OMG, I am tired. Especially since I already had this entry done once and LJ ate it. Let's see how much of it I can recontstruct.

Yesterday was pretty much Teh Fabulous-- just about perfect, as far as I could tell. The lovely woman who her friends teasingly say should have been called "Lady Oblivia" shall now be called "Maestra"-- she was well and truly surprised. We got Max sneaked into court and hid him behind Solvarr. When TRMs called her into court, They told her They were arranging to have teams of children tow her in a wagon as she attended Their Excellencies during the day, because Her  Excellency is known to run all over site, and Livia figured she would get pretty damn tired running up and down that hill at Ymir this year, being five months preggers and all. When They then told her They would like to put her on vigil instead, she burst into tears, showing that she really WAS surprised.

Things continued to go as planned the rest of the day. I had asked a wonderful, organized group of people to help me, and they did a fantastic job. Rowan created a vigil tent and provided a table to display a large number of Livia's scrolls, as well as a draft of her upcoming Compleat Anachronist issue on period pigments for the modern artist. Aneira's handmade heart-shaped guest book was to die for, with its painted frontispiece and its own velvet pillow, and we aggressively chased guests around to make sure they signed it, since we were afraid they'd be to scared to touch it otherwise.  Ysolt was in charge of hospitality, and when she came down with a virus, Clare de Crecy volunteered to step in if necessary (Ysolt recovered in time, but Clare brought treats, too.)  Believe me when I say we had a gracious plenty of handmade goodies to serve our guests. Whenever things got overwhelming inside, Max and I snuck outside so he could smoke and we could gossip. It was altogether lovely.


I should leave the rest of it for the Maestra herself to talk about. I was pretty damn glad I wasn't coming home last night and could just collapse in the cabin after we got back from eating. I was so wound up I had to take an extra Xanax to get to sleep, even if I was exhausted.(Shhhhh. These are EXTREMELY light weight, I found out when one of my doctors voice rose when he repeated where the decimal point was on the dosage. I feel very safe taking an extra one if I need to. And I'm still here, aren't I? Pbthpbth.)


And to the new Maestra-- congratulations!! It has always been an absolute joy having you in Casa Bellini, and you will forever hold a place of highest esteem in my heart and my household. I have learned at least as much from you as I have taught you, and I thank you for that. There has never been a moment's regret. Vivat! 

Now THIS is more like it! Yay, zombies! Go, US court!

Love this entry from Wil Wheaton.

Fruit cobbler with ice cream for breakfast... yum. It's really easy to make, too. I will say, though (and this was a 'duh' moment) if you use frozen fruit you really should thaw it out before adding it to the batter. It works fine, mind you, but it nearly doubles the cooking time. Like I said, duh.

I'm also posting a link to an entry I wrote a few days ago but originally had friends-locked. mstra_margarita and I talked about it last night at the potluck and decided that it really didn't need to be locked. I thought, given that there's a Baronial polling coming up, it might be of some interest.

Since it was written days ago, however, I don't think it would show up where anyone would see it, so here's a new link to it. Sorry if this seems puffed-up of me.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about roles, and the responsibilities and privileges that come with them. The most extreme example of it hit me on election night when I looked at the Obama family and thought, “Oh, your lives are never going to be the same.” I know that the evolution began as soon as he started winning primaries, but the change in January will be unimaginable.
( playing the gameCollapse )

This is a question about computer networking, I think. I decided to hook up the new printer to the network instead of directly to the Mac. I put the drivers for the printer on the Mac. (Haven't messed with the Dell yet. Should I confuse myself further at this point? Or does it make a difference? Not sure how this works. If it's on the Mac, and the Mac is on the network, do I need to put the driver on the Dell? And is the farmer on the Dell? Ooops. Sorry.)

Anyway. The Mac is on the network. The printer is on the network, as far as I can tell. The installation seemed to go smoothly.

When I try to print anything from the computer, however, nothing happens. No error messages, but no output, either. It just never shows up in the print queue.

Is this a network problem? An issue with the printer?

The printer was clear that I should only set up the printer for either the network or USB, so now that I've installed it on the network I can't just plug in the USB, apparently.

Ideas? Help? If you guys don't know what to do, who SHOULD I call? Because I realized last night that I have a shiny new toy but at this point I'm further behind than I was before I bought it-- then I could at least print stuff that was already on the computer, even if I couldn't scan to it. Sigh.

And on a slightly more amused note, I have decided that my callig ink must have fish oil in it or something, because nothing brings Miranda to my lap faster than opening that bottle. It's absolutely amazing.

I have almost finished the prize cape I'm making for the Most Valorous rapier fighter competition this weekend at Assessment. Oh, you didn't know about it? My bad. I should have written an announcement for the Merry Rose but didn't think about it till last night. Today I'm fairly incoherent, so have asked my valorous apprentice harleenquinzell to put some text together. Of course she's at work today so may have other things to do. (Pah, work!) Anyway, the cape-sewing went very quickly and it looks good. The cape, BTW, is designed for use in rapier fighting-- not a fancy-shmancy one. It is, however, large enough that it can be worn, unlike the ceremonial one that designates the WH Baronial Rapier Champion.

Miranda and even Molly helped me with the cape-- Molly helped with the cutting and Miranda was in on both cutting and sewing. I have such good kitties. Miranda has been especially lovey this laast week. I have clearly been gone from home far too much recently, and she's making up for all the petting she didn't get while I was gone. She's in my lap when I get on the computer, in my lap when I read, and plastered to my side all night while I sleep. She's also been walking through the house crying at random times-- she manages to sound really pitiful. She's going to be most unhappy with my being gone for a week again. At least I'll be home a little longer before I head out yet again for a week at Pennsic.

I have the History Channel on this afternoon and am watching "American Eats," including hot dogs. The descriptions of the creation of Nathan's makes me want a hot dog, and it's midafternoon and I've had lunch pretty recently. Crap-- now they're talking about pizza. I dunno if I can watch this whole hour.

I have gotten several minor errands done today, thank heavens. Still a few left to do but I'm generally in good shape. Now I think I need to go grocery shopping. Maybe some hot dogs.....

Wow. I can't believe how fried I am. I was so tired after the drive yesterday that I had a hell of a time even going to sleep, and then I had nightmares half the night. Or rather, I kept having the same nightmare half the night. I don't even remember now what it was, except that it wasn't a something's-chasing-me-and-I'm-going-to-die kind of nightmare; it was just awful and I kept dreaming it over and over. I remember thinking it was because of the song I had stuck in my head, which was "If I Loved You" from Carousel. I used to think it was a sweet song but after hearing it recently all I could think of was how sad it was, and remembering that it was a terribly sad show. I have NO idea why I thought a sad show tune would give me nightmares, but then what's logical about nightmares, anyway?

I swear, if I don't get to feeling alive pretty soon I might re-think making a day-trip tomorrow that's at least 4 hours each way. The company would be wonderful and I know I could sleep if need be, but I'm debating. I need to decide soon, though, because if I don't go, I still want to get the two scrolls I have finished delivered so they'll go.

Tuesday already-- this visit has gone pretty quickly so far. I got in Friday night about 9, which was…. um, shall we say… rather more quickly than I should have arrived, and certainly more quickly than I expected to arrive. The trip was totally uneventful, which is a wonderful thing. I listened to a Southern Sisters mystery audio book, which I find is a good series for that purpose. It features two sixty-something Alabama ladies and is guaranteed to give me a few laughs. The only scary thing about it is that I don’t remember any of western NC. Yikes.

Mother and I have both had migraines most of the time I’ve been here. I am afraid that I definitely see a clear pattern…. Every time I’m here I have two-pill migraines most of the visit. I see a difference in Mother this time. She’s been more forgetful lately, and this time forgot when I’m leaving, though I told her several times and she apparently wrote it down (somewhere!) a couple of times. Thus, we wind up not going to Barbourville this time. Given the way our heads have felt, I don’t think it’s a great loss. I had debated renting a van this trip and taking back a TV and a pie safe from there, but realized I don’t need a TV and have no room for the pie safe, though it’d be neat to have. If I had rented a van, we’d have made the trip, but as it was I didn’t care that much.

Daddy is doing much better than he was when I was here at Christmas. WAY better. He’s sharper, more alert, and doesn’t seem scared like he did before. I still don’t think he’ll ever completely get back to where he was but I am pleased with what I see. Mother’s macular degeneration is apparently getting worse, which of course is what it always does. Her doctor says he wants to see her every month now, which is going to be a problem, especially since Daddy is definitely not up to driving to Lexington. She did just tell me that the van that is available for residents here will take them to Lexington for a fee, and that’s what they’ll do. Whew.

I had a major realization of sorts today. Daddy was getting ready to drive out to Bybee (10 miles away) and I just realized what a terrible idea that was. He definitely does not need to be driving at highway speeds. I realize I’m deluding myself that in town is acceptable but the speeds are so much slower that the results would be much less catastrophic if anything does happen. At highway speeds, though, things just happen way too fast.

On the whole, it’s been a good visit. I brought 3 quarts of strawberries, and we have polished them off already. Mother ate a few, but Daddy and I ate most of them. He even made shortcake for them. Yum. I’ve been painting and have finished the Undine I brought. I’ve also read a lot. Oh, and I brought a large print book for Mother—one of the Southern Sisters mysteries, in fact. She loves to read but says she can’t when her head hurts. I wondered if the large print would help, and I think it did—she read the whole book in no time, and loved it. The local bookmobile comes here, so she can request more now that she knows she can read the large print more easily. Yay!

We’re going to Lexington tomorrow, taking Mother for her appointment with her eye specialist. Hope that goes well. We’ll be doing some other little errands and eating lunch over there after that. Exciting stuff, eating lunch in the big city. Wonder which chain she’ll choose? Heh.

Well, I’m signing off. Back home on Thursday, get to see my kitties and sleep in my own bed. Yay.

I have lost my keys. I don't lose my keys. Some people who shall remain nameless *koff* (K) *koff* lose their keys all the time; If I had seen them, I could find them. I don't lose 'em, but I have, this time. I was loading the car for the drive to KY. Took a load out, came back and realized I had closed the door (which locks automatically) and didn't have the keys in my hand. Well, no problem I thought. (Actually I was nowhere near that polite.) I remember dropping them in my purse. I'll borrow keys' from the rental office to get back in and I'll be good to go. So I did, but no keys. I have taken everything out of my purse three times now and the keys still aren't in it. I have looked every place I can remember going-- hell, every place I can imagine having gone, and some I'm sure I didn't visit-- but no joy. I have half-cleaned off the table where my purse is sitting. I even opened the car and looked at the stuff I carried out, thinking maybe I dropped them in one of the bags. I have no idea what to do now. I have found my spare car key, so I guess I could go on to KY with the spares. But where the hell are my keys?