One of these days I will learn that if I'm gone for a four day weekend, I just can't catch up on everyone of my friends' blogs. sigh. 

Twelfth Night was quite a bit of fun. Fun friends, excellent outfits, lovely surprises in court, and tasty foods. Hard to argue with.
Along the tradition of Bests and Worsts...

Worsts:

-traffic, rain and getting on the road late
-bringing the tinker toy tent and it not being necessary
-roof rack installment madness (parts dept at dealer not winning me over, although I guess I shouldn't have waited until last minute to try it...)
-with the warm temperatures, the heat was a bit much occasionally
-not enough fruits and veggies to snack on during the day
-not being able to hear everything during the courts
-not inspiring shopping- but I might not have been in the mood

Bests:

-The awards! Roland's surprise, Kisaiya's vigil, Christian's double whammy and the prize fighting at Twelfth Night was apparently appreciated by the fencers, Val's Laurel, and Gracie's Pearl were awesome and fitting post feast announcements.

-The Food! The feast was beyond delicious, every single course was tasty and went away at our table. Seriously, if you got up and left the table when another course came out, you might as well as resigned your claim to that course, especially the desserts. Lots of other yummy snacks during the day rocked it too. I don't think I overdid it on the consumption either.

-The garb! So many folks looked very nice and really did it up for the day. Isobel always looks smashing, and so did many others, from Drea's 14th cent sideless with wimple and braids, to Gaston and Kisaiya's Turkish, to Thjora in the faboo squirrels, to Katerina in the German and Catherine in her gold Italian. Yummy. Really too many to mention.

-Not looking too shabby myself. The frustration of Thursday turned into inspiration on Friday morning. I cobbled together my Nobelese Oblige velvet bodies, my new doublet, my new wool skirt (which needs addition of more eyelets to lace it smaller) and a few pins to try pinning back the rolled edges of the doublet, and I think it turned out fairly cool. I'll have to get the pics off my camera.

-Excellent friends! Got to hang some with my Bera, and those crazy Sacred Stone ladies, fun folks around Isobel's booth, seeing the smashing Melisent, hanging out with folks at the fencing outside, fun with Moe and Kitty and the two gentlemen from Verona, as well as Corby, Thjora, Alan, Robert and Isobel at our fun feast table.

-New black pearl bracelet purchased from Isobel, which actually fits my big boned wrist. New fundraiser cast goodness from Kyna. Lovely thoughtful Twelfth Night presents from friends that made my basket overflow with joy.

-Making on Theo's embroidery machine and having Alan present a new white scarf for Christian to add to his loot from the day. I'm very glad he likes it and saw it displayed on his armor stand on Sunday. :)

-Fun with a 11pm donut run on Saturday night back at our hotel, and general fun relaxed hanging out with friends.

-Wonderful Sunday breakfast at the IHOP, and then way too much fun hanging out and seeing Chris and Tracie's new place. We stayed at the Walter's Dojo until after 6pm, when we finally dodged out to dinner at Outback before getting on the road. Got to spend time with lots of fun folks on Sunday from hanging with the Bera and pups, to chatting with Fiona, teaching Anneke fingerloop braiding basics, and just chilling with Oddny and Kisaiya, and friends while I worked on taking in the seams on my petticoat bodies. Alan and Thjora and all those who showed up seemed to have a good time fighting all day, if a bit sore on the drive home.

-Excellent friends in Corby and Thjora who let us crash at their place on the way home so we didn't have to hotel or push on through to be home at 3am. Nice comfy bed, adoring pups and blueberry scones for breakfast. What's not to like?

-Resting up on MLK Day, from sleeping late and napping in the truck on the way home, to a nap once home and going to bed early. My body obviously needed the rest as I thought I was coming down with something else and a scratchy throat, but I'm doing much better today.

-Best of all, I'm 2 pounds down this week even after lobster bisque, a country ham biscuit, IHOP and Krispy Kreme indulgences. 

Hooray! I think I need a nap...

I think I determined on Thursday that it is/was officially the flu. Damn the contagious nieces. Alan, of course, is just fine. Should have gone back to the DR for some Tamiflu or something, but alas, I've just been battling the flu the old fashioned way, with rest and fluids. I guess it shows that my normal daily meds are pretty good at keeping flu symptoms at bay, but there is just nothing that can be done for the "toxic" feeling and "sick" eyes.

Missed a lovely weekend down at Blueleader's place with lots of fun Gardiner's Company folks, but alas I would have been useless and possibly a plague monkey. Trying very hard to keep my germs to myself. I don't think I've left the house since Friday night to hit Target for a new kitchen garbage can, CVS for drugs, Chiro for cracking and the nearby tree place for a wreath and pine roping for the mantel. In fact the only productive thing I did all weekend was putting the wreath over the fireplace and decorating the mantel with the garland, leaving Alan to vacuum up the flotsam left on the den carpet. I've watched lots of bad TV, read, took a soaking bath, and napped, a lot. whoohoo. Still have cards to send out and shopping to do and I've been too sick to even want to spend much time on the internet. How sad is that?

Naturally since I've been sick I've been eating like crap; cream of crab soup, cream of tomato soup, lamb korma, sandbaakels from mom, leftover halloween chocolate, dried fruit, etc. The good thing is that I've been drinking more than 8 glasses of water in an attempt to hydrate myself. So lately I've been plateauing on the weight loss, but sickness is understandable, right. So after losing and gaining the same 3 pounds, I'm back down after eating like crap and sleeping a ton this week. I can't explain it, but I'll take it. 

Went to see a play on Wed, which was very entertaining, and I packed my own cough drops. Also had a lovely seafood dinner (salmon stuffed with crab, shrimp and brie) with the Morgensterns pre-play. I had my work retreat/holiday party where I only felt like fainting a few times and managed to survive, even if my group's gingerbread house was voted the most likely to fall apart, which is truly earned. I would have bailed on the holiday party, but since I had a part in the planning and execution, I just couldn't. Hope no co-workers got sick due to exposure to me.

Well, that was fun, need a nap...