Happy Studentness!

Meet Gemma, everyone! She's my new Student, and she's loads of fun. She's interested in a bit of everything, but mostly the 12th century, and some Roman stuff for her husband. I'm hoping that our relationship is good on all sides.

Went to Faire in the Grove yesterday, and had a great time. The weather was just about perfect, even a teeny bit warm. There were lots of people there, and I suspect that we'll end up with a few new people out of the affair. Amalric was running the fighting, and he had far too much fun. We all teased him about being a media darling- he was in the Forest Grove paper, and was dubbed the 'Duke of Yamhill', which is funny, because as he points out, Yamhill is a County! (See the article at: http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/features/story.php?story_id=120898233634764100)

I finished that blue gown Friday night, and I'm going to run up some stuff for James real quick, and then get back to work on the sleeves. I have to draft and cut out the rest of Gunthar's gown, too. Have my work cut out for me, certes. Also starting the planning for Crown and Egils. I know there's tourney gear maintenance to do too. No rest for the wicked. :-)

One down,

... and one to go!

So here's pictures of the finished sleeve:


I'm really tired and may have to take tomorrow off to do other stuff (my eyes are not used to the close work and the new glasses both) like finish the gown I started for myself, maybe get the gown portion of Gunthar's outfit cut out. I still have to write a brief ceremony for Gemma and I and decide if I want to haul out the oath-spear.

In other news, Wanda is home from her trip, and we got the truck back from the shop. Many $$$- clutch had to be rebuilt and it was far enough gone they had to do more than usual to it. Zippy needs to go for an oil change and a good look-over. I'd like to have the brakes checked before I head into the mountains. And I am getting really antsy to go, too. I haven't seen James since Spring Break. I really hope that the gas prices stabilize a bit and maybe go down a little. Diesel around town is $4.39-4.43. Almost beyond imagination. Seems like it wasn't so long since they were under $2.

Lydia has internet at home now! Yay Lydia!

I want the primaries to be over. Sick of it all. Just saying', yanno? John Edwards is out, so anyone is second choice for me. But we've got to stop going the Republicans' job for them- no more of this circular firing squad.

I'm off to bed, likely to dream of putting pearls on sleeves...

A short progress report- plus more progress!

So, here's a picture of the current state of Gunthar's sleeve:

Tip your head to your right, and that's the direction it's oriented, with the scallop hinges up, in the default position. After the leaves are done, I'm going to bead/pearl the bejesus out of it. Should be spiffy.

Not much more to report- Wanda left for the Marriage Enrichment seminar that she's running, Claire and Katrine were over Thursday night, and we got hail yesterday. I still love my new glasses. I talked to Lydia last night, and she says that David is going to use part of his severance pay to go back to school, hopefully to finish this time. Something in the IT area. She's very pleased. And I talked to Stephen, who sounded pretty good, and he might come to Egils if he can get the time off. That would be fun.

Robert and Ilonka should be here anytime now, so I'm off to sew!

** edit **
We spent all day sewing- they each left with a new piece of garb, and I finished the embroidery on that sleeve. And I am utterly wrung out. But it's done, and later this weekend I can put the other sleeve up on the frame and start all over again... :-P

WOW!!!

I picked up my new glasses this afternoon, and- WOWOWOWOWOW!!! I haven't seen this well for years! No more squinting! And except for a teeny bit of peripheral distortion, no troubles adjusting to them! Felt wonderful the first time I put them on! Frames fit slightly different, so I expect a bit of sore neck/scalp muscles, but the sight it great! Yay for progressive lenses!

Nothing much otherwise. Feeling under the weather, mostly because the weather continues to be weird. Stressed about money (thanks to the new peepers), missing my sweetie, etc. Been making some progress upstairs though. Havoise is a better embroiderer than I am (poo!) and the sleeve is looking pretty good. Have sleeve #2 ready to embroider too. No rest for the wicked. Suppose I should head back up for more punishment in the House of Pain...

Been a slow week...

Been trying to get some work done- some success, some not. Havoise came over Monday and Thursday to help with the embroidery project, which is going slow but looking pretty good. I spent a couple of days down with an unhappy tummy, and the very variable weather is playing havoc with joints and headaches. The headaches have been worse anyway because of the glasses- the new ones will be here probably Thursday, and they can't come quick enough. This old pair is an old Rx and they don't fit as well, which makes for a lot of muscle tension.

Saturday was the State level of judging for National History Day, and I went to Willamette University in Salem to help with the judging. It was a so-so year, entrywise. I was on one of the teams judging Middle School Exhibits. Some really sadly done ones- one kid had _only_ websites for sources. Including Wikipedia. All of them were unclear on what constituted a primary source. Several didn't get the idea of how to link material to the theme. But we had a couple of good ones, including one kid that did hers on the Little Rock Nine- the black kids that required federal troops to get them into their high school, even after the Supreme Court had decided in their favor. This girl had a copy of the Brown v Board of Education decision, an Executive Order from President Eisenhower directing the 101st Airborne to enforce the decision, and a telegram of thanks from the parents of the high schoolers, to Eisenhower. She had a bunch of really cool pictures too. And she's going to Nationals.

There was a demo in Terra Pomeria that day too, so after we were done with the judging I drove down to Riverside Park to where the demo was. Met with Katrine and Sofia and them. (It was hot, so I didn't change- was wearing a plain black dress anyway.) Got measurements, sat in the shade for a bit, then got into poor hot little Zippy and came home. I crashed early- I had a hard time staying awake on the way home, even with Prairie Home on full blast. And I still ache all over. Bleh.

Wanda is in Eugene, at the conference with Drea Leed, and I hope she's having a good time. She will be out of town next weekend and most of the week and I will probably spend much of it embroidering. I will likely spend most of the time upstairs working.

Note for the day: Fudge bars- even cheap ones- are pretty tasty. :-) That is all.

Monkey see, if monkey put on glasses...

Well, this monkey broke her glasses today. Or rather, the glasses decided to let me know that they were broken. One of the little teeny attachment points on the left broke, leaving the temple moving up and down and around. So I'm currently wearing my old pair, which are pretty doofy- and being as how they're old and out-of-date, I have a HUGE headache, and my neck and the muscles on my scalp are pretty unhappy too. And with my old glasses on, I feel about as attractive as that monkey. That is, to a blind monkey- no self-respecting seeing monkey would be seen with those glasses. So I have an appointment to get my eyes checked tomorrow, and I'll have to get new glasses. I can't afford it but I can't do without.

In other news... I went to Irish feast on Saturday, and had a pretty nice time. Only drawback was that most of the potluck was meat, and I ate a fair amount. And regretted it late in the evening. I managed to sell the alto recorder, and I got some of the beadwork done on the bliaut. And spent some time with Claire, which is always nice.

This Saturday I'll be heading to Salem to judge the History Day competition, and afterwards I'll be dropping by the demo to measure Gustav and Sofia and her kids, and looking at fabric. And trying to come up with ideas for spiffy stuff for them. We'll have to see if I have any ideas after I'm done with all of the projects that I have going so far.

Havoise came over this evening and is helping me work on Gunthar's sleeves, as I'll never get them done on time without. I'm hoping to have them done before Faire in the Grove- as well as getting Arlys' surcoat done before then; get Gunthar's gown done and off to Texas, get the Queen's gown done, get stuff for Sofia's kids started, and make myself some desperately needed tourney garb. And then Wanda's pavilion. Oy.

But first there must be sleep. ZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

** Edit **
I just wrote a $297 check to the optical shop. And that is with a substantial discount. It sucks big rocks, but I have to have glasses that fit. And I'm old- I have to go to bi-focals. They're doing progressive lenses as the prescription is so strong that the line would be really fat if we didn't. They had to dilate my eyes, so now I'm bumping around the house waiting for that to wear off. Bleah.

ABOVE THE LAW (a short rant)

This popped up on CNN yesterday:

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon Tuesday made public a now-defunct legal memo that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects, saying President Bush's wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture."

(the rest of the article is at http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/01/torture.memo.ap/index.html )


Supposedly the order is now defunct (yeah right- and have I got some real estate to sell you!). You know, I don't care. I suspect that they still have something similar or worse right now. But the fact remains: this administration puts itself ABOVE THE LAW.

I first saw it last night, and I'm still so outraged that it's hard to know what to say. Bush was put above US and International Law. Apparently he is subject only to his 'discretion'. And presumably, his conscience. If he had one.

** Edited to add: **
More on this administration's proclivity to give itself powers above the law: an assault on the 4th Amendment: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Terrorist-Surveillance.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Apparently there was another memo, not released- because the memo they have has a damning reference to a footnote in a previous memo:

''Our office recently concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations,'' the footnote states, referring to a document titled ''Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States.''

It just leaves me gasping for air...

*** Edited to add yet more ***

Suppressing the press- making sure that they didn't break the warrantless surveillance expose until after the 2004 election:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/04/03/BL2008040302203.html

Someone hand me an airsickness bag, willya?