Month: February 2005

Gotta turn folks on to this great movie (although I may be WAY behind the curve on this one).

First off, I have to say, I married Napolean Dynamite and just realized it last night.

The story is exquisitely simple, Napolean’s odd, dysfunctional life in his little Idaho town is both brightened and disrupted when he makes a new friend at school, Pedro, and his Uncle Rico comes to take care of him while his grandmother is in the hospital. The genius of this movie is in the writing and the performance by Jon Heder, the eponymous star. Nothing terribly dramatic happens and there is no sex and no profanity.

It’s a surprisingly upbeat movie and it stays very true to its characters. It’s a Cinderella story in which Cinderella goes to the ball in her rags and gets the prince anyway. No fairy godmothers needed.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I do recommend this film very strongly and I’d love to get your impressions.

Seems like I only post anymore on the weekend, oh well. It’s a testament to how much work there is to do during the rest of the week. This week was wierd. Phil (the boss) is away again for something, so I got tapped to do a bunch of stuff he should have been doing while he was here, mostly filling out forms and such. We lost another co-worker. Pete, who worked in the computer labs in the library as a contract employee, succumbed to pneumonia complicated by cancer on Tuesday. This is on top of having one of our library aides, Martina, die in a car accident two weeks ago. So far February has been a rough month. The staff is asking for grief counselling, so the big boss has it scheduled for Tuesday. I hope it helps. I personally am still in the shock stage. I can’t believe that people I saw every day are just up and gone. Most of the staff are very anxious and are finding it hard to concentrate. I’m hoping that the fabled “rule of three” doesn’t come into play here because I don’t think we can handle another loss right now.

We had a kickin’ time at Ymir. Tom did his last MIT (marshal in training) so he can now send in his paperwork and hopefully become a warranted marshal. Jay, our seneschal, got his Award of Arms, and was inducted into the Order of the Kittyhawk. Isabel and Danr and Andras and F’uil got Baronial awards at the Friday evening court.

I cooked and had fun and got my Award of Arms. For those who read this and are not SCA, an Award of Arms means I can register a coat of arms with the College of Heralds and carry it, if I were a fighter, onto the field (I can also put my device on my clothes and stuff). It also means that I can now call myself Lady Eibhlin inghean ui Chiarain. It’s a recognition for participation. You get called up into Court and the King and Queen chat with you and then they announce your award and give you a spiffy scroll. There are lots of awards in the SCA and it adds to the flavor of the society. People get public recognition for service or excellence in one of the SCA activities, like A&S or fighting. It was fun, but a little nerve wracking. Everyone was watching and I didn’t want to make a big mistake.

Now I have tired feet and I’m missing sleep, but I couldn’t miss work as Phil is out of town, so back to work I go.

Oh well.

I’m almost ready for the Tourney of Ymir. I went trim happy on my garb, so now I have some things that look pretty festive. I’m going to go through Tom’s things and mend as needed then pack. A little bit of shopping, pack the car, and do cat duty and we’ll be ready to go.

I’m helping to cook this time. I like the job as it involves being in the warm and being creative. It’s some of the same people from the Academy of the Rapier group, so we should have fun. Tom’s doing the MIT thing again (hopefully for the last time). A lot of people from out local group are going and working various things. There’s going to be a baronial investiture as well. Lots to do!

Rain today. Hopefully ONLY rain as they’re calling for “wintry mix” which sounds nicer than it is. Sounds like it should be a bridge mix covered in white chocolate. We’re sick with a stupid head cold, but overcommitted at work, so can’t take any time off. *Sigh* I’m living on the ‘Quil products right now.

Big upcoming event is Ymir, the long time Viking themed event in Windmaster’s Hill. I’m hoping to pick up some trim and spruce up my garb from last year. I won’t have much time for anything else as I’m helping in the kitchen. The feast should be quite good and fun to prepare.

Lots of gaming this weekend, Brett and Pam’s on Friday and Charlie’s on Saturday. The test feast on Sun. and my b-day Monday *yay*. I’m going to be 33. I’ll be factorable by two prime numbers. I hope that means something good in numerological terms.