Travelling Time and Space

and I'll be picking up my parents at the airport ! Wheeeee ! I can't wait and the excitement and joy over their visit do a lot to make me feel a little less miserable, less sniffly and less wheezy.

The plague finally caught up on hubby too but furtunately it's almost weekend and some time to relax. We'll take it slow, allowing my parents to settle and get adjusted to the time zone issues, get re-acquainted with their grandchild and generally just hang out together with probvably a trip to the beach or to the zoo thrown in on Sunday provided my half of the family is feeling up to it. Finndragon prefers to lounge on the couch, tucked under his Spiderman blanket and both Monkey and Bear tucked into his arm with either a book or a movie to keep him entertained so it'll take some coaxing to get him out of the house. 

On Sunday we'll be cooking up a storm. I've never had my parents here for Thanksgiving and what better opportunity than this to celebrate Thanksgiving :o) Hehe. 

The only drawback is that I won't be at Court at C&C. There are a bunch of people receiving well deserved awards and I'd have loved to see their faces at the magical moment when their name is being called and they are asked to come forward into the Royal Presence *S* I need to update my list for letters of recommendation and start writing letters again soon. Probably after my parents leave for Germany again ...

Anyways, I need to get cracking. There's one more load of laundry waiting and I need to fix some lunch for the munchkins [I'll grab some of the left over sushi I made last night] and then it's almost time to get dressed to drive to the airport - wheeee :o) 

Strong words from Mercutio there but hey, can you blame him ? He wanted them to suffer and I tell you, with the plague I brought home from the event last weekend I can definitely relate to the suffering *sigh*

Yep, I did it again. I caught the plague and turned overnight into a sniffling wheezing coughing and generally miserable feeling tissue-destroyer and germ mothership ... meh :o/ That was that for the coming weekend. I just hope I can contain the plague so that neither little borrowed munchkin, Finndragon, husband or grandparents will have to share in the pleasure of the plague ...

Hubby is being incredibly sweet and is spoiling me with a whole truckload of anti-plague drugs. Good thing I have no pressing projects on my plate. C&C is taken care of, even if I can't be in attendance, and the scroll box is filled nicely thanks to last week's activities :o) 

For the past two days I tiptoed into the den each morning to see if my scroll was still there or if it had turned into a pumpkin. It's still there, no pumpkin to be seen, not even the faintest sheen of orange, and I guess it must be true then :o)

This past weekend we drove out to Trimaris' Winter Arts & Sciences Fair. The girls and I, Kate and Finndragon in tow left with two cars packed to the max on Friday evening and while the weekend went off on a bumpy start what with Darlene's car keys trapped in her own car and none but Milica's reservation having arrived on site [and feast being sold out] we had a lot of fun getting to the event site in the boonies close to Tampa. We arrived late, unpacked settled into our toasty cabin quickly and decided to forgo a stroll through the icy night in favor of a warm sleeping bag. Finndragon was tickled about sleeping in a sleeping bag in a cool strange cabin and a curtain around the bunk bed no less and crashed, completely exhausted, after only a brief debate as to why Mommy insisted on sharing the same bed :o)

Saturday was busy with chasing Finndragon all over the site, trying to say hello to too many people while keeping an eye on the offspring and generally just flitting back and forth on Dragon watch with only a few moments to spare for some judging and a quickwalk through the A&S hall to look at all the wondrous items people had created. I'm always amazed by the variety of talents and projects. The SCA is truly a treasure trove of knowledge and creativity :o)  Calligraphy and Illumination had three very nice entries and HL Gwenllyan's page of a book of hours won Laurel's Acclaim and a Non-Pareil. Such a stunning piece !  Go here for a closer look http://www.melessee.org/Scrib...

Many many thanks go to the autocrat of the event who managed to fit us into feast after all :o) 

The day flew past in no time at all and then things got hectic because court was heralded 30 minutes earlier than originally scheduled. Mad scrambling to get changed ensued, getting the Finndragon changed, wait for husband to arrive and get husband changed and settled in. Knowing that two very special friends of mine would be recognized for their hard work and the costuming guild making a presentation that night I just had to be there in time.

There was plenty of court business from the introduction of Mistress Gianetta, the Kingdom MoAS, to the official announcement of the Costuming Guild f Trimaris, the "Honorable Company of Seamstresses and Tailors Trimaris" to many many awards. I think Finneadan purposefully picked scrolls for court that had at least my calligraphy on them and quickly having the populace 'guess' who was responsible for a scroll became a recurring court schtick. I was slowly sinking into my chair and wishing for a nice deep cozy hole underneath it. It turned out that both Martine and Darlene had been caught up with plots of their own enough to be completely surprised by being called up in court themselves and both were glowing with joy upon returning to their seats.

When Martine suggested I better "not look so smug since court wasn't over yet" I had a slight feeling I was in trouble and lo and behold, trouble came and had a name : TRM Martin and Islay, In retrospect, details are a bit blurry of course but HRM Martin gave this nice speech about the scrolls given during their reign and that at one point they noticed that there was one name that kept popping up repeatedly. So they looked back at the awards that had been given and the same name was on 67 scrolls, not counting the 11 given the very night at Winter Art-Sci. I -so- craved the hole in the ground but no such luck. I was called into the royal presence and then Master Taliesynne read my scroll ... in German ... and I had the hardest time not bawling my eyes out then and there.
Not only was I recognized with a Silver Trident [Grant-level A&S award] and Grant of Arms but there were so many special people who felt strongly enough to go out of their way to make this moment as special as it could possible have been. HL Finneadan created  a scroll for me that had me all in tears - and the effect hasn't lessened at all - with a miniature that shows me, Finn hiding behind my back, my scribal desk with the scroll I made for her on it and bees in the tapestry background. She and Mistress Melessee plotted to make my husband be there for this event and they managed to find somebody unbeknownst to me who translated the award text into my native language. And Master Tally read it in German in court.

And now I'm all teary-eyed again :o) 

Thank you.  

More pictures from yours truely discovering bento boxes and their contents [and of course trying her own meager skills at creating them]. And while my skills are still rather 'fair' I'm having a blast :o)

Ham and cheese wraps, some pickles, a little Onigiri with a maniac grin and something sweet [Manadarin orange and a strawberry] on the side.

East meets West : Sushi roll and round Onigir with hardboiled egg chics and sausage octopi ... hehe ... Hubby loved the chicks so much he called home when he opened his lunchbox that day. Finndragon even loves them too much to eat *G*

Sushi rolls with crab meat and avocado strips, caramelized ginger carrot flowers and another maniac Onigiri who appears to be leering at the sliced nectarine

And last but not least another chick with a razzy sassy nori hairdo, tree-shaped ham sandwiches, German potato salad and for dessert strawberries :o) 

I've been promising pictures for a while now so now I'm making good on it :o)

That's me working on the calligraphy for the costuming charter of Trimaris. And Finn is helping. He was trading turns with Hobbs who kept checking in to see what I was doing and how far I'd gotten :o) You can see how ginormous the scroll is - gigantic ! - which is why I'm sprawled out over the table providing the 'pillow' for the babydragon who'd lapsed into binky mode.

Same project, a few hours later. Its' pretty close to completeion at this point. Only the inhabitated initial needs some more work but the goldleaf is in place, the shading turned out nice and all in all I'm pretty happy with it :o)

Aaaaand a closer look at said initial and a glimpse at the nice gold leaf :o) 

Only 4 more days until Winter Arts & Sciences Fair here in Trimaris !

Of course, as usual, there are still a few things that need to be completed before the packing on Thursday can begin but things are coming along nicely, especially after I've given up on the idea that I'll finish the yellow wool dress in time *G* Right now the sewing bug remains dormant but I'm creating scrolls a dime a dozen. I'm overflowing with enthusiasm and ideas and there's the special project too - a charter for the costuming guild of Trimaris that will be instated officially this coming weekend :o)

It's my biggest scroll ever, the sheet of Pergamenata measuring a whooping 20x17 inches, and it is based on medieval writs of the late 15th/early 16th century with some nice sparkly gold leaf bling *G* I'm still working on it, needing to add finishing touches and work a bit more on the shading but so far I'm really happy with how it turned out. The gesso worked like a charm again and I can't wait to teach my goldleafing hands-on class at Coronation *bounce-hops* Gotta share the miracle goo !

And then I have to figure out how to teach calligraphy ... we need more calligraphers ...

I'm suffering a serious case of cold turkey. Sunday it'll be two weeks since the last Battlestar Galactica episode, courtesy of the Super Bowl. Grrrrr ! I can't wait to get my weekly fix of BSG nevermind the fact that Starbuck is a girl and Apollo no longer sports a fancy 80s undulating haircut *G*

If there is anything on this planet that I hate it's weekly TV shows in combination with American TV culture. I don't hate people , I don't hate food, I don't hate laundry. I do hate the concept of TV shows. Waiting week after week for yet another bite of the story. A cliffhanger as irritating as Coitus Interruptus leaving you high and dry and unsatisfied. -Summerbreak- ! Gah ! Who ever invented the concept of weekly TV shows needs some serious talking to.

Granted, a lot of that has to do with my TV habits. I have a hard time keeping track of when a particular show is on [Sunday ? I thought it was Wednesday ?] and I don't like to schedule my life around the TV program to begin with. Missing chunks of a good story because of missed episodes is just as bad but thank the gods we have On Demand and a DVR and can do something about it. I still don't understand the need for a summerbreak or cancelling a show just because there is the Superbowl [on a different channel no less]. There are people  who don't care about footbal-  no kidding - who would have appreciated another episode of their favorite geek show.

Meh :o(