Adventures in Living!

 

 

   

    , you're now logged in!    

   

    Below you'll find your test result. After, continue on to your    homescreen to discover what we're about.    

   

    continue to OkCupid homescreen >    

 

 

                                              

The Harlequin       You scored 34% Cardinal, 41% Monk, 50% Lady,  and 48% Knight!

You are a mystery, a jack-of-all-trades. You have the king's ear, but also listen to murmurings of the common folk. You believe in the value of force and also literature. Truly you are the puzzlement of the age.

 

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Cardinal You scored higher than 99% on Monk You scored higher than 99% on Lady You scored higher than 99% on Knight

Link: The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test written by KnightlyKnave on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Cool!

Ok, so I am totally digging the ability to work on a computer at my kitchen table. I can check the email and type this blog entry without having to balance the squirming baby bird on my lap, nor utlize the eyes in the back of my head to watch her progress up the office stairs.

Wireless networks are a beautiful thing.

Laptop computers are a beautiful thing.

Now I want a laptop of my very own....

***********************************************************************************

So, I think I posted it before, but I'll jump on the band wagon and post my 2006 event list, and what we are planning thus far for 2007.

In 2006, we started with University in February. Wren's first event!!

April was Tir-Y-Don's baronial birthday, a day which started warm and 70 degrees, and finished in a downpour and a temp of about 40 degrees. The upside was that we took Moe  and Kitty  into House Thorvaldsson, and that was a very good thing.

April was also the Coronation of Michael and Seonaid. A fun, but exhausting event, in which I felt horribly conspicuous because of the stroller.

May was Crown Tourney. I love a Crown Tourney. Kitty did an excellent job on a beautiful site, and Ragnarr got to win again! May also brought Sapphire Joust. Fun, hot, and somewhat relaxing. Did I mention HOT? Balynar got a Shark's Tooth, and I got to hang out with the other Atlantian mommies.

Here we have a large expanse of time in which we went to no events. It was a nice summer off.

September was another Coronation -- this time Rags and Anneke. I had a display and guild time with the glass guild, and the event turned into an overnight that we had not planned on. Note to self: pack an overnight bag to out of town events, just in case.

We had planned on attending Crown Tourney in November, but failed, due to sick Wren.

More time off.

In 2007, here's out things shape up:

January was IB12.
February is Tournament of Love and Beauty. Kira wants to go to an event, with a gown with angel-wing sleeves.
March -- KASF
April -- Coronation
May -- Sapphire
June/July -- nothing?
August -- Pennsic is wishful thinking....
September -- Coronation?
October -- University, hopefully

Anything else, I have no clue. Any local events might be tossed in there, and depending on what happens in tourneys and such, other events might get added.

Anyway. Time to go buy a new carseat and run the Saturday Errands.

what goes around...apparently comes back around again

So three of the four of us are sick, yet again. I think it was the trip to NC that did Wren in....she has croup now, and Travis and I are both sick with whatever sinus funk that happened to pass by. I'm still glad I am not down with the norovirus, though. I'll take sinus funk over puking any day.

Kira is the only one who, inexplicably, managed to dodge the sickness bomb yet again. She attributes this to "taking a vitamin every single day, and drinking a glass of milk every single day, like mom says." Apparently I fail to take my own advice, as well.

Anyway, a cute pic of Wren from the weekend:

She discovered the joys of the slide, and even started to say "whee!" as she slid down. Very cool. Another new word from the weekend was "cheese!" for the large number of family pictures that were snapped on Saturday.

Work continues to kick my butt in a huge way. I have done at least two, and sometimes three, evaluations each day for about a week now, and my brain is fried. I haven't even written some of the evals up yet, and that really bugs me. I hate having outstanding paperwork.

One of my patients is really interesting, though. She was in the hospital for cardiac issues and shortness of breath, and a few days later, had a stroke. What's interesting is the fact that she is minimally physically impaired, but her language skills are a total mess. I discovered today that she cannot read any words that have linguistic content, like nouns or verbs -- words with meaning. She can read functor words, but almost every content word she tries to read comes out as a neologism -- a made-up word. The target sentence I had her read in one of my tests this morning was this:

They were relieved to find a refreshment stand nearby and bought a soda.

What she read was this:

They were vanda to vandases a ripanedrosis bicoz and bingates a sendamix.

She is probably the most fascinating case I have had in a while, from a pure speech pathology standpoint. I think I can improve her skills, but wow, there is so much to work on. She can't name a single object, and worse, she knows it, but she tries, and the words come out all wrong. She can write her name and address, but can't write to dictation at all. She can't copy anything written, can't identify most body parts, can't follow more than a single step command....but her speech is clear, and her arms and legs work. No hemiparesis, which is excellent. Her vision is good, too. The errors are just scattered all over the linguistic and cognitive map. I think I'll be doing some research for this case -- pulling out old graduate school stuff and reading up on some of the error patterns she presents. Really interesting. The brain is a mysterious and complex organ.

I should go get Kira into bed, and then dig out some aphasia research to read up on. Of course, the internet, which wasn't really a part of most people's lives back when I was in graduate school, is now my first-line source for information in my profession. Much simpler than actually darkening the door of a library, I just Google for something I need, and lo! it appears on my screen. I just printed an article I found about alexia, and a seven page handout for some neuropsych class at Marywood University that deals with aphasia. Fabulous bedtime reading, I know, but necessary. I sure don't have time to read and study about work while I am at work!

Anyway, Kira is out of the tub, and I need to get myself to bed as well.

family fun and other things

So after an incredibly drama-laden workweek (Workplace Drama really sucks), I ended up at home Friday night, exhausted, awaiting the arrival of Travis' cousin and his family. Erik and Jen and Steven were staying the night with us before we all headed down to Salisbury, NC for Travis' grandmother's birthday party.

The drive down was filled with family-road-trip horrors, including being too hot, too cold, hungry, tired, and generally unhappy. Wren cried for a good portion of the trip, and Kira got bent out of shape about her sister stomping her head while she was trying to  nap. I attempted to knit, but was largely unsuccessful.  I pondered what would possess an experienced mother to leave the house for a road trip four hours long that would run over lunchtime and not pack a single snack. Most of Wren's crying was because she was hungry and generally unhappy about being strapped into the car seat. Then we had to stop at least three times on the trip for bathroom breaks. I thought we'd never get there.

Thankfully, the hotel was nice, and even had a small indoor pool, which our party of four adults and three kids utilized Saturday evening.

The birthday party was good fun, and it was nice to see Gran so happy. There was a ton of food, most of which I was barely able to identify, but there were some really yummy casseroles and of course, barbecue and a huge cake. I got to see the Southern phenomenon of dine-n-dash in it's natural environment, as a number of folks went through the buffet line, ate, then turned around and heaped food into takeout boxes. Then they took off. The table of church ladies behind us were thick as flies on the desserts, and I wondered if I'd even get a slice of pie. Heh. There was a playroom filled with playground toys for the kids and Wren and Kira had a blast playing on the climbing equipment and slides.

Pool time and then bedtime followed, and we were too tired to even drink more than a single beer. I think I fell asleep watching Mythbusters while Wren jumped in the pack'n play, steadfastly refusing to lay down.

Breakfast this morning (at a buffet restaurant serving, among other thing, fried whole catfish, liver somethingorother and hamburgers), then we got down the road. Home in about four hours, with only one stop and minimal icy weather.

Since it's Richmond, it won't snow. All you people out there who are getting snow right now, we hates you, yes we do.

Anyway, now is beer-laundry-football game time. Then the workweek starts anew. Hopefully with less drama this time.

OMFG!

Hot damn, but '24' is about the most suspenseful, incredible bit of action television out there.

I didn't even get to see the whole four hour premiere in its entirety (kids, putting them to bed, etc.) and I am totally reeling form the last half hour of tonight's show. Incredible.

Looks like Jack's back....and a whole section of CA is kinda screwed up. I can't wait til next week!

Quick Wren update

We are home form the surgery center, where poor Wren had bilateral pressure-equalization tubes placed in her ears. The whole visit was two hours long, and I think she spent about ten minutes under anesthesia. Quick, relatively painless, and we're done.  I didn't even have time to cry, which was good. Poor baby was just so sad looking afterward, though -- wobbly head, crying, hungry, confused. We ended up dragging her to Ukrop's to get a prescription filled (and Starbucks for the coffee-deprived parents) and snagged a bunch of cheese snacks for her to munch on while we waited on the pharmacy.

She's home, in bed, asleep, having had a blueberry waffle, a bunch of cheese, some dinosaur Ritz crackers, and a full cup of milk. I'm glad it's over, and I'm looking forward to a significant reduction in doctor visits and antibiotic use.

I think I will use this afternoon to play in the sewing room, and plan the Venetian gown that I am now getting totally jazzed about making. Enablers. My friends are total enablers. Heh.

My favorite room

I just felt like taking pictures yesterday of my creative space while I worked on a small project. It was a grey, cold afternoon, and I made myself a cup of hot tea and spent some quality time working with fabric and ideas. For those of you who have been to my house, you will recognize the organized clutter (much more organized since my December 28th clean-up effort).
Here's the view from the door of the room, looking to the right:

My huge cutting table, covered with the stuff of magic: patterns, fabric, my tea...note the assortment of toys on the floor for Wren's enjoyment.

The walk-in closet holds most of my sewing supplies on the left side shelving, and all of our SCA garb and supplies on the right. Baskets and other miscellaneous SCA and craft supplies are stacked on the perimeter shelf.

Standing at the door of the closet, the view looks like this:

The bookshelf is full of sewing and craft references, and you can't quite see it, but the door to the room has a screen door on it, to keep my cats from helping themselves to my yarn and other fun stuff. And to keep the dogs out, too. Dog hair and fabric do not mix.

From the back corner of the room, behind the cutting table, along the wall that has the closet:

The sewing machine setup: three Berninas. My Bernina 1080 next to the window, the 800D serger across from it, and the Virtuoso 160 next to that. I love this little corner of the room. My ergonomics are not great -- the chair is not at the right height for the tables -- but the arrangement of the machines works for me. I especially like sitting next to the window while I sew. The window faces the street, and I enjoy the view.

On the right of the photo is a small sliver of the entertainment cabinet. It holds not a TV, but my Sizzix die cutting machine, my Xyron sticker making machine, my die cutting dies, and a few other scrapbooking tools. On top of the cabinet is a huge sprawl of yarn for knitting and roving for spinning, and my collection of needles. There must be a better way to keep yarn organized, but I like the visual effect. When I first set this room up, I envisioned a futon sofa in the place where the cabinet is, so I could claim this room as my own space to read and be creative, and also so we could put overnight guests up more comfortably, but that was not in the cards.

I planned to paint this room and decorate it to make it truly 'mine', but there is only so much money in the home dec budget at a time. I may yet get to it, but for now, it works as it is.

I love this room.

Interbaronial Twelfth Night

Yesterday we made the trip down to Suffolk for Interbaronial Twelfth Night, held by the Barony of Marinus this year. The site was really pretty, right on the water, and the hall was attractive, if a bit smaller than I anticipated. Wren in particular loved the moose head:
She kept pointing up at it and saying, "Da? Dis? Dis?"

The weather was particularly spectacular -- over 70 degrees and blue sky as far as you could see. It was windy, of course, but that made it fun to be outside since the wind wasn't really cold.
There was an Artisan's Row demonstration, where I did not display or demonstrate anything -- I left it up to Iseulte, who did a smashing job with glass paints. Balynar tried the cordials:
There was a hazlenut cordial that was really outstanding.

Wrangling the baby, I did not get around to the displays at all, really, although I did sneak a peek at some nice garments and embroidery. Wren spent a good bit of time outside, running around in the sunshine.
I discovered my favorite green linen cotehardie does not quite fit anymore (well, not the way it should -- I felt like a damn sausage all day!), and the linen, while forgiving, only 'gives' so far before it's just plain tight.
Wren also spent most of the day trying to remove my padded roll headdress and veil. When she finally ripped the whole thing off my head, including the net coif and the clips holding all in place, I gave up, let my hair down all the way, and put on a mantle and hood. At least that covered up the buttons that periodically popped open at the bustline of my gown. Iseulte and I did get some time to sit and chat in the afternoon:
I did also get to talk with Guiliana about mom stuff, and garb, and my latest glass project which I am taking forever to get done. I haven't seen her in a while, and it was nice to reconnect. I also got to see Syr Arradd, who is trying to convince me to put my armor back on and go fight heavy again. I'd like to, I keep talking about doing it, but I can't figure out how to wrangle my kids and my gear at practices. Maybe one of these days. I don't know.
Thankfully, baronial court was short, and we could then head off to find some dinner. Japanese steakhouse was the final choice and it was expensive but incredibly yummy. Wren was completely exhausted, but at least marginally entertained by the fire and the noise. She ate steak and chicken and some carrots from my chopsticks. By the middle of dinner, I was feeling crummy and was really getting tired. The drive home was uneventful and Wren went to bed without complaining.

I enjoyed the event, but the SCA doesn't feel like it used to. I guess it's because I have a very small child, and events are more about getting into garb and then wrangling the baby all day, then eating dinner somehow and going home. If  I'm lucky, I chat with some folks, and get around to see a few things. If Balynar is involved with the fighting, it's harder to pass Wren to him for a break. I can't really complain; I have it waaay better than some folks I know in the parenting-duties arena. Now that Wren is older, it's easier and more difficult at events. She is walking, which means I don't have to carry her all the time, or have a pack'n play or seat available for her to rest in, BUT I have to run after her a lot more. She's not as demanding in terms of naps and eating, so we don't have to pack a lot of extra special food and supplies, BUT I do have to keep her entertained, and when she gets really tired, she can be an armful.
I don't bring handcrafts to events anymore -- no knitting or spinning or weaving -- because I need my hands free. Sometimes I just don't have a lot of fun, or the fun to work ratio is really low. I know it will get better, but I just don't feel like going to events much these days because of it.
Our next outing is for Kingdom Arts and Sciences Festival, also in Marinus, at the beginning of March. I may try to ask my mom to keep Wren for the day so I can go kid-free. KASF is a fairly important event for me, and I'm  planning a display and projects, so it would be nice not to have Wren. I suppose Wren could stay home with Balynar, but I like going to events with him.  I'll figure something out.
Anyway, sinus funk persists. I am going to make some tea and pretend to be interested in something productive today. One last cute picture of Wren at the event....

a Friday quickie

Here are some photos of the fabric bowl I made this week.
I love this Valentine's Day fabric which I bought as a fat quarter.

And here is the side view. Note the uneven bowl rim, but that was because I wasn't careful enough in my trimming and binding the edge. Next one will be much better!

It was really fun to put together....now I am working on a prototype of a Chinese food box to make a purse out of. Should be interesting.
Additionally, I got a wild hair and made this, a tote bag from the top half of a pair of thrift store jeans. Lined with cotton and a WIDE piece of cotton web for a handle:
Kind of funky, and definitely different. I saved the denim legs, as I plan to use them as sleeves and denim bits and pieces in a jacket I am making next. I bought a nice jean jacket pattern and plan to mix blue denim and red brocade into a jacket. I'll post pix of that project as I go....once I get going on it.

Tomorrow is Interbaronial Twelfth Night. I am planning to attend, wear one of my gowns in my closet (alas, no Venetian or any Italian gowns!), and enjoy myself. I am doing no glass, no demo-ing and no A&S displaying or competing. Should be fun. I'll post pix.
Have a great weekend, all!

An SCA Meme and other stuff

I snagged this from attack-laurel . She wrote it.  It's mostly SCA related, so may be boring for those not of the medieval persuasion.

1.  What is your SCA name? (You don't have to write the full name, just your first name if you want.)   It's Leofwynne le glasyer, which is a man's name, I found out later, after the heralds at Pennsic told me it was perfectly fine for a woman. It didn't pass Laurel, though, because of the spelling. I'll get around to futzing with it one of these days. BTW, it's pronounced LEFF-win, or Leff-WIN-a.

2.  What is your home kingdom?  Atlantia

3.  Have you ever lived in another kingdom?  If so, where? Yes, I lived in both Trimaris and Aethelmarc, but neither as an SCA member.

4.  Do you remember your first SCA event?  When/what was it? Yep, it was Caer Mear's Kingdom Twelfth Night held at the Scottish Rite temple in RIchmond. I think that was January 2000.

5.  Do you have any awards?  (You don't have to list them if you don't want)  Yes, I have a few. Go here .

6.  Do you list them after your name in communications like e-mail? Uh, no. I thought about it when I got my Pearl, but it felt....weird. Sometimes I use the THL (The Honorable Lady) that comes with my Pearl, but not always. I have mundane credentials I write after my name in my Real Life, so I have enough alphabet soup on a daily basis.

7.  Do you have a device?  Yes, per pale, sable and vert, on a lozenge argent, a chess knight sable. Basically, black on one half, green on the other, a white diamond in the middle with a black  knight chess piece on the diamond.

8.  Do you use it?  On what? Balynar has a favor with it that he wears on his knight's belt, and I am in the process of making a banner for myself out of heavy polyester for use in our pavilion. I know poly is not period, but it holds up really well, and banner-making is not as much fun as I'd hoped.

9.  Are you on all the kingdom/society lists available to you, or do you avoid them? I'm on one kingdom list (which I unsub from when it gets into too much drama), and I'm on one kingdom order list.

 10.  Do you keep your Pennsic/Estrella/Gulf Wars/etc. site tokens? Yep! I don't make them into jewelery, though. Just keep them for memories.

11.  Do you keep the favours you've been given by royalty/friends/SOs, etc.? Do You wear them all? I have most all the favors and tokens given to me. I will wear one or two, on occasion. I still wear a thistle pin that Duchess Padraigin gave me years ago when she was first a Princess.

12.  Do you call your friends by their SCA names even when you're not at an event? Actually, yes. Some people just ARE their SCA name to me, so if I call you by your SCA name outside of the SCA and it bugs you, please let me know.

13.  Do you go out to dinner in garb after an event? I've done it, mostly when I first started, but now I think it's a dorky thing to do.

14.  Do you have all kinds of garb, or do you generally stick to one period? I love garb from a lot of periods, but I have mostly been wearing 12th-14th century gowns. They're easy to wear, flattering to me, and comfortable when pregnant, toting kids, or extremely hot. I do plan on making myself a Venetian gown one of these days, though. And maybe another Elizabethan.

15.  How many interests do you have within the SCA?  What's your favourite? Well, I blame the SCA for my ADcraftD. I started with dancing, waaay back in 1999, and then I got a look at the clothes, thus starting my foray into costuming. THEN I discovered other fiber arts: spinning, weaving, knitting...and THEN came my ultimate downfall -- GLASS. Within that, I started with stained/painted/leaded glass and moved on to flameworking and glass fusing. It's a slippery slope. There are plenty of other things I am interested in, but I don't have enough time to explore them all.

16.  Do you have an SCA-oriented web site (to show off projects, keep dress diaries, etc.)?   Just this site. I mean to put up another site of just my work, but so far, only my Typepad blog.

17.  Do  you maintain a hairstyle that is more period style than modern?  How about any other part of your appearance? No, I tend to keep my hair long for ease of styling at events, but nothing else really.

18.  Do you tell "No $###, there I was" stories?  (Admit it.)  Do any of them involve well-known SCA people? Sure! Although comparatively speaking, I have not been in the SCA long, and so do not have quite the repertoire of stories as, say, my husband  and my king  do.

19.  Authenticity is Fun.  Yes or no?  Why? Yes. It's fun to try to get as close to the "way it was done in period" as possible, and to be creative in coming up with ways to cover/hide/alter the appearance of so many modern items. I will say, however, that I am no Authenticity Nazi, and while I try very hard to be as unobtrusive as possible, sometimes I fail. Like when I take my infant to an event. It's difficult to cover everything, so I try to keep my mundane baby gear at least as out of sight as possible. No, I don't really have time to make a cute castle cover for my pack'n play. And Wren will likely NOT give up her pacifier all day at an event. I just try to have large cuts of fabric I can hide stuff with.

20.  Is there one modern thing at events that really bugs you? Bag chairs out in the open bug me. Sunglasses in court, soda cans, fast food wrappers....I really hate coming upon a pavilion that contains many fighters and there is a random scattering of plastic water bottle detritus all over the pavilion. Get a mug.
Oh yeah, I hate seeing people who are not new wearing jeans and sneakers under a tunic.

Bonus Question!  21.  Everyone has a shameful garb/accessory mistake hidden somewhere in their past.  What's yours?  (We're all friends here, we promise not to laugh.  Much.) Some of my mistakes are still in my closet. Nothing's TOO bad, but there are definitely some bodice-based gowns that I would not wear again, and at least one "cotehardie" with princess seams.

Thanks, Isobel! That was fun!

*******************
In other news, I completed a few sewing projects. My favorite thus far has to be the fabric bowl I made from this McCall's pattern:

I need to add a bit of trim to the edge of the one I made, so I'll post a pic as soon as I can. It's cute, and I want to make more.

I think I feel more balanced when I spend time being creative every day. Aside from this writing, I haven't done a creative thing this evening, and I was hoping for some time to plan my next sewing project, but I think I may miss that tonight in favor of sleep. I did notice I ate a whole lot less yesterday evening (and wasn't hungry), and I spent several hours between 2:30pm and 11:00pm in my sewing room. I also felt more relaxed. I'm not big on public declarations of resolutions, but one of mine is to reconnect with my creative self on a daily basis as a way to center and ground myself. I need that. Dance used to fill it without my even thinking about it, but now, I think I can find a similar centering in sewing/working with the materials of my various arts.

I know I had more to say earlier, but now I just need to go to bed. I'll write more tomorrow.

***UPDATE*** I remembered what it was I was going to say....I got my scores back from the Miller Analogies Test I took in December.....it's for grad school entrance....

I scored a 474 out of a possible 600. It's a scaled score, and the percentiles were 99 for both my intended major and for the test-taking group at large.

Ninety-nine percent of all the test-takers scored lower than I did. I'm pretty proud, and I think I did well.

We'll be at Interbaronial Twelfth Night this Saturday. I guess I should make Wren a gown!