So that last post was just an effort to make the non-Pennsic-goers feel better.
Honestly it was a fabulous time, especially when I took on the ideal that I only HAD to accomplish one thing per day! Thanks inadvertently to Hyrim.

But the Awesome Squee-Worthy part is always my friends and what they do with down time.



I hadn't gotten around to making my own war Standard, but Theo and Gabrell were so kind as to make me a little pennon to hang under Alan's War Standard and it was flying when I woke up on Saturday morning. Squueee!!!
Best little Pennon Elves ever!

And Gabrell learned to hem...

And the white part is hemmed in pink thread!

yay!

This one is for isenglass , Oddny, stringmonkey  and the others who missed Pennsic this year and wish they hadn't...

Pennsic: The Horror, the horror edition.

( mudd )

( HFNCs )

( FrankenTent )

( a$$holes to elbows )

( hard work )

Aren't you glad you missed that?
 

We are home.
The trucks and trailer are unpacked.
Most of the stuff has been put away, including the feast gear, the new pottery and glass purchases, and some shelves dusted.
Laundry is complete, even the pre-washing of the new fabric purchases. (yes, I bought more pink linen.)
The common tent repairs held all of war, though I did pick up some canvas for patching the ridge if I feel the need.
The new trailer is made of win, and allowed me to see out of my back window on the trip home.
The trip home took only 4.5 hours, which is also win-worthy.
The Ladybug has been retrieved from boarding, and smelling all clean due to her bath, and has been a maniac around the house checking all the backyard smells to make sure nothing new moved in. Alas one week without the dog meant that bunnies and groundhogs moved into the backyard giving Ladybug new things to chase/sniff/attack. She isn't being a barnacle dog, but was slyly trying to keep me in her line of sight the last two days.
Taking Monday off to relax from my vacation was completely worth it, even if I slept most of it.

Thjora, Theodora and Elspet working on repairing the common tent on Sunday. Such wonderful women!

Saturday of Land Grab brought some trying weather.

In one of the big gusts, as everyone was tending elsewhere in camp, the roof of our Common Tent suffered some serious damage in the form of large rips in the canvas. We had one large long rip from the dagges up to the ridge. There were two more additional tears on either sides of the ridge seams, and some smaller rips on the opposite end near one of the perimeter poles, and another smaller rip up by the ridge further down from the main damage. The poles, ropes, and other gear that were under the tent are fine, and no one was harmed at all, but we did have to drop the tent in a hurry in the middle of a downpour. It sat in a wet ball overnight as we pondered our options. We managed to set-up the barracks as a temporary common tent for breakfast, and pulled the roof out on Sunday to dry in the sun. I spent some time harassing and haunting Reynard for repair materials and instructions, which he gave willingly despite his own camp distractions. We sat down in Theo's front room to sew the rips as Reynard directed Sunday afternoon, and apparently the patching was complete that evening. The word I heard last night from camp is that our faithful common tent is up, doing fine, and Reynard approved of our repairs.

I cannot thank Thjora, Theodora, and Elspet enough for taking on the massive repair job of stitching the tent roof back together yesterday. Thank you also Reynard for your time, instruction, waxed linen thread, and checking up on us as we stitched.
More pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthies/sets/72157621735905697/

I was in shock when I saw the initial rips, almost in tears when we brought it down and really assessed the damage, and am still feeling over-protective of our dear tent. Anyone who has seen me fold canvas, must have some idea of my OCDness with regards to canvas, and how I must have felt at seeing our tent in a sad wet ripped up pile on Saturday. We purchased this tent in Feb 2004 second hand from Arielle. She had owned and used the tent for 6 years prior to our taking over ownership, which is why the dagges are edged in red, though fittingly faded to pink by now on the outside. We've now used it at 5 Pennsics, several Sapphire Jousts, and countless other events when a big group will gather under the Vair and Ermine shade. So I guess the tent is 11-12 years old. It has sheltered us during many parties, vigils, tears and giggles.

I'll never forget after we brought it home, we scheduled a weekend to scrub and rinse the tiki torch smoke off the roof, paint the perimeter poles to seal them and make them kinder to handle, and devise a new ridge pole/main upright system of support. Alan remade the ridge pole, and octagonalized the 4x4" uprights to take a little weight off of them. We settled on gold for the pole paint since it worked well with red and wasn't a color already employed in our camp. (Color coordinated poles in camp, really helps with the big trailer unload on Land Grab day.) We also ordered nice stakes from Panther since Gen abhores the rebar stakes. There were also two small tears near the ridge, that we were warned of, that I patched up after the initial cleaning and continue to hold fast. We set it up at the next Night on the Town, and when I saw Arielle there with Valharic, I asked her what she thought of her old tent. She gasped in awe as she didn't recognize it at first, and then jokingly asked to have it back. I can still see her face from that moment.

Dear Common Tent,

We apologize profusely for taking you for granted this Land Grab and not securing you as we should have when we knew that storm was coming. Thank you for being so faithful these past years. Thank you also for not crashing down and staying up through your trauma so as to not harm any of our campers nor the gear we had carelessly piled under you. Please continue in your duties and we'll promise to take better care of you from here on out.

Love,
Me

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: You think she'll hold together?
Zoë: She's torn up plenty, but she'll fly true.

Again with the too lazy for a real post...

Poll #1430329 Pennsic 38
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

Ur Pennsic plans, I can has them?

If ur going, whare r u staying?

What's ur favorite part?

Do you plan to attend the Rapier Free Scholar Charity Tournament on Tuesday (8/4) at noon?

What about the Atlantian 5-Man Rapier Melee Tournament?

Who do you think will win?

An obvious sign of being in need of a massage is missing your massage appointment because you are too busy at work to spit.
Yep.
Third day in a row staying a bit late at work. Third day in a row of firefighting all morning and trying to recover and get ahead of the curve in the afternoon. It's nice that our faculty are working harder to get a jump start on the semester, but this week I'd love to get a breather.
I had to call the salon after 5 and apologize profusely for my insanity and reschedule for later.

I meant to go to practice and be social last night, but holed up in the basement with Mists of Avalon instead. Just too rung out to leave the house once finally home.

Alan's birthday was on Monday, but we celebrated on Saturday instead. I treated him to brunch of cheesy eggs and sausages, a massage with Wendy OTMH (see, massage was even still fresh on my brain!), lunch at the Victoria Gastro Pub, and then we did dinner out with the Morgensterns at Ray's the Classics in downtown Silver Spring. The food was all delicious, especially the milk chocolate mousse for dessert which had a distinct original Pennsic Chocolate Milk flavor to it, which was awesome.

Sunday we finally got around to unloading the trailer and rinsing off the tarps from war. Then Tara came over and we worked on a Viking coat/caftan for her for Coronation. We got the coat cut and sewn out of her navy blue wool in under two hours. Then I spent another two hours (or so it felt) trying to make the trimming work until Tara called it a day and said we'd meet with fresh eyes Monday night. While it took longer than I had hoped, we did finish the machine sewing of the trim/lining on Monday in 3 hours and it looks pretty cool so far, I think.  She still needs to do the hand sewing and the cuffs, but the challenge of the neckline is done at least. (It was killing me that it took me so long to grok it!)

I still haven't solidified plans for this weekend, but it will roughly involve driving the trailer to Two Dog Hill on Friday night, after depositing the trailer, driving to Danville for a memorial service for a family friend on Saturday, hanging with the family and heading back home on Sunday. It will be lovely to see family, but the even minimal planning is killing my brain at the moment.

And I think I'm still suffering from this bug that seems to want to plague me forever. Makes me want to shave my head to get cool, excpet that I spent good money on a hair stick recently.

At least the Project Runway Drag Queen challege was totally made of awesome.

So, one of my less than fond memories from Pennsic is the stranger who said "I see you are now working on your next project..." pointing to my abdomen.
Stunned and confused for a second, I was left to reply only with "I'm not pregnant, I'm just fat."

First of all, I was wearing an Italian gamurra with an apron on. Pic. Hello, high-waisted style with pleated skirt.
Second of all, who says that?!?!  To a stranger?@!? Unless the lady has announced that she is pregnant or you see the baby crowning, never congratulate a fat chick on being pregnant. sigh.

So, did you get insulted out of the blue at the war and wanna share? (This is a category I sincerely hope I am alone in, except the human race is, well, the human race.) You seriously have my sympathy.

I mean, aside from the Royalty who allied with the East at Opening Ceremonies...

Save the pink fabric I bought at war, the last load of laundry is done, and needs putting away. Some progress is better than none.



This was an excellent war, even if low-key for me. My first few days were relaxed, and spent mostly in camp trying to shake off the rest of the sickness. I spent a lot of time in camp fingerloop braiding pink strings to hand out to those fighters in the Free Scholar Charity tournament who donated above the minimum. I made 41 cords, and gave the extras to kids in camp, and such. I was glad to see folks wearing them the rest of the war. At last count $645 was raised for the Susan G Komen Foundation, which was very gratifying.

I spent more than a little time on the field MOLing. The Charity Tourney hosted 28 fighters and raised quite a sum. Giacomo was the runner up, and Wistric was the winner overall. The Youth Rapier Tournament had 7 participants, 4 over the age of 15, and 3 below. 31 teams, a total of 154 fighters, participated in the Atlantian 5 Man Melee Tournament on Wednesday morning, with Team Caer Mear victorious upon the field. And finally I assisted with the Atlantia-Aethelmearc Youth Rattan Tourney, running the Division 3 field. There were 9 teams of 5 fighters, so 45 fighters total between the ages of 14-17. Alas I screwed up the pairings at some point, didn't get the memo about the time constraint, and well, it wasn't my best day. The kids seemed to have a good time for the most part, which is ultimately the most important, and Scatamoosh was the undefeated winner overall.

Some of my time was spent working on the embroidery for Catherine Grace's laurel shawl, and planning for her vigil and elevation. I think I could have done better on the embroidery, except that much of it was done by pumpkin-light, and the wool, while gorgeous, was very unlike the evenweave linen I had previously done those stitches on. We were very glad to be part of making her vigil and elevation special and memorable for a very deserving lady.

I finally got to do shopping on the last day and picked up a new hairstick, a book on the collections in the Isabella Stewart Gardner musuem, some silk embroidery floss, lots of pink linen in three different shades, and some coral and glass beads to make a little paternoster.

It a was fun, hectic, inspiring, and entertaining week.

For nq3x and all those patiently waiting...

From the attack_laurel party:

Home safe and sound last night, even mostly unpacked the trucks before taking a shower and crashing in bed for twelve hours. Now attacking the piles of laundry and putting stuff away.

Pictures!
All in the Pennsic Set

Just the Attack Laurel party

Some items from the A&S display in the barn on Tuesday

Catherine Grace's vigil and elevation

EDIT: Links iz fixed...

Had hoped to head back to war tonight. Am sick instead. I napped for 3 hours after work and am not far from bed at the moment. Feverish, cough, sniffles, etc.  I hope to get on the road back to Pennsic tomorrow morning, but still need to pack garb, accessories, coolers, etc. At least I only need to attach the buttons to the new pink Roman tunica for Monday wear. It makes me smile.

One good thing about not being at war this week is the ability to watch Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. chomp.

Hope to see folks at the War, and online when I return.

My July calendar image from Despair.com was Pressure.


My August calendar image is Tradition.


Given Pennsic prep, land grab, and Pennsic...

Poll #1232801 Calendar
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24

Which calendar image is the most appropriate?

Taking a quick break from work.

-Alan's war standard has finally achieved hemmed status as of last night. I had started out attempting to hand sew it, but I took out those stitches and just did it on the machine since a) some others were machine sewn b) you won't be able to tell at 28 feet, and c) it's the screwed up one anyway, so I'll contemplate hand sewing the second one. It is ironed, hemmed, ties sewn on, and folded and ready to go back to war.

-I went through my fabric stash to see what I had that would make a good pink Roman outfit. Sadly I don't have the perfect shade of pink, but I found some cotton/linen blend fabric that should do and is pink, if not PINK!

-I did a little bit more fingerloop braiding last night while watching MASH on TV Land.

-I've got a killer headache and desperately want a nap, but this afternoon is hands on with Wimba for the faculty attending the Summer Institute, so must take more IBU, put on the happy face and go back to work.

-Have to run by the chiropractor, Michael's, grocery store, and perhaps contemplate packing garb and accessories tonight. I'm thinking more and more that I want to head back Thursday night.

Made it to Land Grab and home again. On the whole it seemed to be smoother this year, and I even got time for a nap once all the tents were in the air and folks set to unpacking their personal stuff. We even got to dinner sooner than normal and weathered the storms just fine. This morning the common tent was set-up, decorated, and some final details settled like staking down the barracks walls, putting up the sheet walls, painting on the ground for the remaining tents, and visiting with friends. The weather ( Saturday night rain storm aside) is lovely, 70's to low 80's. In fact it was 82 degrees this afternoon when we left to come back home. I was kicking the ground like a sulky child to have to leave such a fine set-up to come back home and work for four more days. Only not having any garb with me made me finally crawl in the truck to come back home. I did at least get a shower before coming home to approve the plumbing. :)

Pictures of Vair and Ermine from this weekend:



Oh, and pictures of our fourth lotus bloom:

- Home sick today, barely got out of bed, made it to work for an hour to retrieve my laptop and help some folks, Dr. appt, pharmacy for drugs, soon heading back to bed. Plz be gone tomorrow, haz packing and land grabbing to do.

-Theoretically packing the trailer tonight. Must dig common stuff out of basement prior to heading over to puzzle the trailer out.

-Banner pole did not survive storm in our area last night. Fell over in the wind/rain, but is unharmed. Short stakes and newly rain-swollen ropes to blame. To be fair, it was quite a storm, though no loss of power. Alan and I probably could have set-it back up last night, but we weren't communicating well (I blame my addled brain) so dropped it safely (ie: off the fence, not into the house, flat on the ground) and went to bed.

-Not much progress on hemming the standard yet. :( Did laundry and a bit of pink fingerloop braiding instead last night, after nap.

-Unprecedented fourth lotus bud blooming today. Is very pretty. Smells lovely, if you stick your nose right in it. teh pink makes me happiez.

The Questions:
1) What is one of your favorite things to do alone at Pennsic?
Nap. Assuming it is not too hot, and sometimes when it is, I like to sleep in late or catch an afternoon nap. Pennsic is so busy that a precious nap is nice every now and then.

2) What is one of your favorite things to do with a group at Pennsic?
Breakfast in the common tent. No matter what time you rise, there is usually a small group of folks there, some are beyond breakfast and working on projects, some are just hanging out, but it is a friendly informal time in camp to watch the people walking by on Battle Rd. If you hear giggling coming from our common tent, I assure you, it's not aimed at you. :)

3) What is one of your best Pennsic Memories?
One of the times Alan and I were both able to go for two weeks we took a nice stroll around the lake close to dusk. It was light enough to see things, but dusky enough to have a bit of magic before nighttime mayhem set in, and romantic to be hand in hand with my sweetie.

4) What is one of your weirdest Pennsic Memories?
At one of Seonaid's Long Island Ice Tea parties, Countess Brigit was painting faces of anyone who would sit still, so I got something blue and sparkly painted on my face fairly early on. After some hanging with Theo and folks, Brighid (Big Hats) wanted to go into the bog, so I went with her and we had a grand time traipsing about visiting the Kinder Fodder camp, etc. (I remember hushing her when she started to use my title...) I finally walked her extremely inebriated self to her camp and made sure she was okay, and then I hiked my way out of the bog alone that night, swinging back by the Tea Party to see if anyone was still up and then home to crawl into bed. (Do not recommend this anymore, the alone out of the bog part.) I woke up the next morning, stumbled to the portajohns and puck_eater said something about having toothpaste on my face. I wanted to hit him, might have, and went to wash my face and continue on with the rest of the war.

5) What was your first Pennsic?
Pennsic 25 was my first War. I've been disappointed in the following medallions ever since.

6) How many/which Pennsics have you attended?
12 Pennsics so far- 25 (first), 26 (Bera's reign), 27 (the dreaded NATO encampment), 28 (Niobe's reign, Alan seneschal), 29 (joined Vair and Ermine), 30 (Princess Aryanna), 31 (Pelican Princess Padraigin), 32 (Cursed Trailer), 33 (the original Bunk Haus), 34 (Roman wear, Dred's vigil), 35 (last minute camp mom), and 36 (Arielle's reign).

7) What keeps you going back to Pennsic?
Friends, shopping, experiences. I keep saying that I'll take a year off, but haven't yet. Sometimes it is obligation to go and work the various areas I promised, which do always end up being fun and giving me excellent stories, and learning experiences. I like our camp, the people we surround ourselves with, the way we run things, the many opportunities to relax, serve and grow, all rolled into one (or two) intense weeks.

8) Are you going to Pennsic this year?
Totally, I'm Vair and Ermine's camp mom this year.

9) What group/block do you usually camp in?
Since Pennsic 29, we've been with Vair and Ermine in N18.

10) What three words would you use to describe Pennsic?
Theater, not drama.

Corby's pictures from the weekend pretty well illustrate why my back is still killing me today. (I have some photos of my own I need to get off the camera and onto Flickr.) What he didn't capture was the standing up and leaning over the 4x12' frame to paint the bits in the middle. My back is actually sore to the touch, so much so that lumbar support comes as a surprise, and I wore a simple dress today to avoid having a waistline on pants to touch my lower back. Roland was nice enough to give me a back rub, which helped loosen the muscles, but the nerves are still shot. The next day Alan tried to rub my back and only got winces from me, sadly.

But as a group we accomplished frames designed and assembled for stretching the silk on, designs and tracings of elements, four frames with silk stretched on them for standards, seven mast-like poles for flying the completed standards in camp at Pennsic, the best method for laying out the design for drawing on the resist lines and how to visually lay them out, preferred methods and the cost of using hairspray on the grand scale for a stop-flow, the joy (and pain) of skipping the stop-flow step, and two hours of ironing only to still suffer some major color loss in the rinse stage. Alan's was the first standard worked on and taught us a bunch. I'll have to re-stretch it on the frame this week and see if I can re-do the worst of the color loss. But even with the fading, we could see great potential. I have a design I adore for my own standard, but doubt I'll get to it before Pennsic and hope to have one for me next year.

We also had a great time with friends. Corby proved master of the kitchen and fed us well. We got to spend some time with Tom, Heather, Icepick and Adam on Friday, as well as Dave and Kymber on Saturday and Sunday. Elspet and Brian came down to be part of the learning and design process, even if they didn't get to make standards for themselves. But they worked like house elves for the time they were here and their efforts are greatly appreciated. Blue and Green leaders were the main thrust behind this project that started with an idea out of Corby's brain at the end of war last year. I merely helped when and where I could.

It will be a glorious site in the Vair and Ermine encampment this year, and my back should heal soon. I hope.

So, we've had some extremely cute furry little visitors to the backyard of late. 

Last night when I went to add more water to the pond, I startled the heck out of a little bunny chilling underneath one of our adirondack chairs. I thought she was gone for good, but once the task was complete, I peeked out back (usually bird watching) and saw her back on the patio. So, I grabbed the camera and caught a few shots through the various rear windows as she hopped and nibbled about. Please, eat our dandelions!



and then this morning, I wander into the dining room as the water boils for my tea and oatmeal,  and I find this guy galumphing about on our side yard. I snapped a few pics, none good, before he took off running back up the hill. As I'm getting dressed upstairs I glance out the window and see he's returned to the yard, so I dash downstairs to take a few more pictures of him in the backyard before he takes off again. He's really fast when he wants to be. 



We've seen all sorts of squirrels (even the occasional black one), chipmunks, and bunnies before, but never have I spotted a groundhog. He was awesome, and is welcome to come back and visit, as long as he digs holes only at the top of the hill where we don't have to mow. I do adore the little wildlife sanctuary that our backyard becomes from time to time. Well, except the heron. We need a bouncer groundhog at a velvet rope to keep the heron out (except that groundhogs are usually hibernating when the heron visits, but allow me my little hallucination this once, okay?!)

I have mostly packed the few items I'm taking back to Pennsic when I leave tonight. I even got HP7 on CD at Costco for $5 less than Amazon, so it is preloaded in the truck and ready for my drive. I just need to feed the fish and water the plants before I take off. Thanks bunches to the attack_laurelfor checking in on the house and fish while we are gone. I hope the groundhog comes back sometime when you are here.

Back in a week or so...

I am bad. 
I've done no sewing for Pennsic. Nothing new for me or Alan at all, despite my change in size. Eh, the big stuff still fits, just big. And I am going for less time than last year, so I'm sure it'll be fine. But I had hoped to make an outfit appropriate for helping out at the Crusader/Saracen battle. Of course, now the schedule is such that I'll be lucky if I can even see any of it. And still, it is always nice to have new stuff. Ah well. 

This week I've also been a total slug. I've fed the fish. I've watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the basement. I've re-read the last chapters of Book 7, again. I had a lovely dinner last night with folks and then went shoe shopping. I had two coupons for DSW, one that expires during war week, so I used them. Hooray for the sale section! I got three great new pairs of shoes all for under $60. A pair of black patent low wedges, some gold tinted fabric flats, and the best pink metallic flats from Kenneth Cole all came home with me. Tonight has been laundry and tv. Not even the hand sewing in front of the tv I had hoped to do.  sigh.

I guess I could start packing the rest of my clothes. Most of our stuff and a box of my garb is already at the war. Maybe, depsite all those who are desperate and unable to attend, I'm having a hard time mustering the enthusiasm for Pennsic. Even my retail therapy, despite the enjoyable experience, didn't make me jazzed for war. Perhaps it's because Pennsic is no good place to wear the new pink flats. I'm sure it'll be great once I get there. 

At least I hit my weight loss goal before land grab and seem to holding steady so far. :)