Thursday I trundled up to town to head to Prairie Road Yarns kniting night. I was a bit worried about how the circle of people would be but I wore my Tee Turtle "I like Dark Arts and Crafts" Tshirt and I walked in and immediately someone stated they loved my shirt...so yes, inclusive and nice yarn shop and I was one of the older people there. But I managed to cast on a sock. The Pride shawl requires my attention to figure out where I effed it up but I did get an idea to just make a simple shawl from some sock yarn I have with me and add some beads to it as well. The gal on my right was knitting her first big shawl and it inspired me. Lol. The colors will be highlighters. But I had a nice time. I will try to get there a bit earlier and have a plan for my dinner on the drive up. Afterwards I hit Lewis drug (local drugstore/everything store chain) and got some of the things we've been missing.

Friday I managed to get the 56 page report out for peer review. It was tough at the end and sharepoint kept messing with things. But it was done. Benton and I headed to Canton to the meat locker for steaks (I had just enough cash to cover since they only take cash or check), and then to the grocer for some essentials like cheesecake for mel's bday and the like. We got flowers for mom's grave and stopped off at the cemetery on the way home. It was feckin' wimby...like blowing the car around bad. We left flowers with mom and then a single flower for my Aunt Helen. Everything was very lush and green. We took the back way home and then pulled in to unload things for birthday dinner. But the wind was even worse. I would not be grilling on the exposed deck. So we pivoted and while I didn't want mel to have to cook on his birthday he made a very nummy stir fry and I did the dishes. We hadn't planned on it but we matched theme for his birthday. We knew it was the 50th anniversary of Jaws but we didn't know his bday coincided with the day it came out. His presents were a Jaws shirt from box lunch and a Jaws button down from RSVLTS. Plus a few small botanical legos I found at Lewis the night before after my knitting adventure to town. I had also picked up a Whirlypop for $24 but that wasn't a bday gift.

He loved the shirts and then we wanted to watch Jaws but didn't have it so I got it on prime but only the downstairs TV would run it. So we encamped to there and watched it in 4k. While some of the upgrade was good...other parts of it were jarring but overall it was good. We thoroughly enjoyed it and it was nice to sit and watch a movie as a family. Even one we've seen dozens of times.

Mel and I planned an antiquing expedition for Saturday and when we'd had a coffee and some breakfast we drove south to Elk Point to a shop there and found some neat finds. Then we headed into Beresford to the shop there where we found a few treasures including a drop leaf table with two leaves and table covers for $100. Its mahogany veneer but over 7 feet long when extended. So mel is going to do some work on it for restoration and it will go down as a table for the family room for games etc. But we took the Rav and not the van so would have to pick up on Sunday. Then we grabbed lunch and Benton at home before driving to Tea for 3 antique shops and a makers space/cafe. We did some good bargain hunting there and got more uranium glass and the boys got some tools. We did not find a love seat or couch we liked for a price we wanted. We ended up heading to Granite city Brewing which had expanded since i was last there. The food was good. The beer was interesting. Their East Coast IPA was weird on the back end and called Wicked which fine. The good ipa was The Duke...cause of course it was. :P

Sunday I didn't sleep great so I was up a bit early and sat and spun for a bit. We had an idea from Friday night to rearrange the dining room and set to work on doing that. First we had to remove everything from the hutch and then move the grill to the patio (still too damn windy to grill gusts to 40+mph) and moved it to the northwall from the west wall. This opened up the space to allow the table to rotate out for ease around the room. There are parts of this house that I can't fathom how a family of 6 fit anywhere. The dining room is tiny and the kitchen eating side is as well. We struggle with 4 people and when we have the full 7 complement its kids in one room adults in the other. But we maximized the space and went through the crazy amounts of glass and crystal there. We put a bunch in the goodwill boxes. Sets of things I just didn't like or were from the 1980s or just not functional for us. We then swapped out to use things like the depression glass bread platter for the bread on the counter and a pretty small tray to put the sugar, frother and stir spoon on. And Mel got out one of the fancy butter dishes cause why not?

I also want to smack my aunt, my grandmother and my mom for using pledge on the 60 year old Ethan Allen hutch. There is so much wax build up that gave up a bit on the cleaning. I will get some of the orange furniture restorer stuff to strip off the buildup cause ugh.

I then realized that with the extra space from stuff we removed we could set the table top portion up as a bar and did so. It looks great. Then we headed to pick up the table and mel got a $35 dresser from teh 30s to tinker with in the garage. (eye roll), we then hit the local furniture outlet and found two sealy brand "gamer chairs" which are perfect for the kids in the family room. But with the table/dresser and the paneling we picked up at the hardware store I had to come back for the pick up. NBD. Benton came with on that trip and we also grabbed a few groceries from the tiny grocer in Beresford. Then it was home to unload things and have dinner.

Mel wanted to do hand pies but my flaky pie dough doesn't really handle that well so we made a modified shepards pie with refried beans, mashed taters, pulled pork, spices, leftover veggies from tacos. Topped that with my crust and it was super tasty when it came out of the oven. After dinner and dishes we headed down to the family room to rearrange and purge the dry sink and the other buffet (it had been upstairs when I took the house over). Got rid of the kitschy xmas plates but I know there are more lurking in the old kitchen. So that is tonight's job. After I take a good walk and do some spinning.

So yeah we are getting small things done and its supposed to rain a bit this week (had overnight thunderstorms) and much cooler and normal temps too. hoepfully I can grill on Friday.

Friday I had grand plans to get things moving so I could get a pedicure and Costco run before my tattoo appointment. I only got the pedicure cause I got up late (even though my brain was up and awake very early) like I was up and meandering around and making coffee before Mel. So managed the pedicure and then looked at the time, travel time and my stress level and just came home, packed a nice bag, ate a quick lunch and then headed to my appointment.

I got rock star parking and we got to work and it was easy? Like only a few spots were weird. I didn't swell, it didn't ache it was fine? I had a high off of it and headed home without issues. Mel and Benton were off at the dojo. When they got home I had hoped we could go out to dinner but Mel was DONE with being outside. So I took myself to sushi and Ari was able to join me. Which was needed. We caught up on things and had good noms and drinks and I felt better in my head. Got home and then the tireds hit. I headed to bed early I think and slept well.

I was again up early but didn't manage to really accomplish much. Mel was out at the dojo. Benton was meandering around and I had hoped to get calligraphy done but I didn't do much but knit I think? I was in the tired and healing stage of things but I did manage to hit Costco at least. I even took a nap in the afternoon cause I was tired.

Sunday we got up and moving and left the house with Andrew in tow to see Jesse in the hospital. We had an exciting bit where the bumper finally just came off the left side of the van. Mel cut it off so we now have a missing piece but I've ordered a new one to arrive in SD so we can fix it there since it takes time to get it to us (end of june). Got to Scottsdale and grabbed lunch at Cupbop It was tasty but I think the overworked counter girl put mel's spice level on my cup. It was fine but a bit more spicy than I wanted. We managed to get to the hospital in the drizzle (Phx broke a 100+ year record for rainfall on June 1st. They haven't had any on that date in that long). I sat and knit while we spent time with Jesse. Thus far they arne't sure its cancer but he's got a room in the oncology ward just in case. Monday they were doing ablation of veins before they took out the bad sections of his femur and then put in a rod/pins to hold it all together while the bone heals. He will then be mobile which will help a lot. The test results are pending on the biopsies so we shall see. He's pretty up beat but I think that is Jesse. Jen is not doing great and yeah I keep checking in on her. We didn't get to see her yesterday and we left as Kevin was coming in. We all chatted for a bit but then they needed to do meds and other things to Jesse so we all exited to lobby. Kev went to give Benton a hug and Benton is now taller than him. He was a bit taken aback by that cause damn but yeah. It was a good visit. I'm glad we went. We then headed to the Brass Armadillo antique shop and then home. During all of this we had a lot of rain. I was driving in sections that were pretty well monsoon strength but it made for some knuckle gripping but there was light traffic so that was nice. But we got almost an inch at the house. Not sure what Phx got but it looks like 1/3rd of an inch. It was good steady rain too nice and soaking. We so needed the rain. Yay!

Got home and the boys had leftovers and I had toast for dinner. Lunch had been filling. I had some bed time procrastination and that wasn't good but the tattoo has now hit the scaley portion and hurts a bit here and there. Its itchy too yay fun. But all good.

I did manage after work to pick up the studio a bit, pack partial things for SD. I then also purged through 2 drawers of clothes and have filled a bag. I hope to do the same thing with my closet. I did put an order into Old Navy for some work appropriate pants since wide leg is back in style. The first pair arrived yesterday and I'm wearing them today. They are my fave olive green and I've paired it with a nice black tank and I love it. Hopefully the other stuff fits! I'm going to purge work pants with abandon and weird ass shirts I hate. So I guess I'm going to purge before we leave and that is okay. I may do the same on some fabric to have Willa sell for me at Fabric War. Things to work on.

So I went to scribble last night and got the knight text to fit perfectly on my second practice overlay. So I will be hoping to get things setup in the studio to do that and then I can take my table down so I can get the studio ready to hibernate and allow me to have space to pull fabric bins down. I do hope to make a few under dresses while I'm in SD. Trying to have a variety of things to work on. I will probably pull back a few things but its nice to have options.

I think being tired like an exhausted pigeon is just my vibe right now. I stayed home all week and just WFH and didn't go anywhere except school drop off until Friday afternoon.

So Thursday was just a long ass day. So much going on at work. I was very tired when things finished. I don't recall what I did but Benton was home cause he was also coughing with his asthma and I did...who knows. I did managed to read through Lore Olympus 6 and 7 so those are off the pile. I also read Black Widow comics by Kelly Thompson that Ari got me for Christmas and OMG was that good. so that is books through 12 of the year. Well behind my goal.

The list thus far:
1) The Gospel of Loki
2) Killer Cocktails
3) The Golden Enclaves
4) Captain Carter: Woman out of Time
5) The Lights of Prague
6) Dark Arts and a Daiguiri
7) Whispers of Death (stopped at 50% complete not finishing)
8) Two Witches and a Whiskey
9) Demon Magic and a Martini
10) Lore Olympus #6
11) Lore Olympus #7
12) Black Widow
13) In Progress: The Alchemist and an Amaretto


There makes it easier than trying to find all of that over the last 5 months.

This weekend was Coronation. I had no other plans but sit and craft and watch. And survive. I had things packed up and laid out and then the morning of I again switched clothes and I'm glad I did. Things were warm except in our portion of the hall. I was not feeling bonita, I was struggling to breath, but we made it out of the house on time and to site and got a nice corner of the hall to sit. My only regret was I didn't bring a cushion for my seat. I did spin a bunch and then knit on mel's socks. I did finish those after coronation while the knights circle was going on. We had a lot of good things during court they announced 2 of the 3 new folks for Order of Mark. Only 1 was on my list. But I understand the others.

Wander made it and that was lovely. I took a photo of Poe, Willa, and Dominique crafting. I didn't get one of Mel, Wander, Ari, and myself doing like wise. Lol. There was lot of filks, lots of laughs and just a good day. Sutton and Celeste are our new crown and things will be different but that is okay. I did get to sit and meet Genevieve's "daughters" and catch up with some Ansteorrans who were there for Genevieve's Laurel. Mel was nice and drove us there and home. I had planned to drive us home but I was tired and I appreciated him driving. We had Willa with us for the drive home. Benton had played boffer with all of teh kids all day and was tired. I finished weaving in ends on mel's socks and took the most stripey picture of my clothes I can remember. I didn't realize stripes was the theme but all of the 14th Century Mafia was in grey and white stripes for Genevieve's elevation. Lol. So I fit right in in my norse clothes.

We got home and I ordered food and Mel went to pick it up. I made a double tiki drink (rum, lime, demerara syrup, maraschino) and we had a nice meal and pretty early bed times. Mel and I did get caught back up on Time Team as they have been digging at Sutton Hoo again and they found the bottom of the Bromswell Bucket and that was neat to see. Mel and Benton had planned on returning to the event Sunday. I was going to see how I was feeling. I woke up tired and my throat was sore.

The wind had picked way up and I was not wanting to risk another week like last week. I masked all of Saturday, only took it off at lunch outside, and then in a very well AC'd cabin. I was still just wiped. So I stayed home. Mel brought me coffee before they left and I dozed for a bit before getting up and playing games for a while before getting dressed and putting pork chops in the crock pot for dinner, and worked on my shawl. I remembered I had a lap desk/table and used that to set my pattern and the knitting etc on while I worked and watched TV. I caught up on some YT before pulling up Episode III. I'd never watched it but with now having finished clone wars I figured I didn't have to watch it in rapt attention. I could be reading knitting pattern charts and placing beads in my knitting. And ugh I did not have .6MM hook that worked for the beads but I did finally remember I had bought superfloss and that works better IMHO per this tutorial .

During the movie I'm glad I've waited to see thing with the clone wars but yeah so painful to watch. The boys got home about an hour before the movie finished. I got dinner finished up by adding in rice and beans into the pot and we had a nummy salsa verde style pork with rice/beans. All in one pot. Mel loved it. Put in frozen crappy cheap pork chops, cook on high and hour without anything, once those had defrosted a bit break apart chops and then add a large can of green enchilada sauce, powdered garlic, other seasonings and cook on low for hours. Add a cup of rice, cook for a while, add two drained cans of black beans. Let the rice cook and and then serve. We had hot sauce to go with it but it didn't really need it.

So I finished up the second chart and got into the Third chart. Only issue I had was I had to place a bead over the area that I had spliced the yarn together and I had to be creative with an extra stitch but I don't think that will be noticeable. But I got into the third chart which was nice. We finished Episode III, convinced the xbox to play the disk with the Theatrical Release of Episode IV. Enjoyed watching that. Benton was not cause "it was fuzzy" and played with our Disney droids. During the later part of teh movie, I heard a noise in the kitchen and saw Willow scurry off after she kicked my Maggie Coffee mug off the counter. Thanks cat. That was my favorite mug. Sighs. But we picked up the pieces and put them in a ziploc. I will see if Ari wants to try to fix it. Finished up the movie and mel was in bed early. He had fought the heavy King's Champion and won. And then fought the C&T tourney and finaled. So he's doing well. (wink) My brain was busy when I tried to calm to my evening routine. I was annoyed with the cat, it was windy and making my head uggy. I finally crawled into bed around 11 and then played on my phone a bit before just turning things off and trying to fall asleep. Mel was dead to the world.

Getting up today I'm still tired but managed to get moving. Benton was on the struggle bus with an allergy flair after being outside all weekend. When we were leaving I went to put coffee in my travel cup and I pulled the lid off and the cup came apart. Bye-bye 10 year old tervis cup. Sighs. I'm now have my old travel cup from a leadership conference in 2014 and I pulled an Ash and Griffin custom Novgorod mug down for coffee. It still sad though.

Well that is the update.

Sunday was good and I made good time heading back up to San Jose. I stopped off at "World Famous Garlic World" in Gilroy and got some spice mixes. The drive was nice and took like 30 mins to get to Fillory Yarns. What I didn't know was that it was the Bay Area Yarn Crawl. If I had known that I would have made a different schedule to hit a few more but I made do. They had a few trunk shows including A Needle Runs Through It. Their bags and notions were so cute...I may have overindulged. I also got a set of yarn for a shawl in hot pink/black. I also picked up some berroco for Mel's new hat.

I made my purchases and then headed off to get gas and then hit the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. If you know anything about Rosicrucians it didn't get culty until the last exhibit on alchemy. I was running out of time so I made sure to just skip the creepy AI Thoth...cause that isn't effing creepy. And their claims of science is alchemy and how it will be the future...uhm no. But I had a nice time and here are the Sunday Cali.

I got to the airport without any issues and made my way through security. It didn't take too long but the girls in front of me totally didn't do a lot of travel and were a mess. I had plenty of time but I was tired and sore. My heel/ankle were not great, the skin on my heel had started to split Friday at the Mystery House, and it was making me walk funny which then made my knee and ankle unhappy and the Kia Soul and stop/go traffic wasn't teh best for my elevating my ankle etc. anyhoo..I was hurting. I bought some advil (I was out) and hit the Trader Vic's for a cocktail and lunch. They mix a potent cocktail but it was tasty. I got on my flight to Los Vegas and normally its easy but the airport was HOT, I was tired, I hurt and I killed a few hours drinking beers and having tacos. I did get a drunk guy who I watched loose like $6k on a game betting on his phone. The man was way drunk but bought me a shot. The servers were nice and made sure he wasn't been skeevy...he wasn't just drunk. He left for his flight and I had time to chill. I did lose money at the slots which was not my usual but it passed the time. Next time I will not spend 3 hours at that airport. Its too long. The flight to Tucson was okay. I read and started "Whispers of Death" by my friend AJ. Its a bit darker than I'm used to but while its a bit faster in the action than I expect but that is okay. I'll hopefully finish it up this week and get back to the normal TBR pile.

Last week I was tired and run down from the weekend. It was a lot of travel and not sleeping enough etc. Plus work was ugh. So much going on but bob was back from his honey moon and I missed my snark buddy. I had grand plans for the weekend and only managed to hit my waxing appt, haircut, eyebrows. My massage was canceled which sucks cause my knee did a weird snap thingy in the early hours of Saturday. grump. I did get the bathroom cleaned up and the front room/family room decluttered of my stuff. The boys did the same so it helped. Mel got the carpets all scraped and then vacuumed. I was just so tired. Sunday I still had the headahce I've had most of the week and now its yellow season here. So not surprising it was a migraine and I took a 3 hour nap and felt kinda better? I could just sleep for a week right now. Stoopid Spring. But I will attempt to get my ass back to the gym and doing things if my body stops revolting.

Boo hiss....

Thursday night I made dinner which was vegan pesto that I then put chicken into along with the cashew/spinach ravioli I got from TJs. My pesto is:
soak 1 cup of cashews in hot water for 20 mins
Drain, put those in food processor and blend for a bit, then add copious amounts of basil, a tidge of olive oil, garlic and onion powder, juice of one lemon and some S&P. Super tasty and easy but a bit of clean up on the blender/food processor. The ravioli were good but I over cooked some of them a tad. I added two cans of chicken that I diced up good and it was a very good meal with leftovers for dinner and pesto for bread.

I worked on the embroidery and got the the leaves all outlined in either stem/chain stitch in two different colors of thread.

Friday we headed up to Phx early and forgot things like our masks (thanks to maggie she had spare) and I forgot my ibuprofen which was saved by Shanda having some in her bag of holding. Anyhoo...we parked, walked to get breakfast at Morning Squeeze which had excellent food. We then walked to the Science museum which was loud with children but pretty informative. The cool thing is they had Power of Poisons traveling exhibit which was very lacking in children and super interactive and informative. I took okay pictures of it but it was low light.

We then headed over to quilt con where I needed a sit down while we waited for Maggie (aka Bertana) to get back from getting her badge from ehr hotel room. We didn't get badges just electronic scans on our phones which made me sad but it was a cool convention, Quiltcon. They used the 3rd floor of the Phx Convention Center, those familiar from Fan Fusion know this now as the Photo Op and Autograph area. Lots of attendees couldn't believe how big the convention center was and I giggled. Uh, this is just one set of the rooms they could use. Though I guess the classes were on the Symphony side which makes sense is a across the sky bridge. Anyhoo...we were there to see the quilts and I had hoped to Meet Chris from Rose City Originals. And we walked up to the Accuquilt booth (this is a thing I want but can't justify buying until I'm older and have more free time) but got to meet him, get a selfie and his STICKERS!!!

Saw a lot of teh quilts on display (or tried to there were a lot and my knee while better was cranky pants by the end of the day.) And shopping. I got some notions (needles, needle minders) from Rachel Rossi, stickers and a small bag from the MQG shop, stickers and a 1.5" iridescent ruler from Feral Notions, yarn/fiber/needle minder from Storyteller Stitchery who are local, and I got a pattern Called Splintered Spectrum from Lemon Quilts. I was surprised by Mel who got me a Lap App which I didn't realize I needed and have used the heck out of Sat/Sunday embroidering especially when I grabbed a clamp to attach my embroidery hoop. So effing handy. To understand how this works see The designer explaining it. Yes its expensive but its super well made, good materials and damn if its hella handy. Maggie had seen it with me and I couldn't' figure out what it was for and I went around to see something else on the next aisle. After I left Maggie got a demo of it and immediately tried to find me or Mel, found Mel first and he bought it for me once he saw what it did. I'm super grateful and super happy with it thus far. My only beef and I will call them is I would like to get the other heads for it to do the ipad stand and/or the bead table and not have to buy a separate thing? Maybe? I will use it and see. But I see this useful for all types of in lap hand sewing and I could put my third hand attached to it too. I will probably make a bag to carry it and have the caddy stuff. But right now i love it.

We had a wonderful dinner and drinks at Harumi (sushi) and then mel drove us home. My knee was on fire and we got home, I iced it, took more drugs and we we went to bed. Saturday I woke up and my foot and knee both shifted and settled more in place. The swelling had gone done a lot since the weekend and it was nice to have full extension on my leg. I was good and elevated it most of the day in-between walking around. I watched movies (Muppets Treasure Island --Muppet Haunted Mansion -- Eddie Murphy Haunted Mansion --Rosario Dawson Haunted Mansion. I love them all and marathoned those. I got the center of the rose done and I love how it turned out. Sunday was embroidery in the afternoon as we had errands to run for household things (harbor freight and ace hardware) before I sat down and got going on couching goldstyle thread. I got through the little leaves and almost finished the last petals that are padded. Here is where I finished up. I'm going to finish the padded couching and then I think its pearls around the outer edge of the petals and then its done? Its rather striking with what is showing now but I'm not sure yet. Gonna take it to scribal tonight to work on it and get some peer review on it.

I also need to get some laundry done (like my war stuff) and finish the deep clean/declutter/destash/organize of the studio. Finding things immediately when I want them is fucking fancy as hell and then there is the filing cabinet to deal with. And I have this weird thing where I want to wear a new dress to Cassandra's elevation and I will have like 10 days to make one....doable but necessary?

The weekend made me inspired and needing some that with the world being dumb right now. Just want it.

Putting gold stars in my bullet journal does make me happy when I clear a day of tasks. I've also not been trying to do too much though my weekend would say otherwise.

Friday was our off day. I had to work a bit to make up an hour I had missed due to something or other I don't recall now. I worked, updated my work goals to something more than "I will not kill stoopid coworkers or managers" and then I sat and watched tv and worked on my shawl. I got through the first full chart and had even transitioned through to the next color before I was finished for the day. I also played some star dew. Mel was at the dojo working on the new flooring and then headed off after he came back to do actual martial arts. I had my massage at 5, I thought...but I was wrong and got to do my shopping before my massage. So I hit ulta for an eye cream I missed in my online order, hit ross looking for a new duffle for the boy, got cat food all before my appt. The massage was lovely and after hitting the gym twice and pushing things it felt great. Though my hamstrings were ANGRY AF.

Got home and the boys had hot sammies for dinner. Mel was effing zonked and went to bed early since he had to drive to prescott in the AM. I didn't go to bed too late but was up at 730am due to my brain being on. So I played star dew, attempted a very hard quest and missed it by like a hair. Ugh. But all okay. Then Benton and I got our errands on. We headed to Ross to return the pants I bought him (too tight in the knee for movement, fair complaint). We then had to get lunch so we hit Sonic which was a much better experience than we had in NM the previous weekend. Then it was a home depot trip to get things for boffers and I wanted to check out the Ryobi stuff. I bought myself a battery fan attachment and a box to keep all the Ryobi stuff in, I also got us small tool bags for teh lag bolts for the tents. We then went to At Home to get a lampshade for his dino/volcano lamp. I'm going to reverse it and paint it like the volcano plume. We then hit Dollar Tree for pool noodles and then checked in at the Girls Estate Sale before we got home.

We then got the xmas light off the house and packed up. Then we got the blankets from guest all put into bins and back in the trailers. My family room is nice an clean is now. Then I went and took a box of kids books to bookmans (got $9 in trade for the 10 books they took) and then dropped the leftovers and a trunk of stuff off at Goodwill. Then I decided that I didn't want to cook and grabbed pizza at Papa Murphy's to cook. Their vegan cheese isn't too bad and pizza would be good when Mel got home from prescott. We had dinner, I played video games and just relaxed. Mel got home about 730 and was tired but not too tired since he only fought rapier but he had a good time.

Benton had made a few pretty cool boffers which was also good.

Sunday I slept in and then had coffee and pizza for breakfast. Mel was making waffles later. I got my undercut trimmed up, got my eyebrows done, hit the liquor store, and then costco. Dropped things off from costco and then drove to pick up a few more things for Wander and dropped those off. I also managed to get soem of the embroidery supplies I need for Duchess Cassandra's dress. Which was good cause the fabric and patterns arrived today from her and I have to have them back to her by March 1st. I got home and then Mel and I headed back to the Girls to show him a cool old drafting table..its huge but well made and if we had space...maybe but he did pick up a 1900 rocking chair for 26$ including tax. Its his porch chair now. Then I made dinner of chicken coconut curry. It turned out great. I also made some cocktails and over indulged so I woke up at 5am with a killer hangover. So been dealing with that but why not, its monday.

I did finish my first book of the year #1 is The Gospel of Loki. I liked it but not enough to read the rest of the series. I'm going to have a hard copy and a soft copy going for books so I can read on the treadmill. So I've got "Killer Cocktails" for hardcopy and I think I'm going to read "Golden Enclaves" for my ebook. All good.

But today I managed to sort all of the paperwork on the piano and in my studio into 1) to be filed and 2) to be dealt with tomorrow and 3) tax prep. The rest went into the trash. Woot. I also got the holiday cards ready and will drop them at the post office tonight. Yes, they are late but ya know what? Its still january so meh.

So, ya...I thought I would have a relaxing weekend....but didn't.

Friday was a bit of relaxing but I did car stuff, laundry of the bedding from the guests, getting the tree down and put all the insides xmas stuff down and away. I need to pull lights off the house still. I had a wonderful massage and then home for a nice evening.

Saturday I slept in a bit and then got moving with getting Benton to a friends house for some play time and then emptying my studio shelves and moving my fabric tubs so mel could put up new shelving and put a board on my filing cabinet to let the totes sit better. It took about an hour to empty everything into the front room and it was dusty and ugh. I then headed to Costco and got sundries...course everyone else had the same idea but I stuck to the outskirts and got my necessities and then headed home to unload and then pick Benton up from his fun. Once home Mel finished up with the shelving and I started to go through all of the stuff, organize things, put like with like and then I labeled every bin/container/drawer. I got everything back on the shelves and set minus a few small shoe box size things of SCA detritus I need to cull through. Its 30 years worth of site tokes, favors, tchotchkes etc. That is a Tuesday night problem. I also in the middle of organizing made chicken mole with store bought mole sauce. Tasty and less work than making my own though I may try to find some paste versus pouch version so I can make it thicker. But I finished this all up at 11pm. Mel was tired and had gone to bed a bit earlier and I was wired cause I was "PRODUCTIVE!!!" and my brain and body were wired. My back was also not happy with me from stoopid on Friday wrestling the tree etc.

Sunday we got up early, got dressed, loaded the van and were on the road with burritos by 730am to war practice on the NW side of Phx Metro. We got there with the right amount of time to get setup and sit down for court...which was exciting cause they offered knighthood to a gent who has been awesome and that made the Southern Baronies so happy cause he's from our neck of the desert. It was the whole reason I went to cheer, give him and his lady hugs and tell him how much he deserves this. I posted about it and his cousin who participated in his youth was like "HOLY HELL!!!" It brought such a smile to everyone. They also called up my KWHSS travel buddy Mistress Genevieve for the Laurels. Her 14th century is ON POINT and amazing. And her hubby is also amazing and funny as shit.

Anwhoo. After court I managed to get my 'errands' which were getting fiber to Skadi, delivering the bag Blossom left at Boar Fest, and getting my fighting card up to date. I still plan on getting back on the field. Just trying to get my health settled and get my endurance up and a few pounds off.

Anyhoo. The rest of the day I hung out under our shade, knit on mel's sock and attended the Bard of the Sun Competition. I did film a few of the performances. Dom singing his filk of "the mob song" from beauty and the beast and Sayyida Keesa dancing a prayer for rain for Caid . It was a wonderful time of song and stories and even sock puppets. I know I would have had a hard time choosing. But in the end Dom won! Woot! I think he's the 4th Bard of the Sun from the household. Yay!

Also, if you ever need THE RULES you now have the link of Ari reciting them at my vigil. :)

It was a nice day and I got a lot of knitting done. There were more peerage offers and good awards and then it was pack up and go time and Mel was no where to be found but I had household folks to help. I had to finally wrangle Benton away from where he spent all day playing with other kids on the opposite side of the site. He had ate and drank so that was okay but he was MIA all day. Meh. Anyhoo, got everything packed up and moved with help from Dom, Zoe and also Khalil who used to be a household member. I just asked him to put all of mel's armor in the bag and then Dom got the bag on a return trip. I was just about to call out a search party when mel arrived. He had gotten talking chinese sword with a gent who I had seen coming out with his family all in very nice chinese clothes including the kiddos (omg so cute) and he had talked jin for like 45 mins. So, mel got changed into a tshirt and into the van for me to drive around phx to Rudys BBQ before we headed to IKEA. We had dinner with Thorin and he's always a delight.

IKEA was pretty chill. Not very many folks were there and we had wonderful help from "Sir Mark" in the mattress area. We only picked up a few items not on our list (new collapsable laundry hamper to replace the one with the torn bottom, an octopus drying thingy for ivan's socks, a cupholder for my desk, cinnamon rolls cause reasons). We got the mattress for Benton (he got a plush one and loves it), we got a new mattress for our camp bed, A mattress pad for Benton and a new fitted sheet for him. Still was spendy but all good. We got back on the road by 730pm and home a bit after 9. We only unloaded the essentials, Benton showered and went to bed. I had a beer and then showered and we were all asleep by 11pm I think.


Yesterday was a light work day but a heavy car day. I picked up the civic after all the work they did. Got home and about an hour later Mel and I took the van and the civic to the tire place to get tires and wiper blades. We walked home to work and they called about 20 mins before mel had to leave for school pickup. We walked back (yay a whole mile walked) and I got back to work. Today Mel took the van to Jack Furriers to get the AC fixed, I will be calling them to do the alignment on the car tomorrow and then we should be done with car things for trips/war etc. We drive to El Paso for Outlands Coronation Friday so fixes were needed. The car I was going to do over break but I didn't drive it much and they had to order parts for the recall and the hatchback pistons. But its all good now. Just needs the alignment now that I have new tires, the strut fixed, new brakes, the fuel pump replaces (recall) and the hatchback working properly again.

So I'm trying to simplify things in 2025 and part of that is unsubscribing from email lists from various suppliers. danabren suggested it and damn does it feel nice to do it. I had so much email over the break its crazy so yeah hopefully that makes things easier for me.

I had planned on heading to scriptorium and putting the rest of the weekend away and I was toast by 530pm. We finally broke down and turned on the heat yesterday cause it was 27 when we work up and 57 in the house. I ran my space heater in my office for half the day. And by evening Mel was toast and it was video game time for the boys. Since the family room doesn't have heat we snuggled up with afghans and the boys played Borderlands3 and I had cocoa and sat with my ipad playing stardew in the reading chair that is now facing the couch. Thus the TV wasn't distracting but it was fun parallel play with the boys and we all enjoyed family game time. I also like the new chair position (its where the cat tree was and we moved that to the window in the front room and the cats love it there).

Today is calling on appts. I can't find my gym bag..oops...so I'm going to clear out the weekend SCA gear and put it away and go through the 4 bins of SCA detritus while watching TV. I need to make dinner and do laundry as well but this should be doable and all good.

On the book front I had started #1 the last few days of 2024 and its "The Gospel of Loki" which is odd and I like it thus far.

So by Thursday night I was starting to feel better. Things were moving correctly through my system after about noon and then I was hungry enough and wanting comfort food that I got us Mod Pizza for dinner. I ate two pieces and then had some ginger ale but it felt good to have real food and then relax. I went to bed early and then got up on time for Friday school run and burritos. Mel and I then were picking up the house around our house cleaner and now my house is very clean and things are picked up. Its still cluttered but we will be working on that in december.

The house feels so much happier and it did help my mood. I then sat down and got that darn pumpkin almost finished. I started on the stem and had to rip that back cause it really needed the thickness of two strands but I was finished by Friday evening minus me cinching in the lobes and I need to make an upholstery needle long enough to do that. I ran one errand to drop off shoes to teh cobbler and then home. I really wanted to do more but I was tired and I knew I still had to drive home after my massage. Got the massage and it was wonderful and I felt so much better after that but still very tired. I we ended up watching a few more episodes of Delicious in Dungeon (which I highly recommend) before bed time. I had managed to pull out clothes etc for the next day.

Ari arrived at 730 but we were still gathering stuff when she arrived Saturday morning. But we got into the van and on the road by 8am. Made it to site by 930. I'd even managed to put on makeup before we left. Lots of folks I hadn't seen in forever. Got to meet Shanda's "Best Steve" and "New Cody" and they were delightful. The final court went well. I managed to wind off my spinning during the laurel for Captain Lann. She taught me to make beads and Duchess Elzbieta's words about that class 20 years ago and us having to tie her tippets behind her so she didn't burn up and Lann being so gracious with her spunky queen were seconded by me in spirit. I winked at Lann while she remembered and laughed.

Got back to my seat with the ravens and we watched the stepping down which was nice. I cast on the pumpkin for my MIL. At the lunch break there was lots of chatter and we headed out to the quad to have picnic lunch. Dominique was nice enough to feed us all and I guess her cookies were to die for. They smelled good but had butter so none for me. I had a nice chat with Duchess Mary Grace and lots of hugs from her. Kindred spirits.


We all had a nice chat and then it was back inside for the coronation court and all the fealty oaths etc. Rowan's daughter was again made princess royale and she looked picture perfect in her Rus outfit including veils. So cute. We had the up down up down of all the oaths. Ari and I saw back knitting while the officer oath of service was going on. Mel was back chatting with Sigrid. They finished the coronation court and then started the "first court" business. And then HRM Elizabeth called me up. And I kneeled on her pillow cause its a schtick. And she starts talking about my arts and how I've gotten lots of awards for that, and then talking about my time as queen...and my thought is I would be getting the Glory of Atenveldt for the Royals. And then she started talking about my service and then I got a weird feeling and then she called in the Pelicans. And I lost it crying. Liz was talking with me and Morgan was also talking with me and how much they wanted to do this and how this was long overdue and then Morgan said I should have been there before he was put into the order (which was in 2018). I then looked up and saw all of the pelicans, Mistress Kollgrima was bouncing up and down and there were smiles and I had to hand off my glasses cause I was crying so hard. My emotional dysregulation of the past week wasn't helped by this and well, I got flocked and hugged my way across the stage, down the aisle and back to my seat where I needed my inhaler to breath. It took me most of teh afternoon to not be crying. My makeup was a mess but everyone was so happy and saying "long over due" or "I thought you had this already!". TRH of the Outland Zacharia and Marianna had come to visit and nikki (marianna) made sure to tell me one of the reasons they had come was my offer. Wow.

I was pretty shell shocked the rest of court and then I was overheated and stripped out into my modern clothes. Again, not regulating well but better when I wasn't overheating. Had good convos with Valora and Nikita. Her comment was if she had won crown this was also on her business agenda and Nikita wanted to give me his grace when he was Queen. OMG. Those two are so lovely. They will be crown someday and I will love having Nikita as our first Queen's consort. But yeah emotions were high and we all decided since it was early to head home to Tucson and then get dinner. Ari got her jeep, mel and Benton switched clothes to modern and then off to Sushi Ten to celebrate. We had good food and good conversations.

I went to bed pretty early. I was exhausted.

Sunday Mel headed up to King's Champion and I had already decided to stay home. I slept in, watched some TV with Benton, made some lists for the day. I got a needle made from some wire to finish the pumpkin and then Poe and Jeff came over to get stuff for their family thanks giving. They have 19 people coming and needed extra tables and benches, a crockpot etc. Plus I had stuff for Poe from Wander. It was nice to get things moving and then Benton and I went to Costco. Now they changed the way the food court works and its not very easy...you order and then stand in line and they fill orders as they get to the window. This seems less than ideal. Anyhoo, we did our shopping including getting the boyo a new winter coat that will do for this trip. he's growing so quickly that I didn't want to spend too much since he will wear it for a month or so. We then grabbed lunch and then home to unload and relax. I got going on dinner in the afternoon and made red beans, rice, and sausage. Beans were in the pressure cooker, I made roux from the sausage cooking, and put the rice in the sauce to cook. I also made box mac and cheese to go with at request from Benton since he hadn't had any in so long. Dinner was ready about 30mins after Mel got home. he'd had an inconsistent day fighting but had a good time. Good people won Art and Sciences and that makes me happy.

We had a good dinner and then watched some fun cheezy fail tv. (industrial accidents etc) on YT Mindwharehouse. Was up later than I wanted but mel and I talked a lot and then I had things switch to politics and that was not where we wanted to go but we know we have to talk about things sometimes and the way the business is going for what we work on is very different than when we started. Can't retire until Benton at least gets to college but looking at numbers right now isn't too bad to think about. I didn't expect my mom to have set us up so nicely but wow.

We leave for Washington State on Saturday and that will be nice to 1)not be working and 2) spending time with my MIL. Benton will have some schoolwork to do but I have crafts and hanging out to do. Its going to be fun for weather with rain and snow expected. So that will be fun. Luckily I got a full size rental car and have recent experience with snowy roads. so yeah.

Not the weekend I expected but feeling very loved.

I'm very grateful that I'm a strong woman. I have years of weight lifting experience, I know how to lift things correctly and I'm strong even though I'm chubby. I used all that strength this weekend helping Ari get her house unfucked from the movers of suck.

Saturday I picked her up in the truck and we got to IKEA at 3 minutes to opening and I got a sweet parking spot in the shade. (Phx was 103 that day) We had basics of what she needed but not specifics exactly? The kitchen cart was hard to pin down. The table she liked online was too short in person. So we had to go back and forth to figure out options and finally got a nice kitchen cart style that was on sale. She also found a nice option for an additional bathroom cabinet in her small jack&jill which would go above the toilet for more storage. The 5 Hemnes book cases were planned for the bookwall and the entertainment area We also got odds and ends and then headed into the warehouse area to pick up the big stuff. We found out the kitchen cart and the bath cabinet had to be "ordered" from a kiosk. Which was pretty easy and then we had to hit the stacks to get the book cases which were of course on different ends of the warehouse. I was lifting the second big book case packs onto the cart when an employee offered to help but she realized I had it with ease. Ari said "I love my butch girlfriend" Then we trundled over to the opposite end and that placement was more challenging since it was over my head but we got things loaded and then off to check out. I got the truck pulled around while Ari waited with the cart to get her other two items. I got the bookcases loaded and then waited just a bit to get the last stuff. then we headed to WHITE CASTLE..OMG its been so so long. so good for lunch....so bad for us but so good as a treat.

Then we decided to hit the Market Square antique mall and wow...its impressive. I may have bought a few things including prezzies for the BIL/SIL and for the hubby for xmas. I did manage to find some of the salad plates for our dish set and serving bowls. Prices were a bit higher than I'm used to but we got discounts on almost everything including a pretty little table (1920s mahogany gate leg end table). it was marked as $48 and then was 20% off. It needs a bit of work but so pretty. Mel was pretty happy with my purchases. We got home, got her unloaded and then home. The boys were not home yet from Tucson Comic Con.

Sunday we all slept in..I got to Ari's about 1230 or so with donuts and she was half way done with one book case. We got the rest put together, Mel came and put the bathroom cabinet together and up on the wall, moved some towel bars, attached bookcases to brick walls. He also troubleshot the overhead light of not getting power but that is past his skillset. And then screwed the book wall to each other. That was a full ass day and we had sammiches for dinner.

Monday I go there by 10am and we got the dining room and her studio all of the furniture unwrapped, moved (sometimes multiple times). I also deadlifted her book press 4 times (85-90lbs) and then took it up a step stool to put in on a shelving unit versus a small rickety table. We even purged things (like her wedding dress which had stained in the bag, 4 crappy bookcases and a cat tree). SCA friends are seeing if they want stuff, if not I will make a dump run to our neighborhood since have big dumpsters and alley scavengers. But by the end of the day, the dining room was usable and while her studio was cluttered its put away time for things, and finding places etc. We do need to hit the garage and start going through the two rows of boxes to find all of teh books and then rearrange but soon her house will be a full home. But man I was tired and sore and I've lifted a lot. I did use very good form though, even ari commented. And for those posers who don't do deep squats, how do you get shit off the floor ya'll?

Anyhoo, mel made dinner last night and then on a whim made cookies. I lurve him. Even though he needs to remember that crisco (its dairy free shut up) browns quicker than butter so they need to come out quicker. But damn warm from the oven oatmeal raisin was so nice.

So, tonight after work I'm getting my toes done. Some self care is needed. Then I need to do some actual work and laundry...cause damn.

So Friday was long but I got things done for work...not enough but a large chunk. I then relaxed while the boys headed to kung fu. Mel was teaching since Paul was taking Skylar to a beach sanda tournament. I then got into less shlubby clothes to head to Kon Tiki with the girls. Erika was home for a bit, Ari just closed on her house and we needed some girl time. I ate too much and drank the right amount, hit At Home on the way home and found a spoopy glow in the dark skull. I was in bed early and didn't hear mel get up on Saturday but managed to get us all out the door on time. I felt bad that mel loaded all of the heavy stuff but made sure we had help to get things going since our folks were late. Mel was grumpy and tired. I was tired and a bit stressed just cause of things but we got setup and ready. It was also bloody hot and we had subterfuge to do. Wander arrived with Poe/Dominique and that was nice.

So a few weeks before we had been told there were going to drive-by our Count Thomas and with so little time to prepare we did a bit of fun to get his cloak and Ari was awesome and did a wonderful laurel wreath for the top of his cloak. Much thanks to MAgdalen for helping get the cloak and my super sneakyness for putting a note on the list that we needed the royal peers of the house would be hearing from Magdalen to pick up their cloaks for embellishment. Ha! But we were nervous and waiting and there were other peerages that day. But it all went off without a hitch and he was gobsmacked. He had no idea it was happening and taht is the best. I hate drive-bys but this worked really well. The other driveby Mel spoke at for Sir Thorin and that had some drama which I think I've finally hit my point with a certain peer and will be having a discussion. Don't break the fucking rules.

Anyhoo, it was hot, court was long with 3 peerages and then the weather started to move in. Its monsoon season and the south Eastern part of AZ is lush green right now. But that means rain daily. The wind picked up and I'm glad at that point Wander was done with the heat and Fiona took her home. They managed to get caught in that storm on the way home while we only had wind and then a very nice drop in temperature. I relaxed a bit once that happened and we moved cars closer. Chatted with folks, planned some things. Also, talking with Poe she will be my student. So we shall need to plan when that will happen. She needs some shoves in the right direction cause she has the skills and now its going to be to make them more period for the art.

We did not stay for closing court cause by that time I was done. I'm sad we missed the offers of MOD and Chivalry to 2 of our local folks. My head was aching and my allergy meds were stopping working. All that green made me itchy as well. We managed home without issue. Got unloaded, including me help getting the tent etc unloaded to the porch and then I got a shower after Benton. He had had a wonderful day of shooting archery and then the kids had a huge boffer battle behind the royal tent. So he had fun and didn't grumble about helping with setup. He got all of the benches moved and assembled and the table up before going off to do teenager things. But he was allergy snuffly and sore when we got home.

I've been feeling off I guess but not sure why. Got my uranalysis back and it was all abnormal and then the culture positive. So I need to call the doc today and see what I need to do. I either have a UTI, a kidney stone or something else. This could explain the back pain I had in SD and here and the general malaise? I dunno. I just know I need to slow down on the alcohol thing so I'm trying...but ugh. So we shall see. Just surprised honestly.

So yeah that was a weird thing to find out on Sunday.

Anyhoo. We all went to bed early on Saturday night. I was zonked. I never heard mel get up on Sunday morning and was up about 830-9am. I was still tired but bladder and coffee said get up. I played animal crossing and had fun for a few hours before I headed out back to SE AZ to pick up my coworker's daughter to get her to the airport. Bob had his knee replaced and his daughter was visiting. So I was a good friend and got to see his farm, meet the doggos, see the chickens and the horse barney and meet his fiance. Plus had a nice time chatting with the daughter who was 10 we first started working and she's now a junior in high school. So it was a fun drive back (Highway 83 is fun to drive in a sporty car). Got her dropped off and then home and I was exhausted. the boys hadn't even gotten out of pjs all day. But Benton had cleaned his room and we had a nummy pasta dinner (thank you honey) and then they played video games and I took an early shower and went to bed early again.

I slept hard and was still so tired when I got up and have had weird twinges of pain and now the burning sensations...so yeah at least a UTI, maybe kidney stones, maybe kidney infection...we shall see. Fun times but at least that would explain the tired...cause man I can sleep for a week.

On the chicken front I finished sewing the small black one for bob, and the crocheting of 2 squares for the toxic one for Graham at work. The Hrafn ladies helped me pick things out for a big ESC for Blossom and I cast that one but have been just beat so its still on the first part of teh tail. Hoping to have some energy tonight we shall see. A lump in bed is really sounding good.