Sparkly Things

It’s official. Cossacks, Mongols and Huns has been cancelled. I’m bummed. But it does free me up to put more energy into the Picnic in the Grove event at work the weekend before.

On the home front, Tom’s mom is in the hospital with pneumonia (sp?). The Dr’s are still doing tests so we don’t know if there are complications from other things. The family is worried, but I’m glad she’s getting care. Tom’s brother and sister and aunt have been visiting her. When we know the situation a little more clearly we can decide what to do.

Tom is very worried and he’s not handling the stress very well. I hope his long weekend will give him time to settle down and get centered again.

You are Phlegmatic. You have a peace-loving
nature, and make a good listener and a faithful
friend. You do have a tendency to be selfish
and stubborn in your worst moments, and your
worrying can lean towards paranoia. Phlegmatics
should consider careers as accountants,
diplomats, engineers, and administrators. You
are a somewhat reluctant leader, but your
practicality and steady nerve under pressure
makes you a natural choice for leadership
roles.

Which of the Humours are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

We’re having an emergency SCA meeting tonight to decide what to do about the site for our event. I haven’t been to see it yet, but apparently it is not clean or safe enough for us to use at this time. It’s make or break time. Either we solve this now, or we scratch the event. I hope we can solve it. I’ve been looking forward to doing this for quite a while now and it would really suck to have all our planning go down the drain at this point.

I guess we can chalk a lot of this up to the “planning in advance” factor. Planning slowed down over the summer due to some personality issues and now we’re getting close to the event and we’re behind.

Lessons have been learned (I hope).

So Tom makes me listen to many repetitions of the Buffy musical episode, “Once More with Feeling,” which he got turned on to by our “friend” Brett (thanks, Brett ;P ). And while I’m listening I realize that the guy singing the part of Sweet, the demon, sounds like the Cat (Danny John-Jules) of Red Dwarf fame. So, I go on trusty IMDB (www.imbd.com) to see if I’m right…I’m not, he’s a guy named Hinton Battle. BUT I look down at Hinton Battle’s filmography and what do I see…he DID play the Cat in the short lived American version of Red Dwarf (which I’ve never seen). The result, I’m both right and wrong and don’t you love the Internet!

Danny John-Jules fun fact. He played the part of a doo wop singer in Little Shop of Horrors, one of my all time fav. movies. I’m going to have to get it again and watch for him.

On the life front, we had a nice trip to Crusades this weekend. Atlantia won (although it was close) thanks to the combined talents of all our martial artists and artisans. Tom MIT’ed and seemed to have fun. Our friend Gavin fenced and had a good time. I helped out at the newcomer’s table and went tent flap shopping (no windows on SCA merchants’ stalls) and had a pretty good time. The weather was nice and we got to stop at IKEA near Baltimore, yay!

Little sister Anne’s b-day (A-day) was on Saturday, so Happy A-day to her.

That’s the noise of blowing noses!
The song of the Kuntz household this weekend.
Tom brought home a nasty little cold from work the other day, so we’re both suffering.
On the plus side, the kitties are no longer suffering from the fleas. We got the good Frontline flea killer from the vet and dosed them both with it. Then we bug bombed the house. With luck, Winston will have fur on his butt again befor it starts to get really cold.

We’re just about done with counting all of the books in the library. It’s a big job, but everyone worked hard to get it done. We won’t have to do it again until next year.

Here’s the flyer for our local SCA group’s upcoming event. It has the potential to be very cool.

Name of Event: Cossacks, Mongols and Huns

Date(s) of Event: November 12-14, 2004

Hosting Group: Canton of Attillium

Description: Steppe dwellers unite! Join Attillium as we raid, pillage and loot on this ultimate barbarian weekend. Test your skills with sword, rapier, bow and horse. A variety of heavy combat fighting is planned, along with raiding-style rapier melees, hound coursing (don’t have a dog, come watch anyway), archery, equestrian events and an awesome feast in true steppe nomad style. A&S competitions will include “found on the field” (no documentation required, just something that could have been picked up during or after a battle); articles relating to a nomadic lifestyle; Cossack, Mongol or Hun costume and accessories to be judged on the body; and best horse, hound and archery equippage. In the evening we will have a bardic competition celebrating the horse and nomad cultures. Bards will have five minutes (the Khan’s patience grows thin)to present their best story, poem or song featuring horses or a story from the Cossack, Mongol or Hun traditions. Dancers and drummers are invited to a special drum circle outside around the fire.

Entry into all competitions (including fighting) will require a one-time donation of a toy ($5-10 range) or a donation of pet food, cat litter, etc. The collected toys will be donated to the Falcon Children’s Home. All pet supplies will go to a local animal shelter.

Website: http://www.geocities.com/canton_of_attillium

Martial Activities: armored combat, rapier combat, archery, equestrian activities, hound coursing

Arts & Sciences Activities:
“Found on the field”: This category requires no documentation – after all you found it, right? The idea is that entries can be anything that could have been picked up during or after a battle. Some entry ideas include weapons, shields, favors, articles of clothing, shoes, severed heads, etc. This is wide open and a good chance to show that item that you have been having trouble documenting. I hope to have people available to discuss how to document your item for future competitions, if that is something that you are interested in.

Nomadic Lifestyle (I know, the Cossacks weren’t nomadic.): This category requires documentation. Entries can be anything that relate to a nomadic lifestyle. Some ideas for entries could be leather water or beverage containers, leather or wooden containers for porcelain cups); wooden bowls or other items, felt items, tools, portable looms and other textile tools, individual items of costume (hats, boots, etc.) and so on. If you would like to enter but can’t think of anything to do, contact me. I have lots of documentation and can help you find something that will fit your skills and interests.

Cossack, Mongol or Hun costume and accessories: These will be judged on the body. The plan is to have a sign up sheet and you can either come by at sometime during the day or before feast for judging, or let us know where you are and we will come looking for you (given the theme of the event, this could be a problem for you – you may be subject to looting by judges and all that). Points will be given for authenticity, completeness and detail. Documentation is required, but try to be fairly brief on this one – 1-2 pages at the most.

Best horse, hound and archery equipage: There will be a signup sheet and judges will be circulating around the field to judge this one. You can enter any period you like for this competition, but extra points will be given for entries that reflect the theme of the event.

For clarification, questions, suggestions on more competitions, or to volunteer to judge (yeah!!) contact Nü Tzê Fuil (Rebecca Wendelken) at 910-677-0495 (not after 9pm please) or email at rwendelken@methodist.edu.

Cost: Adult, Member: $5.00 Day-Trip $5.00 Feast $8.00 Camping

Adult, Non-Member: $8.00 Day-Trip $5.00 Feast $11.00 Camping

Child (6-17): $5.00 Day-Trip $5.00 Feast $8.00 Camping

Child (0-5): $0.00 Day-Trip $5.00 Feast $0.00 Camping

Cost Notes: Lunch will be offered for an additional $2.00 fee. The complete package (camping, lunch and feast)–$15.00

Site: Shady Acres Farm
Canady Pond Rd.
Hope Mills, NC 28348

Site Restrictions: This site is VERY PRIMITIVE!
Sanitary facilities consist of cold water taps and port-a-potties.
This is a working farm with animals on site.
Site is wet.
NOTE: All animals must be leashed.

Feast Information: Feast will feature foods from the middle and far east. Feast will be served “nomad style” with floor seating. Please bring pillows or rugs to sit upon as the floor is rather hard. If you are unable to sit on the floor, please contact the autocrat.

Merchanting Information: Please contact the autocrat.

Other Information: Evening activities

Bardic Competition:
Short Horse Tales for the Khan’s Pleasure.
The Khan calls upon all in the Horde possessing the way of words to prepare a short tale, poem or song featuring that most noble of animals, the horse. He would also be pleased to hear tales of the great steppe nomad peoples. But be warned! The Khan is a busy and capricious tyrant. He values tellers who have learned the lesson of swiftness the horse brings to us. Woe be unto any teller who dares tax the Khan’s patience by exceeding the generously allowed time of five minutes.

Rich will be the reward to that teller who can present the best tale (or tail) to the Khan and his warlords in the time allotted.

A selection of short tales will be available for research linked to the event website at >www.geocities.com/canton_of_attillium

Drum Circle: Drummers and dancers are encouraged to join us for an outside drum and dance circle around a roaring fire. This circle will take place during and after the bardic activities in a separate location.

Autocrats Information: James Olivier(Jay Ozmet), 7626 Decatur Fayetteville NC, 28303. Phone Number(910)868-9087, E-mail: dementoj@earthlink.net

Resevations: Xavier Sparhawke(Joseph Harris), 5875 Ridgecrest Dr., Hope Mills NC, 28348 Phone Number(910)424-4870, E-mail: guttlebup@yahoo.com

Directions: From the North

Take your best route to I95. Follow to exit 41 (South of Fayetteville). At the exit, take the left onto Chickenfoot Rd. Follow to Canady Pond Rd. Go about two blocks and at the turn, take a left into the farm.

From the South

Take your best route to I95. Follow to exit 41. At the exit, take the right onto Chickenfoot Rd. Follow to Canady Pond Rd. Go about two blocks and at the turn, take a left into the farm.

I’m not sure if this is going to happen for sure or not, but it looks like Tom’s work is going to have him come in an hour earlier and actually get out on time. This will mean that instead of working 4:00-2:00 (AM) he’ll be working 3:00-11:30 (PM) and he might actually get a reasonable amount of sleep. Of course this company does make lying a principle of business, so it may come to nothing…but we have our fingers crossed.

For some reason I always have that in my head. I don’t know why. Eddie Murphy has warped my life.

We saw “I Robot” this weekend. Pretty good SF. Great special effects. I’m intrigued to know how they did the one main robot whether he was 100% CGI, or like Gollum, a guy in a motion capture suit some of the time.

We also found a nice local resturaunt (that word again) called the Haymont. Fayetteville is a town of many national chain places and they are always packed on the weekend nights…so we decided to try a local place that was recommended by a friend. It was very nice. The prices were reasonable and they had a very tasty greek menu in addition to seafood, steak and sandwiches. It’s in a nice part of town, too. I think we’ll be going back there.

We’ve got the remnants of H. Frances moving through today. Lots of rain and t-storms with gusty winds. There were tornadoes yesterday, some came through our town, but didn’t go near our house. Actually, I haven’t been able to find any substantial damage, but boy howdy is there a lot of water around.

The amazing thing is that it will all be gone as soon as the sun comes out. The sandy soil around here is amazing.

Tom’s on the last day of his 10 in a row slog. Then he has four days off. I expect he’ll spend most of tomorrow sleeping.

I got asked to come and speak about storytelling for a children’s lit. class one of the teachers from the post is teaching at the local universities…super kewl!