My weekend in San Jose was amazing and fun and I'm still tired. Lol. Early mornings, late nights, lots of drinks, lots of walking/standing and chatting.

So, I got up a bit after 5am on Friday to get to the airport. Everything was super smooth from pickup at the parking, to bag drop, to security. My bag did get pulled for the jewelry and the gent who did the inspection asked nicely if I wanted him to repack and I said I would take care of it and he said thank you. I was able to get to my gate and have coffee and donuts before my flight. I relaxed and finished my book #4 for the year "The Lights of Prague", #3 was the previous weekend and was Captain Carter: Woman out of Time Graphic Novel, on the flight and at my gate in San Diego. I got a beer at a bar. The gates were packed but it was nice to relax with that. The flight to San Jose was nice, I started #5 Dark Arts and a Daiquiri by Annette Marie which was awesomely fun. I finished it on the way back.

Anywhoo...arrived in San Jose, the airport was nice, got my luggage, got my rental car easy peasy. Though the Kia Soul I got was base model but it had Carplay which I've never used but was super helpful. The first stop on my trip was Winchester House which has been a bucket list item for me since I was little. Its kitschy in the right ways, well maintained and the staff was all super nice, very well informed, and did a wonderful job talking about the house/history etc. I had a nice burger for lunch before my tour. The tour was nice, we got to see 110 out of the 160 rooms. The seance room was way smaller than I realized and I also didn't realize that none of the original furnishings are with the house. Also, when the 1906 earthquake hit Sarah closed the front 30 rooms of the house for damage and they were sealed until about a year after her death and preserved as they were with the damage. They did repair the fireplace in her bedroom which had had the 5 story chimney collapse in it and fall through to the basement. There are other areas around that have black painted supports/covers which is repairs/restorations later for structural concerns from earthquakes etc. My pictures are here.

I then traveled the 44 miles in 2+ hours (gods I hate California) to my hotel. I dropped things off, hit a super mercado for snacks/dinner/lunch. They had a taqueria attached so I got a torta for dinner and a burro for lunch. When I got back I ran into Zippy and Siobhan(from Sweden). We then ran into Tullia and Thorfin and we made a plan to all travel to the vigil. There were predrinks and the like and then I drove the girls and then boys had their car. It was hilarious. Cassandra had no idea that Siobhan was going to be there. So we had to hide her and the screeching was hilarious. We stayed and partied till quite late. I got home with Tullia at like 115am. oof. And that is where we will leave things until tomorrow.

I figure a wrap up of things would be good. Lets see what I can remember.

Knitting/ Crochet:
I finished 14 projects mostly Chickens but I started the year on a Dead Fish Hat for my nephew Viktor. I did one pair of socks for Mel, 3 pumpkin pillows including the giant one for Mel, 3 large emotional support chickens and 5 mini chickens for other folks. The last project I just found while looking at my camera roll and I made a cowl/shawl thingy in June with handspun form Shanda and I just found the pattern which is Agnes which is nice and I need to upload finished photos of it. Oops.

Scrolls:
I finished 4 full scrolls and 3 painted scrolls: Laurel scroll for Magdalen, a Court Baronetcy with a fun Theme and 2 Guardians of Atenveldt. I have 3 more Guardians to put the text on that I painted/inked.

Spinning: plied a bunch in SD and spun some more. I have documented it on IG, need to do better to add to my rav stash or put here. I also spun on my purple at multiple SCA events (drop spinning). I also taught spinning to a few folks at the A&S Collegium and one of my students then won the quarterly Arts of her barony with the article she made from the handspun.

Travel: January was to SC/NC for my SIL/BIL investiture, February was War of the Phoenix, then in March we did Disney for Benton's Birthday, Then in May I went to NOLA for Linnet's 21st, July was SD, October Trip to Prescott for Arts Collegium, November was Washington State for Thanksgiving, December we stayed home thank goodness.

Clothing/Sewing:
Ran a clothing weekend for the ladies of the house to get Fiona clothes which was successful.
I finished mom's quilt project which is documented here. I finished a pair of fighting pants for Ivan which I need to upload a photo of and I made my clothes for my elevation. I also made a pair of pants for myself in SD for SCA which I didn't photograph except one picture of the 1951 singer and the fabric. I also made two new under dresses and a hangerrock for Jan/Feb and Made Benton a coat.

Books:
I read 31 books which isn't too bad. I had hoped to get to 50 but got depressed in Sept/October and my reading shoved off.


So I guess I was productive and busy though I felt work ate my brain but for an average person this would be amazing productivity?

Gym time was not consistent and I'm trying to get myself back to that starting next week. This week is for rest and figuring things out.

Crown March 2nd
When last I wrote I was heading to crown with the family. Mel was sickish and I got us there on time and with the gear which was a pop up, a table and our chairs and water. It wasn't pretty but it was the only thing that would have fit since the area around the list field was tiny. The site was dusty AF and the owner (a former crown and yeah...lets leave it at that) wants to use it for WotP. Yeah no. The current site is lovely since it drains...this site is just a dust bowl which has been closed for wet conditions before. So no thank you. Anyhoo, I sat and knit and watched the fighting with Ari and Willa. Mel didn't stay put like he should have but we all managed to enjoy the day. Benton was filthy from playing with the other kids and running around like good kids. He kept them inline and not underfoot. Though seriously folks....sunscreen your kids and check in on them from time to time? Yes it takes a village but you still have to effing parent.

The day ended with Baldrich winning for Hürrem (aka Jules who I've know for 20+ years). We had a lovely Roses circle for the Shield of Chivalry. I made sure that Sir Helga was there too since she was visiting. I think she was flattered that we included her since 1) she's out of kingdom and 2) I don't think the Westie Roses treat her well. We are all inclusive in Atenveldt. Then came the traditional Knight's Circle, which after I asked on the KW Discord I see that its weird and cruel....as I've always known. Basically, that circle goes until they are done leaving the non-combatants to tear down and wait for closing court. It was well over 90 mins. I got everything but our chairs loaded in the truck. And we waited and waited. Ugh. I was livid. Elzbieta was also livid and she had gone to stare at the circle to hopefully get them to move things along. So I will be sending a new letter to the crown about that...cause they can do it another time or keep it to 30 mins. Cause hostage dinner theater is not what I want when I'm tired (got up at 530am and drove 3 hours, spent all day in the sun and now want to go home or at least get dinner and drive home. Ugh.

So we sat and waited and finally had closing court. We got packed up and had a plan for dinner (Cracker Barrel) and after changing clothes and washing off all of the dirt/dust it was nice to have a tasty dinner. Yes its a chain but its consistent and good. Plus their gift shop had things like a Griffin stuffie Ari had to buy. Got home just before 10pm. Ugh. We were not going back Sunday and it was a rest day for everyone. I did errands and did yoga.

Pictures from Crown click the pic for the album:


Work Week March 4-8th
The work week was okay. I finished #10 Nettle and Bone and I started #11 The Twisted Ones also by T. Kingfisher. This one is a creepy story and I wasn't sure how I was going to do but honestly, it was okay. I think this was the most self-insert story from Ursula cause man it felt like I was reading her twitter feed at some points. But I'm ahead of myself. We had trailer unpack on Saturday the 9th and I was worried it was just going to be me and Mel and Dominique but we had a good crew show up. We brought more home than we took but that was repairs and stuff that will not be going back on the trailer. Dominque and all of us were ruthless on the purging of things and that was okay. We got home and it was a struggle to get Benton to pack. He did not take his meds and didn't come with us to the trailer thing and yeah but we all got packed up and ready for the early am.

Disneyland March 10-14th
We got on the road on time and did make really good time getting into LA. We took the southern route where you drive west to almost San Diego and then up the coast. I really like it and its less crazy traffic and directions. We did manage to not get into too much bumper to bumper and got to La Brea by 3pm. I was having breathing issues outside when I could smell the asphalt + LA and yeah I had to hit the inhaler a few times. But the museum was well done though not a lot on display compared to what I thought we would see. It is an active dig site though and you can tour the pit they are currently digging so that was cool. I also had not heard that they were reclassifying the Dire Wolf from Canis dirus to Aenocyon dirus So that was cool to find out. We had fun and then it was an hour drive back south to get to the hotel and when you have a full concierge hotel..use the damn bellhops Melvin. Sighs. He didn't want to and then waited in teh lobby with our stuff for me to get back from self parking which was an adventure and I had to park in the new pixar hotel's parking garage. Sighs. I had told him to get us checked in and he did not. Sighs. So I had to wait in a long line that formed while I was doing things. Le sigh. But it was okay. The hotel room was nice, not as big as the one I had at Disneyland Hotel but we had a balcony with a partial view of California Adventure which was super nice. We could watch the light shows and see the park and get fresh air. The beds were so comfy omg.

So we got unloaded and then headed to Downtown Disney...which was thwarted by Mel having his pocket knife even though I said we were heading through security. But we got moving and went to Ballast Point for dinner. Sat on the patio and had good noms and good beer. Then we did a bit of looking at Downtown Disney before retiring to our rooms. We started the day early and then realized we couldn't get early entry into Disneyland on a Monday. sighs. But we got in at rope drop and headed to Space Mountain. We had a to wait a bit and it was fun. Benton's second rollercoaster ever and he liked it after he had minute to settle. We then did Star Tours which was lots of fun except the part where we were on Hoth and fell down over a cliff. Oof. I then made the boys go on Its a Small world, Benton's Comment was "that was creepy and I hated it" We hit Autotopia which was fun and got Benton his own driver's license. We also did the sub ride for Finding Nemo which was cute, then we did the tea cups and had churros. We then climbed up in to the new Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and stood in a line for Pirates which the boys loved. Then it was on to Indiana Jones, Thunder Canyon Railway, and a ride on the Mark Twain and then on the monorail before dinner at the Storyteller's Buffet. We then headed back into the park for Star Wars time with Smuggler's Run and Rise of the Resistance before we all were tired and headed back to the hotel for drinks and watching the light show from the balcony. The boys drifted off well and I was up reading before sleeping the sleep of the dead.

Woke up on Tuesday and we couldn't enter California Adventure early since it was a Disneyland day. UGH. The boys were not happy with me but luckily I knew where to get coffee when we could enter. We did the Zephyr, Goofy's Flying school which is crazy fun, we did the big swings. The Bourdin tour was fun and smelled so good and then the boys were toast and headed back to the room for a rest. I got a boozy drink and early lunch (curry in a bread bowl yum). After a break the boys decided they were done with California Adventure and wanted to go back to "star wars land" and Benton wanted to build a droid. I scheduled that while I enjoyed the quite of the park and my meal. I met them back at Galaxy's Edge just in time for the droid build. Mel headed off to take the Tour of the Grand Californian (which I had signed him up for) while Benton and I tooled around, got Dole Whip and I tooks him onto Tom Sawyers Pirate Island to run around like crazy. Then Benton really wanted to go to to the pool and I said sure. We met Mel in the lobby with his tour guide and then Benton got changed and Mel and I got shaded patio loungers and a waiter and drinks while Benton had a ball playing in the pool and waterslide. It was nice. We then got cleaned up and headed to our dinner reservation at Belle Palace which was tasty. The ducks were zooming between tables looking for snacks. The food was excellent and I had a wonderful Blackberry Mule. We rode pirates again I think and then made sure to head over to California Adventure for the fountain show which was amazing. We'd watched it from the balcony but on the waterfront it was the music timed correctly and so pretty. We trooped back and hit the gift shop. Benton picked out the hotel ears which have acorns and wood rings and are lounge fly Can you belive it?! and it was an early bedtime for us after showers etc.


Wednesday we were a bit more leisurely and the boys wanted back in California Adventure so we changed our ticket plans and headed in for more of Goofy's ride, the Inside Out ride, Soarin' California and then the raft ride. We all got soaked and then headed back to the hotel room to get changed into dry clothes. We then did Webslingers, Mater's Jamboyree and got stuff at teh animators studio before heading back into the Disneyland to ride teh Matterhorn before our lunch reservation at Blue Bayou..the restaurant inside pirates of the Caribbean. Good drinks and food and OMG the vegan creme brulee! The vegan desserts are on point at the resturants let me tell you. We then did fun things like the sword and the stone, the carousel and Mr Toad's Wild Ride. We also toured Sleeping Beauty's Castle before we headed onto Pirate island and the canoe rides. We then headed back to Galaxy's Edge where Mel found an awesome hat. We had a bit of a meltdown from Benton...honestly, I'm surprised it took that long but he wanted to buy something to just have something and that wasn't cool. We all had a nice long talk about that. As a family we went back to Star Tours after mood bettering Mickey Pretzels. The boys road it twice in a row since the line was super short. I dinked around the gift shop during the second trip since I was not up for that any longer. We got a porg stuffy for Benton and a Disneyland Hoodie...they have all of the big hoodies this year unlike last year where I found the one I bought. We had dinner at Ballast Point again before getting sidewalk seats for the light show which was projected on the castle. OMG was that cool and the music was awesome. We then got Benton back to the hotel and tucked in while Mel and I walked over to Trader Sam's and got walk in service. Woot. Two very strong Tiki Drinks later it made for a very nice ending to a nice trip. We walked back to our hotel the back way and home to showers and getting ready for the drive the next day.

We slept in a bit and packed up and were on the road by a bit after 9am. Traffic was pretty smooth, we got gas and food in Mission Viejo and then stopped in Yuma for a pit stop before stopping off then at Loves on just after getting on the I10. We were home a bit later and were happy to see our new tent had arrived from Panther (sniff sniff). The cats were very happy we were home and we all collapsed into our comfy places. I did not stay up very late at all. Mel had gone to kung fu and I got Canes for dinner.

Pictures of Disney, click the picture for the album.


Friday and the weekend
Friday I had to work, mel slept way in and then did laundry and packed for his trip for the Wushu Nationals. Paul picked him up about 1230. I got through until about 2pm of work and then called it I was tired and I took a large nap. Benton was engrossed in his lego build and I got us Panda Express and I enjoyed rum and limeade. Nom.

Saturday I tried to sleep in but didn't ugh. I was not good Saturday. I dunno...brain had weasels...over sugared, bad food? I dunno. Brain wasn't happy and I napped most of the afternoon. Felt better and made dinner and Benton and I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Then I finished Moon Knight...omg. So good. And then I slept in better Sunday. I had a plan and relaxed with my boozy coffee and my book (#11 Twisted ones) and finished that up. Benton and I cleaned up the house and put things away and I got dinner in before his friend arrived for a play date. And that was good. Mel got home about 8pm and we chatted for a few hours before we needed to go to bed. I had started book 12 which is Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire. OMG that is so hard to put down.

So work was nuts before I went on PTO. Friday got there and on my morning call I said I was having problems with my sight. I stated "I can't see myself working past noon" which was fine since I had to pack and do laundry and things. It was very nice to take things slow though so even though I was panicking it was a slow panic. We got up at 4am and to the airport for our 6am flight and it was all fine. We made our connection and our gate was right next door to our landing gate. We got to SF and I texted Rob and Becca. They were getting some gloves etc for the boys and then got picked up, played suitcase tetris. BTW, the Pacifica has way less space than my Grand Caravan. We got lunch at Taco johns and then to the house. We had issues getting the water working again. But the local water folks were awesome and helped us figure that out. Becca and I did the grocery shopping and made it easy for use to make dinner that night. Or well for Mel to make dinner. Rob did the dishes. The boys were ecstatic to be able to play in the snow. They dug fox holes and built walls and just had a good time playing in the snow until it got too cold. Sunday we started working on clearing out closets and doing some other shopping. Mom had clothes she had not worn that were $300+ dollar silk Anne Taylor suits she got for less than $10 at Macy's/Daytons. She had an entire dresser full of new socks. She had a closet full of creams and hair stuff and like unopened. Wow. Luckily, the family (Me, Becca, Mel and Rob) had all done the clean out at Grandma Doodles. We have a rapport and a way of doing things that gets all of teh snark but this time we all knew the clothes mom wore or things we found and it was special. I know that doing it by myself that would have not worked well. Rob was awesome and got a load to goodwill taken while we were out on Monday. Sundy was just general things around the house and we got visited by Aaron and Ali.

Mel and I met with the funeral home and the church. It worked well and we got things settled for the funeral and the funeral director John was so pleasant. I had brought the kit from Eterneva. He would return it at the funeral all filled and ready for Mel and I to send off. We still need to decide what stones we are getting. But One will be a ring and the other will be a solitaire stone necklace. yes its spendy but well, I might as well. I've inherited things and she loved the idea of being a gem. We got groceries and hit Ace and did a few other errands before we got home. We had Ellis visit for the afternoon and that was so nice to catch up.

Tuesday Gretchen and I attempted to get the land stuff taken care of and the bank is reading the wills with a very conservative approach. We are trying to get ahold of the original executor for her dad's estate and I will talk with Tom. So that was a bust. Got home in time for mel to get his suit on and me to put on makeup. Gretchen was awesome with getting the luncheon. All of the boys, including Paige and GRetchen's played foos ball in teh church. The service was good. Pastor Chris did a nice sermon about mom. Sue's speaking was good and I'd forgotten some of the stories. I got a recording of it all including my ( Eulogy. )

Then we headed out into the very cold snowy weather to do the graveside service. Her ashes were interred with a cross that she had been given by Diane. It was a quick service and Benton had a bit of breakdown at the end which I completely understand. I was teary too. I don't think I ever looked at her shared gravestone with Jerry but he side had cats on it. Benton got lots of hugs and I told him i was so proud of him and how well he did. This is his first real loss and we spent time talking about it before I noticed we had all of the college crewe show up. Aaron and Ali, Chris and Karla, and Kim and Zane.

We got down to the luncheon and I quickly ate while I chatted with my Aunt Shirley and Aunt Linda. I did learn that my mom's first husband was best friends with my Dad her second husband....huh. That was interesting to note. I knew something had happened to get mom to divorce her first husband and come back to the states to marry my dad but wow....that was crazy. I then mingled with everyone and chatted and part of her funeral we had put out angels for folks to take from her collection and people loved that. It made me very happy to give people a momento to remember her by.

After the luncheon we headed back to the house and the college crew followed. WE had food and talking and the kids played downstairs in the family room there. One thing we will be buying for the house is more couches/love seats and chairs for the dining room. But I think we have a plan for our dacha aka summer house. It was very nice to have folks over and see people and relax. I did go to bed pretty early...I was just so plum tired. I slept way in on Wednesday which is when the blizzard was in full effect and then I took a 2 hour nap. I was tired. Emotionally exhasted etc. I felt like a lump but Mel, Becca and Rob were like...dude, relax...we got this. Thursday Rob was able to get out and snowblow after we figured out you had to plug it in to start it. lol. Thanks mom! But he and I got out to run the plethora of errands. 5 towns, 4 banks, the courthouse, the lawyer, goodwill drop off, and truck service. oof. The roads in the county were fine, the roads in Canton/Alcester and Beresford were fine. The main roads in Sioux falls were weird. And secondary/tertiary roads were dicey. Was glad I still have the knack for driving vehicles on snow...every great big trucks with no weight in the back. We took the interstate back and that was good cause it proved that the oil road wasn't going to be good for Becca and Rob to take to get to the airport on Friday morning.

It took a bunch to get us all packed. I kept forgetting I wasn't packing for a flight and we got things settled and folks got out the door about 930am, we stopped off in Beresford for gas and to drop off a tax form. And then we were on the road. The roads were really good and we stopped seeing snow as we got into Kansas. At that point we started angling towards the SW. We ended up in Dodge City for dinner and then pushed on to Amarillo, TX. Got into the holiday inn express at 1130 and were up and moving and on the road by 745am. We were tired but that was okay. Stopped in Alamagordo NM to see the World's Largest Pistachio and grab lunch. We got home in Tucson about 530pm and that was great. We had pizza for dinner and weren't up late.

So that was our trip....it took me days to write that up and then the work week was nuts and then we had a huge SCA event and road washout drama etc. But that is another post.

When last I wrong almost a month a go. Things were progressing at work on things, the porch project had progress and my shawl was back on track. The now status is the last month has been busy and so short! Well, On the reading front. I finished #17 Mortal Danger which was a re-read from a long time ago and it was fun. I think read #18 Squirrel Girl and the Great Lakes Avengers which is comic pack of all of the SG and the GLA. So much fun in that...OMG. Then I started #19 Blood Lines by Eileen Wilkes and that is been okay thus far. I've been sucked back into some really long fanfic.

Mel and I managed to get packed and rolling to GWW with only forgetting one thing and that was the banners. Oops but of all of the things to forget that was one of very minimal impact on our enjoyment of the war. Lol. We took a very different route than we used to and it did not involve crawling up the I5 for hours. It was nice and through country we haven't seen before. It went up the 215 and then onto back highways to meaner north and west to the I5 which we were on for like 15 miles. It was nice. Found out our site with Gullibursti was in the same spot we always camp. The rest of Atenveldt was over on the other side. It was nice and having flushing potties and sinks right next to us was awesome. Well, the ladies had that. The men's room was out of order and they had a priv and handwash station. I brought projects to work on and money to spend and that was my plan. We had a really nice time camping with Roger and Rochelle. Their new little storage trailer with integral kitchen was super neat. Our camp was nice and period looking and just cozy. Without the banners folks couldn't find us but meh, it works okay.. It was so nice to sit and chat with people. I hit up the fiber area and taught Rochelle to spin. The class lists weren't much of anything I wanted to learn or didn't know and that was okay as well. I bought a new necklace from Maggie that has period beads in it. We got trim and things at White Wolf and Phoenix. I picked up a few pairs of earrings from Mistress Morgan and just a lot of other things. We had breakfast and lunch in camp and then hit merchants for dinner. The meat pie vendor...OMG.from Oscar's Meat Pies and wow. We ate a lot of them.

I managed to help marshal the field and castle battles on Saturday. We were there for Bjorn's knighting and they were short marshals and well, I'm authorized and can marshal its all good. It was a good time and very weird being on the Caid side of things. I did get to yell at my husband for fighting around a corner and explain very nicely to archers that no, you can't fire across the field in the direction they were since it was into spectators.(head desk). The scenarios were not complex we just had to remember when archery was and the shooting conventions. Keeping it simple which I really like. Sat and chatted with lots of folks and just enjoyed being at an event with no responsibilities and no requirements to do anything. It was so good. I put in 4 hours for marshalling and then handed my volunteer tickets to a newcomer who was there to find out about the auction. :)

All of my photos are at 2021 GWW Album

I had fun with some night photography and just in general had a nice time.

Got back and the porch project is now done except for minor cleanup and painting. Woot! I did have a very down week though last week. Not sure if it was allergies (fuck california) and the let down of fun times or hormonal or moon stuff or mercury being mercury? but I was off last week. Better now but still annoying cause I was doing good before that. So we shall see how this week goes.

Coronation is Saturday and we drive to Prescott Friday. Should be a good time.

2 weeks ago I was looking forward to our trip to the KWHSS in Pittsburgh with the BFF. I had done well and packed almost everything/staged it on Wednesday so I could leisurely figure out what carry-on I was taking on Thursday night and then get a good nights sleep before the 514am flight.

But....a certain Duke, wished us luck on flying.....he jinxed our travel through and through.

( KWHSS )

To say that was the end of my "exciting times" for the week would be an understatement. I slept and was groggy Monday and couldn't work from home since key hardware pieces were still at work or locked in my car which was with DH at his location. Without said key hardware I really couldn't show up at DH's plantsite to get my stuff. Sighs. So I did laundry, put things away, picked up the little boy from camp, made dinner and rested. The whole day to myself was actually good cause being Queen Ian'ka for 3 days straight without a lot of being not Queen was good.

The rest of the week was a scramble and then we had a supplier issue that ground my work to a halt for 12 hours of work time. This was a major issue and well, there are consequences for our supplier and now we have more procedures to handle things that the supplier was well versed in to start with. To add to that we had other major issues (failing hardware) and my deputy was gone and that left me and our new guy. Sighs. Plus, I had to deal with a guy who does everything in his power to not do his job and having to deal with that which is also a hot issue I was totatly crispy by the time Friday rolled around. I was so fragile it took effort to get out of my car in the parking lot and mentally I was panicking. But good people and awesome coworkers and everything worked out okay. I got hugs from a few folks and honestly that helped.

So Friday we took things easy, I got a 1.5 hour massage and that did more awesome for my mood. Saturday we got up, got going and out the door by 9am to get to Twin Moons Investiture. The day was great. We had a really good time. The courts were a bit long (not ours) but the awards were good from the Barony. Just before we invested the new B&B we had some fun with a peerage offer. Ivan handled it and we called up Iona and he talked about her hospitality and how even if we didn't have a ME dance community, she'd make one and be successful at it. He commented that "and this is peerlike." The audience gasped and our herald called forth the Laurels and she was clueless for about 30 seconds and then the light bulb hit. It was awesome. The rest of the investiture court was good. The funniest two things were a rap ala Vanilla Ice for the final lead in for the stepping down folks and the new Baroness who is a metal caster giving her Largess Coordinators a pair of cast bronze "LARGE "S"'s. I'm still cracking up on that pun.

We got out of site with plenty of time since there was a hard deadline of 5pm and we had dinner at Uncle Bear Brewing and then home. We were home in less than 12 hours which never happens. YAY!

Sunday I felt like crap and read/slept most of the day. Benton and I let Mel sleep in and got him coffee and his father's day stuff. Then he made us waffles but yeah, most of the day I was meh. I got my armor all conditioned up for Tuesday and then Monday night we had to build a new leg piece.

Monday was weird at work and I'm still trying recover from all of the weird. I got such a bad headache I just went home, cleaned up the house for scribble (the boys had done a ton so it was my personal pickup and put away) and then mel and I worked on my leg armor.

Tuesday night after a very stressful day of work I left and got martial arts stuff for Benton (cup and pads), picked him up at martial arts and then home to dinner, change and get ready for fighter practice for the whole family. But we did it and off we went. I was nervous. I'm out of shape and much heavier than 15 months ago when I last put on armor but I did it. The new leg piece worked okay but I need to suspend it differently and I have and idea for that. Benton did okay as well and his armor needs some work but he's looking good. Got changes to make but I think we can manage. All good.

Yeah, things slowing down at the end of the year? Who am I kidding.....well, since I last posted here we've had Southern Crusades, Thanksgiving Break in South Dakota, Ben's Holiday Concert, way too many scrolls needed and my leg surgery is Friday. oof.

Also during that time I think I've determined that I'm going to take part in the Knitmore Girls "Grinchalong" which is basically...don't make holiday gifts from Dec 1 thru December 24th. The only thing I was going to make is socks for mel and I can do that after the holiday. Plus I want my MIL to pick our fabric for her dress I'm going to make her and we can start sewing after the holidays. So, there...grinchalong engaged!

So, Southern Crusades happened and it was weird and good. Weird since it was at the Estrella site, weird that I was there for setup and Mel wasn't...he had training and was picking up all of the kids. But I got to pull out the big camera and take pictures and that was nice.

Click the picture to be taken to the album:


Got done with that and a short bit of work and then it was teh weekend again. I stayed home from A&S for lots of reasons...mainly to just be home for once and I had to get my haircut so that was also good.

We left 2 days later for South Dakota with my Mom. That was good...much better than last year..not as much drama though we had some plumbing issues that mom got fixed after we left. We got her a new tv for xmas since the old one was 23 years old and fuzzy. We got her a Vizio 1080p 40" LED and got that setup. I had to fix the wire issues from the folks who did their surround sound 15 years ago. What an utter mess. But it works and I only had to run to town once for longer cables since we put things on a swivel extendable mount. Mom is now hookedup with netflix etc. Click the link below to see the album...I'm still editing photos.

Thanksgiving 2017 Album

In all of the travel mel's phone and laptop decided to basically die. The phone would only sometimes charge but we finally got him settled this weekend with a new one. I also got a replacement ipad and he's still figuring out what he wants for a laptop. We shall see.

So I only have 7 days left working for the year. Ugh..so much to do but I'm taking time for myself and knitting for me! Thus Grinchalong. I am doing the Jimmy Beans Wool Craftvent thing where you get an advent calenar with yarn, notions etc and you make a shawl by Xmas Eve. So far I'm on track. With my surgery on friday for varicose vein removal I should be good to sit and get through the day 8 knitting. I'm also making progress on my long lingering daybreak shawl. I also have the Old shale Shawl .

Plus I have my Halloween Socks to finish as well. Sighs. Lots for me to finihs.

Click the picture to go to the album.



Highlights:

Good coffee shops and good beer finds all over SLC.

Good yarn shops.

I've become that person who knows a lot of people in the SCA.

I got picked up and swung around by the King of a kingdom I've never visited.  It helps we've known each other since we were m'lord and m'lady and the fact he taught Ivan the off body so long ago.

Lots of good beer!

Heralds are a strange bunch.

Scribes are a strange bunch.

Met up in person with aliskye which was awesome!

Good food!

Amazing yarn store, Blazing Needles visit.

Got to see cool manuscript facsimiles.

Learned more about drawing acanthus and doing Fleuronnee Penwork

Got told i looked like I stepped out of a saga! SQUEE!!!

I think I got some of my mojo back for making SCA art.

Lowlights:

Tweaked my back thursday bending an inch to get my pjs out of my suitcase and am still paying for it.

Lots of good beer! Which I felt was my need to finish before I left. I hate hangovers. But had a faboo convo with the apprentice.

Came home to a very sick hubby and a somewhat sick kiddo and stayed home yesterday to take care of them.

Scrolls for Coronation are done minus typing up the words for the heralds.

Work, has been a lot of work. I have been so busy I'm almost drooling from brain drain by the end of each day. There is a lot of stress and I find I have to put my baroness hat on to deal with all of the political ish that is going on. Sighs.

We had a great time at Coronation in Payson. Did a bit of antiquing...attended the town's trunk r treat for Benton to trick r treat and in general had fun. Benton was not as patient as usual but he was tired the whole weekend.

This past weekend we went to Fiber Frivolity in Prescott with Will and Dom and caroused around Prescott while Ben was with Mary/Drew and Inara. It was a good time. Seriously good time.

We are now in the midst of Southern prep. I'm disappointed this year with the event in general. The communication has been shite unless you are on the book of faces which IMHO is not the proper place for information anyway, even if you use the platform. The website works, use that, broadcast across all social media platforms so all information is clear, concise and readable by all. Or be smart enough to realize the greater good is to not hold an event, save face and work on improving things for next year not pull something off that appears on the surface and under the skin as half-assed.

With that in mind though the household has made efforts to make the event "ours". We have a plan to deal with the no firepits and will be having our mead hall with food, games and drink. I plan on running the kitchen, doing some rapier, making sure Benton is occupied and relaxing. This is no stress. Just need to get to site and be there and then its no stress.

In the book front I did skip Calculated in Death and am now reading it. Been also reading Working for Bigfoot which you can get here at humble bundle. lots of fun. So, yeah. Good times. Pictures later when I get things uploaded at home from Prescott and Halloween.

Last night I headed up with HRH Thomas, Sayyida Mariyah, Lady Aeryn and m'lord Reinhardt to meet with m'lady Ariana (Kissa), m'lord Herger (Lee) and Lord Storvarr to have a Hrafnheim prescence at the BofA Novice tourney. Aeryn, Rienhardt and Herger fought the novice side while Mariyah and I fought the non-novice tourney.

The novice side ran round robin and the non-novice side ran double elim. My first fight was good. I managed to kill m'lord Kale from Inverted with a slot. My next fight was from Micheal Kilkenny (who won the tourney) and he punked me in the face with his inverted great sword. I so missed that...gah. So dumb. My next fight was with Mariyah (had to fight her since the list was adjusted) and that was okay. I need to have some patience but eh I ended up loosing. After that I headed over and did some pickups with Baylor and had a good time with that. I'm leaving me sword arm out..something Ed noted at practice but I'm not sure why....gotta look at that. I was so worried about using the new shield I think I kept it way out there. I do like the new shield. It was nice to use, not too heavy and the handle was really comfy. Just need to work on the sword work.

After the tourney we headed to the Armadillo Grill and had some nummy food. I was starving. The conversation was good but it was midnight when we left. Tom was awesome and I was inside the house, hitting the shower at 2am. I was in bed by 215 or so and asleep very shortly after. I managed to sleep most of the way home from Chandler Blvd so I'm doing okay for now. We shall see when Benton and I need to hit Costco after work. We need diapers and some other stuff so we shall see.