weekend round-up

[boogieshoes]

so... many of you know that i've had a Big Thing happening this last weekend.  it was an SCA event for the Barony of Axemoor - the investiture of their new Baron and Baroness.  the outgoing Baron, Master Charles de Bourbon, is moving to An Tir (Washington state) for mundane job-related reasons.  since the landed Baronets are a team, this meant that Martha Effingham of Stewart's Keep, his Baroness, was also stepping down.  stepping up were my good friends Gellir Gunnerson and Brigida Ingvarsdottir. 

i'd like to say i've been keeping mum for the last month because i was afraid i'd let something slip, but frankly, it was more that i've been way too busy trying to put together their presents!  their presents, were a mix of practical and fun, based on personality and what i knew they might want or need.  the thing that took a long time was that all four were presented in baskets, and i made 4 basket covers in their individual covers. 

the basket covers were going to be much more awesome than they were:  i ran out of time to make the carry sashes; the bottom covers and the top closings (actually, wrt these items, i more ran out of time to sew the buttons and button-holes required to make them work); and i was going to put little appliques on for their charges(1).  i got the basic covers done with holes over the basket wire handles, so they can at least add carry sashes if they want to.

all recipients were *thrilled* with their gifts, and i am glad.  although because the world revolves around me, i wish i'd been called into court to present the gifts so i could do my court schtick.  see, i gave Martha a lot of gingerbread cookies, since she loves them.  and i gave Charles and Brigida each a pair of decorated gingerbread cookies.  Gellis, otoh, hates gingerbread cookies with a passion (there's a story behind this), so he got a gingerbread cookie... ornament, hee.  i *really* ran out of time with his gift - i was going to put in 6 cookie ornaments, and a little gingerbread house ornament and a pin cushion, complete with fragrant spices in there, to smell just like real cookies.  (i told him this sunday evening, and he was all 'you bitch!'  and of course i was like 'i am a *totally* evil bitch, and i enjoy it! mwahahahaha!')  his real gift was DragonAge 2 - i was going to have that covered by the 'cookies' at the bottom of the basket.  but he totally got the spirit of the thing, even though i was able to only complete one ornament.  so i'm glad that went over well.there were a lot of jokes and stuff going on through-out the event.  since this is Gellis, it was kind of appropriate - Gellis is known through-out the kingdom as the person who's fault it is.  seriously, he's been blamed for stuff he wasn't even on-site for.  it'll ramp down a little bit now since he's a Baron, but that also means that 'revenge' can just be moved to court schtick, and i'm a fan of schtick.

first was Charles, who is a Costuming laurel: his best work is the fitted, complex tudor and elizabethan stuff, and he's quite awesome at it.  (i gave him 2-3 yds of upholstery weight fabric, and i'm so glad he likes it.)  Charles *hates* gold lame.... so just about everything we did that involved Charles also involved gold lame.  because Axemoor is evil.  a family, but an evil, evil family, hee.  i think Charles now wants to kill us... but he's in An Tir, so that might be difficult.  or not - you never know in the SCA.

Axemoor held part of their Baronial Championship at this event - so there was light (rapier/schlager) and heavy (the plate armor and rattan swords thing) lists, archery, and thrown weapons.  there was also an A&S table.  i didn't get to see how A&S went, because i was feverishly 'finishing' basket covers and back-stitching right up until 2pm... outside, in the 98F heat.  guh, it was nasty out.  i didn't pay much attention to light or heavy lists, but i was able to watch the archery, which also included a joke that can't be described in short.  still, it was kind of awesome.  live weapons, they had a pell - a target representing a human - made of a solid wooden backstop painted black with a red 'standard restroom' man.  they delineated the points areas with duct tape - then added an extra piece of tape between the target's legs... 5 pts if you got the happy place.  that was *awesomely* funny.

feast was a mixed bag.  i believe high table got stuff that was correctly done at all times, but the lower tables - well, we had issues with about half of it.  on Sunday at clean-up, i heard the feastocrat say that there was a veritable laundry-list of items that went wrong, including popping some of the circuit breakers.  i think all of the things our table had issues with could be traced directly to that, except for the length of time it took to serve the meal.  granted it was in courses, but it started at 7 and ended around 10pm.  now, this is *normal* for an SCA event, and it is, in large part, because we use volunteers for catering things like this and not trained, efficient staff.  moreover, the volunteers in Gleann Abhann tend to be the kids.  basically, it's perfectly explainable as 'SCA norm' - but it's also something i competely forgot. :-p  and i forgot that i'm not actually a fan of feast when we do it this way.  well, not a fan of eating at the feast.  i'm usually happy to be kitchen drudge, where-in i get to snitch at all of the feast dishes, but i hate sitting at the table in the hall that long.  and it's hard to go outside where everyone is 'getting fresh air' - because they're also all *smoking* out there.

this event, i was so bushed i couldn't bring myself to help until sunday when i'd signed up to.  i feel guilty about that, because everyone in Axemoor was doing tons of work beforehand, *and* helping, and i know i hadn't, but i still crapped out.  i know a big part of it was the heat, and i was already exhausted.  and even though the site is a decent site, it has the unfortunate quality of the most allergens in the area - and the fact that somehow the cabins are musty and probably have mold in the walls doesn't help.now for the bad stuff:  we had as many 'reportable' accidents as a Gulf Wars in one day-and-a-half long event.  i just saw on the Gleann Abhann list that Kingdom Chiurgeon had gotten a call about our event even before it was over, and you know, that's not how we really like to do things.  we had at least 3 people sent to the hospital that i know of - one for heat exhaustion (drink more water, dammit!); one for allergic reactions (respirtory issues, not gonna-die anaphylaxis); and one who'd tripped and managed to break both her ankle and her wrist.  the lady who tripped was a very good friend of mine from college days, and she is NOT ALLOWED to worry me like that again.  *glares at friend with her best Chris!glare*

my college buddy tripped in a hole that also caught 4 other people, including the incoming Baroness.  the site has some bad planning in terms of the sewage and drain piping.  at one point, there's a drain recess that goes right underneath the main walkway - with two fairly deep holes on either side of the sidewalk that are hidden in deep shadow at night.  there was a leetle discussion with the site owner about that - those holes have always been a danger, but i think this weekend fed us all up wrt accidents related to them.  one of those other 4 did a pretty good twist/ sprain on *her* ankle, enough to have some ladies who were mundane nurses take a look.  HRM Morgana said this even was kind of like being on her ER rotation as an intern.  oi.

we had one person who managed to twist an ankle pretty bad on the fighting field, but the boots she was wearing held it together until she changed her garb to something more comfortable - then of course it swelled up like a poison toad.  while she was being helped back to cabin after the archery and thrown weapons lists (she was list-mistress), she managed to find a hole with the *other* foot.  *raises eyebrow at dear lady*  you aren't allowed to do that again, either!

finally, we had a guy get kicked off site for being drunk beyond the pale.  now, the SCA is not a teetollar group by any means.  but the general rule is, if you're out of control, you're too drunk to stay.  what pisses me off was drunk!guy is a good friend of Gellis, and Gellis was really hurt by his having to leave site.  Gellis is a good friend of mine, and i think of him as a brother in my chosen family, and no one hurts my brother.  i offered to beat drunk!guy up for Gellis, but m'lord declined.  *hmphs*  (otoh, the punishment he *is* going to get is rather appropriate, all things considered.)

what turns this into a PSA is, in addition to being an out and out alcoholic, with attendent standard!alcoholic behavior, is that drunk!guy is a diabetic.  think about this people.  if you have blood sugar problems like that, drinking is like playing russian roullette.  you have no idea how much it'll take you to get out of control drunk - and also *no idea how out of whack your blood sugar is going to get*.  in this case, drunk!guys 'beyond the pale' behavior was also the same as 'having serious diabetic medical issues' behavior.  if people around you can't distinguish 'need to pour you into bed' with 'need to get you to a hospital', you have a red flag alert for *what you shouldn't do*.  i'm not diabetic, i can't tell diabetics that they should never drink.  what i can say is if you know you've got diabetes, you really need to have a better understanding and responsiveness of your own body's processes than this guy was showing.  for your own safety as well as others.  and also, to avoid hurting those you love most.

in spite of all of that, i had a great time.  and i was so exhausted when i came home that i ended up taking today off, too, because i was *that tired*.  and also, because i took a benedryl monday night, and just couldn't wake up this morning.  one pill, knocks me out for 24 hrs, sheesh.  but i really needed it, in light of allergens, and heat over the weekend, and exhaustion.

that being said, i'm ready to turn to fanfic for a while.  or something...

-bs




1.  a charge is a thing on a heraldic sheild - like if you have a green sheild with a gold abacus on it, the abacus is the 'charge', while the green background is called the 'field'.

Comments

[rain-manpnw.livejournal.com]

You may be assured that now that Charles is in An Tir, we concerned citizens of the West will make sure to take GOOD care of him ...

muahahahahahahahaha!

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

oooo. i did not realize you were in the SCA, rain_manpnw! but this gives me lots of evil ideas and possibilities! are you up to helping co-ordinate a few cross-country practical jokes? :-D

and i don't mind helping Charles play jokes on Gellis and Gida, either, heh. and since it's through LJ, which i happen to know for a fact *none* of them keep up with or even have accounts with, we could really do a few doozies!

my first thought is TPing Charles's house with gold lame... or something ;)

-bs

[rain-manpnw.livejournal.com]

If physically possible, certainly. Maybe I'll get a chance to get up to the West/An Tir War.

I currently reside in the shire of Danegeld Tor, but I try to get up to An Tir at least once a year - I have a sister and friends there. There are other #c-ers in An Tir as well.

You might finbd this interesting:

http://rain-manpnw.livejournal.com/44798.html

BTW, I also a (small h) herald, if you have any needs in that area.

[alienfish.livejournal.com]

Just for the fun of it, I will bring up Pensic IV.