Work is still sucky but we are all in the midst of suck and working as a team to make it better. I figured some cool things out and I have a spreadsheet to save our little chunk of the world.  I know, lame, spreadsheet foo made me excited. I'm an engineer, deal!

Willa and I entered our failed viking glass furnace and it did very well. We won our category, though we were the only entry. We did receive a 55/60 for points so I think we would have won anyway even against other competitors so that was cool.  The organization this year was a bit weird and lists of winners had errors etc but in the end I think it was a successful competition. I judged the championship and that went well too.

In other crafty news, I finished the purple socks.


I have also been working on my "not bunnies" shawl and ran out of yarn.  Both Mel and I thought I had two balls but nope. So I pulled some left over cascade 220 out of my stash and its matching colors pretty good after a few rows.


Ben's been having better days.  We had him assessed by the school district and their only comments were he was high energy and bright.  But at least we know there is nothing wrong we hadn't already known.  Not that being high energy is wrong but we have to redirect it.

I started looking my planned to make for Xmas and seriously flipped out.  So, I guess I need to get myself organized and working on stuff. This weekend will be studio cleaning, sewing for Ben for Southern and winding yarn and planning projects. I also need to get rid of the two old carseats and get those sold as well as the stroller. Then that stuff is out of teh house.

I'm getting my fall enuii and depression.  I'm not sure what it is about this time of year but man I always feel like crap.  Add that to the I've been so tired, so sick or so busy to make it to the gym well, I'm sure that is not helping.  Next week is further screwed up since I'll have the boy at Theresa's due to school being out for Fall Break so well, we shall see.  Just frustrating cause I feel like this is all out of my control but then I realize it is in my control and its hard to take the reins to fix it.  Thus the depression lying.  Oh well. The show must go on.

My mantra will be to watch what I'm eating better. Limit the alcohol and make stuff.  I always feel better when I make things and if I can crank out some of these small projects I will feel accomplished and not so stuck in a ever ending loop of work.

Still trying to finish the treatise on Engineering in America and I started in an InCryptid novel by Seanan Macquire.  I got a load of books from Mughi last weekend to plow through.  Plus I'm also hit by a plunnie about grumpy cat, Bucky and Coulson.  Yeah.  crazy but it will get done in the wee hours this weekend I think. Its gonna be short and fluffy.  So crank it out and accomplish somethng to get it the eff out of my head.

It was inspired by this fic Wow, That's one Grumpy Cat... and the shirt I'm wearing today.  Silly but funny. I need that.

So, they've been posting pictures from the A&S's from the last 7 years. I looked at the stuff fromm 2003, that I won Baronial A&S with and I kind laugh. Wow.
( Read more... )

I've come a really, really long way. Wow.

Its the end of the week. A&S is tomorrow and if I could have a big ol' beer I would. So, I shall settle for the icon. LOL.

Well, I'm all packed except for my clothes and I should be tired and I'm not. I think a cup of cocoa will help with that. The girls have been pretty good and I gave them some tuna juice which they loved. Mel has been enjoying the conference and called to update me. He was heading out to the Pub Crawl last time I heard from him. Well, at least someone in the family is drinking.

Hoping tomorrow I'm less nervous but I've been through this before just not in this format. Well at least not on this side of the table. Just need to take things slow, keep my blood sugar up and keep up with my fluids. Things have been weird with my fluids at times I feel that I'm well hydrated and then later not so well. Very odd.

Oh, in the last few days I've finished some books.
I finished #33 which was Drop Dead Stitch which was fun and I like that the mysteries aren't like every month...its been 9 or so months since the last time. and that is pretty neat.

I read #34 which The house where nobody lived by Brad Strickland. He's the guy who finished off and has been writing more stories for John Bellairs. I'm rather pleased with the results.

Now I'm reading #35 Murder on a Monday which is completely british and fun so far.

So good night and hopefully I'll see folks tomorrow.

Good luck to everyone entering.

Well, work was uber busy and I barely had time to breath. I'm okay with the busy though, its good. I was just tired and anxious to get home and work on things. Got home and mel had put a marinaded roast in the crock pot when he got home. It wasn't gonna be done in time for us to have dinner before practice so I made us grilled cheese on the griddler. So nice I gotta say and switching the plates out was uber easy. I sat watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves on BBCAmerica and filing the temple rings. Headed out to the shop for a bit and used the sander to get the backs better but knew they needed more work.

Mel and I hit practice and I got to chat with lots of folks...got to see Marty and Eric who I haven't seen in a coons age. Also got talked to about teaching calligraphy for the college kids and I hope to do that soon. Though I'm reminded that I need to get my classes to cowboy_r for Southern. I have a new and cheaper idea for teaching it by using carpenter's pencils sharpened to the correct angle. That way we don't have to worry about me buying markers and I think it will also prevent some of us from doing the grip of death. Will need to practice on cutting the angle but I'm pretty happy with the idea.

I also got to meet Alis and that was also cool. I only stayed an hour but got lots done and chatted with bunches of folks. Headed back and got back into the shop. I got the backs completely smooth and then I used the drill press to cut in the filigree holes before head back into the house to file the blades of the pendants for better surfaces. I will hit things up on the Foredom tonight and then head over to Altenburg hopefully tomorrow to polish things since our buffing wheel is put away and I'm really not sure on how to use it for jewelry. Helmets yes, jewelry not so much. I just want them to shine.

Got a hold of Gael and she's loaning me the scroll. Yay! The documentation for everything is almost all of the way through the final stages and I should be able to print tomorrow. I need to check to see how many copies I need to make. I'm wondering if I should just get everything bound as one thing. Not sure. I need to contact Raven. I haven't gotten anything about what time I need to be there and where etc. So, now I'm getting nervous. I like a plan but I understand that we're still breaking in the new process and now we have twice the entrants for champion and a gangbuster amount of items for the main competition.

Good evening. I slept well though I had an ouchy tummy muscle...probably baby induced. This morning. I need to take a bit more care flopping around in my sleep from side to side I guess. LOL. Well, back into the paperwork fray.

Well, work was quick on friday and I hit the gym. Got a good work out and then I hit the treadmill and ran/walked my best mile to date at just over 15 mins. Not sure what my goals will be with the running, ie how fast, but I'd love to see things down to a 10min mile. Not sure if I'll ever get back to my personal best of a 8:20 mile but we shall see. Time and training will tell. Got done with the gym and then headed to the grocery store. I got us nummies for dinner and the weekend and when I arrived home Storvarr was unloading his car. Which was great since I had a car full of stuff. That was nice. Got some lunch and relaxed. Mel got home and we all just chatted for a while and listened to it rain. Then Storvarr and I headed to kinko's and costco for the final stuff we needed for crown. Got home and I made dinner for ribeye and sweet potatoes. Had a nice evening and got things ready for crown and I headed to bed early. Mel and Storvarr played games until later.

Saturday was crown. It was a really nice site, though I had an issue with the grass...I was sneezy girl central. Mel fought well and though it wasn't his best showing he did good. The rest of the BTY folks had a tough list too so it seems to have just been that type of crown. Squire Thomas did really well and that was also good. I spent the rest of the tourney working on my A&S embroidery and chatting with the Hrafn girls and the auxiliaries. I put up a good sideboard and we all noshed well during the day. I'm happy about that too since there was something for everyone. Plus Asa made Cookies!!! I'm also very glad that Tym was able to get me a claritin which helped a bit with my allergies. By the time it was time for court we were all packed up and I went to court and then got pictures of Roland and Mina and Oliver for them. They looked good. I was so stuffed up I sounded pretty dumb. Mel and Storvarr were awesome and helped get people packed up. Headed home and was glad to get into AC in the car. The air filter worked great and I was much better by the time we got home. I showered immediately when we got home since pollen on my skin and hair would not be good for me and then we had sandwiches for dinner. We were in bed pretty early. I watched mel got from spunky to exhausted in about a 10 min period. The day had taken its toll on us and we were out before 10pm.

I didn't sleep good once 2am hit. Couldn't stay comfy and I slept pretty fitfully until about 730 or so. I got up started making phone calls. We told some folks at crown but the family hadn't been told yet. Mel and I will be expecting a baby in late march 2010. We've been waiting to see if I was going to be alright and if things were gonna stick. But I made it through the first trimester with a minimum of issues. Though my change in appetite and not wanting coffee for a month made things a bit strange. We are excited and as of yet haven't decided if we are going to find out what the baby will be. We just want healthy, 2 eyes, a nose, 10 fingers and toes kinda people. The parentals are thrilled. I caught my mom a breakfast with her friend Sue and my step sister gretchen. Mel's parents are uber excited as well. Mel's dad couldn't stop laughing he was so happy. I guess my mom lost complete track of what she and sue were hitting the stores for and they had a hard time staying on track. argent_lupin's comment was "No Shit!" and then to our nephew "you're gonna have a cousin!" Needless to say the families are happy. I still need to get a hold of my dad which is always an effort. After all of the family calls we headed to Ed and Candace's for breakfast. Had a really nice time and chatted and watched holly play. Got home and I worked on research. I was still pretty wiped from Saturday and my head was still a bit stuffy and achey from my allergies. I took a nap in bed to help with the headache and that did some good. Mel's mom called and chatted with me for about 2 hours and I ended the evening trying to finish the weaving but I stopped about midnight. Not quite done.

I slept really well on Sunday night. I managed to get comfy. Even though I haven't popped out yet my normal sleeping with my one leg pulled up to my chest doesn't really work. It puts too much pressure on where the podling is and its not pleasant. So sleepy has been interesting but I think I have a game plan for the time being. Monday we got up and had breakfast at joes. They were jumping. Got back and I got the weaving finished and washed up. Mel's section of twill shrunk a lot and my plain weave fulled up just a bit. But the red did run a smidge and now the bright white is now kinda pinky/cream. Not too bad actually, it toned it down from BRIGHT to nice. I spent the afternoon working on embroidery and research and then in the evening on the scroll for scribble. The scroll is coming along, though the smaller scale is making it go quicker in some respects. I do think that the only ink style is not the best for this medium and I need to switch to all paints for anything else but it looks good so far. I just need to wear my cheaters to see it. The girls were pretty squirrley at scribble and the giggles were really funny. I ended up working on embroidery after the scroll got to a stage I couldn't quite handle. I was tired from working on things all day. Mel and I ended up hitting bed a bit later than we should but we both slept good. I woke up with a butterfly snuggled up on my side and mel had obsidian curled up with him. So nice.

Well, that is all the news that is set to print. I'll probably filter baby stuff to a list of people who care. Not sure what I'll be posting about but expect travel log stuff for the next 2 weeks do to my travel schedule. Don't worry the company knows and as I get later in my pregnancy and traveling I get first class on flights which is pretty cool.

Well, work was busy. I had so many meetings that I barely got to any of the paperwork. Today will be writing lots of change paper and getting ready for the meetings on Wednesday. Lots to do. Wow. I went from bored to OMG BUSY in about a 4 day period and things won't be letting up for a while. Not that I'm complaining. I just need to now get my priorities set and work the tasks as they are needed.

Left work and hit the gym. I took it a bit easy since it had been almost two weeks since I had hit the gym. I wasn't feeling at all good one week and last week was 12 hour days so I skipped. But I did dance my butt off on Saturday so I haven't been a slug. My ipod ran out of power as I got on the treadmill and that was hard. I got motion sick without the tunes but I watched Bones with subtitles on the screen by me. I did just about a mile before I was to tuckered to continue. Headed home and mel was just about ready to felt his latest pair of nalbound socks. I flounced on the couch for a bit. Got dinner, felt way better. I guess I was hungry. Was revitalized, picked up the house and got ready for scribble. It was just Ari and I. She worked on mariannavivia's laurel scroll (gold leaf) and I got my A&S scroll sketched out.

I'm doing the same style I did for Baronial A&S but its only 5x7 in size versus the way larger size. Its a challenge for me to do things that small and the stuff I learned from the last project are paying off. I've got things penciled in and will probably start painting on Monday. I've pinged callas_and_ivy to see what the kingdom needs for a little scroll. I'm happy with how it has turned out so far. And I'm looking forward to painting but after crown.

After I got things sketched I sat down and did more weaving. I think I have one more turn off of the back beam before all of the warp is forward. I started weaving after I moved the warp and got tired. So I worked on a hat for my mom while ari got the gold leaf partially laid, mel spun some BFL and we all watched River Monsters. Good crafty time all around.

Well, tonight is the demo. I think I will be having my spinning out and some scroll work I have a couple of scrolls that need some paint so I guess I can start another demo scroll. I need to remember to bring light for my table this year so I have light to work by. Not sure if we are having the tent out or not but light will be good. I also need to bring my cushion for my box since I'm going to sit on it. Tailbone is still not happy with me. Stoopid thing.

Oh I did finish off the cast off of the fuggly baby washcloth. Its almost guaranteed to not show stains.

Work dragged a bit. I hate waiting for peeps to get back to me but luckily my new buyer is on the ball. I did manage to knit during my skip level lunch and all I have left to finish on my mitt is to sew in one end and its done. Woot! Got done and headed to the gym where I rocked out a hard leg work out. I really wonder why I find leg extensions so hard. The really suck and I can't get a good rhythm going with the each set. Plus its almost 30lbs less than what I'm doing on leg curls and this has me confused. Are the quads that wimpy? I dunno, I hated biology so I never took it past 8th grade dissection. Anybody got an answer to that? Running was a chore since I had worked legs but I managed another mile or so in just over the day previous time. The Gym's AC in the machine room is still not up to par and I was hot. Got done and came home and got the chilled feeling from having your sweat cool too quickly. Bleah, I hate that. I changed clothes and curled up on the couch to work on Tristan's over tunic and butterfly was snuggly with me. It was cute and warm. Though I had to fight hard to not sleep a bit since she was so cozy. Damn cat stealing my soul. I watched Burn Notice and Royal Pains and then bones. I got almost the entire tunic finished I just have half of the hem left but I was too tired to stay up any later (past 1030pm) to finish. Mel got home really late from practice. He took his phone to keep track of time but failed to keep track of it well. I told him he needed to set an alarm and he agreed. I fell asleep shortly after that.

I woke up sore and tired this AM. Wow. Hopefully I can get some good sleep this weekend and get the commission further along. I have 6 days left and lots to do and then it will be the push to work on A&S competition stuff. Lots to do there as well. I'm changing my original plan cause of the time line. The commissions took 2 months of my time out and I hadn't factored that in. But its okay, though, I'll manage. Still have that goal to go for champion.

So, ( To Do List )

Well, I was productive though I have to admit I could have gotten just a bit more done if I hadn't gotten sucked into playing Harry Potter Lego. LOL. It is lots of fun and its mindless except for a few parts. I realize that I never have been good at jumping in games and I have a heck of a time still. But I'm having fun.

Friday night I wove and knit while we watched "The Hangover"...not at all a good movie. I'm not getting that time back but I did get to watch it with friends so that is something.

Saturday I worked on getting the trim on the tunic. Mel had folks over working on stuff in the shop. I made sure folks were getting enough water but I basically was either in the studio or in the family room sewing. I managed to get the trim on and then played video games and did some weaving. My weaving did not do as well..sighs.

Sunday I managed to finish all of Tristan's under tunic except for the facing edging, I want to fit check that before I finish it and the sleeve seam flat fells (also waiting for fit check). I sat and did that on all of the seams while watching the HP movies. After playing the game I really wanted to watch them start to finish. Course I still need to pick up the 6th movie and watch it. Missed it when it was in the theaters. That basically got me through all day Sunday. We stayed up a bit late after watching the fireworks from the rooftop. Had a really nice view of DM's and our across the wash neighbors were doing their own show. We waited up for Shanda and Bryan to get home after finishing up the DM show. We had dinner and pie ready for them. I made rhubarb pie and nectarine cobbler...yummy.
Stayed up late chatting and me playing HP. Got to bed and I think all of my sedentary activities of the day was not making my hips happy. I got up and got some drugs and was yelled at by the cats for not being in bed. I finally got to sleep sometime after 2am.

Monday we all got up and headed to joe's for breakfast. It was good. Then shanda and I ran and errand and then it was home for more projecty goodness. I got the over tunic cut out and serged and then I sat down to work on my calligraphy. I can do a pretty good batarde hand, a really nice early gothic but the squareness of gothic textura quadrata isn't my cup of tea. Luckily it wasn't the scribe's whose work I'm inspired by's either. Basically the hand is gothic textura but its much more rounded. Mel called it "cartoony" and he thought mine looked about the same so I guess after 3 scrolls I was happy with that so I inked my commission scroll. So by the end of the afternoon I had 4 scrolls callig'd. 3 went into the scriptorium case to be scanned when ari gets home and the other one was ready for painting. I relaxed a bit more, and managed to get sucked back into the game again. Sighs. Scribble started and I got some paint on the scroll. I hope to do a bit more tonight. Then I sat and chatted with mingo while I sewed the tunic together. I just need to attach the sleeves and do the neck line. I hope to finish that tonight so I can start turning seams...but the scroll needs to take some precedence tonight. I hope to get at least one of the drolleries done..maybe all of the small ones. We shall see though.

Work is pretty quiet today. I need to do laundry so no gym today but I will get a ride in tonight to kick off my Tour de France biking. I was up so late in the mornings it was too warm...and sleeping was so nice. But enough of the not doing what I'm supposed to do. Gonna get in my bike clothes and hit a short ride to get back in the saddle.

Some Anecdotes:

Mistress Cecile once commented or taught a class or was part of a discussion on A&S classes about how titles and descriptions are important. If you want people to come to your class add the word "zombies" to it...everyone will come to a class about zombies or be curious of how zombies could relate to said class.

Dame Fiona once mused aloud at an A&S night "No one ever comes to my Stumpwork classes" and I replied "Fiona, what's stumpwork?" She looked aghast that I had no idea that stumpwork was a later period embroidery technique which she got her laurel for. I explained "I've seen your class listed, seen the description that the handout was $2 and that you would be teaching various techniques of stumpwork, but you never say what it is..." The very next collegium her class title stated: Beginning Stumpwork Embroidery and lo and behold she had a few students.

My first pennsic I took many, many classes. One was entitled "Beginning Supportive Spinning" with a class description that all materials would be provided, along with instruction on beginning supportive spinning. I show up to the class and take it and I had a lot of trouble with it since I didn't spin at all at the time (and I barely spin fiber now) and the teacher was agast that I would go to a class on spinning with out knowing how. I explained that "well, the title said beginning supportive spinning and I figured that was the place to start to learn to spin" She commented that she hadn't even thought about that and realized she needed to put the caveat that "spinning skills required" in the description.

So, why Ianuk are you talking about this?
Well, our most wonderful Dame Jennifer (drink!) aka callas_and_ivy has now for the second year organized all of the A&S classes for the war. She was persistent in bugging previous teachers, putting out the call for classes and instructors. When she sent out our schedule she noted that "class descriptions would not appear in the gatebook". She sent us a link of the schedule/descriptions as you can go to here and the same google doc is linked on the Estrella War Website as well.

So, you can sit and read at your leisure before the war and figure out what classes you want to take and make your schedule. There are plenty of classes to choose from and many look enticing. There are a few though that without reading the descriptions that people will be shaking there heads at. Such as "Hardanger 101", "Salwar", "Beginner Taiko", "Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble". I know what the first 3 are: A Norwegian Embroidery Technique, Middle Eastern Pants and Japanese Drums but the last one confused me until I read the description...its a kids class of mad science messy experiments, slime etc.

Now imagine, that you didn't have time before war to plan...you get to site in the dark, set up and in the dark, sleep a few hours and get up and you find after you get back from your morning troll duty over lunch that you can't quite figure out what to take since you're not sure what some of these classes are all about since only the schedule is printed in the gatebook.
Now, a very A&S minded person would probably head down to the A&S area and see what was up and see the print outs of the descriptions.
On the other hand a person who might be newer or might only now be getting into going to classes might be intimidated, uncertain of what to do and might just decided that since they couldn't figure it out they would just go watch the battles, go shopping or take a nap.

Well is that bad? In my example, the person had a late night anyway, a nap might be good but what does that mean to the person who is teaching the class? 1)They might not get the students they want i.e. people who want to learn what they are teaching; 2)They might not get any students at all and all of the effort they put into their handouts, time and travel to the event might be wasted, which could 3)spiral into that person never wanting to teach since no one came... That would be sad. For the students and for the teacher.

Now, we haven't been told why they aren't being printed in the gate book...I'm going to assume its a money thing. If it is a money thing, I'm sure we could have gotten people in the A&S community, a head of time, to print things out personally to bring to war to have at troll for folks to pick up. Other wars have a separate book just for classes. We haven't been told though why, so that is as far as I can conjecture and postulate.

So, I want to make sure everyone who reads this or forwards it sends as many people as possible to the link to the class lists and descriptions before war. And at war any who hear someone complain in their camp about not knowing what a class is about, hears murmurs in merchants to the same effect to send people to the A&S tents for information. I want people at my classes, Countess Cecilia wants people at her classes, Lord Richard wants people to attend his first class (A Sharp Tool is a Joy to Hold with ZOMBIES) and Dame Jennifer wants folks to come and enjoy the collegium.

Well, the weekend was pretty quiet. I accomplished a few things. I got one of Wander's Gifties done and started the second. I finished my own afghan and it is snuggly and sized for me. Its almost as long as I am tall and very comfy. As you can tell from the photo, the girls like this afghan a lot.
( cats on my stuff )

They snuggled on it together even though they have been grumpy at each other since friday. I'm sure when I get home today they will be snuggled up with it again.

I also watched tv and relaxed yesterday. Folks were busy in the shop and I was feeling odd. By the evening my sinuses were filling and my nose didn't want to stop running. This morning it feels like I need to rip my teeth out to relieve the pressure. This does not bode well. I'm gonna get going on some data mining and when I can't handle that anymore I'll probably go home.

Oh, I realized I didn't talk about A&S, I only tweeted about it. It was really, really well run this year. Things were organized, I got a packet with all of my judging sheets, instructions were clear. I got to judge part of the championship and that was interesting. I have thoughts on what I'd like to see improve but for the first time doing it in that format I think it was a great success and I can't wait to try it out next year as an entrant. Lord Leot will be a fine champion and I'm sure that it will help him grow immensely. I'm also pleased with all of the awards given out! Yay for Iosobail, corynne_macleod, zippydclown, Isemay, Alison, scribe_ari and many others.