Am annoyed by LJ

In my absence LJ has mysteriously "forgotten" all my settings, forcing me to finally abandon the old, unsupported, but frankly just fine the way it was S1 layout and upgrade to S2. I hates it.

In other news, Pennsic was fun, but I am very much exhausted by the whole camping with a babe and traveling for 6 days to get there and back. I also discovered upon returning that I did not take nearly enough pictures. It looks like I have shots from the first day and the last day while we were packing up and that's about it. Not sure where any of the in-between time went. I have more shots of looms than of people. No pictures of anyone who isn't in my immediate family. No general shots of Pennsic. And it looks like Jason never got up the motivation to take any pictures at all. So much for buying a new camera. Also, I completely failed to get any decent shots of the cart in action. Go figure. It's like I got exactly enough images to prove I was there and no more.

We did get one nice family portrait shot after the van was all packed up and just before we left site:


The set of pictures is here. I told ya, pretty sparse, but there it is anyway.

I think it may be a function of the length of time I've been in the SCA. The longer I'm here, the fewer things grab my attention and require pulling out my camera. It's a shame because my wardrobe is certainly nicer now, and I do notice things that are worthy of note with a better eye than I used to. Maybe I'm just getting lazy as I get older.

Actual thoughts on the event will follow. I typed them up on the ipod on the way home and I'm just too lazy to pull it out now. Also tired, very very tired.

So much for sleep

Felt compelled to try to catch up on a Pennsic's worth of LJ entries. As it turns out, it was the 90 entries that my friends page will let me go back. Very few things of note happened in my absence, which is often the case, but it never hurts to check. It's always when I don't check that some major news hits that I miss out on completely (usually pregnancy announcements). Off to bed for realz now.

Pennsic thoughts from the ipod

Thoughts on Pennsic as recorded on my iPod on the way home and filled out a bit this morning...

Camping with Eoforwick was okay. I got along with most of the others and the annoyances were small and relatively infrequent. I really enjoyed catching up with Hans and Kristie and meeting their household. I was delighted with my laurel's new soon-to-be apprentice. Meal plan was tasty but I don't think I'd go for it in the future. I'm not keen on chores or on making my schedule work around less than predictable meal times instead of just treating meals as the catch as catch can that I normally do. i thought scheduled meal times would be better for baby, but of course they didn't coincide with her schedule anyway. Also, I need to create a levelling system for my new bed, which other than the ridiculous slope worked great. Jason actually decided it was more comfortable than any of the larger beds in the motels we stopped at on the way to and from the site. It's not the size of the bed, it's the stability of the frame (some of those hotels I swear it felt like the bed was suspended like a hammock) and the fact that it is foam not springs, which cuts down on the motion transfer significantly. Lucrece had a brilliant solution that I will be trying to copy in the coming weeks for bed levelling. Also need to download a level ap as it turns out the ipod is the most easily transported levelling tool, and the coin we were rolling down our frame, while effective, was less than ideal or completely accurate. Was not terribly impressed with having to use public showers. I think that will be the deal-breaker for me when it comes to camping with them in the future.

The cart was hit and miss. In the market it was a definite win, providing portable seating for watching performances or breast feeding. But dragging it up the hill was hard for Jason and impossible for me. It did work out well as a bed at least. And Georgia did seem to enjoy watching the market roll by.

Speaking of the market, I spent extravagantly as always. Some badges and a belt from fettered cock, linen from Carolina calicoes that many considered too inexpensive to be 100% but I was happy with anyway. Lots of jewel tones and garish colors that are probably not period, but I like them. Also picked up some handwoven wickerbanden that are beautiful, a pair of Norse necklace hangers from the treasury (edit: and I managed to lose one before I even left site apparently - sigh), and another mirrored jewelery box from Tancred. My favorite purchases were the amber and jet necklace that Jason bought as my 6th anniversary gift. Doesn't top last year's present but nothing ever will ;) the other lovely thing was a tiny baby mug for Georgia that she picked out herself and immediately and happily demonstrated she knew what to do to with. At least for 30 seconds until she tipped it over to chew the bottom.

Classes were the main attraction as always. The best had to be the Norse sewing tools class that turned out to be a surprise blacksmithing class. The description said nothing about how we were going to be making these tools, or what they were to be made out of so I showed up in my pretty new embroidered shiny garb and was pleasantly surprised when I left the class 3 hours later no worse for the wear. Incidentally I wasn't the only one who didn't get the blacksmithing memo as several others thought we would be working in bone or horn. End product of that class was 2 very useable needles and the knowledge and motivation to make more.



There was also a basket making class from early in the week that required showing up like an hour early to get in. Totally worth it and I will be doing my best to show up to future classes of hers in coming years. I'm also feeling very inspired by that class and will be buying materials to make more baskets. I have promised a set of them to Tangwystl in exchange for the fleece of the lamb that Georgia met this summer. I think I'm getting the better end of that deal, but she thinks she's cleaning up so it's all good.



Georgia is down for her morning nap so I need to get on with the cleaning and bathroom caulking before my sister arrives. First load of the mountain of laundry is in. Soooo much more to go - sigh.