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Well, I left us at the ceremony and my regrets which were I didn't 1) get a full length set of photos of my clothes and 2) didn't get a family photo of all of us or 3) a household photo. Sighs. But one thing I added to my ceremony was Plurican Dom reading my service record with AS years.

( My Service Record )

I thought it important to show that and to have it read as part of my ceremony. So, my elevation was the last part of court. Becca and Rob got announced in as visitors. There were lots of awesome awards given out including Spork getting their Flower, Eyvor getting her beacon, Dom signing a filk of Disney's Beauty and the Beast as Beauty and the Cave Troll aka Liz and Morgan. It was amazing.

I got so many surprise presents. The first was from Baron Sami in Northshield through Liz before court in the ready room. He's a friend from the Between Two Peers YT discord. He got me through a lot with my mom and phone calls while I was in SD.

Then before court I got given from Baroness Aesa and Countess Golda a pelican in a jar with lights ...its effing silly and fun and fully of whimsy and I love it.

Then during court TE Mons gave gifts to TRM and TE of BTY and then to me from Lady Naomi of Mons. Wow, its a wrapped raven with stones and amazing and so unexpected. Seriously. like WTH?!

Then during the ceremony I was given the medallion and hat that Ari made and the chain from Rob (my BIL). I had not seen it on the chain yet and the hat was wonderful...though Morgan had a hard time getting it on my head lol.

The hood that

danabren was amazing. Its amazeballs. OMG.

Then my scroll is a box from Thyra that happened in 5 days cause my graduate nerfed my enamel scroll in the kiln? I didn't think I was getting anything and then I get handed a box with my raven and other things on it and the text all machine engraved. Its also got a beautiful integral hinge.

And then after my elevation Mel and Valora surprise me with one of her viking bags with the carved handles. Mel made the handles and Valora put them on at the event when we arrived on site unbeknownst to me. Sneaky knightes. Its splendid and more pictures here, and here, and here.

So my speakers were:
Viscountess Wander for the Laurel
Duchess Mineko, OP for the Royal Peer
Sir Valora, OP, OL for the Chivalry
Bannthegn Juliana, OP, MOD for the Defense
Baroness Blossom, OP for the Pelican
THL Ponaria (my student) for populace

All said amazing things and I will post video when I get it but I was moved and loved and laughed and cried a bit. Blossom was celebrating her 15 years since her offer to the order and that was poignant for how long we have worked together. Po talked about how even outside of the SCA i got our household out and volunteering during covid to use our SCA skills to help with vaccine drives. Which I thought was nice. We all got commendations about how we all worked well and could do all the jobs without much issue. Anyhoo. It was nice.

Like my Laureling my legs tried to fall asleep but that was okay. Like planned Liz did most of the ceremony and Mel held the sword during my oath. I was so gobsmacked by the hood and the hat was fun and I've worn it around the house. Lol.

We had a nice evening with the potluck feast and hanging out. Becca and Rob sat at high table and the household was outside. The boys played in the windchime tourney and all in all we helped clean up the hall and I made sure Dominique had help. She arrived and just slotted into the kitchen and ran things. Even though it was a pot luck feast you still need someone to run the kitchen, make sure drinks are full and clean up. But at the end it was just her and I got Sir Khalil and Don Arion to help out.

We got home and we all changed clothes into comfy and I started making G&Ts and doing what ever mel needed. Seriously he ran himself ragged with everything. We drank till about midnight and hung out with Ari.

The next morning Mel headed to the war practice and once we got the boys up we headed to the Air and Space Museum and that will be another post.

Last week I was super asthma-y and stuffed up. A bit of research shows that lots of things I'm very allergic to starts to sprout/bloom and they usually make me miserable and I get a sinus infection in late January/February almost every year. So, I rested, upped my meds, made sure to take my controller med and started recovering by late Friday. I did take off part of Thursday to sleep and I think that helped but I couldn't be sussed to do anything but read and watch TV. That is okay. Honestly, so I rested and then on Saturday got a really really good shower and attended the Atenveldt 50 Year event. I took a class hosted by a gal in the Outlands on Beads from Ribe which was lots of fun. She had a nice camera on her torch so we could see her building things in real time. Then I hung out in the Kitchen with Domingo for a bit just chatting before taking a class on the way fighting started in Atenveldt by Arthur of Lockehaven and he had 8mm video to show of things from 1970 and lots of fun pictures. It was really neat to hear him and other speak on things at the beginning. Then it was a panel on the founding of the kingdom and stories from all of the old guard. It was neat. There was also a memorial presentation for all of those who we lost. Then I went back and hung out in the Kitchen some more. The whole time I was cutting out fabric for my overdress and sewing on my featherweight so I got a bunch done. I had also been day drinking pretty hard so when it came time to cut silk and work on the neckline I just stopped. There was a short howdy from the crown and then there was a virtual feast. I did not stay for that since I hadn't seen mel or Benton most of the day so I changed out of my tunic and put on a tank top and had a nice dinner and a few more drinks. I worked on my naalbinding on the hat.

Sunday I woke up and was not hung over which was surprising. I read and then got going on my personal laundry and the dress. I logged onto a zoom for Art Show and Tell with the Kingdom MOAS and that was nice to chat and keep motivated while folks showed stuff off. I used my phone to text the arts chat and my SIL for advice on things and that was also good. I got the neckline set and pinned to relax into shape on my dress form and will hand sew the edges of it on tonight and then get the rest of the dress together to see how this pattern fit. I've put the middle eastern extra gores in the upper back to help with my hulk shoulders and I think its going to fit quite nice. I will probably finish the sleeves first before its all sews together but again this is going really well.

I then spent more time on my hat and got it to the 'no more increasing' part of the process. Which is good. So progress all around. I did not get the christmas stuff down. But honestly I don't care. We will get it down today at least in the house. Benton has the day off for MLK day and he can help.

It was nice to wake up today and not feel off. I actually have energy and feel normal and motivated. I don't think I've felt this way in a really long time. I would like this to maintain. I've missed this energy.

Friday was hard at work....I'm waiting for people on way too many things and yeah. I was DONE by the time I left. I also got a large bonus at work and that was nice.

I did see Mike from American Pickers on the road and I waved at him when I passed and he HONKED AT ME!!!! Woohoo!!!!

Got home and worked hard to clean up my house for cloak night. We did a bang up job and I even got my studio cleaned up with clothes put away and the floor cleaned up. Our bedroom and Ben’s still need a deep clean but its all good. Just as we finished dinner, Myra arrived to pick up the Xterra. I had already taken my last drive in her before signing over the title.

I shall miss that truck. Wow…it’s the longest I’ve ever owned a vehicle and I have many, many good memories of that truck and lots of road trips. I’ve driven her through: AZ, CA, NM, CO, WY, SD, NE, NV in the last 14 years and 170820 miles. Sniff, sniff.

Cloak night was good. Dominique came down and we all watched Ghostbusters while Mel and his crewe worked on things in the front room (1 squire, 1 man-at-arms and 1 student + Will). Wander, Ari, Sam, Willl, Dominique and I just chatted away, watching the movie and stitching. I almost got the raven done but was too tired to rehoop to finish. I will endeavor to get that done in the next few weeks. I also have a scroll to work on which I did not work on at ALL during the weekend.

Saturday we had breakfast at Joes and then I did laundry/errands and got the car worked on. Friday night I really started to feel a headache coming on and Saturday was painful. We hit the antique mall on the way back from dropping off the car for service and picked up some nice things. The headache hit full swing once we got back from picking the car up and I was toast. I managed to lay down and take a break but I failed to get drugs (I thought I had…stupid head). After dinner I managed to finally take drugs and have a tasty beverage and things were better. Mel and I watched some Tabletop and I got him to watch some other fun on Youtube like The Rock lipSync battle and other fun things.

Sunday I slept in. I got up about 850am to coffee. Mel had been up for a while. We were sitting and chatting and Bridget showed up for drawing….I hadn’t gotten her text that we were doing that…we chatted, had coffee and declined to go. Which was good, I was still feeling fuzzy headed and I got the border done on the blanket and decided to just finish the applique and get it done! It turned out cute and you will see pictures later after its delivered. Needless to say I only managed to basically do the dishes, do some laundry and sit on the couch crocheting and sewing. I never got out of my pjs and I’m okay with that. I was toast. But that project is done and then I got going on the present for Dana’s son and got the one for Phil’s soon to be here baby set out and ready.
But sneek peak of the applique:

This week is a short week for me. I’m taking Thursday off and we have Friday off already so….it will be a good week. I just have to get a bunch of stuff done. All doable if I stay on task. I also need to get my ass to the gym. Last week I felt like crap and well, I let myself feel like crap if that makes sense. This week I’m not going to let that happen.

Again, not dead but 2015 has been exciting.

Work has been a lot of work for both Mel and I. He traveled in January and I traveled in February. We’ve had program reviews with us both presenting, major issues with hardware etc. To add to that Mel got sick just before his program review, we thought he was okay but when he got back he went to the doc since the symptoms (tummy upset) didn’t go away. Our GP is really awesome, down to earth and has a great sense of humor (her hubby is an astronomer). She looked at him and did a few things and decided to get him a CT scan to check things out including but not limited to appendicitis. He went and drank some barium, had the scan and then things got exciting.

His appendix has burst probably 5-6 days beforehand and he’d been walking around with it burst. He was not in pain, didn’t really have anything other than an upset stomach/lower GI. Well, we quickly had him at the hospital and in surgery. His surgeon looked like Lucy Lui and was awesome. He was home for 2 weeks on disability and is now slowing getting better. During all of this I was running a sinus virus and feeling icky.

Benton managed during Mel’s recovery to smash his finger and needed antibiotics for the first time ever in his life. It was pretty gross and infected. He was a trooper though. I got better and Mel is slowly but surely getting better. It is slow and frustrating to him especially when we had to get ready for Estrella War. I ended up carrying and lifting and packing vehicles, setting up tents etc. He came in late after we had everything completed and that was good. He did walk too much one day at the war and was sore and surly. He got rides places even though it hurt his ego.

My war was good. Had lots to do running kitchen and a few hiccups there….I did not buy enough of a few things and then the bread all went bad…so it was exciting. I taught classes which were not very well attended. I think I will refrain from teaching on Wednesdays…there are just not enough people on site and just teach Thursday/Friday. Rapier fighting was a disappointment. I only got the one day to fight and well, the scenarios were lack luster and didn’t really have a lot of fighting. One of my biggest pet peeves is scenarios that take longer to explain than to do. If you can’t explain the objectives, setup and rules in 4 -5 sentences, its lame. Plus props and weird side quests are just fluff and really don’t have much room IMHO in a scenario especially when things are small and you have too much to do to win a scenario than fight. I left fighting and did pickups for a while with Ari, Don Simone (outlands) and Dona Brighed (An Tir). I did well and with my foot being out and had better footwork than usual. Guess I put too much weight on my forward foot.

Saturday we got fighters to the field and Willa and I judged the bead competition. Well, I judged and she shadowed to see how I do it and the thought processes. Captain Lann and Lady Aoife were the other judges and the first entry was a doozy. Unlike the Aethleamarc entry for the collars of estate who used my handout, the Outlands entry was missing lots of info. The entry was cool and we all struggled to give higher points but unless you tell your judges how you made something and with what you made it with and how that is compare and contrasted with period techniques you can’t get good scores. We barely made it to Cael’s knighting and then they did a surprise knighting after that. Benton was awesome and went to, in his words “evil preschool” (he meant medieval preschool) where I was teaching. He played and had tea with the queen and was just a good kiddo most of the war.

Saturday grand court I heralded TRM Titus and Anna Leigh of Aethelmaerc into court and then stood court for them. It was nice and informative and another few surprise awards (another knighting) and Nikki getting her Light of Atenveldt which was AWESOME! TRM Brian and Lia have announced their plans for the premiers of the OoD. Huh. I think the reactions speak volumes. Nuf said unless we are talking about the Ood which are very cool aliens.

Sunday was packing up and getting things off site. We did okay as a house but we need to make sure to stage things for the trailer pack a bit better to help. We got all torn down by 1230 or so and then the household went en masse to get ice cream. Got on the road at 150pm after some good byes and then home. Benny had fallen asleep in the car and mel just transferred him to his bed for a nap. (he shouldn’t have cause that was too much to lift but meh). WE got unloaded and mel into the shower while I went and picked up food from Brushfire BBQ. I got back and got a shower and Benny woke up for a bath. He splashed and played and then had dinner which he ate two adult size helpings before going to bed.

Work was interesting yesterday. Lots of weird happened before I left, which is still shaking itself out but I managed to get Employee of the Month for my product line and that was pretty cool. I get a dinner cert and an assigned parking space for the month. Scribble was hanging out and watching movie/kibitzing. Our younger members had never seen Big Trouble in Little China and we got to share.

All in all things are okay. We are all recovering, mel has a few more weeks before he can get back into martial arts etc but yeah, life goes on. I’ll get pictures posted soon.

My step sister Gretchen gave birth this morning to a 7lb 1 oz baby boy. They had to do a c-section but mom and baby are comfy in their own room and grandma's are descending this afternoon for visitation along with the ski club. No word on a name yet but I'm sure Chris was tired when he called mom. Gretchen pushed for 4 hours but the little guy didn't budge so they did the c-section.

I was sitting in a meeting when I got the email and I was crocheting on my scarf. My friend Luis (thyra's across the street neighbor) commented that I'm gonna have to make a blanket..so I showed him pictures of the one I made.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the cubical

Work plodded along. I'm working on a report, so its kinda snooze fest but the data is interesting. I also got to get a refresher class on secondary locking features for joints and that was actually good. Not as dry or as intensive as last week's class on Torque calculations. I knit during this week's class and that helped me absorb things. I love that I can hyper focus that way...wish I had known that in college.

Got done with work and I did a modified work out. I did my incline pushups and hindu squats combo, the minute sets of chins/dips/pullups. I modified my presses to not do them standing and did them on the bench and then worked my legs hard on the machines. I'm actually almost getting through all of each set with out taking a quick 10 sec break. I'm happy with that. Then I went and grabbed the bar and did bench presses. I need to now add weights to that. I hadn't used the bar since college so I needed to gauge what it was at my level now. Easy is what it was. I got changed and then headed home.

I was tuckered out when we got home and had mel reset my ankle and then we headed off to have dinner at Ed and Candaces's with Diana Paxson. Yes, that Diana Paxson, aka Diana Listmaker, aka founder of the SCA, aka fantasy writer extraordinaire. She is a very neat lady. We enjoyed taco's, good conversations, interkingdom anthropology and craft time. I worked on the blanket, Lorrie (diana's friend) worked on some faboo socks in Dream in Color Starry and Wander worked on crochet half gloves. Mel ended up teaching Lorrie the beginnings of nalbinding. Throughout all of that Holly was cute and funny and the conversation was excellent. It was a good night.

Got home, showered and went to bed. I did read for a bit but I was a good girl and shut off my light when mel went to sleep. I slept okay...though more is good. I got to work on time and that is a first in a long time. I have time to make up and lots to do so more time in the day is good.

Tonight is the Knit Night Anniversary potluck at Grandma's. Its been just over a year since grandma's started their Wednesday night knit night and we decided to celebrate. Yes, its Cinco de Mayo and we thought..why not? Hope to see a few of you there. Asa, do you want to learn to knit or crochet?

So, it should be a good night.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: the cubical

Last night was a very nice night of good friends, good movie, good beer and good conversation...
( knowing is half the battle or A.I Team Cobra )

Woke up very late this morning and continued to stay in bed reading. Finally getting up for coffee and to finish my book and we got a phone call.

Master Yehudah had passed away. The Aten sun shines just a bit dimmer with his passing and I'm not even sure how to take it at this point...even a few hours after being told. I know he wouldn't want us all burbling and weepy but its hard to not be. The shock of it all. And I can't recall the last time I saw him and that bugs me to no end...I've got other memories that are filtering in...lots of them...but not the last time. Sighs. Kinda puts a damper on all things this weekend and I'm at a loss at what I should be doing. Sighs.

Current Mood: discontent
Current Location: Turtle House Brewery

like Christmas, with commentary tracks, special features, extra puppies, and beer.

Thank you

ickaimp for the fic..it was brilliant.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: the couch

Well, that was a very, very productive weekend..just not as productive as I needed it to be but I'm okay with that...it just means less sleep this week. Friday night I got home from work a 5pm...much later than planned but I got errands ran, sushi delivered, projects picked up, a hood worked on some more and then got dolled up for our anniversary dinner. Mel was about 1.5 hours later than I had hoped but it gave me an hour to "chill" and not move for once that week. We headed out and made it to the My Big Fat Greek Restaurant by 9pm. The food was faboo but since they are opening another restaurant on our side of town their liquor license is in review meaning they can't serve any. Sighs. We had a good time and came home exhausted from the week and very soon went to bed.

Saturday morning dawned bright and shiney and we got up in good order, packed the car, got gas and donuts and headed to site for cleanup. Mel was faboo and let me sew to and from the cleanup. Cleanup was good...many new things on site like a site steward and the trash wasn't too bad. The boys got to be manly and put up a barricade and school kids were running amok on a picnic. All good.

dqbunny surprised the heck out of us with a nummy Nigella's Guinness Chocolate Cake. Seriously, didn't expect that at all. Wow! And it was NUMMY!! Then we drove home (I sewed) and we stopped off at the new Wine and More and got some booze....very cool store. Then we headed home and got showered, changed and then headed out to Mon's Masked Revel. I sewed and almost finished up the tunic hem before we lost light. Had a very nice time, good food and good conversation while at the event. We got our second surprise of an chocolate orange gonache cake with tons of roses on it for our anniversary. Wow again! Plus we got some silk/morino wool as a prezzie too! Such luv, seriously overwhelming. We stayed about an hour later than we should and on the way home blew a tire. Yup. But in 10 mins we were back on the road. Got home and were exhausted from the day...wow.

We slept in for quite a while on Sunday. We both needed it and it was such good sleeping weather...cool in the house, warm blankets and snugly cats. Got going and out the door for joe's about 9am, had a good breakfast, picked up some scrips at walgreens and then home. I go things organized for my day and mel headed off to paint the war walls. I headed off to music practice. It was an okay practice. I just need more practice. Its been a bit since I played and well, when I keep switching clefs it gets me confused. But I have it now and just need to practice. Have 2 rehearsals set up for Tuesday and Wednesday so we should be good. Then I got home, finished Walrick's tunic finish work as seen at

scribe_ari's journal. I'm just doing finish work on all of the clothes so not a lot of work but its helpful to Ari. I got that done, put facing in my lacing areas of my dress except the sleeves cause I still didn't get that and then headed off to drop of the tunic and then head to

lferion's place for buttonhole goodness. We chatted quite a bit and got all of the buttonholes done...though we had to repair a few since I was dumb with the seam ripper. We got delivery chinese and it was good. Then I headed home to find my house full of boys drinking and eating chinese (guess we were all on the same wavelength).

zippydclown had been over a bunch in the last week working on stuff for coronation in the shop. Well, he and zephyr had finished work, mel had come home and richard had come over and they were having a good time. I joined in with a beer and then we kicked folks out about 11pm. Sighs, we'd been to bed on time all weekend...oops. Anyhoo, slept great and woke up and looked at the clock and realized that the alarm hadn't gone off and it was 630am. Ooops. Got up, got cars switched (mel gets to drive on the donut and handle all of the tire stuff this week for the car and the trailer). I got to drive the truck some more and I've missed her. Seriously. I'm amused this AM by the Undead journal. Its fun. But other than that its gonna be a hard week of work at home and here. Sighs. I'll post the to do list after I get back from my meetings.

( Things to do by friday )

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: The Cubical

"Cool Blue Reason"

Cool blue reason empties on the page
Your colleagues are in prison and your enemies enraged
Cool blue reason comes into your world
There's two more dead in Texas and it's probably your girls
Cool blue reason wraps around your throat
The minutes change like seasons
Only 8 more hours to go

Cool blue reason comes into your life
There's one more dead in Kansas and it's probably your wife
Cool blue reason I'm just talking to myself
Cool blue reason I'm just rearranging hell
I'm just talking to myself

Cool blue reason wraps around your throat
The minutes change likes seasons
Only 8 more hours to go
Back to table of contents

Current Mood: cynical
Current Location: The Cubical

( Presenting my masterwork )

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: Turtle House Brewery

Found this while cleaning my desk at work..

( speaking for cecelia's laurel )

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: The Cubical

I was driving from Witchita, KS to Albuquerque, NM on my big move to AZ. It was a long 11 hour day and the section through texas was a bit harrowing due to the ice storm that had hit there a few days before. I stayed at a hojos and ate a big meal of fajitas, beer and dessert from the applebees next door. It was all good. I was anxious and weirded out by the door out of my room onto the parking lot but I slept a bit and started out very early the next morning because the apartment complex would close early that next day and I needed to get there in time to check in and get my keys. I drove as fast as I could on unfamiliar roads and got there with a few minutes to spare. And I unloaded my car and was home in my first apartment by myself. That was my first night in Tucson, December 30, 2000. What a long way we have come.

I went to the southern war practice as my first event because the article for Fop Revel was a bit intimidating since I didn't think I had fancy enough garb. I met many folks and had a good time and now mel and I are B&B. Wow. What a fun 7 years with lots of good memories, fun friends and love. Wow.

Well, I had a fun time at Cinnabun's party and then slept wonderfully but I awoke with a splitting headache and nausea. Not sure what is up but after going back to bed, drinking lots of water and having a very, very long hot shower, I'm better. Sir Brendan is coming over to work on the tv setup (tweaking) and the boys are off getting wood for the expansion of the shop. Mel played Fable for over 5 hours. It makes me a bit seasick to see it. But I think that might just be this day and my head.

Well, brendan is here. Its all good.