our pottery shipment had arrived, from our expenditures at Glades Pottery the weekend before in Florida, while we were at the event, and I simply could not resist unpacking the treats. So Alan indulged me and we unpacked all the pretties and  sorted them into piles, and admired the wonderful colors, and then contentedly headed to bed. I really should try to take some pictures of Walter's work in the sunshine to really show off how lovely his stuff is.

Sunday I had planned to head back to site for clean-up, but accidentally slept in and we didn't leave for site until almost 10am. When I called Gabrell he said that they were almost done and we didn't need to come out if we didn't want to, so we delivered Matt and Susan's pottery to them, and left Lisette's for pick-up as well, and chatted with the Susan a bit, and then headed home to work on cleaning and putting away and other chores, such as a much needed nap.

I've still got a bit of a sore throat (but am on the antibiotics so no worries) and am working my way out of grump and funk to life again.

Bob's Super-Party Pictures


We've survived yet another one of Bob's birthdays. Happy Birthday Mr. Quatermain, and may your study of anal-ogy and anal-bum-covers go well. Heroes, Villains and those unclassified others all came together for one heroic night. Dr. Jekyll tended the bar, Mina Harker lay out an impressive buffet of tasty foods, Ursula was the best villain costume in attendance, and Rainbow Brite was determined the best "hero", although my money was on Black Canary. Sadly the karaoke machine didn't get used, but the trash and recycling bins are full so folks seemed to have a good time just the same. I think the total head count was 49; 45 heroes and villains, 2 lame folks not in costume (Matt? Freddy? Do I need to costume you next time myself?), and 2 super dogs.

Sunday morning, the secret hideout hosted yummy brunch to 16 secret identities. We had coffee, OJ, waffles, scrambled eggs, and 4 kinds of sausage; chicken and apple sausage, and 3 different types from Gunther's farm thanks to Drea's trip to the Raleigh Farmer's Market. Then we worked together to set the house back in order so little clues were left to the party the night before. Thanks for your help folks!

Alan and I spent the rest of Sunday napping, curled up by the roaring fireplace, and doing other little cleaning tasks. I love hosting this party every year, as we get a wonderful gathering of friends at our house, and we are also guaranteed to have a clean house at least once a year. :) We ended the night by catching Superman Returns on TV, which seemed very fitting given the weekend.

The two things that are certain.

Luckily, and sadly, the death was small. We lost another of the new tiny rainbow fishes in the den tank. This batch doesn't seem to be as hardy. And it seems there is a small bit of ick in the living-room tank, but Alan is working on battling that. At least one of the new small discus seems to have a puckish nature and attacks some of the snails periodically, which makes me giggle.

But our taxes are done. That took a larger portion of Sunday than I had planned, but at least they are done. It would be so much easier if I'd just collect everything needed before even starting, but I thought I had. Our mortgage company has made the required info available online, so they didn't send us a statement, since we could access it ourselves. Good for the environment, bad for the distracted. Alas, despite getting a return, the process still made me cranky, so I needed a nap afterward.

This was a bad weekend for health food, as in there was little. There was pizza delivery on Friday night, Indian carry-out on Saturday, and Alan fetched HardTimes chili on Sunday night. We had eggs with chicken and apple sausages, and then fresh made waffles with maple syrup for breakfasts. All of it very tasty, none of it very good for me. sigh. oh well.

We decided on Friday night, as we were both feeling fairly puny, and lazy enough to order pizza, to cancel our trip to the Caer Mear event on Saturday. It sounds like it was fun, if a bit damp, but home tasks were mounting, and the rain was pouring. Instead we slept in to the sound of raindrops, and worked on installing the new TV stand in the den, cleaning up the wiring, and ended up doing a thorough cleaning of all the side tables, purging of the periodicals, and even vacuuming behind and under the furniture. We'll think of it as prep for the party at the end of the month.

Sorry to miss folks on Saturday, but we were much more productive at home.

Stage Four of the guest room closet redo is complete. We installed the Elfa system last night and put everything back away in the closet. Except, somehow, regardless that we have a better system, I now have stuff that won't fit back. Hmm... bad space-time warp I guess. Must try it again. Of course when we get our attic stairs in, we can put some lesser used things, like my ginormous suitcase, in storage up there. The good angel on my shoulder reminds me patience in a virtue.

Need to run by the glass place in Jessup to pick back up our broken dining room lamp tonight before 6pm. It was very nice of them to give me a price estimate for the repairs, but it just seems more costly than I'm willing to pay. Must think more on options, for either purchasing a new pendant or alternate repair options. isenglass, I may call on you after all. Feel free to refuse.

My brain is relative mush. I can't wait to see Beth Patterson at Baldwin Station on Thursday night, even though it means packing the truck for Ymir on Wednesday night. Wednesday night we should also have the new tank and stand here, but won't have time to work on installing it until next week. That's what I forgot to do, start clearing out the items in storage under the 45 gal take to prep for the swap out. Maybe later tonight after practice, or I could skip practice...

eh. My apologies to my readership for this terrible post. Oh, and happy Fat Tuesday!

 I had a good weekend. (Too good of a weekend if you ask the bathroom scale...) 

Friday night we were lazy and ordered a pizza while we watched the Tomb Raider Double Feature on HD TNT. It was cool, with limited commercial interruptions, and I got to contemplate outfits for Bob's next party. Alan had also started a fire in the fireplace, so I watched much of the movies from the floor near the fire with my knitting in hand. I got a start this weekend on a pair of stockings for Plimoth Plantation, and so far things appear to be going well. 

Saturday was alisandramel's Bridal Shower of amazing pinkness. The pink was apparently to annoy her, but there were pink balloons, pink napkins and cutlery, and folks mostly came in pink-ish PJ's. Though Mel in her custom pink union-suit was the best part. We had a great afternoon of sitting around and chatting, and reading from a 1950's book of articles on a Successful Marriage (yes, I found the article on petting amusing), and playing the TP dress game, and eating way too much tasty food, including the biggest, densest, and tastiest cake I'd had in a long time. We all had such a ball that we even overstayed the time allotted, and finally removed the burden of playing hostess from Christy and left. 

I had carpooled to the event with Theo, and got a ride home from Vic who was staying with us overnight. I had offered to those who wanted to continue the Slumber Party theme into the night that our home (with bartender) was available. I also called the attack_laurel  and her Bob to come on over since I had a feeling she'd like some Vic time too. We hung out and partied well into the evening with delivery chinese food and sushi, as well as purple drinks from the bar, pool and girlie movies in the basement, and lots of fun chatting in the living room. I ended the evening knitting in the basement, after folks had gone home, and watching Firefly. I then went upstairs to clean up from the party, re-load the dishwasher since Mel's sis had put in items that aren't dishwasher friendly, re-stacked to include other found items of glassware, and dug through the trash to find the missing spoon, japanese soy sauce dish, and pair of permanent chopsticks, before setting the dishwasher to run overnight.

Sunday morning was waffles and chicken mango sausages with Vic before she got on the road to visit with a friend before heading back home. (Vic was kind and helped me unload and reload the dishwasher before she got on the road.) Hooray for fun guests. Then we settled down to the work at hand. Alan had plans to take down and rebuild the 90 gallon fish tank in the living room to do a fish rotation before the delivery of the new 90 gallon fish tank and stand for the den. While Alan was playing with fish and fish poo water, I set to working on the closet re-org in the blue guest room. Phase One was planning and buying materials from the Container Store Elfa shelving sale a few weeks ago. Phase Two was demolition of the old cheap closet system trying not to tear up the walls too much. Phase Three was completed last night before the bulk of the Superbowl, which was spackling, sanding, painting and cutting in on the edges of the closet. Now that those are done, we can get on with Stage Four which is installation of the Elfa closet system and putting back away more organized of the pile of stuff currently taking up residence on the guest bed and floor of the guest room. We pack a goodly amount of stuff in that 7'x5'x2' space. :)

Sadly the weekend ended with the Patriots losing, me screwing up a row in the knitting and having to take it out and re-doing it poorly (twisted stitches), and us losing our two pink-striped torpedo barbs and the jawless rainbow fish in the trauma of moving them to a holding tank while the living room tank is redone. sigh.

 While I had a great weekend, it was not so good for my poor feet. My left big toe has still been sensitive from the severe stubbing I did to it during Labor Day weekend, but as long as I don't stub it again, or even lightly tap it on something, I'm okay. Thursday night I dropped my nightstand on my right big toe, and boy has it been letting me know since then. I was good and iced it immediately afterward, and again later that night, as well as putting a little neosporin on the scratched skin, but man is it still sore. And then... And THEN! I was vacuuming upstairs and stepped on a needle with my left heel. Either the needle was bent by the vacuum cleaner, or it got bent when it struck the bone, because pulling said needle out was the suck. It had a nice fishhook like tip now that I had to figure how to extract from my heel. I tried to squeeze as much blood out as possible to clean the wound, and put some peroxide and neosporin on it, but that thin of a wound means that microscopic stuff likely is left inside. Luckily I'm already on antibiotics for a sinus infection, and I've made an appointment tomorrow to get a tetanus shot, and until then I just want to take drugs, eat chocolate, and elevate my foot. 

But it really was a great weekend.
So good weekend, pictures are coming, and I really need a nap, or something.

 So, as planned, and mentioned by Theo and Padraigia, Theo and I went shopping on Tuesday night. She and I are very different shopper types. She goes in with a goal, and is done once she finds the solution to her problem. Me? As attested to earlier, I like to make sure I haven't missed anything in the store. While I can do the occasional surgical strike missions, I don't necessarily need a goal to go shopping. Ah, another successful night of retail therapy. I think for Theo it was like the torture of physical therapy, my amusing antics aside. But for me, it was like chocolate and peanut butter therapy.

Wednesday was taken up with some errands at CVS, the dry cleaners, the chiropractor, and the grocery store before coming home to put stuff away and start on the laundry. Sadly I got a later start on the laundry and also wasted time trying to paint my toes (that I really need to remove and start all over on) so I didn't finish the laundry and still got to bed very late. (I swear, I'm a pretty good girly girl until it comes to the areas of make-up and nail polish, and then I might as well just give up, because I end up looking like I had a turret's attack during the application.)

So, last night I finally finished up the laundry, and did a little beading/jewelry making. One of my sweet faculty members brought back a beautiful lozenge shaped tiger's eye pendant for me from his recent trip to Taiwan. It is so lovely, but it has been sitting around in its plastic baggy waiting for something to be done with it. Inspired by a recent LJ chat with Courtney and by looking at Isobel's lovely jewelry at MOD, I decided it was time to get this done. I had a peach colored strand of jasper beads which would do, but not directly against the pendant itself, so I needed some other stuff to make it work. So, Monday I had swung by a JoAnn's to get some basic supplies (wire, tools, clasps, additional glass beads in the right tone, etc.) and I spent that night organizing the materials a bit. Last night I sat down in my comfy chair with the supplies and laid the pattern out and went to town. Once I finished the necklace, with glass pearl spacers between the pendant and jasper beads, I started noodling around the idea of a matching bracelet. I had enough beads to make two interesting and coordinating bracelets (with no clasps, b/c bracelet clasps are from the debil) and finished up the entire set before midnight while watching Tim Gunn's Guide to Style. (I love this new show on Bravo btw.) I thought about wearing my new necklace and bracelets set today, but it's causal Friday, so I will end up debuting it for the wedding tomorrow. 

I really need to spend some quality time with my laptop and the camera to get some pictures of my new jewelry and our new organization furniture up onto my Flickr site. This is just pitiful. 

 Wow, Invisible Power went fast, but I still have an extra copy each of  The Book of Margery Kemp ISBN 0-14-043251-5 and New Worlds, Lost Worlds by Susan Brigden ISBN 0-713-99067-8  that no one has spoken for. Free to a good home. Seriously.

So last night I took a nap when I got home. I was just too tired and the lure of the comfy bed too strong. Once I woke up though, I found a burst of energy, or at least cleaning desire. So I emptied a bunch of the bathroom and bedroom trashcans and then went to work on my dresser-tops. 

See, I have this dirty little secret. And it is that I use the horizontal surface on the top of my dressers as a dumping ground. I theorize that it all came about from sharing one bathroom with two sisters. I just got in the habit of not storing my toiletries in the bathroom on the counter, they just went on the dresser instead. This worked well in a dorm, and also in the college apartment, since the potty-room was tiny. I think the only time I've actually used a full counter-top in a bathroom was when I roomed with Mel and we each got our own bathroom with lots of counter. And it has served me well in living with Alan since we seem to have small bathrooms without lots of counter space. 

The main downside of this practice is that I tend to pile and then never readdress. In the bathroom, you have to clean it every now and then. On my dresser tops, the piles can simply grow and grow and Alan only occasionally picks on me about it. So, I finally decided that last night was dresser-top purge-time. It took an hour (or more) but I finally cleaned up the old clothing tags, CVS receipts, extra button-bags, small purses, used hair ties, random notes, and lots and lots of dust bunnies to make the dresser tops presentable again. Wow, Alan came to check on my twice since I guess he was worried. Really, since I've been thinking of needing new bedroom furniture anyway, it is the first logical step to upgrading. After that cleaning spree, I had a low-key dinner, watched the Closer, and then spent some time adding new books to my online library listing at LibraryThing.com. That was productive, although there are still a few new books that need to be added and resorted or something. Apparently I've just been in a purging and organizing streak lately. Gosh I hope it continues.

Tonight is ideally shopping with the superfantastic Theo, and then post-practice dinner with friends. Hooray. 

Argh. One of the faculty members down the hall played a CD of sounds from those Tibetan singing bowls. They can be quite lovely, but for some reason, the resonance as it wafted down the hall, something, it's given me a killer headache and started my right eye twitching. If he starts it up again, I might have to go postal on him. 

I was sick this weekend, so despite my best plans to go down to the SSBB event, I stayed home, went to bed early each night and spent much of the day wrapped up in blankets and/or napping on the couch. I really wanted to go down to Sacred Stone and get some quality time with my southern friends, and be there for the wonderful vigils and elevations of the Wolfram and Louise, but alas it was not to be. I did at least get a Saturday night call from the Bera with greetings from those I missed and details on Bera's Rose speech for Wolfram. Sorry I missed that. Bera is dangerous enough with an axe, and they let her hold a hand cannon?  ;-)  At least I missed the 102 degree heat and misery. Booh. I also missed the Bandes gathering at stringmonkey's and the Not-a-shower at kyneburh's, since I wasn't just not fit for travel, I was not fit for company.

Luckily I was feeling much better on Sunday morning, so after a custom Kirsten brunch, we headed out to IKEA and spent way too long there looking at options for expanded storage needs. We now have a new bookcase in the living room with lighted glass storage, and glass front doors to help keep the dust at bay. And yes, I had to more or less arrange the glasses by period with the earlier period works on the top shelf and the Jamestown glass on the bottom shelf. I also got a new bookcase for the string room for my textile books (and a basket to hide most of my smut novels in) and moved the shallow green bookcase that was in that spot for pottery storage and display in a little living room nook by the front door. Alan thinks it needs lighting, but I kinda like it just as it is. Now we need to take another look at the book organization and perhaps plan a bit more than just where the books seem to fit. Hmm...

I'd really like the eye to stop twitching. Did he turn that music back on, or is it just stuck in my head?

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?

So, question time? How many folks plan on dressing up at work for Halloween?

Back in my days in IT, it was common to at least get dressed up for the IT Halloween party as there were prizes and lots of great (office) fun on Halloween. I've been everything from a harem girl, to a black widow spider, to Cinderella from Ever After, to Venus and Lara Croft. But my current position is much more professional, and I haven't dressed up much in recent years. This year though I'm thinking of going pirate, since it will be easy. Put a little spider web table cloth on your door and a magnetic bat on the lintel and all of a sudden, I've raised my co-workers' anticipation of Halloween. It will mean I won't have to re-dress up that night to hand out candy.

So, could you dress up for the occasion tomorrow, and will you? Just curious.

This weekend was yet another one of being trapped by the snuggly fire roaring in the fireplace. It trapped us for random TV on Friday, and for my picture organization on Saturday morning/afternoon, as well as for random TV and conversation with Theo and Roland on Sat night. The Hun-e-B will be happy to know that the evil acidic photo eating pages she saw last month are now gone, and my old photos from high school will be better preserved. I also found some more old photos, especially one of the cat that I grew up with, as well as the ponies my grandfather bought and took care of for us. Need to scan those and load them into Flickr. Sat, Theo made fresh homemade marshmallows, the alien, and they were super tasty roasted over the fire post sushi dinner. Alas, we neglected to get graham crackers though.

Sunday was spent sucked in by a Hex marathon on BBC America. Alan always laughed when he walked by and saw the confused/intrigued look on my face. It is an odd show, and yet oddly compelling. And really difficult to describe with fallen angels, witches, lesbian ghost best friends, and whatnot. At least I got a lot of knitting and sewing done this weekend in front of the tube, as well as many hours radiating in the glorious heat of the fireplace.

Next weekend is Crown, and I have to run by the storage unit tonight to sign a new lease, now that we have to pay to store the regalia and properties, as well as fish out goods for the Heirs. le sigh.

So, does anyone know why my beloved Netscape 8.1 crashes when I try to create a new LJ post? I hate turning to IE just to post, and Netscape has all my bookmarks and the familiarity of a well worn blankie.