Chris' title....

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Count-Palatine Chris the Cosmopolitan of Londinium-le-Thames Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

And Varus is....

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Very Lord Varus the Cosmopolitan of Giggleswich Lanken Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Empress Clodagh the Herbaceous of Leighton Buzzard Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Exalted Highness Duchess Laura the Unique of Greater Sodbury Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Birka, Birka, Birka

Looking at this picture of me, I notice two things. One, I totally need new glasses. And two, I need to get back to Curves. lol I think I have this asthma cough under control. At least under control enough to go work out. :-)

That's me all dressed for Birka. Gina wore the same thing: black dress and the jacket. We need to get Jenness a black linen dress and then all four of us will have to hit an event all decked out! :-) I really do love the jacket.

What made Birka so much fun this year?

- Seeing friends! Especially seeing Khavi and Fa'el! Wish we could've spent more time with them.

- Seeing the look of Demi's face when she was called into Court to receive her Queen's Order of Courtesy! Priceless. "Oh, that's right, YOU were the other reason why we had to be in court." But I'm a bit of a court junkie and love to sit through Court.

- Haus Circle. 70+ friends and family all joined together in this massive circle of love and friendship to share special times.

- My husband taking on his first squire on the second anniversary of his knighting. Max is a terrific kid and we just love him! He makes an excellent addition to our little "family". I made Max's squire belt with my inkleloom and even made household favors for Domus Variana. They look pretty good if I do say so myself. :-)

- YUCCA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- We missed Eilis. :-(

- Buying stickers that are nearly identical to our tattoos! I've already put some on my van. I'll have to take a picture tomorrow.

Uh oh. I have to stop writing now. I've got a migraine starting and can't see properly anymore. I hate migraines. They totally suck. At least I get a bit of warning and can get some meds going before the heavy pain starts. :-P

Scribing on my mind

Saturday was an interesting day. Spent it at Aelfgifa's house with Dresden and Kayleigh. The four of us spent the afternoon and evening talking and discussing and playing with things "scribal". Is that even a word? Okay we talked about illumination. :-) Aelfgifa pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me d-r-a-w. With a really big pencil. No eraser. And timed me. Yes, you read it right, timed me. Yikes! The good news? I was actually able to draw something that looked like a woman sitting. Even played with painting the folds correctly. And we talked about how to "outline" an area where there is no outline. Even did some practice pieces. I definitely came away with some new ideas. Including how to create a blue in the Luttrell that has always dumbfounded me (the answer is indigo blue and white). All in all a very productive day and I look forward to doing it again. :-) Of course now I can't wait to get together with Eilis to work on some of what I learned with her. :-)

Sunday we took Aly back to school. She was very nervous about her new roommate. We got her all settled in, had some excitement when the fire alarm went off and we had to leave the building. No fire, just someone who burnt bacon and it set off the alarms. Of course we had to take a trip to WalMart for a longer piece of cable (Aly took her tv this semester) and some other odds and ends. Today she calls because she forgot the yoga mat and needs other supplies for her yoga class. So on Wednesday I'll be driving to visit her at lunch time. :-)

Later on Sunday I spent the afternoon at Selena's while Chris went to the regional fight practice. I had an enjoyable afternoon. :-) Learned about fingerbraiding. Watched part of a football game. That means I've seen parts of two games this season. Oh no. Could I be starting to *gasp* watch football again? Nah, just weird occurences. :-)

Tomorrow I'll finish up my scroll for Estrella, plus go shopping so that I can make Max's squire's belt. :-) Shopping is always a good thing.

Well, I'm going to check on that scroll, maybe doa little bit more then go read my book. I'm reading one of my old "friends". Some people call them confort books. You know, that book, or series that you just love and re-read every year. For me, that is Pern books. It is my all-time favorite series. Ever. And one of my favorite books of Pern is Dragonsdawn. *sigh* The ship is nearly empty and Sorka has had Duke for a week. Yeah, I'm a book addict.

No Clodagh for me :-( ..........

Yesterday I received my letter rejecting the name Clodagh to be registered in the SCA. That totally sucks. There is so little proof of feminine names in Ireland. Makes it hard to pick a name. Clodagh is the name of a river in Ireland, since at least the 12th century, but no way of proving that women used that name before the 19th century. A great big giant UGH.

However, when I was picking Clodagh as a name, I had also picked Saorla and was going to use Clodagh Saorla inghean Cinneide as my name. Then discovered that double naming was not in use in Ireland. So, I dropped the Saorla. Well, it looks like I'm going to pick it back up. I'm going to re-submit my name as Saorla inghean Cinneide (although the spelling might end be Saerlaith). Then I will be known as Lady Saorla inghean Cinneide, called Clodagh. :-) Saorla is pronounced Ser-la. And want to know the stupid part of the heralds rejecting my name? Is that they stopped my device as well. The way it's supposed to work is that if the name fails, they use a holding name to keep the device going. It could have been something simple like, Laura of Barony Beyond the Mountain. Especially since Laura is a period name and that's the Barony I live in. Oh well. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from the Mural Herald about my next step.

So that was my disappointment yesterday. I still have this dratted cough. Not fun or pleasant. However I have finally started working on my scroll for Estrella War. lol It's inked/penciled in, calligraphy done, and the permacoll put down for the gold. And today I'm going to a Blood, Sweat & Tears Workshop at Aelfgifa's house. I still need to get my stuff gathered up for that and make a cheese platter to bring. I might just cheat and go to Stop & Shop and pick up something. :-)

Today is my sweetheart's birthday. He's 44 years old. That just dumbfounds me. He doesn't seem that old. I don't feel 38 years old either. lol Anyhow, Chris is going to come over to Aelfgifa's house this evening to join us for dinner. Guess I'll pick him up something chocolatey when I go to Stop & Shop. :-) If I wasn't so lazy when it comes to baking, I would've made him a chocolate torte. :-P

Well, I better get back to getting ready for today's adventure. :-)

16 Days and Counting!!!!

Yes, just 16 days till Florida!

I lost most of my pictures from my trip to Florida last year, but here is one of the pictures that we were able to recover. (I lost the pictures when the hard drive got fried, but I have hard copy of the pictures in an album.)

I've been sick! Last Monday (the 8th) I went back to Curves after missing most of December. That night I came down with the flu. :-( Fever on and off for 3 days. Not fun. Then a cold settled in. I went back to Curves yesterday - I'm still coughing and a bit congested, but getting better. And I made it to Curves today! Go me!

This past weekend Jenness and Joe came up and we all went to go see Bat Boy the Musical presented by The Hole in the Wall Theatre, in New Britain. It was hilarious!!! Our friend Bill is in it and is just fabulous! The whole cast was great. :-) Definitely worth going to see. :-)

And the other big news to share is that Chris and I have finally decided on our (delayed) 20th anniversary trip. We're going to Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina in May. I found this hotel online:
http://www.thewinds.com/

And we're driving down on May 19th and staying until the 24th. The plan is to enjoy the beach, have relaxing days and maybe do a little bit of exploring of the area. :-) Take lots of pictures. :-) Relax. Have some time alone. :-) It will be our first ever vacation together, other than going to Pennsic. Well, just the two of us on a real vacation. We don't count camping trips. And then in 2008, we're going to Ireland with Jenness and Joe. Maybe Gina and a friend joining us, too. So, lots of saving to do in the next while. :-)

I need to go and do the grocery list as well as grocery shopping. Oh joy.

12th Night - Gifts and Giggles

Doesn't Miss Gina look so sweet holding her new baby? Heather created a very special sock monkey for Gina for 12th Night. :-) I love the happy look on Gina's face. :-)

12th Night was a lot of fun - although we all missed Jenness and Joe! And my inside voice was awfully loud yesterday, I just had no control. lol The look on Cullyn's face in the morning over something I said was fabulous. *sigh* I need to keep that Laura in better control. lol

I got some lovely gifts - but I can't talk about them until Jenness gets her gifts. :-) Don't want to give away any surprises! But I LOVE my gifts. :-)

Today, I'm trying to get my office cleaned up, write thank you cards, do bills and get organized. I have an Estrella scroll to do this week. I so wanted to hand that over yesterday. Oh well. And I plan on making some blanks for when I get some more assignments. Oh and I need to make a red belt before Birka. :-) My husband will be taking on his first squire during Haus circle. :-)

Better get back to work.....

2007 - A New Year, New Hopes

I can't believe I have written in days. Been meaning to write.

Christmas was wonderful. Nice and quiet with just the four of us. A little bittersweet, it was our first Christmas without Fergie. :-( He was always so much fun at Christmas - he loved playing in the wrapping paper. We had lots of gifts to open! Highlights of the gifts are: Jacquie got a sewing machine and lots of Tinkerbell stuff, Aly tons of books, Chris lots of Chelsea stuff and I got books, cds, dvds and a quesadilla maker! Oh and our game for this year was Totally 80s Trivial Pursuit. Aly did a lot of baking leading up to Christmas. I didn't make a single cookie this year. I enjoyed the break. :-)

The rest of the week was spent taking it easy - doing a bit of this and that. On the Wednesday I picked up Dresden and we went shopping at Christmas Tree Shops and JoAnns. It was very nice! Jacquie came, too. I would've enjoyed it more if I didn't have cramps from H E double hockey sticks. That was not fun at all.

On Saturday, Aly and I drove down to Heather's house in PA and spent the day with her to celebrate her birthday. :-) We even treated her to Japanese for dinner. It was yummy of course! And we did a little shopping at Dick Blicks. I picked up something for Jacquie's birthday. :-) And Keith (Heather's husband) totally ROCKS!!!! He's getting her the Luttrell Psalter Facsimile for her birthday. I'm so happy for her! And jealous. Excited that someone I know will have the facsimile. So at least I can look at it. :-) I'm dying to see what's on each page.

Saturday evening found us on the road again and heading to Fygen and DeVos' house for the New Year's Weekend. Aly and I had a FABULOUS time! Chris joined us Sunday afternoon (he got a ride down with Fia and Matthew). We played games, ate lots of yummy food, drank good booze, laughed, chatted and crafted! Yes, crafted. A group of us ladies spent the afternoon and evening crocheting and working on projects. :-) Different, not old lady stuff. Okay, mine was normal - I was working on a scarf. Mind you it was alpaca wool. Lovely stuff to work with. Others were learning crocheting, some were working on tassel belts, or muppet hair, or muppet skirts. Definitely different from how we normally spend our New Year's Eve, but we had a blast! (Our normal NYE consists of eating appetizers for dinner and watching two new movies then watching the ball drop.) Fygen and DeVos are fabulous hosts. :-)

Looking back at 2006, it had so many ups and downs. I got a tattoo, enjoyed having some friendships turn into something special (check out this: http://estore.websitepros.com/1397876/Detail.bok?no=2350 it says it all), did two weeks at Pennsic, Aly graduated from high school, etc. Then it had downs. Marriages breaking up, runs of bad luck for so many friends, plus an unexpected death. I just hope that 2007 holds lots of good things. So much that it outweighs the bad stuff. :-)

Did you make a New Year's Resolution? Mine this year is to send out birthday and anniversay cards. I've gotten bad the last couple of years of forgetting or not bothering. But I need to get back to it. And of course the usual resolution to get heathier and be better organized. :-) So what is your New Year Resolution? (I can think of one for Gina!)

Well, it's bedtime for me!