Update (long but with plenty of cuts)

[damont]

principia_coh noted the following in a meme, and I giggled and noted how that applies to me as well:
"Can you ice skate? Yes. Stop? Not so much."
Now on to the update of what's gone on for the past month, ever since we got Moishe back down to Virginia...

Wednesday the 15th I took Moishe down to the Northern Neck to get him inspected. He passed, though I expect I'll have to replace the windshield wiper blades soon. I have the replacement blades now... <RANT>What has happened to auto parts stores/departments, such that I had to visit FIVE different places before finding replacement blades? (And the wipers are ANCO, who make replacement blades for these wipers... but nobody I visited carries them! WTF???)</RANT> After that plus a ginger ale run I visited with montuos's mother, and got in a little work on Karen, my little white Toyota Starlet who is now a gen-you-wine ann-tee-queue (by Virginia standards). Eventually headed up to Casa herveus for the usual Wednesday Night gathering. Thursday and Friday passed without incident other than trying to do housecleaning. We then got a house full of guests for the weekend.

Saturday we all went to Stierbach Holiday Faire, though with the morning confusion I didn't get there until later than I'd wanted. I spent the event doing what I usually do at Holiday Faire, which is circulating around the event, saying hello and giving hugs to zillions of people, and stopping to help out wherever some help appears needed. I did score what I wanted to at the silent auction, but didn't buy much beyond that. We all came back to our place for dinner afterwards, plus jacylrin and her daughter; we watched The Incredibles DVD, and conversation thereafter lasted well past midnight.

Sunday we all went to Jaelle's party, hosted by janinas_nest and baron_rorik. Again there were morning delays (many attributable to the late night), but nothing too serious. I got to see some people there I hadn't seen in months -- most notably Isabella and Rouland, who don't get around much these days due to their schedules.

Thanksgiving was a fairly low key affair this year, as we went over for food and animated movies with CT7 and Carrie, our hosts for Monday night gaming. Before dinner we watched Over the Hedge (which I hadn't seen) and after dinner we watched Cars (which killernurd hadn't seen). Cars is, in some ways, very USA-centric -- but it was highly amusing to play "spot the Americana" while watching it, especially for those of us who'd seen it before because we kept finding things we hadn't seen on previous viewings.

I actually did go shopping on Black Friday morning... just one store though; picked up a couple of items on sale, and while the store had many customers in it, it wasn't *crowded* -- and I managed to find a checkout stand that only had 2 people ahead of me in line. killernurd and I then spent the rest of the day cooking, and once montuos got home we all headed up to Darkover north of Baltimore. I didn't see a whole lot of the convention, as it turned out; I got to both of On The Mark's farewell concerts and the Clam Chowder concert, and I went to one other panel. I did get to talk with cellio and then jastaelf on Saturday afternoon, and made a small but significant dent in nancylebov's button inventory. Overall, Friday and Saturday were okay, but I almost completely missed everything on Sunday, including the heraldic commentary session. Hopefully we have learned what to do differently next year to make Sunday work better.


Once we were home from Darkover, I found that choir rehearsal had been moved to Wednesday (the 29th) instead of Thursday. This meant that killernurd and I could go up to Allentown together on Thursday night and drive back separately, bringing home the green minivan that wednesday1971 and her husband were handing off to us (after having gotten it from our parents a couple years back). The trip turned out to be more complicated than expected, as my mother ended up in the hospital with an infected foot. Tests eventually revealed that the infection was only next to the bone, not in it, so surgery was not needed and she went home before the weekend was out.

In the meantime, I took advantage of being in the area to attend a conference on medieval and early-modern studies at Moravian College in Bethlehem (flyer here), along with bunnyjadwiga. Two of the students were doing a performance demonstration of a straight trumpet they had constructed, including a discussion of how they built it and some of the obstacles they had to overcome. bunnyjadwiga and I then went back to Easton and spent the evening with maziemaus and juergen and Miss B; this included a trip to a local bookstore where we had a chance encounter with fosveny.

This past Monday through Thursday, I basically spent helping jacylrin and her family move. The place they're moving into is only partially ready (the rest is still being renovated) so most of the stuff went into storage. Also this past week, mg4h was in town for the LISA conference; Monday evening she came out to our place and went to gaming night with us. It was very nice to see her!

On Friday, bronx_baroness did a lot of cooking for the Ides of Winter Yule Ball. But her knee gave out and she couldn't go to the event itself. So fuzzface00 brought the food over, we put it in my car, and I took it up to Bright Hills and delivered it to the kitchen. The event itself was a *lot* of fun, but then again I like dancing and music and food, which was what this event was all about. (Well, maybe the food wasn't a specific objective of the event, but c'mon, it's *Bright Hills*!) I got to see alina_s (and btw, welcome Alina!), got to play some in the dance band with maugorn and the other musicians, and danced my feet off with patches023, and Constanza, and Duchess Diana (down from Hartshorn-Dale) and her daughter (who lives in Stierbach now!), and many others whose names I'm forgetting (and if any of the named or unnamed have LJs, I don't know their LJ handles; sorry).

In the meantime, montuos and killernurd went up to help clear out the basement of Casa fuzzface00 / bronx_baroness. On Sunday afternoon, all three of us went up there to continue the job; we got things to a point where we all felt that the most urgent needs had been dealt with, and the rest could be handled over a longer period of time. This concluded my week of heavy lifting.

Comments

[jacylrin.livejournal.com]

Yes, our dear dr_zrfq is a wonderful and merciful human being, many blessings on his head.

I hate moving. But it IS less painful with friends to help and kvetch with :-).

*hugs and MUCH THANKS*

-=- Em.

More about the Ides of Winter Yule Ball

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

To cariola: Sorry I didn't get the chance to dance with you! Every time I was looking for a partner I couldn't find you.

Petit Vriens is a very fun dance but is also dangerous; the sets of 3 can play "bumper cars" with each other, or even "Tangle Bransle" -- but I learned a new variation on Saturday: Swipe The Hat! Being in the middle of my set, I had no hands free with which to grab hats, but my partners sure did... they grabbed half a dozen or more hate during the dance, including patches023's hat at least once.

Some dances on the schedule may have only been done in the instruction session before I got to the event: Ballo del Fiori, Lorayne Alman, Cassandra Branle, Pinagay Branle, Charlotte Branle, Contentezza d'Amore, Nonesuch, Parsons Farewell, and "progressive" ECDs such as Up Tails All or My Lady Cullen. After Court, we started the "ball" with a basic processional pavan. Then, in no particular order, we did: Earl of Salisbury Pavan, Hyde Park, Amoroso, Black Alman, Rufty Tufty, Gathering Peascods, Montarde Branle, Official Branle, Petit Vriens, Ly Bens Distonys (two different versions), Hearts Ease, Sellenger's Round, Picking of Sticks, Gracca Amorosa, Whirligig, Saint Martins, and Rostiboli Gioioso, before ending the day with Goddesses.

Re: More about the Ides of Winter Yule Ball

[cariola.livejournal.com]

I didn't dance. My feet were extremely sore but thank you :)