This weekend was just a clutter of happenings that my poor stuffed-up-head-achy-body somehow managed to keep together, but not without a significant quantity of whining. (To all that were subjected to the whining, my apologies. My appetite has been out of control lately, and being hungry makes me cranky. Being sick makes me cranky. Being tardy makes me cranky. Having to maintain charges on a bevy of electronic devices makes me cranky. And not enough sleep makes me cranky. Guess what I did this weekend? If you guessed all of the above, you would be correct.)

Since I am neither a fighter nor a Rose, my only means of measuring success for the Rose Tourney was how much fun my "superstars" were having. I attended in support of [livejournal.com profile] sirzig, [livejournal.com profile] gwyneth1362, and [livejournal.com profile] quackersbob, with some peripheral service provided to other members of my household who were unable to attend but required representation at the event anyway. I think I met all my obligations adequately - though perhaps with a touch less cheer and flair than normal, nonetheless, my "superstars" seem pleased with the outcome of the event. [livejournal.com profile] quackersbob was a regular rockstar and [livejournal.com profile] sirzig mentally high-fived him for a good portion of the drive home for maximizing the number of ladies that the Von Kulmbach household could make cry (in the good way) during court. They even managed to wring a tear or two out of my stoic face, so I must admit they managed to count coup on me too. [livejournal.com profile] gwyneth1362 says she had a good time despite the fact that her Duke was unable to attend, and [livejournal.com profile] sirzig made her cry like... 3 times... Too bad we didn't get a chance to hang out in the hotel and have some drinks just to wrap up the catharsis of the day with a tidy bow! Maybe next time! The Duke can be there and we will all have celebratory scotch and therefore the ladies will have a good excuse for having red-tipped-noses and slightly watery eyes.

My unexpected wins for the weekend were the Blue Corn Pancakes at the Sunny Side Up. (Dude. Naturally purple pancakes made with blue corn meal with whole kernels of yellow corn in them for contrast! Pretty AND Yummy!) AND I found Swiss Military Gaitors for $10 in a thrift store for [livejournal.com profile] sirzig to wear over his cleats while fighting. I had a pair of them about a decade ago, and they were the first thing I thought of when Zig said that he wanted something to cover up his cleats when he fights. Seeing them in a shop window in Minneapolis brought me to a SCREECHING halt and I went in to buy them on the spot... When I showed them to [livejournal.com profile] sirzig he made me take him back to the shop so that he could CLEAN OUT THEIR ENTIRE STOCK (2 more pairs) so that he'd have one to take apart for a pattern, one to wear, and maybe one to lend out to Squires with Unpleasing Footwear. On the way out of the shop, I got to make jokes about his "sack full of gaitors," too, which was a bonus.

Since the trip home was made during daylight hours, I got to catch up on some of the knitting that I intended to do at the event. I managed to do a good 20 or so rows on what I'm beginning to think of as the "eternal project" which is actually the pair of Elenora of Toledo stockings that [livejournal.com profile] valkyr8 has managed to finish 3 pairs of in the last year. I imagine progress is much more noticeable if one is spending more time on them than just to bus-ride to and from work...

While I was at the event, I got another prezzie from [livejournal.com profile] feeferj who was the most FANTASTIC SURPRISE ARTIST EVER and bought me a couple of the books on my Amazon.com wishlist. It's not even my birthday! (That's NOT why I posted the link, btw, but the fact that she jumped on it that quick is one of the many reasons why I love her.) Now I'm only expecting 5 more packages until I can stop calling Zig from work every day to ask him if anything came in the mail... I hope my roving arrives today... otherwise this evening will be all about making more progress on these stockings.
mightyjesse: (Default)
( May. 20th, 2008 10:31 am)


Well, Penn Lite suffered from predictably awful weather. As QB is so fond of saying, "It ain't Penn Lite unless you're setting up a pavilion in sleet." This year, it wasn't sleet - it was rain. What made this rain a particular pain in the ass was that for the entire 3 days we were on site, there were only about 6 hours of NOT rain. (Thankfully, those hours were on the morning of tear-down so I managed to get SOME of my stuff dry enough to put back into storage.)

Sadly, Gunther's trailer, where I was storing all of my Pennsic equipment, leaked over the winter and all of my carpets were SOAKED. I am thankful for 2 things:
  1. My CANVAS (pavilion) stayed dry.
  2. We discovered the leak in MAY, before it was warm enough for the mold to REALLY get going. (The mold is an extremely disturbing shade of smurf-blue.)

I am irritated by 2 things:
  1. I couldn't use my carpets during Penn Lite because they were moldy and stinky and the ground was too muddy to be able to clean them and dry them on site.
  2. I had to take my roof and carpets home to WI for cleaning and drying before Pennsic, which means that now I pretty much *have* to get that trailer I was thinking about getting for storing all my Pennsic stuff and hauling it from one event to the next. That's going to make things a bit tighter than expected for this year's Pennsic budget...


So some night this week when Zig is home to help me schlumph a wet 8x11' carpet over the Durango to dry, I'm going to have to clean my 3 rugs with Murphy's Oil Soap and PRAY that it get's the "Blue Death Fungus" off my carpets... I'm not so much worried about the color (because by the end of Pennsic, they're all DIRT colored anyway) as I am worried about the SMELL. I don't want my coffee shop smelling of mustiness all Pennsic long. That'd drive me NUTS.

The event was SUPER COLD at night, probably even below freezing... I specifically invited [livejournal.com profile] giftofamber to stay in the pavilion with me so that I wouldn't freeze my butt off at night, but we still pretty much froze to death the first night... I figured it out after about 4 miserable hours: Her sleeping bag lining was so slippery that the entire thing kept sliding off the bed and onto the floor every time one of us moved. Thus leaving us with no coverage. *groan* The second night was *slightly* warmer because I tucked the sleeping back under the futon mattress on both sides, but it was still ridiculous weather to be camping in.

I worked pretty diligently on the spinning and the knitting of the pinwheel sweater the whole time I was on site. This actually kept me from wanting to smoke - despite the fact that I continued to allow smoking in the coffee shop. Part of me thought that would be the hardest thing EVER, but since I had my spinning wheel and my knitting to keep my hands busy, it wasn't bad at all. Sadly, however, the gauge change for the sweater design didn't work out right, and all the work I did will need to be ripped out and started over. Probably as a pair of socks. That yarn will make LOVELY socks for someone, I'm sure. (Not to worry... I have already re-started the sweater at what appears to be the correct gauge with the white marino that I cleaned and spun from the raw wool that my colleague gave me. It's softest EVER and looks like it'll fit MUCH better this way.)

I was pretty good about reining in any shopping urges while at the event... Though I did buy some beautiful roving that was dyed with rhubarb. It's a gorgeous shade of herb-green and I can't wait to spin it... I haven't the faintest notion what I'll make out of it when it's spun, but I'm really itching to warp my loom again, so depending on how fine the thread ends up being, maybe I'll use it for weaving.

...

Pictures later, I think. For now, I'm back to work...
.

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