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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, I've been MIA from posting since I've had a scribal project in big works and then I had an allergy flair that laid me out, Benton got sent to DC for school trip and work was even more special two weeks in a row.

So, last I updated Benton and I were together for the week with Mel on travel. He and I survived and did good. Very little yelling and he got video game time while I did painting in the evenings. Friday (12th) had Mel home and I headed to the happy hour for Frank's send off to another program. I dressed up and put make up on and that was nice. Got to catch up with a lot of folks who had moved programs and it was nice. I was able to treat one of my engineers to drinks for a thank you and get hugs from folks I hadn't seen in a while. Sat we grabbed Ari and headed up to Phx for Cerridwen and Val's wedding. It was a lovely day, perfect weather, strong drinks, good food, party games (I still rock at corn hole). We headed home happy and satiated and Benton got a slew of kids prizes for games and things he had played. I also got to knit a bit and reconnect with knitting Cerridwen cause worlds collide and friends are friends and you didn't realize it.

Sunday I worked on the scroll and Po came over for faces and kibitzing while I got the text finally settled. I basically made it sound like a medieval recipe to make a laurel and it went like this:

To Make a Laurel (As Written)
Take a thousand words or more & sound hem forthe and drawe Þe Nobles and Crowns togidre unto a fayre procession.

If Þou wilt, lete hem be led by a fayre goode cooke dressyt yn fine raiment & high upon her hede the grandest hattuz fer all to knowe.

Bring forthe all good grene Laurels and gather togidre and caste hereto norot to fewe, ne noȝt to many the fine vestments to fit as to that noble order henceforthe, and add to writ all rank, privilege, and rights togidre fore all tyme.

And thus, we serue it forthe this Saint Agnes Day, Anno Domini MMXXIV in Anno Societatis LVIII to proclaim Magdalen Venturosa as a Companion of the Order of the Laurel. Set by Our hands hereto and hereafter.

Kona Cyng, Aesa Cwēn

Took some wrangling to get all of the correct things in but since she is already a Pelican I didn't need to put in a patent again which would have made things awkward. I rather liked it. Plus her Hubby was doing a Chaucer piece in full old English to open her ceremony. So he read the scroll.

Anyhoo...with a few more hours painting it was done and just needed calligrapy. Work that week was nuts. I was super tired and trying to get things done was hard. Tuesday was my birthday and it was very meh. I dressed nicely since I had to be in work that day but the plan was pretty meh. Nothing special. I did bring in donuts. Mel and Benton had kung fu and fighter practice. My day shifted drastically when we got evacuated from our building and not with the fire alarm. We didn't know what was up but security had us move north of the road loop and instead of hanging at the covered area near the bus stop we headed to one of the large cafeterias to wait. We weren't sure what was going on and they wouldn't let us go south to our cars so we waited. A few hours later we got sent back to work since the suspicious package had been dealt with. Yeah they had evacuated a blast radius. But it was dealt with and we were okay. It was just a bit nerve wracking. But by the time we got back to our desks at 2pm we were all just cranky. evac news

I left work and came home and sat on my phone playing games until it was time to get Benton. I should have cooked but we picked up Canes which was not what I wanted so it tasted meh to me. But I managed to get the practice on the scroll text using a crap chisel pen and a legal pad. It had been almost 2.5 years since I had done any calligraphy so I had to practice a few times. The early gothic I used to do has not changed into a fine batarde so that was a surprise. Mel got home very late and I was cranky...he had gotten me flower (tulips and other things for my birthday which was nice but the cats kept trying to eat them). It wasn't a great birthday and just plain weird.

Anyhoo, work was nuts the next day too but I got home and did a trial run on a piece of tracing paper to the tracery of the scroll setup. I did one half and then went down a nib size and that dialed in the text for how I needed to do it for the real scroll. I made very large G&T and got at it. I'm very pleased with the result and I only made two typos. One I forgot a word and I glossed that in later and I missed a letter in her name and had to scrape and fix it. but overall it was done. Then I had to draw in the bumpers and the fancy initals I had left off. Thursday i painted that all in and then started in on the gloss. A gloss is
where a text had extra notes or translations or errors fixed later in the margins. I took feedback from friends, associates and KW peeps to add into the gloss. I used a drafting nib to write it in my own handwriting/printing. It fun and I then put spiders in the painting and elsewhere in the text areas. They are her heraldry and it was fun to hide them.

I had Friday (19) off so I ran to michaels to get foam core and made the enclosure. its been a while since I had done that but it turned out nice. I then went and helped Bridget get a battery in her car. Kia designed things dumb and I don't have a 6 inch extension for my craftsman set so I had to remove the air filter and have her hold the cowl back for me to get the dumb battery bracket undone but we got it done in an hour even with the drive to and from the autoparts store. Got home in time to pick up Benton and get his ID card and then got a massage and home to a grumpy husband. Who thought we had to be someplace at 6pm and I got home at 630 and I'm like my dude, its always a 90 minute appt and the thing doesn't start until 7pm. He chilled after that. We headed to Thyra's for Magdalen's vigil and it was old home week. Tati and Mingo arrived from Meridies, Ann and Tonius came in from Midrealm. Bridget came since her car was working and brought Maddie who is 24 OMG. Benton played with the mini aussie puppy and ate a lot of the food...which was tasty what I could eat. I mostly drank the cocoa puffs beer from Dom and chatted with people. We got home about 1045pm and we all crashed.

Saturday was Meet the Masters and Mel had packed up a bunch of weaving things for him and Floki and I packed up my scribal stuff and when we were packing Benton started throwing up. And was not stopping. I had the scroll to deliver, We were both supposed to speak to Magdalen and yeah. We made teh decision for Mel to stay how with the kiddo and the puke. I drove across town to the event. hiked my stuff in after getting the scroll signed and setup everything just before court. I sat at the back of court with Ari and Bridget and the crew gathered for the Laureling. I did not know that Magdalen was going to sing her way in for presenting the boar's head . She had the Whiskey Bards (tucson local ones). It was quite the affair. I was to speak as teh royal peer for Ivan and I and I guess I did okay cause everyone said I was inspiring. oof. But from a Royal peer you need those who make the ambience, who culture the experience of the SCA, who wear those hats you see in painting and go WTF is that?! That is Magdalen. There was an audible gasp for the scroll which is always the best part(tm) and everyone was amazed at the gloss.

You can see the scroll progress picts here.

I got the scroll for display during the day and I set up my scribes desk and callig'd 3 scrolls while chatting with Po and Ari and Dominique. Dom was across the walkway brewing beer and chatting with us too. We had a lot of school kids come and chat with us and I did a quick tour of the inside folks. Afternoon court was good and we had packed up beforehand so it was easy to go home. I had been checking up on Benton and Mel and once he stopped puking 930am...he slept until 2pm and then was pretty good.

I was hot and tired since it was low 90s and slightly windy that day. I got a shower and texted Ari and we had family dinner out for Sushi. (benton had good noodles and broth). It was nice and quiet and just the family with Dominique since she was staying with us. It was nice to chat and talk and then go home to rest. I was weary.

We slept in a bit and Sunday was a lasy day but I went and got things for Benton's trip and got my toes done. I was feeling odd though when I got home. And I will talk more about that in the next post.

I'm still reading "Making it So" #14 of the year.

Well, Christmas and New Years was really nice. I had my surgery and while I'm still recovering I still enjoyed things for the holidays and slept a lot. I also got a cold and that didn't help either. Sighs. We had my MIL here and that was wonderful and Shanda was here for a few days and that was awesome.

So when we last left my poor journal I was recovering from a cold and worked my last week of work. I spent that weekend cleaning and getting things setup for xmas since I was going to be laid up a bit. I will admit that being home for 2 days by myself was handy since I had the quiet to do my thing. I also had the Craftvent shawl to work on in between things and that was good too. Tuesday the 19th I had lunch with Mel's coworkers at Mamma Louisa's and then I went home for final prep before taking a Lyft to my operation. I was very surprised I got to ride in a Tesla Model S. It was swanky.

The surgery was okay. They had me on a lidocaine pump which was neat and I was very sore when done but I really didn't feel anything except in a few spots where they pumped me full of lidocaine some more. Got cleaned up and bandaged up and Mel was there to pick me up. We had to stop on the way out to get a bandaid for a stitch I had at the top of my left thigh...it was going to catch on everything. I was bandaged for a few days and Thursday night the bandages had slipped an bunched behind my knee that I could not sleep and the vicodin made me feel weird (face numbness) so I called the doc in the AM to see if I could take them off earlier than my appt that afternoon. Luckily Wander was there to help me since things were bloody and stuck to sutures and I hadn't really looked at the damage and it was hard to move etc. Then came the best and hardest shower of my life. The one after Benny was much easier. I had to sit down for this one and slowly scrub over the sutures. The sharpie marks from the surgeon took a week or so to come off. AFter that I was just in compression thigh highs for a week and then moved to only compression knee socks and now I'm doing pretty good. The legs are weirdly stiff, especially the one they ablated the vein in. It pulls something fierce and I have to keep getting up and walking...oh noes...more walking. :) They took the sutures out the afternoon I took the bandages off which was nice.

After that it was into holiday things pretty much full swing just at a much more slow rate than I normally do. That was okay. I needed to take things easy and Shanda helped me get lasagna done and pies. Mel and his mom had fun shopping and doing things and Benton was super excited to have folks there and presents and the like. Unfortunately, just as we finished the holiday Mel and Ellen got bad colds and Benton was lethargic with a kinda cold too. I knit on my shawl, watch MacGuyer (original series) and dinked around for like a week. All good. I finished the shawl and blocked it ready to wear.

Over New Years I worked on banners with the household and we got new furniture for the front room. The IKEA table went to Ari's and we got a 1915 mahogany gateleg table and then a side 1950s Danish Modern to use when we needed big space. We had a lot of folks who do not have linen banners for themselves and we needed to teach the method and we have this great big porch and well, we did banners. I had given everyone homework and well...only one person really did that but it all worked out in the end. New Years night there was painting, good dinner, light saber fights and then watching Spiderman Homecoming with a bunch of people. I painted more banners and we had a nice week with Ellen before Ben and us went back to work and school.

Work has been busy and all of the SCA stuff is getting busy again too. The weekend before we came back was Kingdom 12th Night and Benton was awarded his Lion's Pride. The tail is uber cute.

So, albums for friends and family:
Xmas 2017

Leg Surgery Kinda Graphic?!

My Shawl:

Yesterday can be summed up in:

1) Emergency telecon of yelling
2) Me not loosing my cool for people not reading reports I sent almost 3 weeks ago which would have eliminated #1.
3) Not feeling hungry which I thought was odd
4) Phone call from school to pick Ben up cause he bit his teacher
5) Get remorseful boy home and realize I have a splitting headache
6) Me laying down the rest of the day
7) liquid dinner
8) Bed Early

Coirker commented I looked like "hell" this am. Now I know mel was lying when he said I looked fine with just slightly fluffier hair. Gonna be a long as day.

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.