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pinkleader
01 April 2008 @ 12:14 pm
rodent round-up  
I think the joke is on me. I could have sworn that I slept fine last night. I even overslept this morning by more than a fair bit. But alas, my body still thinks it needs 8 more hours of sleep given the uncontrollable yawning I've been participating in this morning.
mnyah mnyah... yaaaawwn.

So I completely forgot to mention the wittle mousie party crasher we had on Saturday. And I completely regret that I didn't take a picture of her clutched in [info]attack_laurel's claws before she was set free in the park. Stupid stupid Gen.
 
 
Mood: sleepy
 
 
pinkleader
31 March 2008 @ 11:01 am
Hooray, Bob survives another year!  
Bob's Super-Party Pictures
308superparty 035

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.
 
 
Mood: giddy
 
 
pinkleader
24 March 2008 @ 10:31 pm
wacky weekend  
Friday night, after battling traffic to get home, Alan was disinclined to want to leave the house. So I picked up dinner from Harry's, and we snuggled in at home and went to bed a little early.

Saturday, I slept in late, Alan made brunch, and then we went out to the Men's Wearhouse to look into replacing some of his dress shirts and his charcoal gray suit. Sadly, there was badness at work, and he took a few calls at the store, and then we headed home so he could head into work. So poor Alan was at work from around 3 until 10ish. I thought about going out for some shopping errands on my own, but decided to conserve gas and money and stay home to read, watch tv and nap. Belatedly I headed over to Roland and Theo's for an indescribable evening of muppetry and alcohol. I confess I liked the Mhanamana alcoholic purple kool-aid, but eventually deferred to my signature Janice, a Mike's Hard Lemonade. Peep art was created (I claim the Marie Antoin-peep before and after, Buffy the Vampeep slayer, and Zompeeps), sugary snacks were imbibed, as well as savory tasty nibbles, Muppets were watched, music was sung along to, Hobbes the Fuzzy Loofa was played with while Ninja-Kitty hid, inner Muppets were more or less assigned, and a good time was had by all. Alan confessed his father's affinity for the Muppets, which helped explain Alan's otherwise inexplicable advanced Muppet knowledge. You learn something new everyday. It was a great evening spent with friends.

Sunday was more sleeping in, relaxing, watching DIY tv, reading and in general spending time snuggled deep in my comfy chair. I finally finished reading Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley, which was great once I got beyond the first 50 pages. In general I think she does better with young female voices, but she made it work for a teenage male voice this time. Quite an enjoyable read in my opinion.

Oh, and not surprisingly my inner muppet is Janice...
 
 
Mood: amused
 
 
pinkleader
03 March 2008 @ 08:57 pm
brunch-tastic weekend  
Had a wonderful weekend. We started off with a lazy Friday night of delivery pizza (bad, I know, but so tasty) and a viewing of Live Free or Die Hard in the Space-bar.

Saturday morning we got up, got showered, got dressed and got on the road to [info]alisandramel's wedding to her Dr. Steve. We managed to be early, not a normal feature for me, which was great for chatting with friends. The ceremony was brief but lovely, with a beautiful bride radiant in red, and teary-eyed/sniffle inducing vows. It was wonderful to witness. Then we were shunted off to the reception site as the main party members stayed behind for photos. We departed to brunch at Maggiano's in Tyson's Galleria for a really fun party with tasty food, entertaining music and the best of company. The best man had a touching toast for the happy couple, the first dance was smooth, and the cake (made by the bride and groom themselves) was truly yummy. We hung out for hours visiting with friends, meeting family, and in general having a excellent time. Of course, I forgot my camera, so I have no photos to share of the happy occasion. We departed late and got home to nap, snack and watch Die Hard 2: Die Harder in the basement before crashing.

Sunday we had brunch with Matt, Susan and the boys at Ram's Head in Savage Mill, which was fun and the boys were pretty well-behaved. Speedwagon has celebrated his first birthday, and big brother is a big 4 years old. We enjoyed our Harbor Brunches of crab cakes and eggs, while Matt dove into some Eggs Bennie.The food, as always, was yummy, and we had a lovely time just hanging out and chatting, about sailing in Florida among other topics. We've got our flights booked, Camp Grandma arranged for their boys, and a day-sail planned with my folks and Captain Walter aboard his sailboat for the first weekend in April. It is a trip we are very much looking forward to, and a sailing excursion is well overdue.
We finished off the day with a little antiques window shopping and a showing of Bull Durham in the basement.

It was an excellent, if not productive, weekend.
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Mood: relaxed
 
 
pinkleader
11 February 2008 @ 11:15 pm
Ymir  
 Ymir was fun. I am sick again. I tried very hard not to be Plague Monkey X and keep my distance. I got to meet Molly the Papi-poo, who was too cute and I hope she finds a loving home. I didn't do any service, beyond sweeping out the cabin some and perhaps some consultation. In general I just visited with folks and had a nice, slightly drug enhanced, day.

I did take some pictures of Lisette's heavy rapier authorization, Theron's knighting, and our silly partying back at the cabin later. Enjoy!

*cough- hack* Time for bed.
 
 
Mood: sick
 
 
pinkleader
04 February 2008 @ 04:48 pm
productive non-SCA weekend  
 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 [info]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 [info]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.
 
 
Mood: blah
 
 
pinkleader
02 January 2008 @ 03:27 pm
Christmas and New Years  
 Quick Winter break re-cap.

We went to visit the Toscanos on Saturday, and also delivered some old furniture and clothes to the Salvation Army. [info]eleanors_closet and Alan ended up doing the final clearing out of the storage unit, while I entertained Jimmy with a distracting cookie-hunt and chatter. We stayed to visit and tour the new abode, and enjoy a yummy dinner with them and Carla. Got home a bit late, but had an excellent time. The new house is uber cool and I had way too much fun playing with the beagles.

Sunday we had thought of shopping, but bummed about the house instead. I honestly don't know what we did.

Monday we finally broke down and did Christmas shopping for each other together. We braved the Rockville Best Buy and picked up DVDs and a shredder that we placed in our stockings and under the tree. Then we got cleaned up and had a wonderful dinner out at Timpano's in Rockville. The skillet-roasted prawns and lobster ravioli was yummy, as was the Rosa Regale to drink and the mini-tartufo dessert. Though we had reservations, we did have to wait a bit to get seated, but we enjoyed the floor show of the various other patrons, the un-equal division of labor for the hostesses, and the creeping fake palm dragged out of its niche by staff passing by that I nudged back in place a time or two. We enjoyed ourselves immensely just the two of us, and then tried out the local Episcopal church around the corner. The music was lovely, and the service was nice, but I confess it clashed with the comforting ceremonies and hymns of my Lutheran upbringing (the final lines in What Child is This is not a chorus but a changing line for each verse! sigh), and even Alan balked a bit at the change in language of the Common Book of Prayer from the 1940 version he was accustomed to. It was very interesting, and we were singled out immediately during the sharing of peace and end of service as new and possible recruits. Not terribly likely given our schedules. commitments, and my propensity to sleep in, but neat to try just the same. 

Christmas Day I slept in late and we opened our "presents" and after testing the new shredder, making breakfast and watching Shrek 3, we bustled off to [info]cathgrace's for Christmas dinner with the Griffith's. The company was wonderful, even if we did have a bit of trouble getting on base leaving our new car insurance cards at home. The food was awesome and very tasty, and we stayed much longer than we had initially thought we would. It is just so easy to get wrapped up in conversation that we didn't depart until close to midnight. Despite neglecting to do the cat-check (luckily Alan and I survived only a little sniffly and short of breath), we had an excellent time, and I thank them very much for sharing their Christmas dinner and day with us. It was fabulous getting to know them all a little better. (Thanks to [info]chargirlgenius  for the other orphan offer, and maybe some other time.)

The rest of the week was spent hanging out, blissfully sleeping in, getting a hair-cut and massage and doing a bit of shopping with the post-Christmas sales and using up for coupons and gift cards. I got Alan a new sweater jacket for wearing around the house since we are trying to cut back a bit on the heating bill, moi some new clothes at Gap and Loft sales, some new underthings, as well as new skillets and a conair hairstyling brush and hair dryer in one. So far everything is working out well. Well, except the new casual pants I bought and wore on Saturday only realizing at the end of the day that the tag says wash before wearing, thus leaving me with blue legs. 

The finale to our break was hosting the Black Tie Brash Billionaire Bash New Years Eve party at our place. I had a lovely new (sale) evening gown to wear, and Corby brought me a cheap fleur-de-lys tiara. Alan wore a bow-tie as the bartender down in the space bar, and lots of folks came dressed up. It was so great to spend the evening with friends, even those who had to leave early for various reasons. Bob and I played pool in the basement with the Great Short Horde, since Issac, Emmie and Brandon were in attendance and seemed to have a great time hanging out together all night. The kids even stayed up for the midnight toast (they drank sparkling cider) and then crashed out for a bit as the adults stayed up and chatted for well into the wee hours of the morning. [info]theodoraddid an amazing job providing the food for the party and making it tasty and upscale to the theme. Friends brought other food contributions that were tasty as well. Heck I had [info]alisandramel's chocolate cake for lunch today since our rotten work cafeteria doesn't open up until tomorrow and we all forgot.  

The clean-up was smooth thanks to our glorious friends. We set [info]sircorbyto making waffles for breakfast for those that stayed overnight, and I spent the meager rest of my winter break watching the Dirty Jobs marathon on the Discovery Channel last night until crash time.
 
 
Mood: cheerful
 
 
pinkleader
21 December 2007 @ 09:55 pm
Wedding photos  
scan0020 

Okay, it only took me 5+ years to get around to organizing a little album for Alan's Mom, and putting some of our wedding photos online. We've got at least 200 more, but here are a few from our photographer that I choose to get a feel of the day. I particularly enjoy the ones where the subjects are making a connection instead of just posing for the camera.
 
 
Mood: loved
 
 
pinkleader
19 December 2007 @ 10:52 pm
party weekend  

Long delayed update from the weekend. 

The weekend actually started on Thursday night with a Lost Cause gathering at our place. It was good to see everyone (but Kynny who stayed home with Zach) and just enjoy each others company while eating chinese delivery. It also made me try to get the house clean a bit early so the cleaning needed for the next party was minimal. I got to chill with Speedwagon and Susan some, putting kid-friendly magnets within reach on the lower half of the fridge, and making funny faces with him.

We hosted a work party at our place on Friday afternoon. Was nice to hang out in a laid back social environment with my co-workers. Lots of great food was left at our place, in addition to some open bottles of wine. I had hoped to go out dancing with friends, but after clean-up and a couple of glasses of wine, I decided to just finish the bottle and snuggle with my husband on the couch while watching TLC. Oh, I also did some DUI (wine and chocolate) posting to the Peli-list, but I was neither the starter nor the finisher of the drama that was embroiled this weekend. Luckily it calmed down on Monday, which was a good thing.

Saturday was sleeping in, cleaning a bit, Christmas cards fiddling, napping, making chocolate chip cookies [Update: the making of cookies was last weekend. Am brain ded.], and then off to a gathering at the Weese's place to visit with Marcus. God we miss him. Mark, on a quick visit home from his tour in Iraq, has a unique perspective on the world given his Army, Mannassas SWAT, and now Iraq experience. It was interesting to hear first hand accounts of the world over there, the steps they've taken to try to avoid IEDs, his exploding truck that did hit an IED that he and a buddy walked away from, hanging with the Ugandans, learning Swahili (recommends Rosetta Stone), the consequences of the surge, etc. He's very brave to place himself in that situation and I can't help but admire him. Luckily when he does get back (soonish?) he'll have theoretically a year before he can be deployed again. We had a great time and only left when everyone was beginning to subside and fall asleep. Mark's only stateside for less than a week before he goes back to the sandbox for some more weeks. May he be kept safe and sound.

Sunday was another relaxing sleeping in, a quick visit from Jimmy as he stole Alan for an armourer visit, a Target run and some wrapping of presents and such. All in all a good weekend, relaxing and spent with friends. I wouldn't mind a smidge of snow, but only two more workdays until I get a week and a half off for the holidays. Wonder what we/I'll do?

 
 
Mood: mellow
 
 
pinkleader
09 November 2007 @ 03:55 pm
3 Entertainments and a Wedding...  
 Woke up this morning with a pain in my neck. No, not Alan. (He's cute and snuggly and warm.) An actual pain in my neck on the left-hand side. The Thermacare neck wrap has helped some, but after a while the heat makes me itch, so I had to take it off. Have to see the chiro tonight, and I scheduled a massage for tomorrow afternoon. I've been feeling the tension building in my neck and jaw for a while now, so a visit with the craniosacral massage therapist is definitely in order. 

Sadly, Alan and I aren't headed down to VA for the farmhouse final demolition. I'd like to, but tales of the mold from last time make me hesitant. Besides I've got projects I need to work on at home and bang out before too much time escapes from me. Hawaii is coming quickly. Must have the pain in the neck gone by then, among other prep things.

So, Wednesday night we went with the intrepid Morgensterns to see the Taming of the Shrew with the Shakespeare Theater downtown. It was wonderful; excellent cast, the lighting and sound cues were brilliant, I loved the costumes, and the stage, and it totally made up for the terrible Hamlet we walked out on. The entire theater was rolling in the aisles we were laughing so hard. The pink argyle dress and the revolving door torture about did me in. It was not traditional, but very very well done, and apparently the dates have been extended another week to 11/25. I highly recommend this play to those who love wit, camp and the theater. Trust me on this one.

The photographer has posted pictures from Mike and Cosette's wedding. While they missed the best shot ever, they caught quite a few choice ones. This is one of my favorite shots they took at the ceremony. Visit the link and say it with me folks, awww.... 

But before we got to the reception of great cake, we drove down to Richmond early to meet up with the Nia, who it seems like I haven't seen in a coon's age, but in reality I think it has only been a year. It was fabulous to get quality Nia time, fun Nia stories of libraries, and evil librarians, and scorpions, and wikipedia, and stupid questions. We had an great time with a late lunch at a local Ruby Tuesday that lasted for hours in the full of fun conversation kind of way. The we retired back to her place for more chatting before we had to be whisked away to the hotel to check in and change. 

We made it to the party just in time, saw the bride walking in and she told us where to park. She looked stunning. He looked dashing and handsome and almost worthy of her. Together they were cute and pie, er.. cake, and both had the wonderful look of love like they're sharing the same inside joke. We partook of the yummy nibbles, chatted with many old and new friends, and then Vic had to mention that photographing weddings was so boring since all folks do is sit around and talk. So I got up and did an interpretive dance (very poorly), and staged other fun scenes like the attack on poor [info]puck_eater , and in general tried to liven things up. We (Aedan suggested it and I did the work) also convinced [info]ccunning  that as the principal of the White Scarves it was his job to herd them all for the classic Provost wedding shot. Not to be out done, [info]halowenslut  called for the Provost spouses for a picture, which I'm sure was also amusing to the audience. We ate the yummy cakes after the groom made a toast to his bride, and then they didn't smear cake on each other's face. It's nice to be occasionally dignified. We also got the chance to look at some of the cool miniature pieces of art on display. Some were truly impressive, and some were less than so. All were entertaining in one fashion or another, from Member #2 to the Love Bugs. As the party wound down, we all said our farewells and made our separate ways to various lodgings. We went back to our hotel, bemoaning the fact that we didn't pack swimsuits for the pool, and then crashed in bed.

Sunday we made our way to visit the Moore's after a breakfast stop by Waffle House first. I got to indulge in a waffle, country ham, and some grits, which are by no means healthy, but they were darn tasty. [info]theodorad  indulged in the jukebox, thankfully asking me to pick a few, so we ranged from Alan Jackson's cover of 5 O'clock Somewhere and Walmart Parking Lot to Sunday Morning and Get This Party Started. Finally we got to meet sweet Grace Moore, in all her cute cuddly freshly bathed pink wonderfulness. I still say she liked me best, but I was wearing pink to test the like attracts like theory. But in addition to cute baby snuggling, we had the awesome chance to catch up with [info]bdeb  and [info]laruse  and just sit and chat for another few hours. It was a weekend full of stress-free socializing with friends, and that is always time well spent.

And that, folks, catches you up on the last week in my world.
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Mood: sore
 
 
pinkleader
06 June 2007 @ 03:44 pm
University weekend  
Do I get to clock in as the latest update from this weekend? 
University was. Well, it just was. The weekend as a whole was wonderful, and that's what really counts.

We started Saturday morning much earlier than I prefer, getting on-site with the Registrar and [info]attack_laurel by 8am to locked doors. When the doors got unlocked, they scurried in to set-up the reg table, as I stayed outside and help set up a classroom tent with the hungover Aradd, the broken William the Younger, and various cast and crew of folks. First, a 5lb sledge is much better than a 3lb, and the normal claw hammer just gave me a headache. Second, in my world, oval tents are from the devil. I know, they are are period and pretty and meet with the proper aesthetic, but getting the oval right for an OCD like me is hell. I had to content myself with standing and stable and just walk away. I spent the rest of the day working at the Uof A registration tables, when not running errands or messages back and forth, or just socializing. I missed the Pearl Meeting since it was at 10am, and the reg tables don't really calm down until 10:30am.  

Oh yeah, it was hot, but I think others have mentioned that. ;)

Court was lovely with two deserving ladies receiving their Pearls. Hooray! I envy the amazing hat powers of [info]lady_guenievreand was so happy for her. (BTW G, I meant to weave you a new cord for the medallion, but forgot/didn't get around to it. If you want a fingerloop braided cord, just let me know color preferences and I'll see what I can do. I'd guess blue.) After court, I took orders for lunch from UofA staff members for Marathon Deli, best local gyros ever! Mmm.. yummy gyros. Hadn't had one in what seems like forever. Then I whittled away the afternoon working at the reg table, chatting with friends, sewing a very little bit, searching my brain for etched glass examples for one lady, and chatting with [info]laruseabout Roman garb and Pennsic in a small effort to both enjoy her company and distract her from the nerves of teaching a new class. :) Finally UofA drew to a close, we picked up the trash in the registration area, collected the last of the rosters, and eventually headed home to a party. 

I had had the wonderful idea of having a post-UofA cookout at our place afterward, but in the ultimate in laziness, I only got around to sending out an invite late on Thursday night to the V'Ermine list only. Sorry if anyone wanted to come and didn't feel invited. It was not intentional, just an attack of the stupid. My bad. But we had wonderful friends show up, an Evja sighting, Corby on the grill, lots of food, and a good time was had by all. We even had a [info]lisettelarouxsighting wherein she regaled us with tales of Furry-bowling, since she got to tag along with Kynny on his photo session. All in all, it was renewing to be surrounded by friends, and we didn't crash until around 2am. We even had an impromptu guest of [info]gabrellon the couch.

Sunday dawned very early, as I just missed the early departure of the Brigit, and turned into a bit of a brunch scramble as Corby's ride was incoming, and I had so much food I figured we should feed him, them and ourselves. So we had broiled steaks and pancakes with blackberry sauce on them for breakfast before sending the Charlottesville bound crew on their way. We also indulged in wonderful conversations all day from customer service at the herald's consult tables, to alternate names, model railroad enthusiasts, service to the crown and in general at events, and courtesy, and all sorts of stuff. It was wonderful, clean-up was minimal and accomplished and the we hung out chatting more until around 2 in the afternoon, when [info]theblueleaderhad to run some errands and Gabe got on the road. I succumbed to a nap after watching too much bad tv.

We finished our weekend with a Sunday dinner at [info]theodorad's and [info]rolanddem's with yummy roast, mountains of mashed potatoes, salad, and the best mango-peach crisp ever. Okay, I've only tried the one mango-peach crisp (think apple crisp, but more exotic) but I'm pretty sure it was the best. We also got to meet the precious new kitten, Hobbes, who I could not resist playing with. He's so soft and playful and cute, and I just wanna snuggle him. But then the minor sneezing and sniffling started and I washed my hands and Alan was asleep in a comfy chair, so it was time to go home. But I do have pictures of the new kitten on the fridge with all the other baby pictures I neglect to purge. 

And so ends another fun and friend filled weekend. It naturally gets extended with Kirsten as a house guest until tonight as she works on projects up here. Hooray!
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Mood: amused
 
 
pinkleader
04 April 2007 @ 09:43 am
Pictures plus a meme  
Pictures of Bob's party are now up on my Flickr site. Click the MRI for the link... 
bobparty07 026 

And since my head is a-pounding, I'm gonna take the lovely meme cop out thanks to </a></b></a>[info]sunniva_kyrre:

A meme for SCAdians.

1. What/when was your first event?
My first event was Ice Castles 1995, three days after my first meeting. I wore terrible loaner garb with my combat boots. Sorcha cooked the feast, and I helped serve feast that night as a way to get free food.

2. What was your first war?
Pennsic 25, Summer of 1996. Bera and I camped with the group formerly known as Gaping Maw. Great folks, wonderful support, had a lovely time, even with a leaky tent, lots of rain and puddle jumping.

3. What is your favorite part of an event/war?
It really depends. I love learning something new, so anything, be it a class, demo or simple explanation, where I can try or learn really makes my day. But if it wasn't for the friends seen it wouldn't be half so fun.

4. What A&S skill/talent do you have or wish you had?
Have? You be the judge.
Wish I Had? I wish I could play an instrument and draw. My Mom just took up guitar lessons and is even taking her small practice guitar on the month-long sail to the Bahamas with her. (damn her!) As to drawing, I can copy an image fairly well, but drawing from the picture in my mind doesn't work at all. I'm just not that great at visualizing, which I guess I can't complain about too much since it has saved me in the past.

5. Why did you choose the elements of your Coat of Arms/device?
I like Fleur de Lys, I like red roses. No great symbolism. Once I saw Jaelle's proposed field division for Alan, I was sold. Beside, pink may be period, but it isn't a heraldic color. :(

6. Favorite SCA song?
I haven't heard it in a while, but I liked Vivat the Dream from Trimaris. I still like Isobel's Agincort lots too.

7. Favorite garb?
wow. That's like choosing a favorite child. My latest outfit the Elizabethan wool is choice, but I also adore the comfort and colors of my pink and maroon viking outfit, but nothing makes me feel sexier than my italian.

8. Best advice received/given? 
Serve with Joy. I try to apply this to everything you do, do with joy.  Fight with joy, create with joy. If you don't love what you do, it will show.

9. What is one thing you would like to change about the SCA?
Honestly? Must be present to win. If you aren't active in the SCA, get off and don't participate on the SCA lists. Sometimes it is nice to hear from someone we haven't seen in ages, but often it is the bitter-inactive who are great pot-stirrers on-line. (I don't understand how someone could cut themselves off from the fun of the SCA and stay on the lists. The lists are the first thing that go when I feel a little burnout.) Then again, email is both a blessing and a burden to SCA communication. Remember that there is a human person behind each note you write. 

10. Why do you do this hobby?
I loved Kim's response to this. Mine breaks down to 75% the friends and people, 20% the history, recreation of the material culture, and experience, and  5% pure madness.
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Mood: blah
 
 
pinkleader
03 April 2007 @ 02:19 pm
Halloween in March...  
Our house is clean. So very very clean. Especially if you don't look in the sewing room. What a wonderful feeling. I'm not kidding when I say that I love hosting because then our house gets nice and clean at least once a year. Okay, the bathrooms could use a little work, but eh.

The party was wonderful. The cake was biohazardly delicious! The jelly beans were abundant and tasty, especially the sedatives and anti-depressants. The gift boxes were hella clever. (I even took an empty labeled pill bottle, filled it with junior mints, gave it to one of my chocoholic and mildly twisted faculty members, and apparently made his day.) The food was yummy and the perfect amount. The costumes were a scream, even if not enough skimpy nurses for Bob. I don't think anyone got make-up or fake blood on the walls or furniture (and there was lots of make-up and fake blood), but I'll have to double check. Speedwagon made an appearance and got passed around the zombie masses, as well as adorned with an eyeliner lobotomy scar. Our recycling bin is full to the brim of salsa jars, lambic, beer and mike's bottles, as well as soda cans, which is always a good sign of attendance if nothing else. We even had a Blackbear/Jeremy sighting and got to meet his new girl. And I even got a pre-party nap on the couch, as well as a post-party clean-up nap on Sunday afternoon. I took a few pics of the party and need to get them off my camera and onto my Flickr. Of course Corby borrowed my camera for part of the evening, so who knows what's on there.

I've also finished my outfit for Coronation, but looking at the weather, maybe I do want a palla and undertunic to fight back the cold. Damn me for not ordering wool. It's April she thinks. It'll be plenty warm, she says..  Stupid she. (BTW She=Me) Wait, I wonder if I have just the right amount of that sale smoke colored wool from BBlack&Sons? We'll see. I've also got to finish Alan's Tunica Atlantia, as well as tunicas for Freddy and Alyce started and finished. sigh. But I really want to go shopping. Perhaps next week.

Last minute things to wrangle and print, lots to sew and pack and prep. But Coronation will be tons of fun, that much is assured, even if we are huddled in our fine Roman for warmth.

And then next weekend is Night on the Town. Anyone wanna come sit with me in the morning at the MOL table?
And then is a Bandes workshop at our house that I need to promote. And then is the Costume Symposium, and then Crown and then the 400th, and then I can breathe.

And Kynny told me to find time on our calendar for sailing? When exactly is that? May 19th or June 16th look good. sigh.
 
 
Mood: drained
Sounds: Furry Happy Monsters- REM, thanks to Drea