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!