Well, We all slept in a bit for Sunday AM since we were tired from Saturday. We made a plan to hit the Minecraft movie. We chose a new theater to us called Galaxy Theaters. They had the size of screen I wanted and the comfy seats and we had a nice time at the movies. Minecraft was so silly and terrible in the best ways. If you are a minecraft fan there is lots of fan service and respectful legendary cameos. Jason Momoa and Jack Black stole the show..I would have liked more with the ladies in the cast (Emma Myers and Danielle Brooks). Jennifer Coolidge in general was just kinda sad and creepy but I think that was the vibe, so okay. But it was fun.

I was tired and my brain wasn't really enjoying anything but I played some games and knit on the sock while mel and I watched things in the evenings. I think I put another inch on it. We did have a nice dinner. Mel sous vide a turkey breast he had smoked. I made fried spiced potatoes in the air fryer.

Monday work was way annoying. everyone was dumb and I had a meeting with my lead chief engineer. Yes things I was doing was someone else's job but for the time being I needed to do it until we replaced said person with someone who would do the job. I spent my afternoon crafting emails to get ahead of that task and get information to get things working. So that felt nice but it was a lot of work to get my brain to pull things together. I had a few tasks like that but turned on some tv to let my brain calm down and listen to that while I made the magic happen.

Once I clocked out for the day I kept watching TV and went through the jewelry making supplies on the table, consolidated and threw out trash bits and finished up laying out the necklace from Feed the Ravens. Mel had said dinner was ready when I was finishing up resorting beads that had gotten dumped on my floor during my making ari's earrings. I had just piled them into my bead tray and then took the time to fix it and put things together. Dinner was good, mel made stew with some leftover turkey breast, potatoes, leftover corn etc. I'm glad he's handy in the kitchen. We had dinner and then since all of my scribal stuff was packed I put it in the car and went to Ari's.

It was just her and I. She was "deleting" a person from a scroll that had been given out a long while ago and is now no longer a part of the recipients life for reasons. I sat down and pounced the two scrolls I had in work. The pounce stuck to a few places so I made sure to let it sit for longer. I did the calligraphy and it only smudged on erasure on two spots 1 on each scroll so yeah. I'm glad I'm getting these scrolls done and out of the case and now I know how to "fix" oily perg but that was not how I wanted to learn it. But I got those done and I have one other scroll in my case from an unknown scribe which is not completed. I have a knighting scroll get text on and hoping I can get that done on Saturday. Its been nice to get back in teh swing of things and yeah make shit so the brain weasels just don't win.

I'm hoping I can get that shawl moving as well but I will see how much brain power I have. I might just plug and finish his sock. Then I have a hat for him to do. But I'd like that shawl making progress.

So yeah. making stuff...seems to help the brain or at least postpone the panic a bit. not sure what else I can do...right?

I got up in time to manage to get breakfast down in the lobby. we had a nice bit of SCA folks there, mostly out of kingdom. The breakfast at Fairfield is not as good as the one at Holiday Inn Express. The selection was pretty poor and the staff wasn't up for the amount of people coming through. I got food and then dressed for the day. I managed to look good I think in my Pelican outfit which I think at this point is a bit too big. I spent most of my day wandering catching up with people (Paul and Chani), seeing lots of folks from all over. I had missed morning court but the procession etc didn't start until 11am or so. I was hanging out with HRM Jalida of Midrealm who in my face blind morning I had lent my spare under dress to that morning after breakfast. I figured it out in the room and felt weird. Yay face blindness. Sighs. But she and her retinue Baroness Karden were fab. We had a good time. The fighting was basically auxiliary to me visiting people. I watched here and there. I got to see Cassandra's scroll before the ceremony. Before afternoon court there was lots of zhuzhing and putting on more layers as the temperature was coming down and putting on all the bling. Also Mistress Debroshka, aka Maggie King of Feed the Ravens was there and was wonderful to just hang with her too. I also got to meet Mistress Michiele (aka Leftcoastdyer) of the famous natural dye rainbow laurel wreath and who became an internet friend over the covids.

I also got to hear Inara sing and play guitar.

The finals were intense. Siggy won for Stevie/Sofia and I got the best picture of her afterwards.

The ceremony, the whole reason I went was lovely. The speakers were Duchess Sir Helga and Mistres (?) who were her peers, Her dad who is a MOD from Caid, Zippy and another Knight who went through the virtues and got to "purity" and we all lost it. Yup its a virtue and yeah. The best part was her medallion was made by Ugo Serrano. There was a whole thing where she wasn't allowed to look at it, then the presentation, then the realization. Her scroll was done by Fia (I don't know her titles) but it was amazing. She was hella surprised. They also did lemoncello shots or lemonade if that is your fancy to toast her ceremony led by the king.

By the time court ended (2 more peerages) we were all pretty toast. There were lots of photos of the whole crew which I need to download but we were all pretty tired after that. Plus a lot of folks had been in large/heavy italian gowns all day and my back was telling me I had had my coronet on all day and a good chunk of the night before. I left site and then showered and changed into comfy pjs style clothes since folks were ordering in and having a pj party down in the lobby. I had my other half of my burrito for dinner, some beers and gin and sweets and it was a nice time. I petered out by 11pm and slept really well.

That is where I will leave it for now with the full album of the previous evening and the day and my good byes is here.

Well, on Monday I finished up the rose embroidery. I had to sit and stare at it cause it looked done but my plan had been more but I felt it would be too guady. I got some Peer Review from Ari, Thyra, Eyvor and danabren and they all agreed I can be done if I think its done. The negative space usage was making me happy...is it period? I have actually no idea, this is well out of my wheelhouse for time and craft. But I'm super happy with it.

The finished Rose

The finished pair with scale

I made sure to put it in the post this AM so it can get to her by Saturday or Monday. So all good. I also need to get through my studio...get things cleaned up from war prep (do my damn laundry) and pull fabric for a quick new outfit for her elevation. I know the under-under dress will be this fun plaid linen I have but over dresses not sure and its the bay area so the weather can be super weird. So yeah. It will be simple and have trim and I will be using my serger for reasons. But yes, a simple dress, simple placket and some trim. But I need to look at fabrics and see what I have and what can look right in a short amount of time.

I also need to pull clothes and see what fits (queue body dysmophia tango) for Mexico. I need clothes for hot humid and hiking....and my swimsuit. Sighs. I'm not happy especially with this jowly picture captured by Sigrid. I look old and I don't like it. I know I've been not good on all the things with gym/eating/drinking and my knee is not helping me. But things have got to change.


I'm trying but mentally the work load and the everything else going on with the USA is hard. I had liquid dinner last night. We had dropped hardware, not ordered hardware, people completely going off the rails on a request, folks not understanding things that are simple, the white house block all news orgs access to info (see here, I left work late and had to walk all the way around since my gate was closed and it was just a day. I could have made a better choice and I just could not. Sighs. Tonight will be better. I have knitting group and projects in the bag. Trying to shift my attitude but man its hard. Sighs.

We shall plod along.

I am still reading book #3 which is The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik and its gotten so good. I need to pick a few books for travel next week.

We had a really nice time. The household ran well, the food was tasty, we had fun, there was a lot of meandering around to other camps and practices. I have a list of observations with possible scenarios for fixes/or kudos in work to share with the autocrats. I'm not going to complain, just show observations and then offer solutions. Though for one item I may do baronial land next year. I have lots of experience doing it and I know how to do maps and make things nice.

I went to a lot of the parties, attended 2 vigils, took 450+ photos (which I'm still uploading), captured some awesome moments of start dust, ate really well, drank a lot, got my hair braided for the first time by Hands of Mercy. Its still holding and this is Tuesday.

One bad thing is was when I went to go look at some pottery, Ari had bent down to pet a corgi and I lifted my left over hers to not trip and my knee decided to dislocate. It did not want to go back in. So I hobbled home, got an ice pack, and kept my foot up most of Saturday night. It finally reset enough to walk a bit but man was it swollen. Managed to get us packed up without me carrying anything large, I got all the vehicles to camp since I could get a cart and we were all off site just after noon. My knee was on fire and swollen but I could walk with a bit of limp. We had lois with me and Benton and with only a quick stop for gas in Marana we were home and unloaded with in an hour. Mel got the trailers parked. Dom came over to help unload the truck of heavy things since I could not. I love my household. There was no yelling except "are you drinking water? do you want a sammich? have you put on sunscreen?" and we got things done well.

We got papa murphys take and bake pizza for dinner. The kids ate a family hawaiian, mel got his fancy chicken feta and I got a small dairy free cowboy. Very good noms. The cats were happy we were home. Spicy gave snuggles and Tasha wanted all the love from Mel and I. We all were in bed super early and that was good.

Monday morning moving sucked. But I got an appt with Glen at 9, so I dropped kids at school and he put be back together. My foot was super out and my hip and that makes the knee go weird. My instructions are rest, ice, and slow walking. I was so swollen by the end of the evening you can see the knee and my foot were bad. we had dinner with Wander, Megan, and Herveus which was super nice.
I will recap more later but in general a very good war.

And the photos will be up too.

Unlike all of the girls chat I had to work...we don't get the oddball national holidays off but its why we get off the week between xmas and new years so okay. I made sure to stay on task with my to do list. Work was a lot of meetings, listening meetings, and watching things. So that worked fine.

Through all of that I repaired my half gloves which developed holes within a few wearings. I don't think the yarn was up for the task. Then I worked on finishing up the sock which I did in the afternoon.

Got to my dentist appt early, as requested but it still took well over an hour for the crown replacement to permanent. I have a fussy mouth and I'm sure now the temp crown left one of my nerves free to be annoyed. With the permanent crown I don't have any pain which is good and this piece of porcelain feels more like a tooth than the one I had before. There are good grooves in it. I think we had to polish the one on my other tooth too much and it still feels weird 3 years later. After the dentist I trundled to the spa to get a pedicure and that was heavenly. I got a sparkly pale pink. ?I got the cast on for the next sock but I left my third needle at home so I read my book instead while I was being pampered.

I grabbed cat litter and should have gotten Spicy food but meh at Petco before heading home. I was cold cause the temp had dropped (yay desert) and the wind picked way up. I was also in slides and bare toes...so chilly. Got home and mel was finishing up a nice large batch of red beans and rice. I had bought sausage at Forbes. And that was tasty...though he had decided to put carrots in it? They were not as cooked as everything else so odd but I'm sure that will soften as it sits and reheats for lunch. After that mel was playing stardew and when he finished he got me a fancy drink with the fresh pineapple, chinola, rum and ice. It was so good and then I played Stardew and got the last fish and the last star drop! And then I died in the skull carverns doing stoopid things and didn't make the quest that day. But its all good. And then it was time for bed. Which I got myself to and didn't stay up too late reading though things were getting to a fun but second hand embarrassment bit so I was good stopping.

Today I have my gym bag (I found it shoved behind the laundry bins that go under the bureau. I have a hoodie for afterward and yeah. Not sure what I will be working on but I need to increase my intensity after I get myself settled with getting back. I also will try to hit a yoga class elsewhere but I need to move more and lift more.


On the meds front I'm on my last week and I've cut the cables to 1/4 kinda and I will just take them and then be done. I'm still having some sugar cravings but I think part of that is I'm cold sugar makes you warm but my drinking has been much better. So little steps. I'm not touching a scale until after the war...that way goes madness.

I did get some new photos from my ceremony at much more flattering angles from HE Kollgrimma and that was nice. I've added them to the album at the end. Still trying to get the video and any other pictures.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The weekend has ended and I think we are all in a sad with the family leaving for home but the eldest nephew had band camp as a freshman starting today so needs must. Saturday we did a bit of antiquing after they left. Benton had been dealing with a slight sore throat that has gotten worse and got so bad that we trundled up to town to get to urgent care. Its not strep but is like my issue a few months back with allergies getting past his meds. We also need to get the dehumidifiers running in the downstairs cause its musty and he may have an issue with any surface mold. But he's feeling better yesterday but was pretty chill watching tv all day after we got back to the house.

Sunday we managed to get to the local fighter practice in my original home shire of Border Downs. King Hans is a local now so Mel got to have a lot of good passes, including with pole arm (he borrowed gauntlets) and he had fun fighting other folks. I guess next year we will have to drag his C&T stuff. I spun on my drop spindle and did a good long bunch of fiber in the 2+ hours we were there. Benton was playing on the playground. I talked with a bunch of modern families that came to see and was a good peer even when I had a mom say her kiddo was non verbal, I still spoke with him to show him the fiber I was spinning and I could see he liked the texture and gave him a small sample to have. All of the kids were polite and when I redirected with if you want to touch something please ask they were really good. Two of the kids played with benton's boffers and when it was time to leave I asked them to please put them back how they found them and they did. Good parenting there which I appreciated. Another mom asked where we buy our costumes and I explained we made most everything and said I'm even making yarn right now and she went "go you!" which was hilarious. I was in shorts and tank top but still it was hilarious.

The mosquitos have been brutal with all of the flooding and rain here. Luckily the Off active dry works well but man they have been insane even in the day time. I'm looking at getting one of the mosquito thingys for the patio. Cause damn I want to sit out in the evenings. They were not this bad last year but boy howdy this year is nuts.

We got back from practice and had lunch and then I got a shower from the bug spray making my skin feel gross. I got a quick rinse off and then I took a 2 hour nap. Finally got up and worked on the pants. I did change out the needle and mucked with the thread a bit. I'm using brand new gutterman thread but the needle did most of the trick I also learned from this video how to do reverse and other things.

I finished the pants after dinner and then sat down at my wheel to spin the mohair and about an hour in my footman on teh left side snapped. This happened last year on the right side so now I need to wrangle with that today. It was late and dark and I needed tools from the big garage and I just sat down and worked on the emotional support chicken and finished its beak and now it looks like a flat chicken and is making me very happy. next up on it is the comb, then the wattle and then the underside before stuffing. I hopefully can get it done before we leave for WW and then just have some socks for mel on the needles. I will also pack my spinning since the polworth is spinning up quickly.

I'm about 50% through #24 for the year and the plot thickens. I'm not sure if this takes place in the almost timeline of now or not. There are references to the modern world and actors etc but I'm not sure that the "real" world knows that magic exists? Oh well reading I guess they don't. I'm interested in how this will go next.

So things are nice, its relaxing and the cats happy. Especially since I got a new cat tunnel that is an s-curve with extra cutouts that is making it hilarious with tails sticking out of weird spots. Happy kittens.