A quick Estrella XXXIII recap

Much thanks to lferion for the photo of our lantern hanger and the sunsets we kept experiencing.

The war was good. The lead up sucked (as usual) and I did not finish all of my projects.  I managed to get one piece of clothing for each of us done and my good apprentice swordmage finished another tunic for Mel that I just ran out of time and energy for. I had come down with the cold/crud before we left and it was hard to get motivated to do anything.  Mel had to work an almost 12 hour day the day we packed up and all of my things I wanted to get done that day just sucked but we were packed and loaded into the trailer and van by 10pm. Not too bad...not great but not too bad either.

I took Ben to scribe_ari for his school for the next few days while we were at the war.  We got on the road about 830 or so and to site by 1030.  We had the trailer and van pretty heavy loaded due to cooler and extra stuff from Ari/Sam. (The kiddos were staying in Sam's tent).  We got to site just after the kitchen tent was up (and a few other tents had been set up monday by folks in our house working the war).  The tent was set and I made do with getting one of the other ladies (this isn't sexist, it was who was meandering around without a task) to get the kitchen set up. My issue was the last time it was setup by swordmage and Sigrid since I didn't show up until 2 nights later....so I was trying to parse what we needed to do and it was confusing. But we got things set and I got lunches out and then we systematically went through the entire camp settting up all of the tents. We got everything up that we had canvas for by 4pm.  We even got flair up by 5pm. So awesome.

The rest of the war was busy and the evenings were cold. I had managed to only pack 1 pair of wool socks (head desk) and only 1 wool dress (head desk) and yeah. I spent a lot of times just adding layers.  But it was good. I bought more books (sighs) and got some viking bling from Feed the Ravens. We hosted the Laurel's and Apprentices Soiree which was nice. I taught a class which was well attended and I fought on Friday while Linnet watched Ben.  Friday night around the fire we heard Ben call out and then we had a sick little boy. He kept throwing up and spent a good chunk of Saturday curled up with me by the firepit and then very slowly playing throughout the day.  We hit youth corner for a bit, we looked through the artisan's showcase and I read through the documentation for the A&S entries.  Which was good. Since I didn't take the field I had a bit of time to do that.

Got back to camp and then started getting into armor since Mel had promised me he'd be back in time for me to get to the women's tournament. It was close but I made it just in time.  Mistress Elspeth was running the Oleander tourney though she had no idea it used to be called Iron Rose. We haven't had it at the war in quite some time (probably 5 years?)  Anyhoo. There were 7 of us from all over the known world (including Drachenwald) and it was a best 2/3 round robin, so I got lots of fighting in. It was hot in the sun and they did not have the hockey water bottles so I had a hard time getting water with my helm on. But it was okay.  I guess you were supposed to bring a Knight, Laurel or Lady of the Rose to sponsor you...Rudiger argued with the list mistress that I could sponsor myself but she was clueless....lol but it was all good. I came in second and it was by a close margin.  First prize went to the Outlands Queen's Champion (THL Adrien). I was actually okay with this since 1st prize was a gift cert to Ice Falcon armory (which I didn't need) and I got to choose a very pretty bag with a raven and Rus embroidery on it.  Yay!  The other nice thing Sir Mavi from the Outlands and I had a really good convo about fighting etc. He was very impressed with my precision since the last time he saw me fight.  I confessed it had been 3 years since I'd fought last...which shocked him.  So good for me.  Rudiger watched and was very happy with how clean I fought.  So good. 

Got back to camp and got to exclaim to the boys they missed me winning (almost) a tourney.  Then there was a scramble of shower, food and then court.  Court, like always, was hard to hear but there was beer and good times and the peerage we expected to happen then got moved to the before the West party....it worked but it was odd.

Stayed up way late chatting with folks around our fire and then it was morning.  Our camp got moving and we were completely loaded and ready by noon on the dot.  Got home at 230 or so and then unloaded.  Ben was tired and had sat in the van most of the AM. He still was not feeling well.  Thought he was better but he puked in his sleep on monday am.  So he stayed home with me and we snuggled, ate toast and watched voltron.

So my Monday wasn't how I wanted it but it was okay. I relaxed, got dishes and some laundry done. Mel has come down with another cold and is pretty miserable.  I've been taking it easy. I'm tired and work is swamped right now so I'm attempting to not get sick.  My asthma was not happy with my lack of taking my meds while camping. Sighs.  So I should be good by the weekend.  Though I'm going to be working it....at least some of it.