Author: Jennifer Kuntz

I find myself at loose ends tonight, so here’s a post from me. Long day at work and Tom’s still a sicky, but recovering.

We (the SCA) got approached by the Girl Scouts to help with a Camporee they have planned. Their theme is The Middle Ages and they want us to do fun, hands-on living history things for 300+ girls and adults over a three day weekend.
*JOY*
I love doing things with the Scouts as they are indirectly responsible for all of the good things in my life.
It’s a very, very long and rambling story, but it boils down to, had I not been a camp counselor when I was a camp counselor I wouldn’t have met the people I met. Had I not met the people (or more accurately “person”) I did I wouldn’t have made the life choices I made. Had I not made the life choices I made I probably would not have been married to the person I am married to or working in the job I am working in, both of which make me too happy for words most of the time (the complaining is really all for show, much like the ancient practice of saying the longed for baby is ugly and unwanted to ward off the evil eye).
Therefore, in addition to the friends I have made and the poise and confidence I gained from scouting, most of my present life is due to Girl Scout Camp. *YAY*
So, obviously I want to do a good job for this demo! I hope we can get a good demo crew out for it.

No I don’t play Warhammer.

I’m just tired as we were up too late last night wrapping up with Charlie. I finally got my Sainthood so now my character is Santa Dona Ramona Del Rey. We fought a ghost, a shadesteel golem and four shadows in an EEEVIL psychic temple. It was fun but now I’m going to miss the game even more. Six months is a LONG time at this end of it.

Tom’s birthday was yesterday, so tonight we’re making a nice dinner at home and watching movies together. I hope to be able to get some work started on a few things for him so he’ll have nice things to wear for our demos coming up. We’re doing a big local demo next month in conjunction with the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival. Then in May we have a weekend camping demo for the Girl Scouts. That should be fun. I hope I can work out the time off for that one.

I’m slowly recovering from the bad cold I had this week and getting caught up on work at work.

I have a much more satisfying imaginary life than I do a real one right now, so I’m just going to write about that.

Our local SCA group provided lunch as a fund raiser at this weekend’s event in Mebane, NC. We made a small profit and had fun feeding all the people. That night I got to eat dinner with author C.S. Friedman. I’m kind of awed by authors and I always make a fool of myself talking to them, kind of a drawback for a librarian. It stems from being so enthusiastic about books. But we were sitting with some folks from our local group who have been in the SCA since God was a boy. They are very nice people and very generous and good friends. And Ms. Friedman, herself, got a little squishy when she found out who they were (they’re quite well known in SCA circles). I guess everyone’s a fan of someone else.

Our phenomenal D&D game is drawing to a hiatus as Charlie is shipping off for Basic Training and then OCS at the end of the month. In preparation for this, he’s be throwing increasingly more difficult scenarios at us. Last time we faced a dragon being ridden by an evil Githyanki knight. We barely survived that encounter, but prevailed in the end. Last night we proceeded to take out the Githyanki fortress from whence had come the dragon and knight. It was a major slugfest and again we almost died. Charlie says we have not faced the “worst” thing on the island we are currently exploring yet. I can’t wait to see what the worst thing here can be. I think he would consider a TPK (total party kill) to be an appropriate capper to the best game most of us have played in years.

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.

Tired today. Stayed up too late reading last night. I’m finding it hard to get motivated to do anything constructive today.

Boy is it windy today. At least the library has heat (finally), otherwise it would be very uncomfortable in here. I’m working pretty hard on the reference desk, and checking up my livejournal. I’m going to have to be more diligent about posting.

Tom’s at fighter practice today. We had a good first SCA meeting of the year and it looks like we’re going to get a great local turn out for the tourney of Ymir in February. Tom will be doing his MIT thing and I’ll be helping out in the kitchen. I like keeping busy at events. Our Canton is slowly recovering from having a lot of our active fighter get deployed last year.

On the home front, Tom’s busy at his new job and enjoying having his evenings and weekends free. I’m very busy at work wiht Army projects and local events. I’m looking forward to traveling to Monterey, CA for ALI (Army Library Institute) in April. I’ve never been to Kah-LEE-fornia before.