Sometimes you gotta wonder at new technology making our lives "easier." Really, it is just the adaptation to the new piece. The iPhone has made my world a ton easier in many ways since getting it. But moving over to my new laptop has proven a bit of a pain.

Download iTunes, sync phone, can't sync apps as will overwrite the ones on my phone with nothing. Bug Alan. He remembers you have to authorize the new computer to sync with iPhone. Authorize. Still having problem with apps. Ah, apps won't come off phone onto PC, you have to re-download them to the new machine (free of charge, but still!) and then go from there. I couldn't find a quick button that let me go into my purchase history to redownload just those apps. argh!

Okay, I finally get my iPhone working with the new machine okay, so I go to transfer my old files to the new machine. No problem. Go to import bookmarks. Argh! I know I exported those bookmarks, where is that file?!?! Dammit. Give up and eat soup.

Not to mention the insane Windows Update install stall that occurred overnight after purchase that locked it up for what seemed like a day. blech. And I think it was doing another update last night that locked me out showing there was power but nothing loaded to the screen. Windows 7 was supposed to be easier. Need to look into some settings and maybe un-automate some stuff. Wait, was that set to automatically update at 7pm? What a stupid time, I need to change that. sigh.

Easier? Not yet, but hopefully soon.

At least it has been distracting me from embroidering/sewing, which I'm not sure is a good thing anymore... At least the laundry is done.

PS: the Moroccan meatball and squash soup was very good, and we have leftovers. yum! All thanks to Chris, our non-Frances long term guest.

Although Ladybug was very distressed and confused at the prolonged activity in the kitchen. What is he doing and what are those smells?!?

I've been checking in on this one and thought there might be more than a few folks interested in another Plimoth Plantation blog called
My So-Called Pilgrim Life: http://www.plimoth.org/blogs/village/
There seems to a heavy leaning towards the foodways, with recipes, etc. (Pippin Tart, Hasty Pudden, and a 13 pound turnip) but there is also the occasional tidbit about heights over time, pirates and a timeline of the colony. The writing is pretty good, and I've found it  entertaining and interesting.

Just throwing it out there, mainly for the foodies and 16th cent junkies.

Must get this out before the Rabbit Hole day...

In non-pup related activities for this weekend I:

• made pretty tasty gingerbread cookies, most round, but a few in fleur shapes
• did a bit more gold-work on the embroidered panel, both during the ride down on Saturday morning, and while chilling on Sunday morning
• got to see many fine friends, and even spend a bit of quality time with them
• admired the truly cunning hats stringmonkey  was delivering
• had an excellent period evening where I; congratulated Anthony on his promotion up to the house from the Gamble's kennels, ate some really tasty desserts (including the macaroons!), played a few hands of Put and a couple of rounds on the Goose board, sang along with the group, and just had a fun time.
• oogled Grace's book on Beetle Stumpwork Embroidery that I must chase down
• chatted with friends about embroidery, the fun special threads, techniques, etc.
• chatted with Caleb about embroidery, but also the cool metal threads and the spangle and oes creation techniques
• barely used the camera since I was too focused on keeping the world on the proper axis
• napped on the couch

It was exciting and busy for more than just the pup, and I think I'm still wore out. I could use a snow day or delayed opening tomorrow...

Alan is cursed when it comes to buying printers. We don't print often, but by golly I like it to work when we do need to print. And we haven't had a reliable printer in our time together. Currently our HP Color LaserJet 2600n is giving me a paper jam error in tray 2. There is no jam. We buy the special custom HP paper that it thinks it likes. But you can't load too much, nor too little into the tray or apparently it thinks it is jammed. Stupid stupid printer. This is why I sometimes abuse the state and print at work. grumble...

And fighting with the printer is cutting into my embroidery time, or my packing time, or even my sleeping time.

At least one thing came out well. I has successful cheese tart for our little sideboard tomorrow. It's good warm or cold. And I was seduced to the side of using fresh herbs since I forgot to buy thyme and it was easier to cut it out of Theo's garden, with some fresh marjoram leaves, than go back to the store. Luckily I have plenty of fresh rosemary in my backyard. So the only dried spices were the savory and pepper. It smells good, and I'm just waiting for it to cool before I can toss it in the fridge until tomorrow.

I was gonna make gingerbread cookies, but I spent too much time chatting with Roland and Theo in the process of picking up thyme, and inspecting their house project, and checking out the new shop, and picking up Alan's old old (circa 1984) helmet, and fighting with the damn printer, to get to cookies.

sigh.
See folks tomorrow.

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.

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.

Yesterday I was Posty McPostalot and yet I neglected to issue online Happy Birthday salutations to the blondemuseon her 34th. Luckily I had sent her flowers, so she called me to thank me, and tell me about the wonderful snow on her birthday and getting to play in the snow with the nieces, so I got to issue congrats over the phone.

Saturday is Yule with the Trayned Bandes up in Abingdon. Since I haven't made anything new to wear, I guess I'll have the old green kirtle with red wool petticoat and gray wool doublet on. I've also got to make a run to the grocery store to pick up goods to make a couple of cheese tarts and some split pea soup to take along as our contributions. It will be fun to see folks, and I might take my laptop with pictures on it from our MFA visit to share with folks before the period evening kicks in.

It is also supposed to snow again tomorrow. And while I love the snow, I'm tired of it coming on the weekends. I mean it is supposed to snow during the week so we get snow days off of work. That's one of the great perks of working for a Uni, snow days. Yeah, the 1.5 hours off early yesterday does not count in my book. I want snow on a Thursday night with enough to cancel work the next day so I can sleep late and stay snuggled in bed.

Okay, whining off and stats on, thus proving I'm my own biggest fan...

( Who comments the most on this journal? )

Well, Alan and I are finally back home and unpacked. I have a mountain of laundry to work through. Last night I actually sat down to watch TV and didn't pick up something to hand sew. My hands are very grateful for the break. I just sat like a lump and enjoyed CSI, Heroes, CI and some Jon Stewart. What a lovely relief.

But Jamestown was the big thing this weekend. 


More pictures of the events can be found on:
My Flickr page
Theo's Flickr page
and Monica's Flickr page from Gabriel's camera
You can also see a very fine picture of our Greg/Nathaniel with GW here. I think it is cute that many of the press call us actors. tee hee. 

Considering the gluttony (and siren call of the napping couch) that is Thanksgiving, and then all the foods at Foods and Feasts, it's truly a miracle that I only gained a pound this week.  Whoohoo.  I also am officially wearing pants the next size down today. Even my sweater and blazer are looser. Went shopping on Wed and again last night and have a few smaller pants that should carry me for a while. Will also have to contemplate at what point to weed the larger sizes out of the closet. Right now they are just taking up space, but I fear that as soon as I donate them, weight will come back on.  Pessimistic? Me? Never.


My current to do list is finish reading my book and to do Xmas shopping and cards for folks. We're still not sure what we're even doing for the holiday, but I know that I get a week and a half off, and I am greatly looking forward to it.