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.