Thursday
Mel and I worked until noonish and then we got the last few things and on the road to Wisconsin for Warriors and Warlords. It was a nice drive and we got dinner about 45 mins from site. Got to site and gate was closed (just after 7pm) and there was no map to tell us where we could camp so we drove around and finally stopped at a nice spot to ask if we could setup our two tents. We ended up setting up right next to Duke Vlad and Duchess Petrenella which was super nice. We got our camp setup and chatted with a few folks we knew. The one thing that happened was one of our poles broke at the inset into the metal for the swing set support. Mel managed to repair it enough to make it work but we had to be very careful at setup. He will be making new poles for the double bell anyway...they are 15 years old and have dried out plus we ended up not being able to take them apart at the end of the event and they were strapped to the top of the tent. We also didn't have enough tent stakes or side ropes. Sighs but we made it work.

Anyhoo...we were tired and had beers and chatted with folks after a sweaty sweaty setup.

Friday
We all slept in on Friday and Mel was up making breakfast and brought me coffee in bed. Benton was grumpy but was better with food and meds and then he and Mel went to the field while I did the dishes and fixed up camp. We really did pack the bare minimum and I had bought new tubs for clothes etc since things can get wet (this was very good preplanning on my part as we will find later). Benton had a grand time doing youth combat, Mel had a grand time doing melee and then some pickups but he was burning out too quick since the humidity didn't let him recover as quick. I also attended a fiber guild meeting and worked on the emotional support chicken. It was a lovely day though folks thought it was hot....it wasn't by AZ standards but the humidity was high. Had a nice time chatting with Hagan and Sven and got a great pic of the guys and of Benton fighting.

I also got to meet Sami and Petrona who I met on the Between 2 Peers Discord and have become good friends. Especially when I was taking care of mom in South Dakota. Sami would call me to chat on his drives to see Petrona. I got so many hugs. It was awesome. Friday night had court which was short but sweet and had one laureling for a weaver. Surprised a few folks with us being there like Eithni and Sir Gwen and Maistari Hlif while we were all sitting in the circle during the ceremony. Tee hee. We hung out with Ralph MacCookin a long time friend from way back who is now in Calontir due to his kiddo. There was a torchlight tourney that took a while to get going but was fun to watch but the skeeters were fierce and Benton had gone missing (he was found hanging out in the arena and was told if he's doing that shit he can be tied to our sides at all events. Running wildish during the day with check ins is fine but at night...nope. Its dark you are back at camp or with us. But once the dewpoint hit I was done and getting cold. Mel and Benton had already gone back to camp.

Saturday the boys went out to fight and I picked Benton up to head to the youth archery shoot which was a monster shoot. Shoot a stuffed animal, you get to keep it. The kids had so much fun and worked together to get toys for kiddos who were not great shots. Benton did really well and got a stuffy for a very small boy who was too hot and was more they ready to melt down, he got a dino for himself and as we were cleaning up they said I could take one since Benton had helped so many kids. Its purple and batty and cute and weird and I love it.

I also managed to hit up the fiber guild again and do some shopping. I got a wonderful glass made by Duke Finn (Midrealm). He gave me my AoA so that is neat. I had not realized he had gotten his laurel for glass work. It had honestly never come up in conversation...he was a king and a Duke and so larger than life when I was a teen and in early college. Peers were so unknown etc. The rest of the fighting had been called off due to the heat index being in the scary levels. So the rest of the day was hanging and chatting with folks. We got news a weather system was moving in and a lot of folks pulled up camp. We weathered it out and had a really nice dinner after teh storm blew through. Went to court which included the Laureling of Sven's apprentice and a very good amount of schtick to offer Count Ajax admittance into both the Pelican and the MoD. We were super stoked for that.

Spent the evening then chatting with ralph and his daughter. Headed to bed about 1230 and the camp next door was still partying till after 1am. Were startled awake with the tornado sirens for the town going off and then scrambling to get out of bed, dressed and then rushed to the storm shelter. That was 245 in the morning. There wasn't a tornado anywhere near but there was the storm coming in and the town we think made sure we were safe since we were camping. We stayed sheltered until 430 when it was still raining and blowing and it finally stopped about 515 where we finally just dropped off to sleep. Oof. Got up about 8 and started packing down. luckily we had either put things in the van already or put things in tubs so the only things that were wet were floors and tents...though benton's clothes got soaked from a puddle. So we made due with him grabbing his shirt he drove up in. Got everything loaded and dried as best we could and then headed to perkins for brunch. Had a very nice meal and then it was on the road. I drove about 2 hours and then had to hand things off to mel and then I crashed hard asleep. We got home about 6 and unloaded and mel laid out tents while I got food on the grill the kiddo was in the shower. Then we got clothes started in the washer and it was an early bed for all of us. Its nice having a large driveway and a large deck to hang things on for drying.

So yeah, crazy ass weekend with the weather but it was super nice to see folks etc. Though next year if things show that weather pattern we will probably pack up early and find a hotel we are all still tired and its Wednesday.

I did manage on Monday night to finish the emotional support chicken and I'm almost done with my mohair spinning. will update on our dinner with my aunt later.

Lets just say I've been busy...working too much, putting in OT and today I took a mental health day and didn't even have to spend any PTO or comp time...yeah, working too much. Its had me feeling very very guilty about projects for D*C that I have to do and with the Benton. Mommy Guilt has been in high swing with me an I'm not sure what started it but it keeps getting reinforced by Benton, situations with him, comments at his school, my personal struggles with work/life balance, the imp in my head that tells me I'm a bad mom and not suitable for the task, conversations with my husband that make me feel completely inadequate to be a mom etc. I'm sure its all stress etc but its been weighing on my brain something fierce. Nothing like your brain trying to sabotage you.

Work has been so busy that I lost track of a few projects and now they are in critical paths but everyone understood and its going okay now. I've been doing the work of about 3 people due to vacations etc and yeah...crazy but our hardware is getting shipped out so that is good. We just hope to get as good of results with the next lot. (crossing fingers). Things will not be easy with that lot and I have changes that have to be made and I'm lacking the original design documentation from *cough* 6 or so years ago and may have to call they guy who left the company for info and will probably have to talk to legal to do it. Sighs. Oh well. I also gave one of the best presentations of my life for the customer and our program. I realize that most people don't know I can have a "command" presence or "presentation" presence when standing up in front of the brass and thank the SCA for all of the courtly graces I have learned. It went really well. The Captain was very happy and the program manager kept telling me I did well, even days afterwards. So, feather in my cap on that one.

Benton has been making logic leaps of late. He's learning letters now and can recognize them. This morning I was wearing my new Raven T-shirt and he noticed it was like my Luna Shirt. He's been using the potty okay this week though we had a week of poop issues...not sure what is up with that but I think he's too busy to stop and head inside while playing to go. Sighs. He's picking up some words for reading and has been practicing his letters on my ipad app so he's learning. I just need to have the patience of Job and not scream at him when I'm tired and crabby too.

Books...I finished Victory by Susan Cooper #12 of the year. And I'm waiting for mel to finish the next Rivers of London book so I can read it. I've been keeping up on some fan fiction and stumbled upon a Loki AU that is out of this world. Very awesome. Its called Kingverse and follows items from Thor I in an AU where Loki becomes King with Sif his queen...seems not plausible until you start reading and man are you sucked in!!! So good and in Part 6 they cross into the Guardians of the Galaxy which is good. Interestingly enough SHIELD is not really the "good" guys in many ways but the characterizations are spot on for most of them. So good.

Other than that I've been biking 3 weekends in a row with the Road Boars...though I need to see what we are doing tomorrow. I got my bike repaired after and epic blowout where it took the tire out the previous week and treated myself to new tires, tubes and two new pairs of short since my shorts I had were bought well before I was even pregnant...they were old. New shorts are comfy and a bit longer which makes me happy. Have not made it back to the gym but I've been valiantly and to good result eating better, not drinking much at all and that is helping.

On the D*C front I've got lots of things in partial stages. I hope this weekend can get things to almost finish stages. I'm way behind on the Raven items and still need to start the victorian outer clothes but at least the inner stuff is done. I've also been spinning on the spinning wheel for Tour de Fleece and its going well, I need to spool off what is currently on the bobbin to be able to spin the other half since there is only one bobbin for the Country Craftsman wheel. Sighs.



Had an epic monsoon on Sunday which had huge wind gusts and about 1.3" of rain at the house. Took lots of pictures of it and the damage and our neighbors helping out with storm damage down the street.

2014 Monsoon!

So, that is life in a quick update.

Got home from work late and didn't have much time to do anything like work on any of the to-do list. I received a page and it was coded 911 so I called back. Had a good chat with the head of our internal machine shop on an sticky issue. It was a good talk and I'm actually pretty happy to be moving soon to his building to be closer to them for stuff. Makes things much easier.

Then it was basically time to go to knit night. I hit subway for a sammie. The taste buds are still all jacked and things are pretty dull. Still uncertain what to about that. But luckily scribe_ari had extra fire sauce and that helped. It was a really large night at the shop. We had every table out and chair. Wow. I got through all of the yarn on the mom present and its not done. Sigh. Mel has to spin me more. Still worried she isn't gonna like it. le sigh. I then started the hat for my Step mom and got a bit on that before it was time to go. Got home and sat and worked on the hat. Ended up getting sucked in to adult swim and realized that Family Guy and Robot Chicken are all made of win. Wow. Of course, stayed up too late and then started a new book. I was just wired and maybe should have just stayed up and did stuff..dunno. I slept good though but the morning was too early.

I had to scrape my windshield this AM. le Sigh. Plus I have lots to do and too many meetings to go to to get things done. GAH! I hate that.

Well, saturday I pretty much stayed on the couch. I watched two of the "Librarian" movies (which were campy but fun) and goonies and then enjoyed watching "Kung Fu Panda" with the guys. Then it was "batman: the animated series" and then bed. I slept okay but I almost had the same issue as saturday...but I got myself back to sleep. Mel got up and made coffee..I got myself out of bed and was in the bathroom when richard arrived. I came out and found that he brought home made cinnamon rolls...omg...so good I had 2 and my coffee. I was more energized but still very tired. The weather was proving Rus-like so I dressed in a wool underdress, cotton short dress, wool viking and I put on my laurelling hat...it looked really cute. We got things to the park after making sure others had more warm clothes. I intended to stay as long as I was comfortable...and I made it the whole day. We had court and then I sat and worked on cross-stitch with while watching the tourneys ensconced in the semi closed pavilion. That was nice...plus there was plenty of coffee and hot chocolate. It was a very nice tourney, fun to watch and listen to the challenges and the small crowd (about 40) was very lively and entertained. We packed up and I took toys to the fire dept via toys r us (they stopped taking toys yesterday) and then was home. Mel got home with the trailer and we headed out with Richard for steak and nummies at texas road house. By 6pm we were home with beer from bevmo and I enjoyed a conversation with mingo who was sitting in -1ºF in Denver. We gloated about our "cold" weather. Then I put more batman in the player and have been sitting comfortably watching tv and stitching. Much progress was made on the x-stitch. Now it is time for bed..I'm tired and still under the weather...but much better than I had been.

So, if you haven't heard duchess_asa's water broke and she and american_knight are the the hospital. Squee! So, I'll keep you posted.

Yesterday was very busy on the paperwork front at work. Finally got information pulled out from one of my coirkers that can never answer my questions 1)on time and 2)actually answer the question I asked. Its like pulling teeth. But I got the variance and the change notice written and just a few more tweaks and they can get into review. DOM Dave and I got together for our weekly data pull and the numbers are looking good. We both got bonuses for our work on it and that is a good thing...still more work to do but its all good. Then I left a bit early to get a jump start on the house cleaning and boy did it need it.

cayswann commented recently that she's never really unpacked from trips etc in the last little bit and I can completely relate. Also, we haven't been having game night due to SCA things and the house has not been getting the weekly pickup and clean it used to..plus you add that we've both been sick for over 2 weeks and well, its a mess. So, I got the front room pretty much taken care of and I had started in on the kitchen when mel got home. He took the initiative and got the family room clean and he picked up and vacuumed both of those rooms as well as wiping down his bathroom. The kitchen wasn't too bad but I had dishes to put away, wash and load..plus the counters and the stove needed a wipe down. I need to do a deep clean before my fall baking blitz happens. Fruit cake will be made early this year since Baron Christopher was scoffing at my ability to make good fruit cake. Well, he's getting some! Coronation is gonna be fun!

So got the house cleaned and then headed out for sushi with the old crew + a few new faces. Wow, such good stuff and good company. Mel was all about me getting out to have sushi which made me happy. Though, seriously, we need to have home cooked dinner tonight cause man, I'm sick of eating out. Plus I need to make some extra stuff for the household to share. All good. missdoom thanks for sending some rainy weather...it was just at 68 this am when I went to my car and the horizon is full of rain clouds. Plus, I heard some on the patio roof sometime in the night. It smelled almost like fall...so close now. Well, sushi was good and we ate not to bursting (just close). Then it was time to pile in cars and head to scribble at my house. richarddbrewer was awesome sauce and was over working on things so a few of our early arrivers were already there. Thank you! Got things organized and then Princess Cecilia arrived and we had a good time. Scribble stuff happened, paper was cut, designs got hashed out, assignments got given and we had a good time. I even got some research done for my last A&S project and had things pulled for my docs for my other. Its gonna be a busy month. Sighs.

Mel had made the comment that we don't seem to every get less busy, its just different busy. Well, time to get cracking.