Month: May 2005

This happens to me every now and then when I’m listening to oldies music, I get this really strong urge to bring someone forward in time who would be really impressed by all our gee whiz modern stuff, but might not be totally overwhelmed by future shock, you know someone from the forties or fifties who gets modernism, but would be wowed by cell phones and such.

If you could bring someone forward in time to our time…when would they be from?

To quote Mad Magazine…

We have been up and down all week with icky stomach stuff. It seems to have cooled off for the nonce, but boy does it suck. Chills, nausea and headache as well as many bathroom trips. I spent all of Tuesday in bed. On the upside, once I felt better, I REALLY felt better with lots of energy and good appetite. Maybe it was just fatigue.

We’re having our delayed anniversary dinner and a movie on Friday night and probably buying a lawnmower to replace the one the landlord left behind which has finally conked out. Any suggestions for a good one? I want a walk behind model with a mulching feature, as that’s Tom’s solution to raking and bagging.

For some reason the Marketing Department here is very weird. I guess we can chalk a certain amount of it up to the extremely transitory nature of the staff. They seem to turn over about every eight months. Most are military spouses, so when hubby PCS’es somewhere else, away goes the wife as well.

Here’s my example for the week, the Marketing department asked to use the library grounds for a monthly al fresco movie program the first of which is tonight (Saturday) at 7:30 PM . It’s important to note here that the library is not presenting the movie, just serving as the venue. I’ve had people calling me every day this week to ask questions about this program, so obviously they did a good job of getting the word out to people that this is happening, but I haven’t had a call or e-mail from Marketing since we set this up to give me any details about what is going on, so I answer questions to the best of my ability based on guessing. You would think they would brief me. I expect a certain amount of this is due to the fact that the former boss here managed to alienate the entire Marketing dept. with his attitude *sigh*. I’m getting tired of mending fences for him.

So Marketing, who are supposed to know what is going on and then tell the general public, seem to be wandering around lost most of the time. It’s very weird.

I’m in a fiction lull right now. I’ve gotten so desparate I’m re-reading “And Eternity” by Piers Anthony *shudder*. I need some new fiction to tide me over until Harry Potter comes out in July.
Here’s the run down.
I’m a dedicated series reader, meaning I’ll stick with a series until it gets DUMB and then I give up. I’m also amenable to a single great book by an otherwise overlooked author. I can explain my taste in protagonists by saying that Holden Caufield leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, so please no “Amber” or “Elric” or (gawd ‘elp us) Steven R. Donaldson. A little humor is great, a little (or perhaps a lot of) sex is great, 400 pages of angst is right out. (Picky, non?)

My favorite writers of books are listed below:
Terry Pratchett–current
Anne McCaffrey–current
Robert Asprin–gave up. Did he lose his brain after “MYTH Inc Link”?
Jean Auel–current (although Shelters of Stone was a struggle)
Lemony Snickett–current
J.K. Rowling–current
Douglas Adams–current *sniff*
J.R.R. Tolkien–current *ditto sniff*
Jane Austen–current
C.S. Lewis–Narnia current, can’t get through his Sci Fi
Neil Gaiman–current
Fritz Lieber–Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser more or less current

You can see my dilemma. Any suggestions out there?

BTW…Call me a snob, but after giving it a chance, I’ve decided that I’m not a big fan of liscenced fiction of the “Star Wars”, “Forgotten Realms” variety, sorry.

I know you can do it!

A lot of people who read this already know this story. But it’s too good to not record.

Our Girl Scout demo went very well. We had a good turn out and the two groups meshed very well together. A few folks from the Barony came down to help us. Lord Gaston du Valmont was able to come for a few hours on Saturday afternoons and marshal and fight for our demo tourney.

For the tourney, Each of our fighters chose a Girl Scout to fight for. Lord Gaston took the honors of the field and called his young inspiration into court. He gave her his necklace, explaining that it was a gift from his female fighting teacher and that he had worn it ever since she had given it to him. (Substantially longer than this young lady has been around, it was pointed out.) As this was Lord Gaston’s first tourney victory, he wanted to honor the young lady in whose honor he fought. The little girl, Taylor, was
stunned. She came forward, took the necklace and then threw her arms
around Lord Gaston and gave him a big hug. (I am reliably informed
that more than a few people got misty at this point). As soon as court
was over, her friends all rushed up to look at the necklace and find
out what happened. Taylor was all aglow for the rest of the day and
has a great story to take home to her mom and dad.

Tired but happy! Yay SCA!

The big Girl Scout demo starts tomorrow. I feel more or less ready for it, although I didn’t get to do all of the projects I had planned, but isn’t that always the way it is. I don’t think I’m ever going to be 100% ready for an SCA event, there’s always something I could make or do beforehand, so I’m going to have to judge my progress incrementally.

Happy’s Mother’s Day to moms all around. We both talked to our moms this morning before heading out (me to work, Tom to fencing). His mom is sick again, cellulitis of the foot and anxiety attacks. Mike says she’s dropped a lot of weight and is down to 90 lbs. That’s too thin. She obviously isn’t eating and certainly isn’t getting enough exercise. I wish there was something we could do to help her. She needs to be moved somewhere where she will be fed and cared for, but she refuses to leave the house. Mike is doing the best he can, but you can’t force people to take care of themselves.

My mom is OK. She’s enjoying her new job at the State Psychiatric hospital in Clarks Summit. She and my dad seem to be doing the empty nest thing in a big way. They travel a lot with their friends. I hope they are enjoying themselves.

So happy Mom Day to all moms!

My knee is feeling lots better now, almost two weeks after I hurt it. I am blaming the shoes, which cause my feet to tip inwards and fatigue my calf muscles…so out they go. Unfortunately they are the only comfortable pair of SCA style shoes that I own so now I’m going to have to go shoe shopping. *sigh*