Ending the year with a BANG!

Proof that the universe hates me: I got rear-ended tonight. ON THE WAY TO CHURCH. Priceless, ain't it?

So Wanda and I were headed up to the service at Trinity Cathedral (their New Yea's Eve is wow. Seriously cool music), and about a half block east of Powell's, on Burnside, the car right in front of me put on their 4-way flashers. Not knowing why, I slowed down. Turns out they were picking someone up from the sidewalk in front of Powell's. I stopped behind them. The guy behind me wasn't paying attention- and according to a witness, was following way too closely. So we got the BANG!

We're ok, though Wanda is a bit sore. No damage to the other guy's pickup that I could see. My right hand rear lights are gone, and the back hatch is smooshed in a bit. Looks like he connected with the latch bar/handle. If it had been a car they would have hit the bumper and we'd be fine, but nooo, it had to be a pickup. So probably the first order of business Monday will be to call Adam and see if I can get Zippy in to get the lights fixed at the least. And find out if he can do anything with the hatch.

In other news, we had Christmas. Dan and Ellen and Carol and Chappie were here, and James made it up for a couple of days. Wanda and I have been down with Virus #267, and can't seem to shake it. Seems to be sort of cyclical- I'll miserable for several days, then I'll start to feel better- and then it knocks me down again.

And now it is after midnight, so- HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Let's hope that 2010 is the best ever!!

I really needed one of these:

Friday night, on south-bound I-5. I got all the way to Albany without incident, and then suddenly traffic came to a grinding halt. The road was a solid sheet of ice- all the way to Creswell. About 25 miles of slick-as-glass roadway. We were crawling along at about 15mph through most of it. Didn't dare change lanes or take an exit. I thought about bailing and stopping at David and Lydia's, but then I remembered the exit to their place- very tight uphill curve. Not even.

I was actually ok- Zippy handles really well on bad surfaces. It was the people around me that I was afraid of, especially the epic idiot in front of me who kept hitting his brakes (yes Mr. 'I have an SUV so I am impervious to weather!', I'm looking at YOU!) and then fishtailing. I really wished I'd had a bullhorn- crank it up to 11 and yell "Stay off your brakes, you cretin!" Alas, I missed my chance.

Investiture was interesting. About half of the usual suspects made it- the rest were holed up and waiting for spring. HRM bailed and went home after a night in a motel. Rustam and Suvia were almost late to their own investiture! I was very glad I stayed up most of the night finishing Rustam's caftan- he wore it and it looked good. I was pretty much good for nothing though, and when they offered a very short fealty court so that those who needed to leave could- I did. James and I went back to Ashland where there was a pillow loudly calling my name. After I had a nap we went out for Chinese. The Kung Pao chicken failed to clear my nose though, and the next morning it was clear that I was too sick to drive 300 miles, so it was a good thing that I'd packed an extra dose of meds just in case.

Bera ran the peerage meeting again- she rocketh! I wish she would run the kingdom meetings too- we might actually get something done. :-/

The last Rivers council meeting was here at our house- Wanda had just recovered from the plague, and I was thankful for modern medicine (fought off a kidney infection), but the meeting was really good- talked a lot about theory and standards and the sort of thing we need to talk about occasionally, rather than just blowing through the candidate list.

Plan is to go get a tree tomorrow. Yay!

Gobble gobble!

So we went shopping today, and came home with a turkey, among other things. It doesn't look like that one. It's wrapped in plastic and is sitting in the recycling bin outside because it needs to thaw out, being frozen solid. And there's no room in the refrigerator anyway.

The big dinner is Friday- should be 11. Maybe 12 if Larry shows up, but I haven't heard from him. Thursday it's just James and I, and David and Lydia. I got four cornish hens (three French hens, two turtledoves...) and some rice pilaf for that dinner. And some three-buck Chuck (inflation- used to be two-buck Chuck) to go with. (Some of which may lubricate the cook.)

Went to Goodwill Sunday after brunch. I found a new purse (which I needed- my orange one is really showing wear), a big bag of ribbons and trim and hot glue sticks. There is trim in there that is worth more than I paid for the whole bag. Also found some new nutcrackers, including two ballerinas, which is an interesting synchronicity. Found a couple of cartoon Christmas ties for James. And Wanda gave me the funniest thing- it's a plastic nutcracker ornament, which a seam ripper in the back. It's just... two things that one does not ordinarily think of together.

James will be up Wednesday night, and David and Lydia will be riding with him. Stephen will be coming in on the train sometimes Friday. Annie is cooking the Orphans' Thanksgiving on Thursday. I understand there will be pie. :-D

I am an idiot.

Something that had been building up for awhile exploded yesterday, and I exploded. and worse (much worse!), I answered an email while I was angry. Incandescently angry.

Part of me is still angry. But most of me is horrified, and saying "What have I done?"

At this point all I can do really is wait for the unfortunate recipient to respond. I did make a phone call yesterday and made a clumsy attempt at apologizing. I don't know if it was accepted. There was a lot of silence on that end.

In the meantime I'm not keeping food down so well. I wish I could rewind and undo. About 24 hours would be enough. But my Time Turner seems to be on the fritz.

I don't know what to do.

WESTMORELAND

O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING HENRY V What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more...
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

(Happy St Crispin's Day!)

Vivat William!

Just to annoy my Anglo-Saxon friends, I'd like to point out that it is now October 14th, which is a bad day if your name is Harold Godwinson, and a good day if you're a Norman bastard. Heh.

And I sooooo love this picture. It is such a classic anachronism. Yeah, like you've never done it? Why did I see every other person whip out their phone after the final blow fell at Summit Coronet? The name of the winner was on the Summits list before I could walk back to my car...

Not much otherwise to report. The meds are still kicking my ass and I'm not happy about it. I have an appt with Dr Becher next Thursday. Maybe we can figure something out then.

The sewing room has piles of shirt pieces all over it. Hopefully they will be shirts in the next couple of days or so. And then I can get to the wrapped gowns. I'll have to get ahold of Suvia and see if they wanted the fancy facings on those. I have some silk that would be just perfect...

A crash course in Persian clothing...

So I'm madly reading everything I can on 14th-15th c Persian clothing, and there's a pile of fabric upstairs to be made into clothing for Rustam. Hey, keeps me out of trouble, right?

Other than that, I really haven't accomplished much- going through yet another medication adjustment (more levo-dopa! Yay! NOT!) so mostly I sleep. A lot. There's stuff I should be doing, but the sleepy is overpowering. So I muddle through. Sorta.

Had a culinary experiment that kinda didn't work. I tried substituting concentrated lemon juice for the vinegar in the standard sekanjabin recipe. Came out tasting like lemon candy- like a sucker. A bit too sweet, not tart enough. I might try it again, which a higher concentration of lemon juice. Maybe replace some or all of the water as well as the vinegar. Or I might not. I don't know. I like the raspberry vinegar version, but it's still... vinegar. There's only so much vinegar that I can take.

There's an event Saturday- Honor Feast. And this year they're fêteing Aleyn the Younger, who is one of my oldest and dearest friends. So it will be kinda cool. They're also holding the A&S Championship, and I'm judging, so I have to be awake and aware and get there on time! Arlys is going with me, so that should help keep me on task. Now I have to figure out what to take for my potluck contribution...

My Weekend,

by "I think I may need to change my name now..."

Ok. I just got back from Summits Coronet Tourney. Some Saracen guy won, a Rustam Something-or-other ;-) , but that is not what the story is about...

I was feeling fine when I got up Saturday morning. Ate my yogurt, took my meds, grabbed my chair and hiked off to the peerage meeting. (Must note here that Summits has occasional combined peerage meetings.) Got there, sat down. Fine.

A little while later I wasn't feeling so hot. Not really _bad_, but that bare bit of grass behind the thrones was looking pretty good. I wonder if I could sneak over there and lie down? Oh, not feeling good at all. And 3...2...1 OMIGAWD!

The Amazing Exploding Laurel barely gets past the Duke she is sitting next to, and out of the pavilion and around the corner before the obvious happens. Then hmm. WTH? Feeling better, go back to the meeting.

The second time I get about 5 seconds warning. It is a good thing that the Duke is still very fast! (Not a good thing to puke on a Duke!) Rest of the meeting I'm ok. (Well yeah- nothing left in me!)

(I am doing better. Just got home this evening, and I'm tired of driving! Also saw Paul Bunyan in Myrtle Point.)

Now to the funny story! Saturday afternoon after the tournament was over I headed for Ashland (took 42 to 5, which was actually a pretty nice drive), and while I was winding around through the mountains, I suddenly craved mashed potatoes and gravy. Not just any mashed potatoes and gravy- it had to be KFC. (Normally- bleah!) I finally saw a KFC sign in Medford (and thanks to construction there I spent a half hour lost), and when I rolled up to the drive through, I suspect that I was not coherent. I intended to ask for a serving of potatoes with extra gravy. I don't know what I actually asked for, but the voice on the other end said "Large?" Uh, yeah. Large. I was tired and sick and didn't care.

I ended up buying ten dollars worth of mashed potatoes and gravy.

But wait! The punch line! I pull up to the window, hand over my money and get the sack of very yummy smells, and the kid leans out the window a bit, looks at me funny, and says: "Uh, have fun with your potatoes, lady."

I was back on the freeway before it occurred to me to wonder what he thought I was going to be doing with my mashed potatoes...

Exhausted.

Well, eventing is (almost) over for the season. I have the boxes of dishes in the dining room, and they'll be run through the dishwasher before I put them away for the season. There's a pile of laundry on my bed- most of it is folded, and sometime tomorrow I'm going to get the tourney linens all put away. And hopefully I'll get the last of the stuff from the car and get it vacuumed. I have to leave the big stove in there (so I can return it to James) and my sleeping bag (for this weekend). Looking forward to some easier handling without the heavy load. And I can see out the back now! Rear-view mirror and all!

Crown was very nice. Ruland and Katrine found us a very nice place to camp that was very close to the water spigot. (Could have been closer to the privies, but oh well.) The kitchen worked, mostly- there were water problems. Drips where they were not welcome, etc. But the rug was wonderful- felt like a real kitchen, walking back and forth while working. The layout worked well. The food worked out well- the balance of dishes was nice. And I did a pretty good job of estimating how much of everything to buy. Brought home some leftovers, but not a lot.

The bath went pretty smoothly. Randal liked it, which was the big thing. The rest of the vigil went well too. And the elevation was wonderful. It had been raining, but as he knelt to make his oaths, the clouds parted, there was sunshine, and a huge double rainbow. I think it was blessed. :-)

Came home with very wet gear though (rained most of the weekend) hence the huge amount of laundry. And there's stuff laying around in the garage, hopefully getting dry. I haven't been feeling well (tiiiiired) so it has been very slow getting all put away. And I'm still digging myself out of the huge pile of email that accrued while I was at the event.

Thursday before the event, I saw the Pulmonary clinic. Turns out it's in the cancer center, which unnerved me a bit. Saw the doctor there.
I was right, it was mostly taking history, asking a million questions, etc. The dr went over my films again, and she says I have a nodule on my left lung that is about 5 mm. That's mm, not cm. So about the size of a pencil eraser. She said that the fluid at the bottom of the other lung is still there, and is a little wondering why it hasn't cleared up yet. And there's another nodule near that, about the size of a mustard seed.

She says that neither of them should be there, but at this point they want to watch them and see what happens. So in a couple of months, I get to so the scan again. In the meantime, I wait.

I HATE waiting.

Might as well sleep.

A bit stressed here-

and there's people to choke but no one I dare lay hands on.

Ok, Wanda doesn't read this so I'll let a little of it out. She and Claire are not getting along. There's stuff on both sides, but Wanda is in the driver's seat. And it is getting ugly. And naturally I'm hearing it from both sides and I DON'T WANT TO BE IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS! I really don't! And the atmosphere here in the house is poisonous.

Wanda is under stress at work (NSTB stuff again) and I understand that colors her worldview. There's some other factors that I can't get into here. She's also grumpy that she isn't getting the attention that she thinks she deserves from SCA folk. Well, if she went to an event or a meeting once in awhile, I might say she has a point. Of course, on the rare occasion that she _does_ go to something, all she does is prattle on about the Good Old Days in Drachenwald. She's not done anything here to make Good Days, and I think that they are what you make. My Good Days are now- because I make them so. And I'm really tired of hearing how An Tir doesn't measure up.

So even Saturday breakfast or Sunday brunch have been a bit quiet- I try to talk about stuff that is happening and she isn't interested, except to criticize. A few weeks back several of us at the brunch table were busy talking about the upcoming elevation, and for once we didn't let her drag the conversation around to her. (There's been a lot of 'It's All About MEMEME!!!' going on lately.) She got really pissed off and actually sniffled all the way home. And I have to say, I honestly didn't feel like comforting her, because of the dozens of times that she's completely dominated the table and I can't get a word in edgewise.

I love Wanda, but she's been behaving like a spoiled brat for some time now, and I don't know what to do about it. If there is anything I can do about it. If I could leave, I would. And I can't. So I have to find some way of dealing with this. Something that does not involve violence, that is.

Sigh.

Am I completely whacked?

Getting near to being done with Randal's surcoat. I might have time to put together the Frankish coat I've planned. We'll see. In the meantime, I think it's more Marx Brothers and some loud rock music to get through.

Oh- forgot to add- stopped at Goodwill today and scored big time- I picked up two 8" Henckels knives for $1.99 EACH. Considering how awful the knives in my tourney kitchen are, this is a major improvement!

Revving up for next week...

... and I'm tired already...

Gotta finish Randal's surcoat, which is actually going well. Need to wash and press the sheeting for the bath tub, and for that matter, I need to get outside and clean the bathtub, too! Randal will be picking it up Thursday, along with the pre-dieu. And soonish (like in the next day or so) I need to figure out the menu for the weekend and start shopping. Looking at Italian recipes at the moment.

And Thursday I see the guys in the pulmonary dept. Still very nervous about that.

And I'm fighting off what feels to be an old-fashioned migraine, which I haven't had for awhile. Eyestrain, I think. I've had my face up too close to the sewing because I seem to be getting old and can't see what I'm doing.

Hmm. I bet you couldn't fit much tourney gear in that fancy car...

@#$%^@$***&#!!

There are times in life when a lot is happening at once. And there are times when you have to wait.

This is both of those times.

Ok. So I am waiting to see the pulmonary clinic. This happens September 3rd. At 4 in the afternoon. Which tells me that they will not be doing any procedures that day, but just a consult and scheduling me for something else. And more waiting.

But it's not like I don't have anything to do to keep busy, because I do. This weekend is Sport of Kings. It starts Thursday. Today is Monday. I have shopping to do, a menu to plan, goodies to make (for the Laurel meeting), have to fix the hinges on the bed, the lid of the new box, paint the light fixture and get chains to hang it with... and pack. And go to the event. And run a meeting. And throw a feast. And visit with friends.

Next week there's the full press to get things done for Randal. I'm making his surcoat for the ceremony. I also need to scrounge through my stuff and find linen for his vigil robes. And I need to wash and press the linens for the bath, and scrub the tourney tub. Find all of the papers, pull out the pre-dieu, get the candles and statuary ready. And I need to plan a menu for 12 for the weekend, do all of the shopping, etc.

In the meantime, there's the whole thing with the health care debate. I've written the Senators/Rep/President 3 times in 2 weeks. I'm sure they're tired of hearing from me (or at least whoever reads the mail). And I'm watching everything like a hawk, because the Public Option is probably the only chance that I'll have in the forseeable future to get off of Medicaid. I'm not insurable- I have too many pre-existing conditions. And I'm on too many drugs. And for now, I'm broke. But the fact is, without the Public Option, I can't change my financial situation, because I'll lose my healthcare. And that could be catastrophic. The healthcare situation as is is forcing me to remain poverty-striken. This system is sick.

I have decided that I cannot read Huffington Post anymore. It's way too histrionic, tabloid-like (makes dKos look like the Wall Street Journal), and the comments are so full of trolls the bile leaks out through my screen. I get so angry and there's nothing to do with it- I can't hit the poor idiot on the screen. So I think I will just leave them alone. Let someone else tell them what idiots they are. HuffPo will survive without me.

And I'm eating a lot less all of the sudden. Not sure what to think about it. Lost a couple of pounds though, according to the dr's charts. Not bad. Also been writing- I think I may have found my way through the whole thing with Henry being sick. Worth a shot.

And Bill finished my ring! It is flat out GORGEOUS. The stone is from a pendant that I had that had been my great-grandma's. Lovely, square-cut white stone- Bill said he thinks it's a white sapphire. Set it in silver, with a basic copy of a 7th c Frankish design. :-) It's big, and kinda gaudy, but I love it. And if I ever have to punch someone, they're gonna regret it. :-D

Not... to... Panic...

I called in and someone else had just made a cancellation, so I was able to get in today instead of next Thursday.

Well, I just got back from the doctor, and we discussed the report from the angiogram. They said that they saw a nodule on my lung, and two cysts on my liver. I'm scheduled to be in the Pulmonary clinic at 4 on Sept 3. (I won't be able to make the SLUG Queen Coronation this year because of it, and that really makes me mad.) They want to do a PET scan and/or a bronchioscopy. The latter sounds like a lot of Not Fun. And then we will go from there.

We still don't know what happened last week. I'm continuing to push the matter because that was an incredible amount of pain and I don't want it to happen again. So we will see.

And it appears that I have traded the anxiety of Not Knowing for a different kind of Not Knowing. It is no improvement.

Just another thing to worry about...

Ok, I'm not about to be eaten by a robot. That I know of. At the moment.

Well, we have as yet not figured out what happened to me last Monday. But they sent me in for a angiogram on Friday, which was very interesting. All the equipment, and of course you have no idea what it is actually doing. It's magic, as far as I'm concerned. And there's times that I think if I opened that door that says 'Authorized Personnel Only', I'd find a witch doctor in there, counting the twists in the entrails of a sheep...

At any rate, I got a call from my doctor's office today. They want me to come in and discuss the results of the angiogram. Which now has me in knots. It if was nonremarkable, they wouldn't bother. It's not an emergency, since they made me an appointment for next Thursday. But still, important enough that they want to talk to me about it.

On the day that I'm packing out for Sport of Kings. * sigh *

Nothing else much to report. Still sleeping a lot. Trying to get things together for Sport of Kings and Crown, including everything for Team Randal. It's not like I'm not trying to keep busy.

So what happens when a giant robot eats you, anyway?

Got to go for a ride

...In the truck with the flashy lights. It's not nearly as exciting as you'd think, because when you're that sick, you really don't care.

I'd started with a sharp pain in the upper left of my back about midnight. It got worse, and then wrapped around my ribs and into my chest. Couldn't sleep, was very painful to breathe. About 6:30 I called the advice nurse at my dr. She said "Please hang up and call 911." Wow, you sure? She was sure.

So I got a ride to the hospital. By the time I got there I could hardly see from the pain. When they rolled me off of the ambulance gurney onto the bed in ER I was screaming. And you know how when you're in Er getting stitches or whatever, and there's always someone down the hallway, howling? That was me. Especially when they were doing xrays. Moving- especially anything involving moving my ribcage- I kept hearing someone how sounded like a wounded dog. .And realized that was me. It was really weird.

After the xrays they shot me full of morphine. I was still in a lot of pain, but it was no longer the center of the universe. And they never did find out the source of the pain, but they did find a spot of pleural effusion that was apparently secondary to whatever was going on. So they sent me home with a Rx for vicodin and instructions to breath deeply (to clear up the effusion). Mostly I've been sleeping.

So that's what I've been up to the past few days. This kind of excitement I could do without.

This week's forecast:

I hate hot weather. It's 12:30 in the afternoon, and already 88. Supposed to be around 100 today and tomorrow, and up to 105 on Weds. I think there will be a movie theater somewhere in my future. (Hello, Mr Potter!)

Not much happening, trying to not melt is my main plan these days. James was up for part of the weekend- he had a meeting Saturday. We set fire to the backyard (well, a grill-sized part of it), showed a picture of the fire to some cows, and ate them. They were mighty tasty.

In teh sewing room, I need to finish Korwyn's tunics, and then get my Queen Carmen dress done. Also will be working on Randall's stuff, fortunately that is kind of spread out amongst several people and I don't have to do it all.

And ice cream is still a Very Good Thing!

Polka dots!

The polka-dot dress was a hit! Got lots of laughs and lots of compliments. And I found that I could actually work in the kitchen in it- I just tucked the sleeves into my belt to keep them out of the way.

The only big problem at Coronation was that it was so bloody hot. Mid- to upper-90s. My camp was back under the trees, but down on the field it was unbearable. I have no idea how the fighters manage it. TRMs moved court in under the trees, near the permanent pavilion, much to everyone's relief. I was only there for part of court- for Randal to be put on vigil. After that I went back to camp to deal with the chicken. Dinner turned out wonderfully, and the little dinner party was quite nice (even if I did accidentally call Countess Morag Countess Morwyn).

The switch to the gabapentin seems to be going well. Feeling better (well, except for the current lassitude from the heat) and not twitching so much. This is a serious improvement. And I get to see the new mental health person at my regular clinic, instead of heading down to see someone I don't trust. Definitely an improvement!

I put some of the hinges on wrong on the bed parts. Waiting for the weather to cool so I can try to fix it.

Starting to plan for Sport of Kings, and for September Crown. I'll be doing a Vigil Bath for Randal, and that will require a fair amount of planning.

Ice cream is a Good Thing.

And then the Dementors come...

I read an interview once, with Joanne Rowling (she wrote the Harry Potter series), where she described the Dementors as sort of being a metaphor for depression and the havoc it wreaks on one's life. Well, she got that one right, I think.

Been a rough couple of weeks, dealing with both physical and mental issues. Saw the gal at Lifeworks- she was no help at all, was sort of 'well, what am I supposed to do about it?', which was irritating, as she is supposedly the professional. I left just as down as I'd arrived. And I had no cash on me so I couldn't stop for a milkshake. :-(

However, I saw Dr Becher this Weds, and things may be looking up. The levo-dopa is not doing it's job well enough, and the side effects- especially the somnolence and exacerbation of the depression, as well as the nausea- are a Problem. So we are adding in gabapentin (which I've had before and can tolerate) and gradually phasing out the levo-dopa. So far so good- The gabapentin takes a little getting used to- I was going to go to a rally downtown, but this morning, after a dose at bedtime, I am certain that I couldn't pass a roadside drunk test. I was having trouble staggering to the bathroom. It seems to dissipate in the late afternoon, so I can get out and go to the grocery, but mornings seem to be out for me until I get used to it. But I was feeling well enough to get upstairs and work for a bit last night, so I think I'm making progress.

Speaking of progress, I got the dots on my dress heat-set, and did up the side seams. Last light I got the seam in the maunch sleeve finished- did a false French seam. Have the other sleeve to do and the I get to put the pacing stuff on the side openings. After that it's just a hem to do. I also have the work to do on the bed- I got the moulding glued on the other day, still need to put a few nails into it, and then paint it and put on the hinges. Need to get the painting done this weekend, if it is to be dry enough to put the hinges on.

And I need to run by Burgerville- the new raspberry shakes are out!

Dots, dots, dots...

I was going to post a picture of the current project in progress, but the camera decided to not play. (I changed out the batteries- it's definitely the camera and it's dead.) So here's a picture of what I started from- a pair of mid-twelfth century Limoges enamel boxes. On the front of both boxes is a woman wearing a dark blue dress that it polka-dotted all over, with maunch sleeves. (And on the box with the handle, the fellow next to her is wearing matching hose!) I decided that the presence of two different examples of this dress meant that I _had_ to make it, right? I had a good-sized chunk of dark blue sueded rayon. And I had a round paint pouncer sponge. A short trip to Michael's and I had gold fabric paint...

All of the dots are painted on. Tomorrow I get to heat-set the paint with the iron, and then I can do up the side seams. It'll be laced up on both sides, and I'm doing the loop thing instead of sewing eyelets. Mind you, I don't have a figure like the girls on the boxes, but I think it'll be a fun dress anyway. And certainly nothing like I've seen anyone do before!

In other news...

Past few weeks I've been feeling pretty crummy. Sleeping a lot. Having a hard time with pain management. And contributing to it (or maybe in consequence of) all I'm really having a hard time with the depression right now. I've sort of run out of options on the med front, but clearly what we're doing now is not working. And I really don't know what to do. The prospect of living like this for the indefinite future is... not a happy one.

When I can stay awake, I'm reading a lot. And I guess I've been doing other stuff. I caught up on some of my backlog in the sewing room. I'm running The Survey again here in An Tir and should be wrapping that up soon. I got the robes for Malia Obama done and mailed off, hopefully in time to be there for her birthday. And I'm planning to go to the midnight show of the new Potter movie.

It should keep me out of trouble. Maybe. ;-)

I iz sewing Wizard Robez!

See, a certain First Daughter is having her 11th birthday on July 4th, and of course she'll be getting her letter, right? I figure that security concerns will keep her from going to Diagon Alley for her school things, and as 'Madam Elaine's Elegant Emporium' makes robes... ;-)

I'm madly trying to get them done so I can put them in the mail, leaving time for them to wend their way through security, and hopefully get there in time for Malia's birthday, and certainly in time for the next movie! (Less than a month now!)

I made a leap of faith and am making them Ravenclaw robes. I read what I could find about Malia online (which isn't much- her folks are doing a pretty good job of keeping her out of the limelight), and apparently she takes after her dad a lot. And her dad is soooo Ravenclaw it ain't funny. She's a bit bookish, a good student, and does her homework on Lincoln's desk. I figure Ravenclaw is a pretty safe bet. Now if I only knew if she's right or left-handed...

In other news... there ain't much. I went to 3M Defender's tourney Saturday, with Arlys. It was a nice, if smallish, event. Otherwise, just staying home. Haven't been feeling well. This weekend I'm headed south, and will be day-tripping Summits Investiture from James' place. TRMs will be there, which will be nice. And I finally finished up a bunch of my old to-do pile in the sewing room, so I can hand Bera her stuff and give James his Mickey-Mouse braies. Silly boy. :-)

Now isn't that Special...

I wrote the author of that piece on bridal bouquets do correct her notions about medieval bathing habits. She wrote me back:

Hi Laura,

Thanks for writing an informative and interesting email about the origin of bridal bouquets.

While I appreciate everything you said, I'm a humorist, not an historian. You're the first reader in many years who thought otherwise.

If I ever write a serious piece about the subject, I'll know where to go for the facts.

Thanks again.

Cheers!

Maggie Van Ostrand

Well! So I went back to the article and found... that no, she did not edit it or add anything to it. I guess 'humor' is more important than facts...

HMPH!

Yes, Medieval folk were all wet!

Yet again, someone online has resurrected that awful old viral email and published part of it- 'of course it's true! I saw it online!'

Here's the linky: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maggie-van-ostrand/common-scents-why-brides_b_209397.html#postComment

Yeah, sure. Brides carried flowers because they hadn't bathed in a month. Say again??? Supposedly this author is an award-winning columnist. No awards for her research in this direction, that's for certain!

I will admit that I was pretty cheezed still when I hit the 'comments'...

In other news:

Well, I didn't go to Crown, but I did go to Egils. The weather was GLORIOUS. The dinner parties went well. The only real problem I think was the terrain- we were camped on the end of the loop with all of the holes. Mike stepped in one Friday night and spent the rest of the weekend wincing and insisting that he was fine. (Men!) And it was clear and cold at night. James and I discovered that the slats on the bed don't insulate as well as the flat plywood surface- we were getting cold air from underneath. I need to figure out something to do about that. And I'm making a change to the poster bed- adding a board on one end so we have a headboard. Otherwise our pillows keep popping over the end of the bed all night. I got the lumber at Home Despot the other day, as well as a decorative moulding board to trim it with (the kind with the vines). Rich cut them to length for me when he was over to mow the lawn the other day. Some time this weekend I need to sand them and glue them together and then paint them and put the hinges on.

This week I've been upstairs sewing a lot. Got a whole bunch of things done that have been in the to-do pile for a looooong time. I plan to get started cutting out Wanda's pavilion soon. Also going to see if I can get Malia's Hogwart's robes done this week- need to get them done and sent off as the security goobers will be drooling on them for who knows how long and I want them to be there in time for her birthday.

Stephen's birthday was the 2nd. He's 23. Hard for me to fathom sometimes. I dream about the kids fairly often and they are usually little in my dreams. But he's six feet tall now, and not a little kid...

Just popped over to HuffPo and found that they borked my initial cranky post in the comments. I toned it down a bit- have to see if the moderators will let it through now.

EEEEEYYUUW!

Wanda and I were out almost all day, came home to a house that smelled horrible. Like rotting garbage but with a chemical edge to it. Looked for burning peripherals, etc, the garbage went out yesterday, and Wanda went outside to see if someone was burning stuff outside (a NO-NO here). I went to use the bathroom and discovered the culprit. A very old can of aerosol spray burn ointment, iodine-based, had exploded, blowing the cabinet door open, the shelf off, and red-brown goo over everything. The mess is indescribable, and the goo is not cleaning up easily. Ok off of porcelain or tile, but not the walls, rug, vinyl tub and surround, the wood cabinetry, the shower curtain, everything else in the cabinet, etc etc etc. And given the mental state of the cats when we came in, I would guess that it was pretty exciting when it went off, too! The poor kitties!

We got most of it triaged, but I think we're going to be finding and cleaning up goo for some time. Festive. :-/

I saw the Pres's speech today. I'd gone to an ethnic grocery to get rose water and orange flower water for this coming weekend, and the tv was on in there- he was just coming on. So I stood in the deli seating area and watched along with a half-dozen or so lunching seniors. The man was AWESOME. I couldn't be prouder of my President. What a gift that we got to vote for him!

Well, I'm off to plan menu for the camping trip this coming weekend. Looks like the weather is going to be nice! Cross yer fingers!

So here's the skinny on my trip (sorry for duplication for those of you who already heard- I'm doing cut-and-paste because I'm a lazy bum. :-)...

I'm nearly recovered. :-) Flew out Monday and home Friday night. Very busy- kinda tried to not do too much, but I hadn't counted on how long it takes just to get anywhere! We saw lots of subway stairs. And my knees haven't forgiven me yet. Goofed around Tuesday, went to Times Square and saw all the flashy-flashy. Dug through some stores in the fabric district (managed to not spend any money!), and went to see 'Mary Stuart'. It had only a passing acquaintance with the history, but it was a cool show. And they had rain! Onstage! I had no idea they could do that. Looked like the front row was getting a little damp, too. Was funny though- I recognized the woman who played Elizabeth I- she was Fanny in 'Sense and Sensibility'- I recognized her voice first. Annie said the house was the same place where Dan Radcliffe was in 'Equus' earlier this year- she went to see it and said he was _really_ good.

Weds we went to the Cloisters. Many stairs. Lots of keen stuff though. We were in the room with the ivories when they closed, so we saw almost all of it. The gardens were great- a lot of stuff was blooming. Rode the A train and saw some of the local wildlife ;-) I bought some new orange socks from The Sock Guy in St Mark's and we had lunch.

Thursday was the big day- we met up with Adamantius and went to the Met. Annie had to take off to work a half shift, so Phil and I wandered through and managed to not get into trouble (though he pointed out to me the David Friedman Memorial Electrical Outlet where Cariadoc decided to power up his laptop and nearly got them both arrested). It was overwhelmingly cool. Saw a lot of things that I have pictures of- but in real life! And quite a few of them are not the size I'd imagined! The armor exhibit was neat but almost all of it was late and post-period. Looked at lots of pictures, saw a piece of statuary I'd wanted to see and was frustrated to find out that it was not in the round- the back 1/4 was unfinished. I wanted to see the back of the headdress, but I was thwarted! Bah! We finally found the display of musical instruments upstairs- lots of neat stuff there, including a stack of early bassoons.

We had lunch out on the steps- official New York hotdogs from a vendor there. Spent another couple of hours in the museum, then I spent far too much money on books in the giftshop (the jewelry was out of my reach though, sadly). When they closed we went down and picked up Susan from work, and then took a cab to a German restaurant (no idea where we were) where we met up with Annie. The cab ride was... an experience. They mocked me for automatically putting on my seatbelt, but MY GOD! I aged five years in that cab! And Phil didn't even bat an eyelash. He was getting far too much amusement from this Oregon mouse, I think. And I have several new white hairs. =:-O

The food was great, though the place was noisy. We had a great time hassling Annie- Phil pointed out to her that she's nearly 25- a spinster! I leaned over and said "Thass whut yew git fer edjictin' wimmin!" Susan lost a mouthful of wine on that one. And the table next to us was full of good-looking well-dressed young men, which Annie noticed. When their desserts arrived, Phil leaned over and said "Oh! Are those the apple fritters?" Oh yeah, yeah, and did we want a taste? We said no but Annie said Yes! So a fork full was passed over, and then Phil said "Young lady! Didn't your mother teach you to not take apple fritters from strangers?" It was great. Annie was bright red but she had a mouthful of apple fritters and couldn't snark back at him!

Not a single New Yorker was rude to me. The one rude person was in New Jersey, at the airport (I was flying through Newark).

Annie's apartment in Brooklyn is huge. I was expecting a teeny little place. She has lovely wood floors and good-sized windows. Bugs in the kitchen though, which I expected. I went in in the night for a glass of water and they looked at me and said Feh! and went about their business. Annie's kitty Iso slept on me while I was there, though I wouldn't let her sleep on my face. I do have my limits.

I don't know if I could ever live there- very big and very noisy and getting anywhere is such a chore! But Annie is flourishing and that's what matters.

This Slug ain't made for walkin'...

But a lot of walkin' was done. We took the subway to Times Square and negotiated our way through the crowds to the ticket place, and stood in line for awhile. After tickets were procured we walked some more, finally found a plate to get a bite to eat- some panini (which was yummy). Then we walked some more. Wandered into the fabric district and looked through a couple of stores until time for our show.

Went to see 'Mary Stuart', which was interesting. The gal who played Elizabeth I was the woman who played Fanny in 'Sense and Sensibility' I recognized the voice right off- it took me awhile to figure out where I knew it from. I kept hearing her say "He has a barouche". The play was interesting- the script played fast and loose with history (nah, really? Yes, really). The guy who played Lord Burleigh was very good. And their Dudley was very interesting

Since we weren't up and about early enough today, the Met and/or Cloisters will have to be Weds, maybe Thurs. Hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.

I is in New York!

Here at Annie's- got in to Newark this afternoon, and after much walking and training and subwaying we arrived here at Annie's place! She fed me pasta and pesto and chocolate ice cream. And Iso had decided that I'm ok.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to the Met, and maybe the Cloisters Weds or Thurs.

And I may just crash early tonight- got up at 5:30 and didn't get much sleep on the plane.

Things not to do:

1. Don't tug on Superman's cape
2. Don't spit into the wind
3. Don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
4. Don't mess around with Slim

5. And never, never look up at the sky and yell "What next?!"

This has been the week of nausea. Here I am, at 3:30am, finishing off a bowl of yogurt in hopes that it will settle my stomach so I can sleep. So far no luck I think Monday I will break down and call Dr Becher and see about the anti-nausea drugs she mentioned. I hate nausea almost as much as I hate twitching, and I will do almost anything to not throw up.

So far I am not being successful in dealing with this.

In other news:

Saturday we had the work party here. I draped a cotehardie pattern for Liadan and cut out a bunch of stuff for Helena. Then I made pizza while Wanda helped Cat with her bodice. Too many hours on my feet- it was pretty exciting when I finally got my shoes off.

I spent the rest of the week not really getting much done but sleeping, except for printing out a pile of pool info for the other ladies at the pool--

This was the last week at the pool. Pretty depressing. I think I'm going to check into the Providence program further, but probably not until after I get home from---

New York! Yup, I'm going to see Annie, the 4th thru the 8th of May. Looking forward to goofing off, maybe eating pie, seeing some museums, visitng people, and maybe eating some pie... and did I mention pie?

I've seen the new Harry Potter trailer several times- looks like the sixth movie is going to be really good. And I've also seen some shots from on-location shoots for the first part of the seventh movie- so far, so good! The dress that they have Hermione wear for Bill and Fleur's wedding is really nice. I want one!

Off for another try at the sleeping thing...

This looks familiar...

Wish I had some of that Instant Pain Annihilator, but I would bet that it's components are no longer legal, and I'm too cheap to buy them on the street. So I guess it's another handful of ibuprofen.

So what's been up lately? Not much. I picked up another ILL today- chronicles from the reigns of Stephen through Richard I. However, they didn't arrive in the facing-page translation I wanted- the library said there wasn't a copy in the system. Grr. And yes, my Latin skillz are feeble, but I know enough to poke through the period I'm looking at, and see that what I need to know isn't there. ARGH!

However, the last two ILL requests came in right, in translation, and I took them down to the local cheap copy place (5 cents a page still!) and copied them and put them in ring-binders. So I now have a copy of the _Gesta Normannorum Ducem_ And the _Gesta Stephani_. They're a little earlier than the time period I'm looking for, but way cool sources nonetheless.

I'm planning to go see Annie the first week in May- really looking forward to it and hoping she'll make some pie for me, since she's gotten so famous for it. Hoping to get to see the Cloisters, and the Met. And maybe eat lunch at one of the famed street vendors. :-) And I'll get to see her nifty rent-controlled apartment, and hassle the Iso kitty!

The big bad news is that the pool I've been going to is closing, a week from Monday. They are having financial problems keeping it open, especially now since the babies' classes have left, and apparently it needs some renovation to keep up with operating requirements. Don't know if/where we're going to go somewhere else- I found some stuff on line about the Arthritis Foundation's pool programs, I need to make some phone calls and check out the various locations here in town.

Larry found a new job, but the scheduling really sucks, and he's not very happy. But in the economy, maybe happy isn't as important as it once was. But we don't get to see him very often, which is a pain.

Been alternating laughing my head off and being really cheezed at the protests this week. Allegedly a tax protest, somehow there was an awful lot of really icky anti-Obama signs, which made it look like a bunch of sore losers rather than grumpy taxpayers. And the funny thing is, they aren't paying attention to _reality_ (as usual) because 95% of us are getting a tax cut! So why are they protesting? Well, it might be related to this (which I posted on Facebook earlier today): in the Eugene paper- "The Springfield rally was one of 20 held around the state by the national anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity, which is run by the owners of Koch Industries, the largest privately owned business in the United States." This isn't grass-roots- this is astroturf. By Big Business. And Fox News.

The reason to laugh at them? Because they fancy themselves a modern-day 'Boston Tea Party', and have been calling themselves 'tea-baggers'. And if you look up the term 'tea-baggers' in the Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teabagger ) you'll see why. (Not Safe For Work!)

Of course, when pressed, most of them will insist that the protest is non-partisan, and that they were angry at the taxes and spending under the Bush Administration too. To which I have to say: "Where were you last year?"

Heeeeeeellpp!!!!!

I always swore I wouldn't get into the social-networking sites, because they're a time sink and I don't need that.

Famous last words.

I'm up to 61 'friends' now, friends, family, etc. And spending too much time reading and commenting and taking silly quizzes. How can it be that 'What Looney Tunes character are you?' turns out to be Daffy Duck (woo-hoo!) but 'What Muppet are you?' was Sam Eagle? (Even Karl and Linda said I was definitely Sam Eagle. Pout.)

In other news, the pool was c-c-c-c-old Weds and those of us who stayed only lasted about 40 minutes. And the locker room was cold too, which is in the 'insult-on-injury' range for me. I came home and went back to bed just to get warm. And it's been cold and rainy a lot the past couple of weeks, which makes it even easier to pull the covers over my head.

A little more than a week until Lent is over. I can hardly wait. Think I'll celebrate at Burgerville.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

* pant pant *

Ok, the scary part is over, but my knuckles are still white. James and I (with Vanyev in the back seat) went to Coronet last Saturday. The event was nice, a fellow named Brogan from Corvaria won, beating Alail in three. Their Majesties were there and gave out quite a few awards, and got lots of cool-looking gifties. The A&S displays were pretty keen (Brizio rocks!) and there were plenty of people to chat with. A nice day all around.

But then we tried to go home...

First off, a flat tire. About 8 miles out of Klamath Falls, there was a FFFFSSSHSHH!!! followed by DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUD. I managed to pull over into what appeared to be the only wide spot on the shoulder for some distance. There was some interesting rummaging around digging out the spare, the jack, and the lug wrench, but they were all located, and James had the spare on in record time. (And mind you, it was sleeting the whole time.) But it was Veeeeeery Loooooow. Too low to risk limping back into town. So we called AAA, and they came out and put air in it, and we were good to go. Or so we thought.

Less than ten minutes later the sleet turned to snow, and almost immediately we were in near whiteout conditions. At this point I was VERY glad that we'd chosen to go back over hwy 140 instead of 66. 140 is a little longer, but mostly straight. 66 is hairpin turns the whole way. Of course, it was quickly a case of 'I don't care how straight it is, it's still scary!' It was dark, and the snow was soming down really thickly, and the glare from the headlights was pretty bad. And there was enough snow on the road that I could not see the lines. Vanyev could sort of see the fog line from where he was sitting, and I could sort of find the center line if I squinted. So we crept over the hill at 20-25mph. It took forever. We finally got over the ridge and down to the other side, where it was clear and dry. Got back in to Ashland about 11 oclock.

I've never had a drive that frightening, and I hope I never have to do it again!

That was the exciting part of the last week. James and I are spending most of spring break goofing off, though he's been doing some work on church business. Today was the Feast of the Annuniciation, so we went to Kennedy School for dinner. I'm feeling very round at the moment!

Went to a little event today-

At a castle up in the Columbia Gorge! There's a canton forming out in Hood River, and they held a little potluck at Husum Castle. An interesting place- kinda small (very small with the number of small children in attendance!), but cool! We were using one room on the main floor, and the kitchen. The stairs were scary tiny, circular stairs set into the walls. The windows were all 'gothic' shaped, and the doors all had the rounded tops. Wood floors, and a nice wide hearth. There was a deck just off of the main room, and it had a lovely view of a river. Was quite pretty.

I was smart and brought my own food, which was good because there wasn't much one could eat on a Lenten fast- just a glazed carrot dish and the Canisiones (pastry rolled up with ground almonds, sugar, and rosewater inside) that I brought. But it looked like everyone else got enough to eat and they were happy.

They had several bardic presentations, including a little kid who read a (sanitized) version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I left earlier than I'd planned (had a BAD headache) but it seemed that everyone was still having a good time.

Had some trouble driving home- the levo-dopa wore off and my legs started doing their thing. Very hard to drive that way. I was really glad to get home and get some drugs!

This week I'm hoping to get some more work done on Elfreda's gown, before I leave Thursday. And I have to remember to clean out the car before then, as we have a passenger (Vanyev) on the way to Coronet. Somehow I don't think he would care to ride with my trash collection. :-)

w00000000t!!!!

A HAPPY DANCE!!!

I just got back from the library, where I picked up my latest ILL:

_Gesta Normannorum_- chronicles of the 11th and 12th century by William of Jumiges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigny-

IN FACING-PAGE TRANSLATION!!!

My pitiful lack of Latin skillz will no longer hold me back (in this place at least) ! I may finally be able to find out where Henry Plantagenet was in August and September of 1154, and what he was up to!

Can we say Kinko's? Yes, we can! (Actually, probably my favorite local copy guy- he's cheaper than Kinko's.)

I may finally be able to move on and get the research and writing going again! Yay!

And I had a German Pancake with blueberries and raspberry couleé for breakfast. Yummy! I like feast days...

UPDATE:

FAIL! AARRGHH! The Chronicle ends just before the time period I need! There's got to be more somewhere, but not in this copy! I am SOOOOOOOO frustrated!

Still dancing...

... problem is, I'm dancing when I'd rather be sleeping...

Still having serious problems with the restless legs problem- and not just at night. It's plaguing me during the day, too, which is very annoying. The Rx that Dr Becher gave me does quiet it down- for four or five hours. And when I take it during the day, the nausea and light-headedness are a real problem. So I made an appt to see her again (first opening is next Weds. Bah!) and I guess we'll go from there. In the meantime, I'm sleeping erratically and pretty cranky. * sigh * But I got weighed today and supposedly lost just a smidgen of weight. Just not enough.

Let's see, what else... Judith (Claire) has moved most of her stuff into the basement, but she is also house-sitting for someone else so she isn't actually here at the moment. I haven't been down to see the basement yet, but we expect to be re-arranging stuff for awhile, mostly so she can live while I can still get to the stuff I need.

Annie and I are thinking about my visiting her sometime this spring, maybe May or June. The weather is pretty nice then and it's not really high tourist season yet. Something to think about in the next month or so.

I have sewing to do much I'm not feeling up to crawlin gupstairs to work just now. I really need a nap, but guess why I'm not sleeping? When I'm a bit more awake, maybe I'll get moving. I got Elfreda's gown cut out the other day and it should run up fairly quickly once I get started.

Think I'll give the nap thing another try...

That noise you heard

... about 4 this afternoon was me, in the dressing room, trying on jeans. I was down to one pair that I could get on, so buy some more I must. Tried on 6 pairs- 5 in the size I've been wearing, and one in the next size up. Guess which one fit? Yeah, and insult on injury- they're 'relaxed fit', too.

I really wanted to throw myself on the floor and have a good wail about it, but the floor was filthy. And crying wouldn't really help and it might attract attention that I don't want. So I put the too-small jeans away and headed for the fabric section...

I'm really extra frustrated because I've really really really been working on the diet, and I've been hitting the pool 2-3 times a week, and working hard while I'm there. It would be reasonable to expect the size to go down, not up, right? Well, I guess I live in Backwards Land.

Did score a really nice piece of what I'm pretty sure is linen, maybe hemp, in a lettuce green, and a black and white tweed wool. I need to get some of my backlog caught up, and then make myself some new tourney wear, hopefully before Egils.

Still having medication issues. The Sinemet (the Levo-Dopa stuff) is holding down the restless legs stuff- barely. When it's near time for the next dose I'm usually twitching again. And it really lays me out- just want to stay in bed. And the nausea is a problem too. But I can't stand the twitching, so laying off the meds is not an option.

And Lent starts this week. And I do not care for fish.

The world conspires against me.

The Little Volvo That Could!

Well, I went to Ashland for the long weekend, and Zippy the Wonder Volvo was very good! For some reason the overdrive decided to work properly the whole way, and I managed to get a head start on all of the passes- didn't have to shift down any farther than 4th gear, which is pretty amazing. And she got really good mileage too. Now if only _I_ got that good of mileage!

I was not feeling well the whole weekend, and James let me sleep a lot, which was very kind of him but I felt bad- I didn't drive 300 miles to sleep the whole time! Argh! But he made a very nice Valentine's dinner, and I got lots of cuddle time, which I sorely needed.

But I slept all day today, which I wasn't happy about. I had forgotten why I don't make the trip very often- because it completely wipes me out. But I'm headed down next month, for March Coronet. And planning to spend Spring Break with James- whether we spend most of it here or there I don't know yet.

I stopped in Eugene to visit a little with Stephen. He was at work but took a short break to chat with Mom. He's sick, with whatever Plague is going around down there, sore throat and a bad cough. He might be up to visit a little more often now, being as how he's got a girlfriend, and she lives in Portland. Her name is Meredith and she's as tall as he is. I'm hoping to get to meet her sometime...

I stopped to see Lydia on my way down. Didn't stay too long because I was running a little bit late (and I wanted to get through the passes in daylight if I could). They are doing about the same as usual. And traffic there by Gateway Mall was crazed as usual. I hate that interchange.

Shadow is not speaking to me. He's been shunning me since I got back. I guess he's mad that I went away and closed my bedroom door so he couldn't come in and steal things off my desk. Silly cat!

WANT!!!

If one must be a Cranky Pants, one must dress the part!

Yes, I'm still cranky. Been taking the new drugs for the restless legs thing- and getting a good solid 5 hours of unbroken sleep before I start twitching again. Catching up during the daytime isn't cutting it either, as I'm twitching during the day now too. This makes me cranky. So I called the Dr back and she upped the dosage on the meds. We'll have to see how that goes. I would really like to get some decent sleep...

Zippy went to the shop and got her clutch adjusted, which was a good thing as I was having to arm-wrestle the stick to shift. Seems to be ok now though.

I've been cleaning my room- went through the huge pile on my desk and I can actually see the surface in places. There's still piles of stuff on the floor, but I'm making progress with that (much of it involves putting SCA stuff away). What to do with the dresser top I don't know- just is no place to put things! If I could find another place for my winged pig, that would help, but it's fragile and I don't want to put it where it might get knocked over. And why is there a pair of champagne flutes on the dresser? I have no idea.

I think I need Dudley's second bedroom!

Truth in advertising and all...

I've got a good crabby going on. And I think I've earned it!

1) the DSL line went down *again*, about 3 this morning. I got up this morning and found no mail, and it wouldn't connect. Went downstairs grumbling, reset the modem, came back up. Still no connection. Repeat. So I called Qwest, waited through the menu (is it just me or do others feel really stupid yelling 'representative!' at the top of their lungs, trying to get the voice recognition system to get it right?), finally got a human. Who immediately said "It's not our fault." That was BS and I told her so. I explained that when this happens they fart around until I lose my temper and yell at them and then they suddenly fix the problem, and that this time I was willing to skip the farting around part and go straight to my yelling. Got the 'one moment please'. She eventually came back on and said that yes, there did seem to be a problem, it would be a couple of minutes while she worked with the other department to track it down and get it fixed. Fine, I can wait.

And then their phone system dumped me.

One would think that the phone company would have a system that didn't hang up on people that they're supposedly helping, but I guess that's to much to ask. So I had to call and go through the whole thing all over again. Got put on hold again, eventually they put through a 'trouble ticket' and sent it off to another department, and it would be an hour or so.

Luckily, it was only about 40 minutes, and suddenly the email dumped into the inbox. Of course by this time I'd

2) missed my swim class, so I started the day double cranky.

3) To top if off, a fair amount of this phone stuff involved me going up and down the stairs, saying "No, there's the correct row of lights on the box", "No, there's still no connection at the computer", etc etc etc. Being as how I hadn't yet dressed for the day, I did not have the ankle brace on.

Can we see where this is going?

Just wrenched it good- really hardly moved but it's still really touchy and BOY did it hurt! So it's strapped up again and I'm popping the ibuprofen and cussing under my breath.

4) Oh- and yesterday I got a bill in the mail for $67066.29. Who doesn't love opening up one of those, eh? Can I pay it? HAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!

5) I have no chocolate. Homeland Security may want to bump the warning up to red...

Bleah.

Nothing much happening, so there's not been much to say. I saw Dr Fickle last Thursday, we upped the anti-depressants a little, but that's about it. Saw Dr Becher on Monday, she says that the ankle may just take awhile to heal up- partly because I'm getting older (noooooo!) and partly because of my weight. Which actually went down by 8 pounds (YAY!). Talked with her about the restless legs stuff, she wrote a scrip for a med for it- it's something that they usually use for Parkinson's, but has been getting good reviews for the restless legs. So far I'm getting about 5 or 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep before the jumping starts. It's a good start, hope that as the blood levels go up I'll get something more like real sleep.

We've had snow a couple of times this past week. Doesn't last very long, but it sure looks nice while it's here.

Still been reading Frankish stuff, much of it Merovinian because there's more artifacts to look at. The Merovingians buried folks with grave goods, which is great for those of us who like to look at that sort of thing. But the Carolingians were more Christianized, and didn't bury with grave goods, so we don't have as much in material culture to look at. Very frustrating.

I really should be upstairs, finishing cleaning the sewing room. But I'm sleep and I don't want to. Maybe if I start getting better sleep I'll be a little more motivated to do stuff...

Underneath all of that clothing...

... is daughter Annie, who like a crazy person went on a road trip and was at the Inauguration! She went with a bunch of friends, they drove all night, had to walk several miles, and ended up in the shadow of the Washington Monument- but they were THERE! w00T!!!!


Second picture is Marine One, taking W away.

Just savor that for a moment...

... ahhh! That's better!

YES WE DID!

Yes indeedy, we have a new President! (And he knew his lines, even if the Chief Justice did not...)

The excitement around here was not just watching the Inauguration on the tv- Today was extra exciting for us because Annie and a bunch of her friends in NYC borrowed a car and drove to DC for the Inauguration! She said they made it- had to walk about three miles and they were in the shadow of the Washington monument, but they were there! She said the crowd was AMAZING and she'll post as soon as she can get somewhere to use an iPhone or something- they're booking on home now because they all have to work tomorrow.

So why am I crying? Wow.

What a beautiful land this is! And a beautiful, brand new day! And such fortune to start it with a President such as this!

(And I can hardly wait to see Michelle's dress! :-)

I'm tired of being cold.

I know that I'll feel differently, say, late August when my brain has been baking, but I'm really tired of winter already! We really have it easy here- we had our annual snowstorm and that's done, and now it's just clear and cold. Whole days go by where the urge to stay in bed and pile on the blankets is overwhelming. (Hence the bed piled over with blankets and the collection of books and magazines on James' side of the bed.)

Nothing much interesting happening. I managed to get myself out to the pool yesterday. And I got my laundry done. And I read the Royal Frankish Annals, Nithard's Histories, Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, and Notker the Stammerer's accounts. And I still haven't found that little tidbit about where Desiderius' daughter went after Charles ended their marriage- somewhere in the past year I have a very clear memory of reading something that said what monastery she retired to. And I can't remember where! And I have this huge pile of Frankish sources that I have to go back through. That'll show me for now marking it or writing it down somewhere. I guess that the days of simply remembering are over. Bother.

Sometime in the next few days we hope to get Zippy the Wonder Volvo down to see Adam and get her clutch fixed, which is needful. And maybe have the window switch fixed so they'll go up and down again. Hopefully the other Volvo will be done, so I'd have access to wheels while they're working on Zippy. I need to get to the pool, and I have an appt with the shrink on Thursday that I'm NOT going to miss- I need to to walk in and tell him that I am NOT THRIVING. To say the least.

Maybe later tonight I'll head upstairs and try to finish the last little bit of work on my coat. Maybe having a new coat would make winter a little more bearable...

Today's self-portrait...

Yes, I'm feeling mighty slug-like. Have been all week- came home from 12th Night and crashed, and not done much since. I did get out for a little bit yesterday, went to pick up my med refills, and before I came home, I went to Burgerville. Heh. It required digging in my purse for change, but I had a Chocolate-Hazelnut milkshake. And it was delicious. :-)

My dress was a hit at 12th Night- the mantle and coat worked perfectly too. I skipped out on morning court and cruised the merchants' room. Lots of keen stuff, but I kept my wallet firmly in my bag. Did chat with Wm. Bjornson about fixing my ring, and if I'm a good girl and save my pennies, I might be able to afford to have that done this summer.

The ankle is still a bit touchy- I was on my feet too much at 12th Night and felt it. And I'm having a really hard time with the restless legs thing at night. Dear Abby said that putting a bar of soap in bed with me would fix it, but I guess I don't have enough faith, because it really hasn't helped. Makes the sheets smell nice though.

And if we can get Zippy's clutch issues sorted out, I'm planning to go visit James for Valentine's weekend, just to spend some alone time together. Things are looking grim on the student-teaching front, and we haven't quite figured out what to do next. * Sigh * Can never seem to catch an even break...

Nearly there-

Well, here's the progress so far. I have yet to do the hem, a little bit of finish work on the cuffs, and the beadwork. I think I can breathe a little easier now. :-) Tomorrow I need to go to the grocery, get my pre-cook done (I'm taking some hand-held pies among other things), and pack. I figure I can leave the beadwork to last, since it's sort of optional (the gown is pretty shiny without). And tomorrow is Thursday, so I might even get to do beadwork during Project Night, depending on what other stuff I'm helping folks finish.

In not-so-good news, I-5 is closed between here and Olympia, due to flooding. If the water doesn't recede, it could be a smallish event!

Short progress report-

Since I've actually been working on my 12th Night stuff...

I have the front and back pieced together, and next I need to do the shoulder seam so I can line up the neckline and put the front stripe down. Adding in the extra embroidered motifs on the center stripe worked well- it looks great, and will look better when I have some beadwork done. The colors in the photo don't even sort of do justice to it- the red is actually a vivid orange-red, the stuff that shows pink is really a pretty cappuccino beige, and the embroidery is gold. I need to dig through my makeup- I _know_ I have a lipstick that is just the right color. ;-) I also have the coat blocked out. Due to the tricks of making it from a sari, it is basically an aba, and I'm not sure if I want to change that or not. I think I will finish the main gown and see what I think then.

In other news- my ankle still hurts and I'm still having trouble with the nausea. James went home Saturday (BOO!). Christene and Victoria came over Sunday afternoon and we got quite a bit done on their stuff, including a hat for Christene- the little black velvet 'flowerpot' hennin. It will look cool. :-) I still need to figure out the camera that Ellen gave me so I can take it to the event and get pictures.

Oh- and the vitamin industry is really digging into us- I decided to do the supplement route for the restless legs I've been having, since yet more drugs is not a good idea. I was shocked at the prices! Shocked, I say! Since when should a bottle of vitamins cost more than the Rx I'm trying to avoid?!?

Got the fancy new medical ID card in the mail the other day- but of course they can't get it right the first time- they arrived without name or ID # or anything- but XXXXXXX where those things ought to be. So this card could belong to Charlie Manson for all anyone knows- certainly nothing on them links them to me! I tried to call Friday to find out what to do, and of course the lines were busy and the state phone system hung up on me. Three times. And this is an improvement how?

And dammit- it's snowing again. So much for hitting the pool in the morning...

Happy New Year!

Dance dance dance my kitties! It's a new year!

(And good riddance to the old one!)

I got my cast off Tuesday, which was a relief! No more crutches! They did another set of xrays, and it still wasn't broken but instead they think I'd just torn the @#%$^& out of the Superior Extensor Retinaculum (i.e. the horizontal band of tissue just above the ankle in the front). They decided that the cast was more trouble than it was worth. So I have a spiffy new brace, and I can manage with just the cane, thankyouverymuch.

I was on my feet for a little too long yesterday though- and I'm feeling it today! We went to Powells (I got a copy of _Beedle the Bard_ and a book for Lydia)

James and I went to the New Year's Eve
concert at the cathedral (he was ushering so I got in early- which was
good- the line was off the campus and down the block when we got there
30 min before the doors opened) and it was spectacular as usual.  :-) 
Complete with bagpipes playing 'Auld Lang Syne'. We came home and James
made a big pot of black-eyed peas with smoked turkey and cornbread, and
I made mustard greens to go with. And we opened a bottle of champagne at
midnight. It was all very tasty.  :-)

I made my usual resolutions (lose weight, finish writing projects, etc) so I guess I'll see how that goes. So far, so good- I haven't eaten myself into a stupor yet! (But then the day is young...;-)