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.

Work was busy...again, the end of the year is looming and lots to do. The hardware that I travelled so much for in the last year is finally being received and I get to go out to our final assembly area and check it out. YAY!

Got home with the boy who fought getting solids yesterday and fed him full of pears and mixed veggies. Who knows. Might be his teeth...might be he doesn't like the high chair...not sure. He does good for us. Handled some baronial business and then got the boy a bath and into bed. I then kinda just sat watching tv. I finally got up and washed and filled bottles and then sat working on fibergeek's xmas present. Well, at some point I fell asleep. Mel got home about 1015 and woke me up. He said it was cute cause I was mid-stitch and had cats snuggled with me. LOL.

Took a bit to extricate myself cause my feet had fallen asleep but I quickly got to shower and bed. I was asleep and snoring pretty quickly I guess. I slept good and got up on time which means that I got to work really early and that is good. The sun had just crested the mountains as I was walking into the building...yay!

Tonight is knit night. I have not been there in quite a while and it will be good to see everyone. I have projects in my bag and I need help on my plan for the nephew...not quite getting the directions on the short rows. Its gonna be cute though.

Well, paperwork is looming.

Well, monday morning I fed the boy and handed him over the Mel and then flew to alabama. We hit a lot of rain after we landed but it was good flights and I managed to finish mel's mitts by the time I went to bed last night. We ate at an Oyster house and it was tasty. Getting up this morning for working out was hard. It was 530 am local time...oof. But I went and did some calisthenics, some body weight exercises, some weighted exercises with the little 15#s that they had and then ran intervals for 15 mins. It was good for me and I'm going to do it again in the morning. The work was good and I had other stuff going while we went through all of the paperwork. I've got drawing changes to do and one of them was unexpected but I guess I'm not surprised. I just don't have a solution yet and I'm tired enough that I'm going to work on it tomorrow.

There was a huge thunderstorm while we were at the supplier today and the power went out. ITs not that bad for temperature even with the humidity. I was thinking it was going to be worse. Pumping is going okay. Family bathrooms in airports and the really nice ladies bathroom at the supplier have made things easy. The boobs though aren't too happy. I think part of it is just I'm off in timing than normal and I think Ben pulls things differently than the pump does. My right side is a bit sore but I've been there before. I'm missing the boy and it sounds like he and Mel had a great time with duchess_asa and american_knight's for dinner last night. I hope he is happy tonight and not too grumpy for mel. meowandbark sent me a picture today of him at daycare being all happy playing in an excersaucer. Its good to see and hard to see. All of the folks at the supplier, including the machinists were really happy to see the pictures of Benton. I've spent a lot of time here before and that was nice to see the caring nature of this supplier. Makes it not feel too bad about being gone.

Well, time to knit a bit and then head to dinner.

Hi, all. Sorry for the radio silence but its been a crazy few days.

Benton Thomas Kemp was born on 3/21/11 at 356pm at Tucson Medical Center.
He weighed in at 7lbs 2oz and 19 inches long.

We had to go to the hospital after I pushed for 3 hours and he was stuck and was face up with his head turn toward my left thigh.
They gave me petocin to increase the strength of my contractions at the hospital and I was able to get him out with more pushing (and an episiotomy). We found out why he wouldn't turn properly because he had is right arm next to his head and had his cord around his neck twice (though it never cause him issues except for trying to turn, good heart beat throughout everything).

Needless to say I was exhausted after 13 hours of labor (4 hours of pushing) and I didn't have any pain meds which was my goal and I'm still recovering. And as you guys know me...its hard for me to rest when there are things to do and well, I need my rest. So, I'll leave you with a picture. If you are on my flickr feed you can see the albums but here is him in his coming home outfit.

Ooff...yeah, its 930 on friday night and I'll be heading to bed here shortly. I've already had my shower and its time for me to put my feet up for the night.

Alabama was productive but o' so tiring. Long travel days, followed by staying up reading the first night (Jim Butcher's Side Jobs which is #37 for the year. #36 was Dark Slayer by Christine Feehan and I finished that last week some time. It was intersting but a bit on the porn romance side in spots...not that I'm complaining but when the sex scenes last longer than the fight sequences well its a bit odd.) Side Jobs is the collection of all of the short stories so far in the Dresden Files. The last one takes place a few hours after the end of the last book. So for folks who have read that...it doesn't really answer anything but it give you a bit of calm and hope before we get Ghost Stories in April.

I spent most of Thursday on my feet on the factory floor with my hands dirty. The articles had issues and well, I had to use lots of brain, computer and cell phone power to get answers, solutions and actions. We didn't leave the factory until after 6pm. And were back there around 8am today to handle more stuff including a last minute forehead slap of an thing. Sighs. Hard work and I was so tired. Podling woke me up about 345am and I had a hard time getting back to sleep. I did manage to run a mile both days and today I did it even faster than normal. Of course that meant that after sitting in an airplane for a couple of hours my left knee swelled up a bit. Sighs. It was very sore by the time I got to my car and had to drive home clutch and all. Mel met me to pick up my luggage and I settled in to watch him finish the newest section of borderlands. We had dinner and then I was so weary I got a shower and here we are.

Monday I travel to California to got to a test of some hardware. It should be interesting but again a really grueling two days. Sighs. The following week I'll be in Cleveland for more of the stuff like I saw in Alabama but hopefully all of the lesson's learned from this week will make that much better. We shall see. Gonna be busy though. Sighs. All good to get these projects wrapped up by the end of the year or so. Time for bed.

There is this problem when you don't think things through. I didn't do this design I'm testing but I would have caught this before hand...not at the prototype level. The holes are too small for a full wire wrap.. Ooops. Well, at least we caught it at prototype. Gonna have to make a change though.

Work was quick but a lot to do and I accomplished some stuff. I was very happy to leave and head out to errands but by the time I fought traffic to get home I was exhausted from Target/costco/goodwill. Sighs. I did manage to make a nummy dinner, with leftovers and lunches for us and dude, I'm never buying non-Japanese sweet potatoes ever again. So nummy. 17th street Market for the win! By the time I got the last of the lunch stuff off the grill I was beat. I did not want to put away more fabric and stuff so I just snuggled up on the couch and worked on the afghan. Mel and I hit the showers at 9pm and I think I was asleep about 930pm. Slept rather well I think but I'm still tired. The allergies are getting me a bit. I also think that me taking a night off was good. I don't want to get over tired. Plus I'm sure the muscle sore isn't helping. I had pushed rather hard on Monday at the gym since I had basically 2 weeks off and I needed to feel the burn. I'll do the same thing tonight and then hit knit night. I mismeasured the afghan and I actually have another foot to go to finish the body. Well, that is okay. I like the mindlessness right now.

I've got a ton of meetings today so hopefully things work well and go quickly. Its all about the same part so its gonna be overkill but it will be good to close those actions out. Though did find out that my travel for next week is probably getting postponed which I think is good. I've been doing a bit too much of that. So, here is to a day that is quick and easy.

Its a good thing that I drink coffee tan...cause it doesn't stain the carpet when you spill it when you pick up your laptop off of the floor. It could have been worse...I could have spilled it on the laptop. Just a waste of good coffee and furthers my tired and hopeless feeling mood. Dunno what that is about but it just needs to stop.

Yesterday I awoke very poorly. Bad dreams peppered my sleep and waking up crying is never a good thing in my book. Its odd though, I've only had panic attacks in my sleep in the last 10 years or so...so I guess I'm getting better. Got up and moving and coffeed and I finally go up off of the couch to work on my new hangerock. I got the edging sewn on, ironed and pinned for hand sewing and I finished that. Then I realized that I really needed to hand finish all of the seams. I've been lacking in that on everything and its annoying to me. So I just did it. The boys went too shopping and more sawdust ended up in the house. We met Mingo and Tati for dinner and that was nice. Sorry to Thyra for not making the party but things for all of us were moving in the slow relaxing direction. Had a nice dinner at Sweet Tomatoes and then back to the house for zombie board games. I played the nurse and all I was good for was finding all of the townsfolks (per the scenario) and killing zombies with my bare hands. The humans won but it was close. Richard played some mean zombies.

The it was time for bed, or so I thought. I tried to sleep and even after water, drugs and a massage I wasn't in the sleep state. It was well after 1am that I fell asleep. Weird dreams persisted. Not sure what all of this is about. Slept in a while and have been finishing up the hangerock and reading. I have the straps to put on and then the dress is done, not too bad. I finished At Knit's End: Meditations for Women who Knit Too Much by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee which makes #23 for the year. I plan on trying to finish the BFF's novel today too. I'm feeling pretty lousy to do much else. I frogged my knitting on friday and started on a different present but I'm not sure I have the brain power for it or not. Mel is putting linseed oil on the bed and then I'm not sure what else he's got planned. We need to go shopping for various and asundry things. But the motivator is broken and we need to head to Mos Eisley to get it fixed

I don't really care what anyone says...I'm not going to be here tomorrow. The fires that are burning can do so over the weekend...I'm just sick and tired of all of my hard work being for naught or for me to work so hard and to fail because others aren't keeping up with the tasks at hand.

The moon is waxing which is not when this type of stuff occurs...something else is going on to make the universe hate us all so much right now.

I needed last night, it was good. I'm going to need more of the same tonight and tomorrow, to myself to just organize, pack and clean will be good.

My dress is almost done. I just have to do eyelets and finish the newly cut sleeves and my tippets. The eyelets will be tonight, tippets will be tomorrow and that will just have to do. I need to pre-make dinner for saturday night and get that vacuum packed. Pasta is easy that way.

Obsidian was a pill last night, course she urped up all of her food after she ate it so I'm sure it was her being hungry. But man that cat can be a pain in the middle of the night.

Well, time to shove to.

Well by 1115pm my clothes were done...I tried them on and its nice and swanky and boobalishous. I will make sure to get pictures while I'm dressing to see all of the layers and I'll make sure to get some when I'm dancing.

My husband was an asshole over soup of all things...and he can't figure out why I was upset.

We killed off the big bad guy...we drowned him...apropos really since his player character almost drowned early in our campaign. Very apropos.

I think I'm just a bit over tired and now I'm not tired. I hate that.

Well, I'm still tired but I've been having some fun. Got home from work, had lunch picked up the house a bit and then fell into an exhausted drooling coma on the couch. I woke up when mel was home and the storm started to hit. We managed to get out and get shopping done. With me on travel so much of late the cupboards were making the battle of pantry kung fu harder to win so we got staples and the like. Once home, mel finished cleaning up the kitchen and I got dinner going.

Now, I luv Patak's spice marinades and blends. I'd bought some tandoori rub/mariande and wanted to do a nice indian dish. Got to cooking and once the spices hit the veggies the meal turned...well, fuchsia. Yes, dinner was bright fuchsia pink. But it was tasty. Game night went well, though we got off kilter quite a bit. We had fun and that was the main thing. Got to bed after making a potluck item for the luncheon (cous cous salad again). Awoke at 230 to hear the pounding rain and that got both of us out of bed to hit the bathroom. I slept well but I was still pretty stuffed up when we got up for reals at 730. Got a shower and felt better but I was still tired. I think this is gonna take a while to shake.

The drive to mons was nice, the mountains look very lush with the rains and my iphone was melancholy. Got to site with plenty of time and hung out for a bit. The tourney had 16 fighters and I made it 2 rounds. First round was to Sir Justin with Great Sword. Not my best weapon and I was hesitant...which in this style of tourney, well, any tourney isn't the best. Next round was single mace which I seem to be much more comfortable with than even my sword and shield. It was against mathew de lacy and I didn't do badly. I thought one of the shots skipped and got off of my helm and they called me victor, got off of the field and went back on when ivan said it had landed squarely on my head. Mace's hit weird and Matt wasn't sure either so we refought, this time with matt getting me but I took his right leg out from under him very well...I'm sure there will be a bruise. I was out and stayed in armor for a while to await pickups...but as the tourney went on I got home tired and just weary. So, I got out of gear and cooled down and attempted to stay awake. I did get some knitting done and that made me happy. I also got to use my own gauntlets which I ahd spent most of game night and part of the drive stitching in gloves. They are comfy.

Got home after a while and I took a good nap. Mel worked on shoes and I've since just been watching tv...nothing else. No knitting even...just watching tv. I think it will be an early night. I'm still very tired. Will post pictures tomorrow from the tourney.