Well, I'm still working on the quilt. I've quilted about 7 squares out of 36. So far, so good. I didn't do any Christmas Eve or day, or really over the weekend. We were busy with holiday plans and other stuff. We saw Sherlock Holmes on Saturday, and had Game Day on Sunday. I quilted three squares last night while we watched Star Trek.

I think I'm about to start on a gown. No, today, I'm going to do it. I'm going to cut out the pattern pieces, and maybe even start cutting. There, now I can't back out. Really, I just need to sew the big skirt panels and the bodice on the machine. I suck at pleating skirts to bodices and attaching them by machine. In the Tudor Tailor, I found a hand technique that should work better. I'm going to pleat it by hand, whip-stitch the pleats together at the top, then whip-stitch it to the bodice. That's the plan. We'll see how it goes. First, I need to re-wash the white linen for the bodice lining, to see if the blue dye that bled from the fabric I washed it with will come out, then, I cut.

The quilt is finally put together, and I have started quilting it. Yea! A lot of the holdup was being busy, but most of it was that my sewing machine needed to be cleaned, badly, and I didn't realize that was the reason I was having to fight it so much. It is much better now, although I don't think the bobbin tension is quite right, still, but it works. So Wednesday, I sewed the outer border to the top of the quilt, pieced the back together, put all of the layers together and basted it with safety pins. I didn't quite get the yardage right on the backing, so a long time ago, I bought a yard of a print. That yard, intact, is the center of the back of the quilt, and I sewed a wide border of the navy fabric to the edges of it. At some point, there will be pictures.

I've been holding onto fabric for garb for a while. I want to make a late-fifteenth century Florentine-style gown. My favorite that I've seen is the Ghirlandaio portrait of Giovanna Tournabuoni. http://www.abcgallery.com/G/ghirlandao/ghirlandaio26.html This is only a partial view, the portrait is from a fresco in the family chapel. If I remember correctly, it's one of the frescos that shows a biblical scene with the family of the patron, in the latest contemporary fashions, as witnesses. The style is for a slightly high-waisted gown with an overgown that is open down the sides and front, usually clasped in front, somehow. I've got 5 yards of lavender linen for the under dress, and a couple of yards of heavier white linen to line the bodice, and 4 yards of navy blue wool for the over gown. I'm kind of thinking of doing an overgown/cloak. It wouldn't be period to take the over gown off when I came inside in a public place, but I'll be honest, I suck at making cloaks. I don't know why, but I do. This tabard, I have a pattern for, it looks simple and straight-forward, I think I can manage it. I'm hoping I have enough left to try a jerkin for Neale, but we'll see. Anyway, I've been holding onto fabric, because we have been trying to start a family, and I'm about to get an ipod touch, and join my mom on the idiet. She's lost 20 pounds using a calorie-counter app, and I really want to try it. I have no idea what size I'll be six months from now, so I haven't seen the point in making a lot of new stuff, but this kind of gown, I figure I'll have some wiggle room. It doesn't necessarily have to lace closed in front, I've seen plenty of portraits that show a small gap. I can sew lacing rings onto another strip of fabric, and move that piece if I need to. If I make it side-lacing, I'll have even more latitude in altering the bodice, because it won't be as visible. So, now that the machine-sewing on the quilt is done, I think this dress is going to be my next project.

The older I get, the more I realize I just don't like Christmas programs. First of all, what are you going to do? There's music, or a play/pageant of some kind. There's a lot of great Christmas music out there (and some dross, but a lot of that is people trying to put their own spin on classics and screwing them up. Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli singing "What Child Is This," anyone?). So if the group in question is a band, choir, or orchestra, your project makes sense, and has a clear purpose, go ahead.

What is the point of a Christmas play? If it's an established drama group, like a high school club, or college theater department, that's ok. Same principle as the band, the group exists, has a purpose, if they want to explore holiday-themed material, go for it. If it's a church group, that's fine, too. After all, Christmas has been a religious holiday for over 1,000 years.

Otherwise? No. Just, no. The act of celebrating Christmas is, in itself, a time-consuming undertaking. There are gifts to buy, there is cooking to be done, and it's always nice to spend time with family and friends. Don't make the holidays harder by filling the time with extraneous stuff.

This has actually been a fairly productive weekend. I haven't felt like doing much around the house on weekends lately, because October and so far, November, have been so busy, all I want to do is hang out. This weekend, though, I went to the nursery and bought two little pots of swiss chard, which I planted in the garden, and a handful of white tulip and purple crocus bulbs, which I planted around the dogwood tree in the round bed. I bought a bag of potting soil (which it turned out I didn't need), and re-potted my ivy into larger pots. This is the ivy that was in my wedding bouquet that my mother-in-law got started for me. So far, they seem to like their new, bigger pots. I also got an amaryllis bulb in a pot, which I haven't planted yet. I cleaned up the geranium in the hanging pot on the porch. I'm surprised it's not dead. I was going to take down the pot of former impatiens that did not make it, but I found a bird's nest with two little eggs in it. I'm not sure if the eggs are still viable, or if the nest has been abandoned, but just in case, I put it back. Last night, we had a nice visit with Clare and Steven.

Today, we went to Home Depot and finally got a new dishwasher. It's being delivered on Dec. 5, and installed either the 11th or 17th, hopefully. We also got another rake, and a heavy-duty broom for outside, and a leaf blower with a vacuum attachment, so once you rake the leaves up, it basically mulches and bags them. I also got some birdseed and actually filled my old bird feeder for the first time in ages. Sometime, I want to put some hooks on the corners of the eaves by the sunroom, and hang some feeders there. It'll be like kitty cable.

Where is the year going?

I have given up on a completely machine-pieced quilt, because I kept looking a the pile of pieces, and looking at the sewing machine, and sighing and going off to knit. Instead, I sewed all of the blocks together by hand, and added the inner border by hand. I'm going to go to Hobby Lobby probably this afternoon to get a few more yards of navy blue cotton to sew to the fabric I've already got to make the backing, rather than make up something with more pieces, but I may change my mind. I kind of like the idea of a patterned medallion on the back. Either way, I'm getting close to finishing the top, there's just the outer border, once I decide how I'm going to handle the navy fabric, and then putting it all together and quilting it.

The heat is fixed! Yea! This was mainly taken care of by The Husband, while I was curled up on the couch, dozing. I think I may have been fighting something off, because Monday and Tuesday, I was a little congested, but feeling really run-down and tired. Today, I feel a lot better, but I'm more congested. Go figure.

Last night was Open House at school, preceded by the mad dash to get things mounted and hung on the wall. It actually went a lot faster than I'd thought. At 2:00, I was beginning to be afraid that I'd have to stay really late, but I was on my way home by 3:15. Everybody seemed to have a good time. They usually do, but it's always nerve-wracking, because I have the paranoid fear that someone is going to be unhappy with some aspect of their child's work and make a scene. I know it's crazy, but knowing is half the battle. I really appreciate team-teaching this year. It's so nice to be working with someone who's creative, and has so many good ideas, like writing down some of the funny things the children have said and putting them up on the wall.

I'm really digging the shawl pattern. I've used up a skein of yarn, and it's maybe a foot long. Fortunately, I've got, like, 11 more I can use. Now, though, I need to go start dinner.

Diamond Wars is over! Yea! I will not be nastycrat for an event for a long, long time. I am totally cool with having to ask my children at school "did you flush the potty and wash your hands?" because they're still learning to take care of themselves. The fact that I had to clean up after adults at this basic level disturbs me. I should not have to wipe urine off a toilet seat after a grown man, nor should I have to flush for an adult.

Our heat is out. Fortunately, the home warranty is still in effect, and someone should be calling tomorrow. Even though it's been chilly outside, the temperature inside the house has stayed in the 60's, mostly upper 60's.

I'm starting to get back into projects. I'm still working on one sock. I'm kind of waiting until Friday nights even out, so I can get some help with turning the heel of the second one, and write down the instructions this time. I've started working on a shawl with the wool/alpaca yarn I collected. I'm using a stitch pattern from the book of, well, knitted lace patterns I have. I can't remember the name off hand. It's just a rectangular shawl in pale blue worsted weight yarn. I'm going to finish Hunter's quilt, and then after I finish piecing it, I may start a new dress.

I'm getting back into my original persona, which is late period Irish. I think I'm going to go late 15th/early 16th century. Actually, I've kind of decided on Italian/Irish. Italian woman married to an Irishman. I've even decided on a name and device, Medb an Doire, "Medb (pronounced MAY-ve) of the oak grove." I may register an alternate Italian name later as my "birth" name. I even have that picked out, Mea Caterina Della Rovere. I was going to register that, but still go by Medb, figuring that my Irish husband picked that as my Gaelic name, but it would cause less confusion, I think, if I just register that as an alternate persona name. It kind of still works with wearing Turkish garb. There are a lot of portraits of Italian women, particularly from Venice, wearing Turkish enteri/yelek/caftans open over gowns, even closed over chemises.

Well, the Mongol coat didn't really work out, and I have too many other things to do for this event, so I'm giving up on making new garb. I'm still going to try to make Neale a new undertunic, but tunics take no time at all.

I need to get to work on the handouts for the bread class. I hate store-bought bread at feast. I'm not crazy about it most of the time, unless it's real bread, but at feasts, it's particularly disappointing. So, as part of the chef's seminar at Diamond Wars, I'm going to teach others how to cheat with refrigerated dough.

I'm older now

Since the last post, I've had another birthday, finished my embroidery projects, and that's about all. I'm currently working on getting the trim ready to put on Neale's Mongol coat, which is cut out, but not sewn together yet. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do the neckline, with it being wrap-front. I think if I measure from where the sleeve is supposed to attach and cut the actual neck-hole based on that, I can sort of fit the rest of it on Neale. Maybe.

One unconventional thing I'm going to do is the placement of the trim. Traditional Arab tiraz bands go around the bicep, above the elbow. For one thing, the bands I embroidered aren't quite long enough to do that without some empty space. For another thing, Neale chose the pattern because "it looks like the Captain's braid on the original Star Trek uniforms." So, I've decided to put the trim a few inches above the ends of the sleeve, about where the braid would be on Captain Kirk's tunic, just for Neale. It's actually in keeping with the way Mongols decorated their clothing, but to be really authentic, I'd need lots more decoration.

I'm starting to feel the Diamond Wars pressure. Always, I want to make, like, all-new clothes for big events. I don't know why, but I get carried away. Originally, I was going to make, like, 2 new Turkish outfits, and a Mongol coat for Neale. Not happening, not with the embroidered tiraz bands I'm making for his sleeves. Instead, this is the list:

For Neale: new short-sleeved tunic, long-sleeved lightweight undertunic, Mongol coat

For me: blue Turkish coat I've been planning to make forever, new salwar (pants for Turkish outfit), tunic I can wear to work in, new linen kamis

The tunics are easy, if my sewing machine is being nice and cooperative, I can knock one out in an hour or two. The pants are easy, too, they're just baggy drawstring pants that taper to the ankle. I'll use a pair I've already made as the pattern. Seems manageable.

Julie and Julia was very good. I agree with the NPR reviewer, Nora Ephron's stuff is annoying and condescending. The parts with Amy McAdams as Julie Powell are annoying, and when she gets heavily into Julia-worship, just a little uncomfortable. Meryl Streep as Julia Child is awesome, and very well complimented by Stanley Tucci as Paul, and their awesomenes makes the movie worth watching, in my opinion.

I haven't made a lot of progress since I last posted. I've started sewing the blocks of Hunter's quilt together. I have, I think, 4 complete pinwheels, and 5 more to go. The last time I made a Roman Stripe quilt, I sewed half the pinwheels going clockwise, and half going counterclockwise, and I was so tired of sewing, because it was all hand-pieced, that I just went with it. It's not that bad, it's just not that great. It's not one that I would bring out as an example of my best work, but it's still warm. It's not holding up well, though. I tied it instead of quilting it, and it's starting to show its age. When I used it to make a pallet for Hunter to play on at Live Weapons, it got pretty torn up, which is okay, it's fairly old, and not my best work. After I finish Hunter's quilt, and garb for Diamond Wars, I may make myself another quilt.
My other project has been embroidering trim for Neale's Mongol coat. I'm going to do a band around each sleeve. I think I'm almost done with the first one.

I have to say, one of my proudest moments of the last week or two was explaining to a Laurel and two apprentices (arts and crafts equivalent of a knight and two squires in the SCA) that yes, a complex design can be successfully appliqued, and explained my bastardized English paper piecing technique. In English paper piecing, you make a paper template for each piece of cloth, cut around it, turn the seam allowance down and baste through the whole thing, press it, whip-stitch the pieces together, then pull out the basting stitches and remove the paper. It's usually used with a pattern that I think is called Grandmother's Garden, or something like that. It's a pattern of little hexagons. Anyway, that's how I applique. I make a paper template, pin it to the fabric, and cut around it, allowing 1/4 inch seam allowance all the way around, then I turn the edges under, and baste them down. I iron the pieces well, and then you can pull the basting stitches out, remove the paper, and they should be creased so that the seam allowance stays down. Then, you just sew it onto the background.

Why I shouldn't write a cookbook

Red Currant and Plum Tarts: Makes 6

Shortbread pastry (from Simply in Season)
1 cup flour
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter

1 cup of red currants
1/3 cup of sugar
1 tbsp flour
1/4 cup of water
3 red plums


You should probably start with the pastry, or you could do it backwards like I did. Take the currants off the stem (or not, you're going to strain it, anyway, and stemming these suckers is probably the most time-consuming step).
Add the currants, sugar, water, and flour to a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the fruits burst and the liquid boils and thickens. (I wasn't paying attention, so I don't know how long. Mine turned out great, but it was a happy accident.) Strain the liquid into a bowl. Use a spoon to push the good stuff through. Throw away the seeds, or compost them.
Halve the plums and remove the pit and any crunchy bits. I didn't peel mine, but you could. Cut the plums into small pieces and stir them into the currant mixture.

For the pastry, cut the fat into the dry ingredients until it has a sandy consistency, with no big pieces. It should stick in a clump if you squeeze some, but still be very crumbly.

This recipe could maybe make a very shallow tart, but if you don't have one of those shallow tart pans, you could make mini tarts. Put about 2 tbsp of the crust mixture into a muffin tin and press it into the bottom and up the sides. Cups might be helpful, but I didn't think to use them. Fill the shortbread cups with the filling mixture. Bake at 350 (I think, maybe 400) for 15-20 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and the crust is slightly golden brown around the edges. Once they've cooled, a knife run around the edges should mostly loosen them, unless you were smart, and used paper cups.

Finally getting started

I've been planning to make a quilt for the goddaughter for, oh, 7 months now. I got most of the stuff a few months ago, like in April, and cut some pieces sometime after that. Yesterday, I finally started sewing some of them together. It's going to be a roman stripe pattern. It's an Amish pattern of pinwheels made of half striped triangles, half solid. I've made this pattern a couple of times before. The stripes are made of five different solid fabrics, and the solid is traditionally black or navy. The pattern is from Quick Quilts to Make in a Weekend. It's all strip-pieced, and the pieces are fairly large. The finished size is about 5 feet square, which is great for a lap quilt. I was actually thinking of making one for myself in shades of blue, eventually. The stripes for the current one are three different shades of purple, hot pink, and baby pink, with navy blue as the solid. The narrow border (a traditional feature of Amish quilts that I quite like) is a medium lavender, and the same fabric as the middle stripe. The outer border is more of the navy. I don't know if I have enough of the navy fabric to do the back in all navy, too. I was going to get a little bit of a patterned fabric, and insert that as a medallion on the back. Or, I may go back to Hobby Lobby and get another yard of navy blue Kona cotton, one of the two.

I'm piecing the quilt by machine, but I'm going to quilt it by hand, and I'm going to do more hand quilting than I have ever done before. I'm going to quilt diagonal lines through all of the pinwheel squares, and I want to find a quilting template to make a pattern in the border. I'm kind of thinking flowers. The batting I got is a needled cotton batting, and it has to be quilted every 4 inches.

I started looking at other Amish patterns online, and I found another one I want to make at some point. It's a pattern of squares, in an almost starburst design. It's basically concentric diamonds of alternating colors radiating out from a central square. The one I saw had a narrow border, a really wide, probably 12-inch outer border with contrasting corner squares. I think that's going to be the next quilt I make.

Coming Out

No, I'm not gay. I'm a heretic. This is kind of a project of sorts. It's research. I've been researching several early Christian heresies for years. Some of them have kind of gone mainstream, thanks to the DaVinci Code. Given that I live in a fairly conservative part of the world, this may come back to bite me, but I feel compelled to write about it.

I am still a Christian. I practice as an Episcopalian, but I am a Gnostic Christian. For one thing, I believe that Mary Magdalene was a very important figure in early Christianity, that she was a teacher and apostle in her own right. I also believe that she was Jesus's wife. Yes, the DaVinci Code is somewhat based on truth, but he got a lot of things wrong. For one thing, Leonardo DaVinci was connected with a different heresy, he was a follower of John the Baptist. There was a different sect that believed that John the Baptist was the true Messiah. Allegedly, their rituals included spitting on crucifixes, calling Jesus a false priest, among other things, and reverence for a skull called Baphomet. These are also among the charges levied against the Knights Templar when the order was, um, disbanded in the fourteenth century. If you're looking for hidden Magdalene symbolism in art, look at Botticelli's fresco "Primavera." Mary Magdalene is usually depicted with a red veil, as is the central figure in the painting.

For another thing, I don't think the idea that there are descendants of the Grail bloodline still living is as important as the idea that Jesus was just as human as he was divine. Conventional Christianity has promoted divinity over humanity, and I think the human, family man side of Jesus deserves just as much respect.

I'm not sure why this came up now. I'm just finishing my second reading of the first two books of a trilogy by Kathleen McGowan, The Expected One, and I'm just finishing The Book of Love. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to read them again. I'm sure it will make sense in time. Those books speak to me in a way that I don't quite understand. They're fiction, but a lot of it just seems right to me. Some of it is verifiable from outside sources, from some of the Gnostic gospels in the Nag Hammadi Library, and books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail, but the rest of it, the parts that come from the oral tradition of the Languedoc (southern France), they seem right, too. I think some things are just right, proof or not. There's also the fact that the Church led a crusade against these people in the thirteenth century. If it wasn't important, wasn't a threat, why did they care so much?

Yeah, it's petty, but it bugs me.

The Barony's hosted three events since last fall, Crown List in November, Gleann Abhann Live Weapons in June, and now Barbarian Brawl, hosted by the Canton of Southtower, which is still technically part of the Barony. Reading the Yahoo groups, aside from the announcement of new heirs, the first two events barely merited threads after the fact. The third one, though, can't be praised enough. It was held at a site with barely any parking, and no air-conditioning at all, but oh, the site was so wonderful, the weather was so nice, the feast was so great, blah, blah, blah.

This bothers me because for the previous two events, which may have had minor issues, but went off without major incident, a lot of people worked really hard and got little or no thanks for it. At Crown, I got the message that because it was a kingdom event, we shouldn't expect thanks, we should be grateful for the opportunity to be treated like dirt by people whose only significance comes from made-up titles. I have never been treated more rudely by anyone in the Society than I was by a Royal Peer (who was thanked by name), whom I was trying to help. Really, would it have been too much trouble to get the names of the autocrats, at least, and thank them by name? My husband, I think, deserved that little bit of respect.

Live Weapons had serious issues, I won't deny that. Still, there were good things out of that event. The feast was awesome, but nobody has said that. There has been nothing but complaining.

Don't get me wrong, the Southtower put on a great event. The feast was good, although not authentic either to a period, or to a culture, and I really think it should be one or the other. Either make it all period, all period-ish and Italian, screw period and all-Italian, or break it up into a remove for each (hopefully related) culture. The feast was really a hodge-podge. It was good food, but this follows two feasts that were mostly, if not completely, documentably period and culturally authentic, and involved a good bit of research, but were not worth mentioning. Not to mention, there were some basic food-safety guidelines, like posting the entire ingredient list for each menu item in advance, that were not followed this last time.

As I said, it's petty, and it shouldn't bother me, but it does. The Yahoo groups are, essentially, on the record. It's in writing, out there for everyone to see, and Google-able indefinitely. I wish that people would take the time to point out more positive things, to be more encouraging. Yes, Southtower is a new group, they just hosted their first event, they need positive feedback and encouragement. Crown was my first solo feast, I could have used some of that, too. I notice that a lot of the experienced people aren't usually the ones who get public thanks after the event, and I think that's wrong. The people I know who do service don't do it because they want accolades, they do it because they want to make things happen for people. However, if they don't feel that their work is appreciated, they aren't going to keep doing it. Yeah, I admit it, it bothers me because more fuss is being made over someone else than was made over me. It shouldn't bother me, but it does, and if I can't complain about it on my own blog, where can I?

The house ate my life!

I know, I've gone a long time without posting. The house pretty much ate the first two weeks of July, and I've been playing catch-up ever since. We spent a solid week (after spending the week between my last post and the 4th of July recovering) spackling and skim-coating and sanding the walls. I'm pretty good at the plastering, but the sanding completely sucks, all the way around. I painted the master bath a light purple on Friday, and then my family descended en masse on Saturday, and Dad, Alec, and Brad worked on replacing the subfloor (and, it turned, out, the toilet), while Mom and Jess helped us paint. Leif spent most of the day helping, too, and we actually got everything done. The hall was supposed to be a pale gray-ish green, but on the wall, it's more of a pale blue. Totally not the color it was supposed to be, but it's nice. The pink bathroom is a denim-y blue, that really tones the pink down. The library is "Belgian waffle," and it really does look like pancake batter. The dropcloths have been removed, and the shelves are in place, and Neale has started putting books on them.

So, we got the house taken care of, but then I had to catch up on the projects I had been wanting to do, but the house got in the way of, and now I'm mostly caught up. I made a summer caftan that I can wear without a kamis, because propriety be damned, when it's hot, I want one layer. I entered my first a&s competition, which has been a goal of mine for a while, but I will save this weekend for another post.

Right now, I am sore from a morning in the dentist's chair, and I think I've put off solid food about as long as I can. On the plus side, my teeth look great, and the worst part of replacing my bridgework is over. Yea!

The wallpaper is gone in all but 3 rooms! Of course, the hall, library, and both bathrooms look pretty ugly now, but looking out into the hall, I'd say the bare primer, with patches of something else showing where the paper pulled the primer off is an improvement.

Originally, it was just going to be the hall and the library. The library was easy, we just pulled it off. The paper was this really thick vinyl stuff, with a canvas-like backing that just peeled off the wall in sheets. We didn't even have to use the steamer. Then, Mom and Dad decided we should do the bathrooms. The pink bathroom, I don't think was quite worth it, because they put the paper up over bare sheetrock, and it was hell getting it off. I think we should have just peeled off the top layer, and left the paper backing, I don't think it was ever going to come off. It was a good thing we did the master bath, though. For one thing, the paper was on top of older paper, which, although hideously ugly, was the same kind as the library paper, and the whole thing just came right off. The more important thing, though, was that I noticed that the floor dipped right beside the toilet. I pulled back the carpet, and the tile underneath was all loose. There didn't appear to be any kind of mastic under it, and the subfloor was rotted. To the point that the toilet could have eventually fallen through the floor. Lovely, no?

The awesome thing is, Dad can fix it. He and Mom are coming back, probably in two weeks. He said it'll take a new wax ring for the toilet, probably some new bolts, a piece of wood, and whatever we want to put on the floor. He also wants to get thinner plywood, like 1/2" instead of 3/4", and put concrete board on top of it, so even if the toilet leaks again, it won't damage the subfloor. This is a lot sooner than we'd planned on re-doing the bathroom floor, but better now than later, when it would involved having to hire contractors and plumbers, possibly after one of us sat down on the toilet and ended up in a hole. Besides, we can totally do the whole thing with one box of peel-and-stick vinyl tile, and if we come to a place where the ceramic tile is actually still attached, I might get to use a sledgehammer.

The upside

My rosebuds are opening! Not quite the huge flowers in the catalogue, but at this point, the plant itself is little more than a stick. I'll post pictures soon.

Just to get it off my chest....

If your infant is not sleeping through the night, they ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO SLEEP IN A CABIN AT AN EVENT. Unless, of course you get a private cabin or have the consent of all the other people staying in the cabin. I'm not saying don't bring your child, even your baby, but wait until they're sleeping through the night at least most of the time. Do not be so inconsiderate as to bring a child who will scream in the night and wake people up to a cabin full of people who want to get a good night's sleep. Tent or stay off site!

Holy crap, I think I just redacted a period recipe!

In researching period bread, I came across this website: http://www.whirlwind-design.com/madbaker/breadfaq.html#Q2, which had this recipe from Libro Nuovo: Prima per Fare Cinquante Pani de Latte e Zuccaro di Oncie nove l'uno"Fatto Che haverai la tua Sconza, o levaturo, pigliarai di fiori di farina burattata libre 35. e tanto meno, quanto meno sara quella di che haverai fatto il levaturo, e libre 6.di zuccaro ben bianco, e Torli dUova 75 e libre 3 d'acqua rosata, e libre 6 di latte fresco, e oncie 6 di butiro fresco, e impastarai il tuo Pane, avuertirai bene, chee l'acqua, o latte non scottasse, e farai anchor ache torli d'uovu sian caldetti, & li scalderai, ponondoli nell'acqua calda, e li porri, il conveniente sale, e farai la pasta, sic he non siane dura, ne tenera, ma pui tosto ch'habbia del saldetto, e la gramarai moto bene, e poi farai il tuo pane, e lo lasciaraben (?) levare, e lo cuocerai con grande ordine, si che non pigli troppo fuoco, ma che al tuo Giuditio stia bene, e questo pane e piu bell a farlo tondo, che intorto, o in pinzoni, sia dopoi piu grande, o piu picciolo, come tu vorrai: ti governerai adunque secondo questo modo, che e provato."

This translates to: When you have made your sourdough or yeast, you shall take thirty-five pounds of the flower of sifted wheat and a much less amount, so that it shall be enough to have made the yeast (starter), and six pounds of good white sugar, and seventy-five egg yolks, three pounds of rose water, and six pounds of fresh milk, and six ounces of fresh butter, and you shall knead your bread.You shall note well that the water or milk does not scorch, and you shall make certain that the egg yolks are to be warm, and you shall scald them, putting in the hot water. And you shall put suitable salt, and you shall make the dough, so that it is neither hard nor tender, but harder than you shall have at firm. And you shall knead it very well and then you shall make your bread, and you shall leave them to rise well, and you shall cook them with serious method so that they do not take too much fire, but that at your very good judgment.And this bread is more beautiful by making them round, that twist, or in buns. Then they can be made larger or smaller, what ever you shall want. You shall govern yourself to one according to this way, which is proven.

This has got to be the recipe for the baker's daily batch, or something. 35 lbs of flour does not make one family's daily bread. I took the amounts, converted them (VERY approximately) to volumetric measurements and got:
140 cups flour, 12 c milk, 23 c sugar, 6 c rosewater.
I think the 6 ounces of butter is wrong. I think it should be 6 lbs for 35 lbs of flour. Most bread recipes call for between 3 and 5 cups of flour. I decided to go with 5. Scaling this down for a recipe calling for 5 cups of flour, I got:
5 c flour, 1/2 cup milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 3 egg yolks, 3 tbsp rosewater, 6 tbsp butter.
Based on other recipes, those proportions look about right to me for a sweet bread.

I think I'm going to go with a starter on this. Not a sourdough starter, but basically combining the yeast with some of the flour and some water and letting it sit overnight to sort of give the yeast a head start. I think it will also help with the texture. Rose bread. It will be an interesting experiment. It will also be a test of baking by feel. I also want to go with the recipe for plain bread that's on the same website. Again, interesting experiment in baking by feel.

SCA griping

I've been part of many discussions of the SCA, and specifically, what's wrong with our local group. The event last weekend showed an alarming trend in very glaring light. The barony just won't pull together anymore. The leadership, in my opinion, is not doing enough to step in if it's obvious that someone isn't quite doing their job. The seneschal could have told the autocrat to find a co-autocrat who could come to business meetings, or the bid would be withdrawn, but that didn't happen. A lot of people have also been taking the attitude that if they're not on the bid, it's not their responsibility, or if they have a pointy hat, or have been in so long, kissed so much ass, are so important, it's not their responsibility. News flash people: if the barony is hosting an event, and you are a member of said barony, yes, it is your responsibility. There was no nastycrat this weekend. The bathrooms didn't get cleaned, because nobody ever volunteered to clean them. Why not? Granted, I could have done more than I did, too, but what about our peers, our leaders? Why didn't someone have a herald announce "we need volunteers, if you're willing to help, come see the autocrat?" Why didn't the autocrat, acting seneschal, baronet, or local peer grab a couple of barony members before site opened, or shortly after, and say, the nastycrat's not here yet, can you help clean the toilets, they look really bad?

Two things that I wish I could put on a banner to hang at every event: "They rule because we believe," and "it will not be, unless we make it so."

One more minor, ok, catty, thing: if your corset nips in at the waist and flares over your hips, to give you an hourglass figure, it is a Victorian style corset. It is 200 years out of period for the SCA, don't wear it. Also, corsets are underwear. Underwear on the outside is only for superheroes, or to go up a level in Super Munchkin. For the chemise/skirt/supportive garment outfit, you need a bodice, which may or may not be boned for support, and should stop at the waist all the way around, except maybe for a point in the front. If your bodice is not boned, you need a corset, but it should be one that gives a conical or cylindrical line to the torso. That is period. Hourglass figures (or emphasizing them) are not.

I have two rosebuds on my bush! I can't wait for them to open!

Who the hell rakes the forest?

Well, the weekend was.....interesting. Looked after Hunter at Live Weapons. It was fun, but tiring. It was hard being tied down and not be able to just go do something. Of course, it also didn't help that I had been in fairly serious pain from straining a muscle the night before, and hadn't slept well at all. I learned (too late) that if I'd taken her back to the cabin, instead of staying in the hall, she probably would have taken a nap. Oh, well, I know for future reference. Making up the pallet on the floor worked really well. I put a bigger, slightly scrunched quilt down, and put a smaller one on top. That way, she had space outside the play yard to move around, and cushioning from the inevitable face-plants when she lost her balance. The problem was that the idea was to have a clean space off the nasty floor. Would have been nice if people had kept their dirty shoes off it when they came to make funny faces at the baby. I was particularly pissed at certain people who wheeled their big-ass stroller across it. I won't mention names, but one of them made a point of talking to Hunter, while I was holding her, without so much as saying "hello" to me. Oh, well, must let go of being angry over this crap.

Hunter liked my honey bear, she talked to it a lot, and she really liked it when Leif made the bear talk. One day I will remind her of this, and that SCA awards are nice, but you shouldn't get so attached that you wouldn't let a child play with your regalia, because after all, it's just a game.

Didn't end up dancing. I'm pretty disappointed about that. By that point, though, I felt pretty bad. We ended up leaving after feast to go home, because I so badly wanted to sleep in my own bed. I was afraid that, after a week of getting up early and being really tired, if I didn't get good sleep Saturday, I would be in bad shape for the rest of the week.

We were warned before the business meeting that some people had some "concerns" about Taloha. Of course, none of these people with "concerns" were people who have done work on the site. Some of them were legitimate. The caretaker needs to get off his butt and start doing more. We keep getting told that he's going to take care of this and that, and from one work day to the next, nothing gets done. There was no nastycrat to clean the bathrooms this time, so yeah, they were gross (which is typical), but the white toilet that was dark gray on the inside was a bit much. Wouldn't kill the guy to occasionally spray the toilets, showers, and mattresses in the cabins with a bleach solution to keep the mold and mildew down. Some of the stuff was unfair, though. Someone complained that the wooded area where people were camping, and in between the cabins wasn't raked. Now, they keep the roads clear (it's been graded and gaveled recently, btw), they keep the grass mowed, which I typically see at campgrounds. Who the hell rakes the woods? Nobody, because it's the woods. When you camp at a state park, do you complain to the ranger that your campsite has leaves all over it? No, because you're in the damn forest! There are trees there, and they drop leaves! You want it raked, rake it your damn self! Concerned about running to the pool or bathhouse barefoot? WEAR SHOES! By the way, there are bugs, too. Don't like it? Bring a can of Raid.

Dear Mr. Barrowman,

I loved you on Doctor Who and Torchwood. Captain Jack is awesome. I also enjoyed the BBC documentary about your sexual orientation. The research is pretty cool. I was surprised when a friend pointed out that you appeared in the recent version of The Producers. I hadn't recognized you. Again, awesome performance. You really do have an excellent voice.

They just finished airing Any Dream Will Do on BBC America, and now I'm seeing promos for How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? My question is, why? I realize you've achieved Gay Icon status, and that's great and all, but are all the musical theater search shows really necessary? You did the Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat one, why not stop? Was there a gap that we didn't get over here in the states, or is the London theatre's business plan for Andrew Lloyd Weber to single-handedly populate the West End with revivals that have been pimped to a fare-thee-well by reality tv shows? Possibly best to take the revival route, because a man can only re-write the same music so many different ways. I think people started to catch on after Phantom.

Anyway, I would really like to see you, you know, act some more. I'm looking forward to the next season of Torchwood. I'm sorry it will be the last. Please make the reality talent search shows stop!

Sincerely,
April C.


*And now for something completely different, the choli worked (yea!) I'm doing the same routine that I did at Newbie Collegium a year and a half ago, but really, I think the only person who'd notice is maybe Amina.

I thought last week would be easy. I was wrong. First of all, I was sick all last weekend. I thought it was allergies, but then Neale got it, so it was a cold. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent cleaning and packing my classroom. Thursday ended up being eaten up entirely be lawn care and errands. Friday was my one day off. I tried working on the lengha choli for Live Weapons. Choli is half done. It needs sleeves and finishing. I think I'm going to sew about three pairs of ties along the sides and tie it closed. If it gaps, people will see the band of my bra, big deal. It's an easy fix. If it doesn't work, the dance plan will go on hold until a later event. The skirt.....the sari fabric is awful, evil, and ravels like a son of a bitch. Fortunately, I have a blue skirt already. It's not a pretty, swirly skirt, but I can wear the royal blue skirt and hip scarf with the turquoise choli, and be monochromatic, if not matching. Unfortunately, the pretty silver jewelry set Neale ordered isn't going to be here in time for the event, which is just one more sign that maybe I should just give up on the plans for this event, and put them off for later.

I think I'm going to work on embroidering a handkerchief and possibly make parsley bread for the Standard Bearer competition. After all, why not go big my first time out? I could end up Baronial A&S champion for my first competition.....but not likely. For the handkerchief, I'm thinking oak trees in opposite corners, red roses with stems in the other two corners, a blue border, and maybe a blue peacock in the center. I need to get around to drawing my device, but I'm kind of thinking I'm going to do the silver oak tree, on a blue or blue and green field, with red roses across the top. I just think the peacock would be cool. I want to incorporate more blue into the design, and I want to have something in the center. Eventually, I think it would be cool to take some of the pictures I have of the pietra dura stonework from the Taj Mahal and embroider a hanging based on those designs. There's a really beautiful one with flowers in the center and an arabesque design around it. That's a project that would take ages, though.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Yea! The week of madness is very nearly over! Neale started working on the lawn tonight. Considering he's never mown a lawn in his life, it's not bad. He wants to get a push mower. Not because he wants to be eco-friendly, but because I refuse to use the gas mower, because I don't like loud machinery (also the reason I don't like skill saws, and will avoid using them whenever possible), and he wants to share the joy of lawn care.

The magnolia is sick. This is really bad, because it's very close to the sunroom, and the place where the power line comes into the house, and the fence. If it dies, removing it will have to be a professional job, and therefore, expensive. I called a tree specialist, a state-certified arborist, according to the Yellow Page listing, who gave us an estimate of $250 to come and apply fertilizer, pesticide, and fungicide over a couple of weeks. Apparently, this will involve climbing up into the tree to apply stuff, which I am happy to pay someone to do. I remember my broken arm, it hurt like a bitch.

I have discovered Shimmy. Fit TV has a bellydance show. It's on at 3 every day, and on Tuesday night. I record it. It's basically little half hour workouts that focus on 4 or 5 different moves. I dig it, because it's not overly complicated, it's not five hundred choreography-specific things. It's pretty much "here's this step" (repeat several times), "now let's put these together," and from there, it's pretty much switching off from one to another, in different orders. It's only been a few days, but it seems to be a better way of working on the things I have trouble with (mostly figuring out what to do next) than the dvd's I have. They're either pre-choreographed, usually so specific that the combos aren't applicable to other situations, or it's so open-ended that I have a hard time getting a sense of how to put things together. Really, I need to get with Trudy about dance lessons. Mom's old teacher is apparently still around, too. That would be cool. But there's the issue of style. I'm highly unlikely to dance for an audience outside the SCA. Egyptian cabaret is not the most appropriate style for the SCA. It's pretty, especially the decorated bra and belt sets and the circle skirts, but there are too many modern influences. I do dig veil work, though. It's pretty. And my idea of what constitutes bellydance is still influenced by watching my mom practice when I was a little girl. No jewel in the navel, though.

OT - but it's my blog.

I saw on the stupid joke that is Fox News that the RNC is talking about re-naming the Democratic Party the Democratic Socialist Party. If they can do that, can I re-name the Republican party the Fascist Asshole Party? It's pretty sad when the right-wing "news" casters on Fox ask the rep from the RNC if they don't have more important things to do than re-name another party.

On the bright side, I got my garden planted this weekend. All my seedlings are in the ground. Now, it's up to them to be tough. I'd post more now, but I have to go finish making dinner.

There's going to be an Arts & Science competition at Live Weapons in June, 'cause apparently, the royals think that the LIVE WEAPONS-centered event must also have EVERYTHING else SCA, cause the a&s competition and the heavy tournament won't steal the spotlight away from live weapons and archery, and defeat the entire purpose of a live weapons event. I don't really mind the a&s, it sounds low-key and the tourney entrants are supposed to either enter or sponsor an entry, so that's somewhat integrated. Also, it's a kingdom-level event, so the pool of potential judges is a bit higher than the average local event, so taking advantage of that makes sense. Having a heavy tourney, though, that's kind of.....tacky. I don't think there should be classes, unless they are thrown weapons/archery related classes, and I don't think any other form of martial activity should be available. But, that's just my opinion, and until some fool decides that unleashing Queen Medb on the unsuspecting kingdom is a good idea, and that fool fights for me and wins Crown List, my opinion doesn't count for much. Of course, if baking bread determined the next crown, I could be queen by my own hand. Hey, it got me a husband.

So, I've been working on a handkerchief embroidered with peacocks. The motif comes from a shawl that I have that's imported from India. It's all chain stitch, which was a specific type of embroidery done in India, I forget the name. The stitch is definitely period. In Turkey, people used embroidered cloths to wrap things in, called bohca, think ridiculously elaborate gift wrap. I think all I really need to do is tie all the elements to India, or tie the design to Turkey. I'm sure the Mughals had linen, and some kind of small embroidered cloth, handkerchief, goblet cover, whatever. This will require some thought.

I has dress! Yea!

I'm opening this week, and I took my half day yesterday. It was pretty productive. I finished the dress, and even wore it to school today. I must make more of these, although the neckline could be a bit higher. It's comfortable, it covers well (except the cleavage when bending over), it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I just need to go back and zigzag over the raw edges. I cut out stuff to make the skirt for the lengha choli, and pre-washed the fabric, but I did that in the reverse order from what I wrote. We'll see how fast this one goes. I need to post pictures. I'll do that soon.

I was thinking about buying a new cotton sari, but I found out today that fixing my bridgework, which needs to happen this year, is going to cost $6,900. I think I'm going to be shopping around a bit. I may actually be going to my old dentist in Pine Bluff, if he charges significantly less for this. So that's put a damper on my day. Just a bit.

On the plus side, Star Trek kicks ass and takes names. We saw it twice, and it was still good the second time.

I've finally had enough of trying to work with people who's idea of working together seems to consist of them doing whatever the hell they want, while I do the best I can around that, and if I am somehow screwed over, inconvenienced, or left hanging, too bad. Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks that we're supposed to be working together? Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks that working together is a good thing?

I've started on a dress. I've had the pattern and fabric for over a year. I was going to make the dress for last graduation, and never quite made it. It's a Simplicity 2 hour pattern. The 2 hours is specifically sewing machine time. Nice cya, there. So far, I think I've used about 20 minutes. Clock-wise, I think it was more like 30, but I wasn't really in a hurry, and did a good bit of fiddling with pins and stuff, so I'll say 20. The dress is the kind that was popular in the mid-90's, and looked fabulous on me, and is, of course, no longer made. It's a long, princess seamed dress with ties and short sleeves. The dress can be made in long or short versions, with long or short sleeves, and with or without pockets. I could make work dresses forever with this pattern. (And for Neale, probably a couple of short ones for going out, too.) I'm starting to have second thoughts about the pattern, it's dark blue batik with this curlicue pattern on it, sort of like climbing vines with no foliage. I've got the front of the dress put together, and holding it up and looking in the mirror......it's more pattern than I'm used to, but I'm trying to reserve judgement until it's done.

When I got the material for the dress, I also got a couple of yards of tan batik to make a wrap skirt out of. That's a project I'd like to tackle before school starts, but first, after graduation dress, will be a lengha choli. I want to make a lengha choli as a dance outfit for live weapons. I bought some pretty, but synthetic (and expensive!) sari fabric for the skirt, a yard of so of kona cotton for the choli, and a couple of yards of chiffon with a brocade border as a veil. I just have to make the outfit and, oh yeah, maybe figure out a routine before the first weekend in June. I'm thinking of using something from my Sevara Nazerkhan cd. She's from Uzbekistan. Not part of the Mughal empire (Indian-themed event), but a neighbor. I wonder if I could borrow Mom's old sword......

The choli pattern I have is from a costume pattern, either Simplicity or McCall's, I'm not sure which. It's supposed to zip up the back. I adapted it to close in the front. Either there's way more ease in the pattern than I thought, and I made it a size or 2 too big, or I added way too much to allow for the overlap in the front, because they're way too big. I'm going to try using the big size for the top part, and actually making it a little longer, so it will fit over my breasts a little more closely, and then make the band a little longer, to cover my midriff, and size it to fit my rib measurement, even if I have to mismatch pattern pieces to do it. I also want to make the front and back in one piece, and lace the choli closed on the sides. I'll sew the sleeve closed, and then a few inches into the underarm seam, and I think the rest, from where the band of my bra would start, to the bottom, will probably need to be laced, to get it to fit. We'll see how it goes....

It's here!

My rosebush came today, yea! Right now, it's in the bottom part of an old violet part, soaking in lukewarm water. Tomorrow, I'll actually put it in the ground. The thorns on that sucker are wicked. It drew blood before I'd even taken it out of the box.

I'm making lamb shanks braised in Guinness. So far, looks good. I didn't quite get the nice browned bits on the pan, from browning the lamb. I think I had the burner set too high. The loose flour burned a little, and the smoke detector started beeping before the meat really got good color on it. It still tastes pretty good, though. I figure after it's been simmering for over an hour, the braising liquid's probably safe to taste, even if the meat's not quite tender yet. Sometime, I want to do lamb shanks braised in I.P.A.

Today is Children's Day in Mexico. One of my students is originally from Mexico. Actually, I think she was born in the U.S., but her family is from Mexico, and they still have really close ties. Her mom came to the school at recess and told the kids about El Dia de los Ninos, and she brought some little treats for them. The tradition is for the adults to just do some nice fun things for the kids. It usually includes presents, although they may just be little things, like cool pencils. I have to say, I think that should go along with Mother's Day and Father's Day. Not everyone will be a mother or a father, but everyone was, at one point, a kid. Especially today, when the media, among other things, make kids grow up faster than they used to, it would be nice to have a day to celebrate being a kid. I think we should organize a school-wide celebration next year. It's multicultural, could be educational, if the kids research the traditions that go along with that festival in Mexico, and it would be a lot of fun. Crazy, hectic, maddening fun, but fun. The other primary teacher's response? "I think we do too many festivals." Pbbbbbt!

I have little green things coming up in the bed I planted seeds in. Yea! I think I might actually have one or two sweet peas coming up. I don't know why I'm so hot on growing the things, I've never actually seen one growing, that I know of. I just like the pictures, and they're supposed to smell good. My rose was shipped on Monday, so it should be here soon. That's going in the middle of the round bed. Unfortunately, I think one of the strawberry plants died, or will soon. Most of the leaves are brown and shriveled. The stems look okay, though. These are the ones that I didn't plant, because the bed wasn't ready. With all the rain we've had, the peat pots buried in mulch may have waterlogged them.

I really need to take some pictures to put up. I haven't actually taken any pictures of the house at all since we moved in.

The newspaper in the big bed seems to have broken down fairly well. I'm going to try a similar trick with the rest of the bed, but I think I'm actually going to turn the grass first, then bury it under newspaper and mulch, and see if it works better. I really need to start my cucumber and melon seeds. It might actually be a bit late, I'm not sure. In fact, I should go do that.....

Beltaine

Beltaine was an okay event. Some great things happened, like the two elevations, that I was really glad to be there for. I enjoyed getting to hang out with people I don't see as often as I'd like (missed one or two, unfortunately, due to time). The whole thing was...... not ruined, but stained by Friday night. The trip itself was pretty bad, because we got stuck in a traffic jam caused by a wreck on the I-30 bridge, and it took an hour to get from the house to Prothro Junction, a trip that normally takes about half that time. Then, when we got there, I realized that I had packed my toiletries, including my prescription meds, but I hadn't put that bag in the suitcase. So, we went all the way home, got the bag, stopped for gas and a quick bite at McDonald's, and headed out again. It was about 8:30 by this time. We arrived on site around 11:00, exhausted and (in my case) desperately in need of a beer (which I didn't have, damn dry site!). It was rather off-putting that we were the last of a group of about 3 couples to troll in. Neale was in line first, but the other couple were friends of a certain Laurel/Pelican, and apparently standing off to one side chatting with her was as good as standing in line....second in line, in fact. But, things got better after that.....until it was time for bed.

We didn't know anyone in our cabin. There was an older lady, who was quiet, and I didn't see much of. There was a younger guy, we'll call him J., and a bunch of people's stuff. The lady came in and quietly went to bed. I tried to go to bed around 1 am. J. and several female friends came to bed sometime around 1:30 or 2. I understand that people must make noise in getting ready for bed. It's inevitable, when looking for a toothbrush, etc., that things will be dropped, people must say things, and as long as the people are making an effort to be quiet, I'm cool with that. These rude, inconsiderate people did no such thing. They were extremely loud, obviously didn't care that there were several people trying to sleep, knew that they were keeping me awake, and continued. They switched bunks, and re-arranged their stuff. They giggled, and chatted at a volume that would be more appropriate for a crowded bar than a room in which at least 3 people were trying to sleep. Then, the lights went out. It was still like 12-year-olds at summer camp. Eventually, I had to go to the bathroom. One of the chicks said "we keep waking you up, don't we?" and I said "Yeah, you do," and walked out. That pretty much ended the giggling.

I still had a hard time sleeping, because the mattress in the bunk was about as cushy as my kitchen countertop, and there was no room for the air mattress we'd brought. I don't know for sure how much sleep I actually got, but I would estimate I fell asleep between 3 and 4 am, and was up at around 8. That put a serious damper on the event, because I just wasn't rested. I have never been so grateful for Panther cabin.

Feast.......to be fair, we left after the second remove, because we had decided to retreat to Neale's parents' place, for better climate control, and a MUCH more comfortable bed, and we wanted to get there before it got too late. The food tasted good. There was a caramelized onion and cheese gallette that I thought was way too sweet, but I know that's just my personal taste. My big issue was the length of time between removes. It was not well timed at all. To quote Gordon Ramsey, there was a "two-week holiday between courses." I don't know the exact time, but long enough that people were getting restless. When the second course came out, the food was cold. We debated staying longer, but it was already close to 9 by this point, so we slipped out.

One other issue. Bread. If you are going to serve bread at feast, particularly one with royals, make the damn bread. I know it's time-consuming, but the Italian bread from the grocery store just doesn't cut it. If you can't bake, buy artisan bread, or simple baguettes and re-heat them to crisp the crust. It takes minutes. Hire someone to bake for you. Bribe someone with alcohol. Hell, use the brilliant trick that I know was used at a Midsummer Night's Dream a few years back. The feastocrat started weeks in advance, making batches of bread in her machine. She stopped it right before it was ready to bake, and froze the dough. Once she got to site, she thawed the bread dough, shaped it, and baked it. Done. But please, no generic Italian bread. There are few things more disappointing than anticipating freshly baked bread that never materializes.

I have SCA ADD

We went to Beltaine this weekend. I'll probably post more later about the event. There is much to critique. But for now, I'd prefer to dwell on the highlight of the event. A very lovely lady was elevated to the Order of the Pelican, and I can't think of anyone who deserves it more. I can, however, think of one or two who are equally deserving, but that's another issue. This lady is probably the most gracious person I've ever met, and I'm very glad that her hard work and chivalry have been recognized. One peer in particular, a local and not-so-local legend, said some amazingly complimentary things. I don't remember the exact quote, but something to the effect of "I've been a peer since 1977, and I've never met anyone who deserved peerage more." The ceremony was lovely, although they omitted the part where a member of the populace speaks on behalf of the person, which I think sucks, big time. I think a lot of the high and mighty forget that they are there BECAUSE of the populace. Without the peons who actually do the work, there are no events at which one can dress up and play king. One might think the "royals" might be a little more appreciative of the populace, since they don't actually HAVE things like armies, or the power to imprison or execute people to fall back on to enforce their status. I don't think that the populace would have been left out if the elevation had occurred under the original monarchs, but then it would have happened at Gulf Wars, and we wouldn't have been able to be there. But, I digress.



I started thinking about wardrobe. Because, in keeping with this gentle's general grace and loveliness, the gown she wore for the elevation was GORGEOUS. It was a 16th-century French gown that looked like it could have been in a Holbein portrait. She had the Spanish farthingale, French hood, and I didn't see the undergown, but I've been told that the undergown could have been worn all on its own, and been suitably impressive. This got me to thinking, if I were to be elevated, what would I wear? This led to yet more evidence that yes, I have SCA ADD. There are so many cultures and time periods that I find interesting, I just have a hard time settling on one. Eventually, I'll probably end up with, like four personas. I love my name, Medb, which is early period Irish. Go figure, I go for the queen from the Tain who told her husband where he could stick this idea that her queenship and fortune were entirely dependent on his sufferance. I've kind of settled on early 14th century, cause I like the clothes. Early cotes are comfortable, and flattering.



Irish is great, but for one thing, it's really hard to research, unless you go for the expensive archaeological reports, which I don't. Plus, an Irish bellydancer (in period), well, kind of offends people's feng shui. So, at the very least, must have Middle Eastern garb for that. I like Turkish or Persian, personally. It's really comfortable, although the layers get a little warm in summer. I'm sorry, saris are the only way to go in summer, especially if you can go without a petticoat.


Then there's Italian. Late 15th/early 16th century Italian are my favorite Impressive dresses, particularly the Florentine style with the tabard-like overgown. Italian is good, because it's lighter than the English and French styles usually are, but it's suitably impressive. It's also pretty simple and modest, as Renaissance fashions go. Florentine gowns were usually solid colors, with a contrasting band, sometimes two, around the neckline. Of course, if you go earlier to get the tabard, there were more patterned fabrics.


So, I think for the court when I'd be called to vigil, I'd probably go with a cote. For the vigil, I'd want a Turkish haremlik. Lots of carpets, and cushions, and probably some kind of divan-like thing made of, like, boxes, so people wouldn't have to sit on the ground. Of course, I'd need the garb to go with it. For the ceremony itself, definitely Florentine. I'd go with the pearl-studded net caul to hold my hair, embroidered chemise, tied-on sleeves, the whole nine yards......and hope I could talk the royals into doing the elevation at Diamond Wars, or Winter Wonders.

They really are real plants!

My seedlings that have been, until recently, two little leaves on spindly stalks sticking out of clots of peat actually look like plants now! The basil and parsley are still kind of sad looking. The thyme, well, thyme isn't all that impressive anyway, is it? Foliage-wise, I mean. The tomatoes and marigolds, on the other hand, are now beginning to actually look like something. I also have a whole lot of the little two-leaved sprout things coming up from the wildflower seeds. I still have doubts about the sweet peas, but if they don't come up this year, I'll order some seeds to sow in the fall for next year.

I have an over-dramatic plant. Apparently, the herbs I've been buying at Whole Foods invited the drama-llama to my house. I thought I'd killed the spearmint today. It was all droopy, and some of the leaves were shriveled. I put it in the sink, and soaked it thoroughly about three times over an hour or two, and now it's fine. There are a few leaves near the bottom that still look a little wilted, but the rest of the plant looks almost robust. It has a nice sunny window, a few friends to hang out with until I get everything ready outside, but it has to throw a fit over water. It's life is pain.

today sucked.

Well, I didn't get a whole lot of my stuff done this weekend. I'd had hopes for today, but no. I need to work on garb for next weekend. I've had a plum-colored Turkish coat that I've been working on for months, and haven't quite finished. At this point, it needs a hem, and about half the buttons are sewn on and have buttonholes. I'd also like to make a matching band to hold my veil on, but with the science fair this week, we'll have to see how that goes. I wish I had enough properly-fitting Turkish garb to be consistent all weekend, but my other coats are kind of baggy, and it's too late to make a whole new one.

Where today went......our vacuum died in mid-suck last Wednesday. so we went to buy a vacuum. We checked consumer reports, and we were going to get a $170 dollar Hoover bagless that was pretty well rated, and save up for the $550 Dyson Animal later, when we're feeling less afraid to spend money. We went to Target, Home Depot, and Best Buy, and could not find the vacuum we had picked out. Best Buy had the original yellow Dyson for $350, as opposed to $400 everyplace else, so we bought it. By that point, I was fed up with going all over town, and had come to the realization that spending $700 dollars over, say, 5 years on vacuum cleaners made less sense than spending $350 now, and getting a vacuum with a 5 year warranty. I was amazed at the stuff that came out of the carpet. It was impressive. I've only done the den and kitchen so far, but the canister was half full, and these are carpets that have been vacuumed regularly, and the kitchen was steam-cleaned not long ago. Neale said the den "smells cleaner." It should, it just lost enough dirt to easily fill a 2-cup measuring cup.

Tomorrow is the science fair at school, so it will consist of 1) crazy day at work, getting things ready, 2) mad dash home at 3 to get cleaned up, get something to eat, and leave again by 5, 3) some time when the toddler parents are probably going to be coming to my room before my parents come, because their time slot is 5 to 6. The primary parents are supposed to come from 6 to 7, and elementary from 7 to 8. Considering that I will have been at school since 7:30, I'm leaving as soon as I can. 4) Come home, hopefully watch Heroes, and go to bed.

I'm going to try to take my half day on Tuesday. Some Top Chef alumni (no idea who) are supposed to be at the River Market from 10 am to 5 pm, doing cooking demos with ingredients from the market. This actually makes me glad I'm opening this week.

The best of Falstaff's planners

I just ordered my first rose. It's a David Austin English rose. It's called Falstaff. The flowers look huge, deep crimson and supposedly very fragrant. I picked it because I liked the name, and I half-remembered a verse from a Dar Williams song that mentioned Falstaff. I looked up the lyrics to the song, and yeah, I made a good choice.

"And I hope some day
That the best of Falstaff's planners
Give me seven half-built manors
Where half dreams may dream without end."

The kind of mom/godmother/aunt I want to be

I heard on NPR this afternoon that the lady who started Banned Book Week passed away at age 69. She was a crusader for free speech, and a major figure in the library profession. I feel bad that I can't remember her name. Her first name was Judy, I remember that much. Anyway, a friend spoke to Michelle Norris about her. Michelle asked where her passion for intellectual freedom came from, and the friend told a story that Judy told as part of a speech.

When she was 12 or 13, she was in bed at night, reading a sex ed book under the covers with a flashlight. Her mother came in the room, pulled back the covers, saw what she was reading, and said "for God's sake, turn the light on! You'll ruin your eyes!"

I would hope that if (more likely when), I find myself in a similar situation, that I would be that cool. I do tend to avoid a lot of subjects in school, but it's mostly because I don't want the kids to go home and repeat something that offends their parents. There's a video of animated Maurice Sendak stories that we're not supposed to watch (or watch all of), because there's an animated, naked boy in "In the Night Kitchen." I think it's ridiculous, personally. What's wrong with a little animated nudity? There is absolutely nothing sexual about it, the kid just happens to be naked. Honestly, I don't think the children even notice. Even if they did, so what? He's naked, big deal. I do plan to obtain a copy of this on dvd at some point, if for no other reason than Carole King made songs out of "Alligators All Around," "Pierre," and, my favorite, "Chicken Soup With Rice."

I finally tracked down my Persian and Turkish design books. There are more boxes of my books in the dining room than I thought.

This afternoon, I was going to mulch the flower bed, but ended up taking a nap on the couch instead. Oh, well, maybe tomorrow.

I can't wait to get a cushy chair for the sunroom. I need to get out my sewing machine and start working on the Turkish coat I've been working on since......Crown List in November? ShadowCon? I don't remember. It needs a few more buttons and button holes and a hem. I'd like to get it finished by Beltaine. I think I'm being good by not trying to have a whole new coat made out of some of the new material I got from Gulf Wars. The theme is one of the Crusades, so I figure I can wear my cotehardie during the day and my Turkish coat at night (or vice versa), and play both sides. I'll probably also take a sari, in case it's hot and/or I don't want to wear either of the other options.

I'm torn. We'd talked about splurging just a little with some of the income tax money. I knew what I was going to get, a wool shawl from Gujarat, with little hand embroidered peacocks. Then I looked at some of the cotton saris. I'm not spending over $50, and I'm only getting one, but now......I don't know. On the one hand, I have about 5 saris......but these are so pretty. I have one shawl, but it's silk, and the wool one would be for when I need a shawl, but don't want to wear the silk one. I'm going to decide by tomorrow. That's the goal, at least.

The house is finally starting to come together. The den, sunroom, kitchen, and bedroom are pretty much in order. The living room has fewer boxes. Unfortunately, a lot of them have shifted to the back bedroom, but at least there's some progress. With the way weekends are shaping up, June is looking like the likely time to do the wallpaper removal and painting. The kitchen wallpaper is actually starting to grow on me. A little. Seriously, I may leave it until we're ready to do the whole kitchen.

Neale's parents came this weekend, and Saturday we worked in the yard, and Sunday it poured, so we did some things in the house. Saturday, we pruned the hell out of the camellia and the azalea that had grown into it on the side of the house. The poor camellia looks like a stick, and the bees that had been buzzing around the flowers seemed confused, but next year it will be better, and hopefully, when it blooms, it won't look as though the whole thing is going to fall over. We cleared one of the beds in back, the round one I'm going to use for flowers, and worked on the big bed, which is going to be mainly vegetables and herbs. My mother-in-law suggested laying down layers of newspaper and covering it with mulch, the idea being that within a few weeks, the grass will be dead, the newspaper will be mostly broken down, and I can just punch holes in the whole thing to stick plants in. We got a third of it done, and ran out of supplies. Sunday, they brought us more mulch, I just need to get newspaper.

I'm a little worried about my seedlings. They're three weeks old now, and they're still just spindly little things with two leaves. I moved them to a sunnier place, and I hope that will do it.

I've been wanting to do some embroidery. I had an idea for a project for my European garb. I didn't think I'd like veiling, but I actually do. What I don't like is the European barbette and filet. The chin strap bothers me, and it's hard to pin another strip. I want to make a cheater filet. I'm thinking a strip of buckram with a bit of elastic in the back, so it will have some give. Cover it with muslin or white linen, and then I can pin my veil to it, or even wear it on top, like I usually do with my Turkish garb. I'm thinking of starting on an embroidered one. I also have fabric to make into garb for the fall. I saw "How to Make an American Quilt" last night, and that made me want to start on a quilt......... See, it never ends.

Ok, I'm back

We're finally in the house. I'm now posting from the Acid-trip room. I call it that because the wallpaper moves. It's a pattern of little yellow rosebuds on three walls, and the coordinating stripe on the fourth wall. I swear, the wallpaper moves. It's made people dizzy. We were hoping (okay, I was hoping) to have the wallpaper down and the house painted before we moved in, but that didn't happen. The current plan is to rent a wallpaper steamer some weekend after we've recovered a bit, steam as much wallpaper as possible off the walls, and then bribe people with beer and pizza to come paint the next weekend. Right now, though, I can deal with the wallpaper. This feels like home. I still hate the carpet in the kitchen, though.

My in-laws are coming next weekend (unless plans have changed), so I will have the expertise of my mother-in-law, the garden guru. (Yea!) I know the beds need clearing, but I'm almost afraid to pull anything, because I don't really know what it is. There's something that looks like a weed, but I'm not sure. So far, I've planted a pot of sweet peas by the back fence, and loosened the soil and planted wildflower seeds in the bare patch where a bench used to be. The seeds I've started seem to be doing pretty well, except the meadowsweet. I've got two Cherokee Purple tomatoes, three Brandywine tomatoes, five marigolds, four basils, four thymes, and two parsleys. I've got cucumbers and watermelon to plant when it warms up a bit, and I'm probably going to plant the beans leftover from the science experiment I'm doing with my class.

I'd really like to finally enter an A&S competition soon. I'd thought I could do something with the meadowsweet, since I know it was an herb that was used in period, but that's looking doubtful. Those were the only seeds that didn't sprout in the tray, and I put the last of them in a pot outside. We'll see if they come up. I don't know what I want to do, but I want to do something. I've been thinking about doing some embroidery, maybe. I just want to enter something in competition, just to get my feet wet. I've thought of all the peerages, a laurel is the one I'd most likely go for. I'm not ready, or sure I'll ever be ready, to seriously go for it now, but I think I'm ready to go dabbling in that world, to see if it's something I might want later.

I know I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks, but I have a good reason. We bought a house. It's not any of the ones we'd looked at. Our real estate agent called and said "this great house just went on the market, I think it would be perfect for y'all, it's $50,000 under priced, but we've got to offer them the asking price now (which was $8,000 more than the max we'd planned to spend), or someone else will get it." I said no, because it was so much more than we'd planned to spend. By the weekend, the house was still on the market, so we went to see it, and made an offer. It's decorated in "1980's Grandma," but the house is great. It's big, it's on a quiet street, it's very centrally located, the lot is mostly level, it's down the street from several of our favorite restaurants, it has an awesome sun room, and the refrigerator comes with the house, so we don't have to buy one. We're actually spending more than we'd planned to, but it works out to $25 dollars more than what we were separately paying in rent before we moved in together, and we'll be paying 1 set of utilities instead of 2, so I think it will work out. We may have to cut back a little on eating out and buying books and stuff, but I'm ok with that.

I am not a cheater. :PPPPPP

I finished my hat last night. Yes, I may have started it on a circular needle, but I finished it on double pointed needles. See, I'm not a cheater. :P

The house issue being up in the air is stressing me out. We've basically looked at everything in Little Rock in our price range. The only house we were both in love with, we can't have, because the owner won't come down on the price (may he have boils on his butt). There's a house that I really like, but Neale is concerned about the traffic. I can understand his concern, but the house is pretty much the only one that has everything else we want and is big enough to house the library with room for expansion. Yeah, it's a busier street than I'd like, too, but compared to Shackleford, Cantrell, and Markham, all of which have residential areas with houses whose occupants have to back out onto said streets, this is nothing. Hopefully, we'll figure something out soon.

This is kind of off-topic, but it's been bugging me. My school serves a hot lunch once a week. Last year, it was done by a health-nut parent who made homemade casseroles with vegetables and whole grain pasta with lots of cheese, and made brownies with pureed veggies in them. I swear, the broccoli brownies were good. The kids weren't necessarily big fans. Now, the lunch is whatever frozen crap from Sam's, heated up by the upper el. class. There are a fair number of Muslim and Hindu kids in the primary classes. The do not eat pork. I understand this. I'm sorry that they do not know the delights of bacon, but I respect their choice. In fact, when we get pizza on Friday, I am careful not to serve them cheese pizza off of the half-cheese-half-pepperoni pizza. This Tuesday, they were supposed to have vegetable fried rice. What we got had chicken and bacon in it. One of the other teachers, discovered this, and asked if there were chicken nuggets, or something else, to give those children, and we got them. The one Hindu student of mine was quite happy with his veggie egg roll and chicken nuggets. When I brought up that some of the children can't have pork, the response I got was "there wasn't that much bacon in there, you could have scooped around it." Um, no. If it's cooked with pork, it's essentially dirty, there is no "scooping around" the pork. If I had done that, the parents would, quite justifiably, have been pissed. I would have been, if it had been my child. Yeah, they probably wouldn't have known, the kids wouldn't have told them, but this is so disrespectful, on so many levels, it just makes me sad. In ten years of the school operating, with the number of Muslim and Hindu children who have attended, it baffles me that so many of my coworkers have no understanding and little real respect for non-Christian faiths. It isn't as though there haven't been ample opportunities to learn. Sure, they go through the motions of respecting other faiths, but scratch the surface, and it's clear that they really don't. Not all. One, in particular, surprisingly, seems to get it. The others.....make me wonder if my job would be secure if I converted to another faith.

Just call me Rachel Ray....

....no, don't. I've actually invented a recipe. I'm sure someone, somewhere has done something similar, but I claim it as mine. Yeah, like Rachel, my invention is pretty much tweaking an old concept and giving it a stupid name, but I promise, no "stoup" or "sammie." I use real English words. I've invented meat muffins. I wanted to do muffins for breakfast for an event. They could be made in advance and frozen, left out overnight, and breakfast is done before the coffee. The problem is getting protein for the fighters and really active people, and having something for people who can't just have sweet pastries for breakfast, like diabetics. I like the idea of savory muffins. Something like rosemary/parmesan would be nice, but there's still not a lot of protein. Basically, I made mini-quiche with meat crust. I took breakfast sausage and crumbled a handful of crackers into it and added an egg. Then, I put a little in the bottom of each cup of a muffin tin, and pressed it into a sort of cup shape. I baked it for about 10 minutes, while I made the filling. I beat about 6 or 8 eggs, added salt and pepper, some milk, and shredded sharp cheddar cheese. I didn't measure exact amounts, but it came out to about 2 cups. I poured that over the sausage and baked the whole thing for another 12 minutes or so. The egg puffed up beautifully, and the ones I took for lunch today were still good. I'll have to test how well they hold up to freezing before signing on to mass-produce them. They also need liners. I'm thinking foil would be best, since the "crust" is blind baked.

No, this has no potential for me to get in over my head, none at all.

Well, it looks like things are not going to work out with the house. We have second and third choices, and a potential fourth, so all is not lost. We're pretty disappointed, but it could be a LOT worse. I'm still holding out the faintest sliver of hope that I'll get a phone call to the effect of "they didn't think you'd actually walk away, and they're ready to agree to your counter-offer." It could happen. I don't expect it to, but it could.

On the bright side, the first of my seed catalogues arrived today, Bountiful Gardens. They sell "heirloom, untreated, open-pollinated seeds for sustainable growing." Can it get more granola than that? Since it will probably be late before I can actually plant anything in the ground this year, I should probably start modest. That's honestly my intention. I'm thinking, maybe build a raised bed or two, maybe a few large containers, especially for herbs. So, this is my short list:

garbanzo beans (Okay, not for this year, but come on, hummus made from my own beans? Hell, yeah)
chantenay carrots
rainbow mix chard (it's pretty and you can eat it)
collards
Beit Alpha cucumbers (they're a Middle Eastern variety - must be good for tzatziki)
Brora rutabaga
Cocozelle zucchini (It's an Italian heirloom variety.)
Brandywine and Cherokee Purple tomatoes
Moon and Stars watermelon

Sweet basil
Neale won't let me grow catnip
spearmint
lavender
thyme
rosemary
oregano
savory

The catalogue also sells a wildflower seed mix that's supposed to attract beneficial insects. Definitely want that. Daisies, too, cause who doesn't like daisies? I'm expecting several more catalogues....this could get ugly.

So cute, but so complicated

Well, we made an offer on a house today. We'll know by 6:00 Sunday if they'll accept it or not. We're both a little nervous.

I've been working on the second baby hat. I've made both of them with Sinfonia cotton yarn. The first one is pink, because H. grinned when I shook the pink yarn in front of her, but not when I shook the variegated pink yarn. I think she likes the brighter color, the variegated pink is more of a rose and white. I came to a knot in the yarn, where the end had been joined to a new piece at the factory. It worked into the design okay, but this is for a baby. It's just a little knot, but it's cotton yarn, and the knot makes a kind of hard lump. I didn't really like the lump in there, and I don't want the baby to be uncomfortable, so I unraveled it up to the knot, cut it off, and I'm starting over with the yarn that's still attached to the skein. That's been interesting, though. I'd gotten about 6 rounds in when I noticed that it wasn't laying quite right. I checked, and there were 12 double crochets in each 8-chain loop. Then I realized that the flower in the center of the design had five petals instead of four. I don't know why that was so hard, but it was. For some reason, round 3 kept coming out wrong, and it took a ridiculous number of attempts to get it right. I'm finally back on track, though, although I quit after round 5 of the final, successful attempt. I think I threw my sleep schedule off a bit, and between that and nerves, crochet is just a bit beyond me at the moment.

It did occur to me that I have a third of a hat done. I intended to do three, but I'm really doing the third one because I think I should. With the others, I'm making them because I want to, and I think the girls will look so cute in them, particularly when their heads grow enough to fill them out. H.'s hat sort of fits her, but her head's still a bit small for it, so the top sticks up like a gnome hat. Hey, she is my goddaughter, after all. Anyway, I have a third of a hat done, and a skein of white yarn. I could finish that one with the white and call it done. I need a refresher on changing colors in crochet, because I'm pretty sure I can do it without the hard little knot. I'd really be surprised if that particular hat is worn at all, anyway.

Maybe a little off-topic

So far, I've been better than I could have been, but not as good as I'd hoped to be about updating. I have a decent reason, though. It's been a crazy week, and we're buying a house. We think we finally found the one. It's the first house that we actually agree on! It's 4 bedrooms, so we can have an office and room for (hopefully) future younglings. The living room....could be bigger, but it has a wood burning fireplace, and the kitchen/dining room is awesome. Oh, the game nights we can have in that room. We need a nice buffet/cabinet for the dining room to hold the stereo and our board games. It's probably the first house we've looked at (aside from the one that would have been perfect if it had actually been ON its foundation) that doesn't have a slot kitchen (galley kitchen? The long, narrow kind that's obviously not designed by someone who actually cooks). I've had those for about 4 years in the apartments I've lived in, and I'd rather not have another kitchen like that. SO painting over the yellow, though. It's also the perfect combination of nice house/decent-sized lot/lack of steep slope. We've had trouble finding that combination. Except for the kitchen/dining room, which is painted Chinese lacquer-red, the interior is painted yellow. It's pretty.....for yellow, but I don't like yellow. For Neale, the dining room can stay red. I want to paint the red part of the kitchen sage green. The house also happens to be across the street and two doors down from two very good friends of ours. Honestly, we're not interested in the house for that reason. That's a nice bonus, but we really just like the house.

I did finish the scarf, though, and I'm now working on a hat to go with it.

Snow day!

I woke up to a phone call from my boss at 5:58 am. Normally, I don't like phone calls that early, but she was telling me that school was closed, go back to bed. I could have done many, many things with my snow day. I did.....not a whole lot. I'd intended to really work with the Turkish bellydance dvd I got, but never quite worked up the energy for that one.

The only really productive things I did today were to wash some fabric, order some seed catalogues, and knit while watching "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." That's about it. Today was a sleepy day. It's been cloudy and cold and dreary, it's stay in bed and sleep all day weather, and I sort of wallowed in it today. Tomorrow is likely to be an actual snow day, maybe with a little real snow and everything, and I'm going to try to be productive tomorrow.

Yes, I ordered seed catalogues, instead of buying seeds at the store. I requested catalogues from companies that specialize in heirloom and organic seeds. Yeah, this year, I may not do more than a couple of planters with tomatoes and basil, but I want to do it right. There are a lot of varieties of vegetables, fruit, and domestic animals that are in danger of becoming extinct, because people don't grow them anymore, and that's just wrong. Biodiversity good, homogeneity bad. Besides, all of the heirloom tomatoes I've tried have been awesome! Cherokee purples may not be the prettiest (the purple comes out kind of bruised-looking), but they're delicious. I have high hopes for other heirlooms. Worst case scenario, my seeds don't sprout, and I replace them with plants from a nursery.

I'm not a fan of cheesy promotional items, but......

I just saw a story on CNN about the chia Obama. Normally, I'm not a fan of commemorative merchandise, but this is so cheesy, it's awesome. Plus, it's environmentally friendly, and reduces your carbon footprint. I mean, it's a bunch of little plants.

I'm finally starting to feel a little better, but wiped out. My stomach has been upset since last night, but settled down late in the morning. I don't know why, I'm just glad it's over. I've been breathing easier today than I have since Monday. If the sinus congestion clears up in the next day or so, I'll be doing pretty good.

I'm finally starting to see progress on the scarf. It's not long enough yet to wrap around my neck, but I can finally tell that it's getting longer. Sometimes, when I'm knitting with fine yarn, it's hard to tell that I am making progress. Chunky yarn grows really fast, but with really light yarn, sometimes it seems like I'm knitting the same row over and over again.

Tee hee!

Bobby Flay actually went up against a Japanese-American sushi chef with decades of experience on "Throwdown." He had a sushi tutorial from Masaharu Morimoto, and still couldn't beat the guy. I am SO glad that Bobby lost. Between his sous chef saying "is presentation important in sushi?" and the fact that she then went on to make better looking nigiri than Bobby, he shouldn't have won. Of course, he tried to put his own spin on it. He made a pineapple sauce for the nigiri and put chipotle in the spicy tuna roll. Why? Beautiful, fresh seafood is so good, it barely needs anything. A little soy for saltiness, maybe a very little wasabi, and the rice, that's about all.

My big problem with that show is the arrogance of it. Yeah, Bobby Flay is a professional chef with 20 years of experience, but from what I've seen, he's not all that versatile. He does his grilling/southwest thing and the basics, but I haven't been terribly impressed with what I've seen on tv. Granted, I've never eaten in one of his restaurants, but I'd like to think I know enough about cooking to judge to at least some degree of accuracy by what I see. Yeah, it's great exposure for these small businesses, but it kind of seems like the big, bad, Iron Chef going out to pick on these people who specialize in this one dish. That's why I always giggle a little bit inside when he loses.

"Interesting" day.....in that Chinese curse way.

So, today got complicated. I didn't actually get much of anything accomplished today. Didn't go to the gym, I'm probably going to knit a little before I go to bed, but not much. Husband was up all night in pain. We were debating about whether to go to the emergency room or not, but he decided to wait until morning and go to the doctor. We thought it was a urinary tract infection. Since his back was hurting, I thought it had spread to his kidneys. Well, the initial tests came back a little funky, so they sent him to the hospital for a CT scan. This freaked me out. Turned out to be a kidney stone. By this point, I was desperate to get away from work, I wanted to be with my husband. I cashed in my comp time at work to leave an hour early, and spent it waiting in the urologist's office for the final verdict. Basically, they gave him medicine and sent him home, he's going to be fine. In fact, he may have already passed the stone. But, nothing much in the way of crafty things was accomplished. On the plus side, because we had a very early dinner after leaving the doctor's office, I got to watch the entire replay of the inauguration on C-Span. The music was AWESOME! Why is "My Country 'Tis of Thee" sung by Aretha Franklin NOT our national anthem? Itzhak Perlman, YoYo Ma, and two other equally gifted musicians (including a clarinetist who looked a bit like Taye Diggs) playing an arrangment of "Simple Gifts" by John Williams is probably the most perfect thing ever.

Yesterday, though, I cashed in an Amazon gift certificate to order a couple of things. I ordered a dvd on Turkish style bellydance. I'd really like to see how it's different from Egyptian style, and this seemed like the best dvd for the purpose that was readily available. The reviews said that it had a lot of information on culture, which is cool. I also ordered Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire, which I've checked out from the library, like, twice already, and Ricki Carroll's book about cheesemaking. So, yeah, SCA-wise, I'm continuing the Turkish trend (except in summer, cause saris are the best summer garb, I think....or unless I feel like doing 14th century, cause I kind of dig that, too).

As for the cheese.....well, it's part of another, bigger project. I want a garden. At the very least, I must grow tomatoes. Many other things are fine when purchased from the store, but with the very rare exception of the odd heirloom tomato and the good vendors at the farmer's market, the only way to get really good tomatoes is to grow your own. If we get into a house anywhere near soon enough to plant anything, I must have tomatoes, even if I only have time to do a pot or two this year. What goes really well with tomatoes? Homemade mozzarella! Imagine homemade margherita pizza, with olive oil brushed over the crust, then sliced tomatoes still warm from the garden, homemade mozzarella, a little fleur de sel, and shaved parmesan, then, when it comes out of the oven, a few chopped fresh basil leaves. Sure, it's kind of a lot of trouble, but if perfect pizza isn't worth it, what is?

Beginnings

I'm going to try to stick with this one. I've said that before, but I think a fresh start is in order this time. This blog is going to be about knitting, sewing, garb, cooking, all the projects that I take on and sometimes actually finish. Not that other aspects of life won't creep in, but I'm planning to focus on what I'm working on at the moment.

I just finished a crocheted baby hat this afternoon. Well, almost. There's a little flower that goes on the side, but the hat is a different shape than I was expecting, and I'm afraid something may not be right. So, H., the goddaughter, gets to try it on tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes from there. In the meantime, I'm back to working on my scarf. It's just a plain garter stitch scarf. The yarn is lovely, it's a light weight merino wool that Neale bought for me for my birthday. The line is called "Jitterbug," and they're all variegated. The ones at the yarn shop now are very close shades of the same color, but this one is different. It's called "raspberry," and it has just about every shade associated with raspberries, from pale pink to bright fuscia, shading into purples, with a hint of green here and there, I guess for the leaves. This is the third time I've started the scarf. I only have one skein, and I'm having a hard time balancing the width with the length I want. This time, though, I think it will work.