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I can't believe it has been a month since my last post...Then again, perhaps I can believe it. We've been quite busy. Since they are predicting rain this holiday weekend, I may have time to sit down and get caught up on some posts. By the time I get home at the end of the day lately, though, I've just been too tired to bother with posting. What has kept me so busy? Regular visitors to our booth at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire will be happy to know that we are putting up a building this year! It won't be a permanent building, since local regulations make building such nearly impossible. Our new booth instead will be a modular structure, that we are constructing the pieces for at home, and then transporting for assembly on-site. Right now I tend to think of it as a "yard barn on steroids", but it will be a nice tudor-style place when it is done. This year we will be getting the walls and roof put up on site. Due to budget and time constraints though, we won't be putting in the concrete foundation until next year. Real glass windows may have to wait as well. But at least we're making progress! Due to the time and effort needed for construction, we may not make it up to the show in time for the first weekend; don't panic! We will be there. Worst case is we miss the first weekend. Or maybe we'll be there, but in a tent the first weekend, and the building gets erected between weeks 1 and 2. We'll have to see how far we can get with construction before then. It'll be tight, and it is partly weather-dependent; we can't paint/stain/seal when it rains... But that is what has left me exhausted. So far so good, back to work! | | |
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Annual Miles 2009: 7817 A few more images we've found from this year's Virginia Renaissance Festival. We were only there one weekend, but wish we could have stayed the whole run. RicePeter's Flickr Photostream
This photo from theThink Lynsen Blog came from the weekend we were there, and you can see the blue peak of our roof in the background. :)
Pirates for Sail Flickr Photoset
Fredericksblogger's look at the Faire
We briefly considered going back into D.C. today, but decided against it. We were exhausted after yesterday. So today was just a leisurely drive to Newport News, where we are staying at the same motel as last year.
We stopped at Sam's Steak & Spaghetti House again, since we remembered it fondly from last year. Man, things changed. We weren't the only folks there this time, but the dining room was still empty (everyone else was part of a party in the back). The waitress was friendly, as before, but the food was awful! I don't know if the cook was having a bad day, or what... We tried ordering pasta, and they were out. We ordered seafood instead, and everything was overcooked to inedibility. The fish was turning to paste, the scallops and shrimp were like leather... Yuck. We ended up going for ice cream after to wash the taste out of our mouthes. The place has been struck from our favorites list. :( I hope all the resaturants around here haven't gone downhill. | | |
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Annual Miles 2009: 7695 We actually got up at a reasonable hour this morning, and had a much easier time getting into Washington this year than last. Hooray for the Metro! We arrived at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History not too long after opening. It was a good thing too, since we stayed and wandered until they were ready to close at 7:30 in the evening! I'll expand this post with photos and more commentary once I get the few pictures we took off the camera. | | |
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First, go ye hence out of Fredericksburg, toward the south and west by Route the First. Continue on through the hamlets of Spotsylvania and Massaponax. Continue onward, across the river Ni ("What kind of world is it that ruffians can go about saying Ni to old ladies at will...") until one sees the signs of the grape. Follow those signs to the vineyard of Lake Anna, and there, past the venerable vines, find ye these five weeks the gate to the village of Staffordshire... ( More about the Virginia Ren Faire weekend after the cut. ) | | |
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Annual Miles 2009: 7415 Yesterday we left Evansville to head for the Virginia Renaissance Festival. We got as far as Lewisburg, West Virginia. We stayed at a very nice motel called the Brier Inn. I would recommend it to anyone passing through. It was clean, roomy, and not too pricey. They had a pretty good breakfast, too. Today we reached the renfair site around lunchtime. It is in a little patch of near-nowhere called Lake Anna. The nearest off-site food is about 3 miles from the site, at a gas station deli. We found our spot just fine, the fair staff was friendly and helpful. Getting set up was a bit of a trial though, as it felt like it was ninety degrees outside, and our spot in in full sun. We are between two food vendors, right across from the joust field. The food vendor to our left is Phil's Mediterranean Grille, whom we see at Gulf Wars every year. One guest that was friendly, apparently, but univited, was the mouse that made itself at home before we'd barely done more than get the tables in place. It ran around, ignoring our presence, investigating everything. Only when I actively tried to touch it did the little thing scurry away (not very far away, either). It is probably still under the trailer now. Things would have gone quicker if I could have stopped being a butter-fingers and dropping everything. I even broke one of the display glasses. We got set up before the rain started (rain again), and thankfully the vendor coordinator agreed to lead us to the neignborhood of our hotel. MapQuest said our motel was only 6 miles from the faire site... This is not at all true. Google had it right, at around 22 miles from site. It took us a solid hour to make our way through the windy roads to our motel. Then we had to wait another half-hour while the overworked desk clerk apparently tried to check in half the state. And then we found out that they didn't have the room we booked. We have a room, but it is a smoking room, and everything smells like nicotine. They promised to move us tomorrow. And the A/C doesn't work properly in the room either. :( But I'm trying to look on the bright side; this event is supposed to have a good and friendly crowd. I just hope that having to get up early enough to make the hour drive to site doesn't leave ME grouchy. :) | | |
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Annual Miles 2009: 5898 Well, another weekend at the Tennessee Renaissance Festival has come and gone. When we arrived Friday night, it was later than usual, and discovered that the power to our section of the faire was out. So, we skipped unloading Friday night, since we couldn't see what we were doing. At least it wasn't raining. Saturday morning we arrived fairly early, and it was a good thing we did. Our booth had been discovered by mice, as is usual for this event. We had been quite careful to keep all food out of the tent, and keep all paper products sealed up. So, instead of the mice just shredding a roll of paper towels, they ransacked the whole tent looking for nest material. There were... mouse leavings... everywhere. Yuck! We spent the pre-opening time cleaning everything. Our (clean) mugs and forks had to be relegated to "take home and wash under scalding water" status. None of us could even think of using them. We found the actual nest a few hours later. The female had resorted to dragging straw in from outside the booth to build the nest for her pups. Mouse was summarily evicted. Saturday started out quite good...and then there was more rain. This has been the wettest spring in a long time. It rained, sometimes quite hard, through the late afternoon. Oh well... At least the ground had mostly dried out during the week, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Sunday the sun shone, which was wonderful! We had a great day. It was quite cool, and a stiff breeze made it feel even colder (shades of NC Ren Faire) but we were so happy to see the sun we didn't care. Lots of folks came out to the Faire, and we were pleasantly busy all day. I hope next weekend we have nice weather! | | |
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Annual Miles 2009: 5436 This weekend at the Tennessee Renaissance Festival was much nicer than last weekend, although would have been hard not to be... On Friday we drove down early to install a raised floor under the booth as planned. We hit some quite bad weather during the drive, but it calmed down before we got to the faire. It was still mucky, but we knew it would be. A large female Northern Fence Lizard decided to make itself at home in the booth while we were working. Surprisingly, when I went to shoo it out from where we were going to be moving things, it didn't run. It let me pick it up, and liked the warmth of my hand so much it didn't want to leave! I suppose I can't blame it; the ground was wet and cold. I gently got it to leave my hand and settle under a small tree. The floor has been massively helpful, and we got a number of compliments on it. What helped more was that, aside from some rain early Saturday morning, it was sunny and nice out. Things finally started to dry out. With the nice weather, the patrons finally felt comfortable coming out, and we had a good weekend. I did a walkabout Sunday morning, and found no vendors had dice displayed at faire; the closest was an artist, who had one print that featured a d20. (Of course I bought a little 8"x10" copy.) So I am uncertain if it is a case of the faire not wanting dice displayed, or if we were the only ones selling them? Ours are not displayed though, so it may be others have them "under the counter" as well. It is hard to indulge my collecting habit when I cannot find what I collect! Now it is time to go pack again... Phil & I are off to visit his parents for a belated Mother's Day dinner. | | |
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Annual Miles 2009: 4805 Well, I'm home early from the Tennessee Renaissance Festival this weekend. The faire was closed today, due to the continuing bad weather. Friday was School Day at the faire, and it rained on and off all day long. The ground got saturated. It continued to storm heavily through the night. Parts of Southeastern Tennessee received around 6" of rain in less than 24 hours. Rivers flooded. Everything turned to mud. The faire was open Saturday, even though it rained throughout the day like Friday. Despite our efforts to trench around the tent and lay down mulch, the ground under and in front of the booth turned into ankle-deep liquid mud. Since the booth had a plastic groundcloth, it was like walking on a waterbed inside. Out front, it became almost impassable muck. Patrons, understandably, didn't want to leave the nice gravel paths. I can't blame them. I didn't want to walk around outside our booth either! Our sales plummeted the muddier it got. Today the parking area was churned sucking mud, so they closed the faire grounds in order to avoid patrons miring their cars. Otherwise we probably would have been open. Personally I was happy to go home where it was warm and dry. I was miserable yesterday, being soggy and mud-splattered all day. As it looks like the weather will not permit the grounds to dry out before next weekend, we are looking at going down earlier in the week, and installing a wood flooring under and in front of our booth. That way we and our patrons will be able to get around our shop without sinking ankle-deep in the yuck next weekend. One day of wet nasty work to provide a better environment thereafter. | | |
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DON'T PANIC! :) We have set up at the Tennessee Renaissance Festival We are down at our usual spot, by the joust field. We will not be displaying dice at our booth this year, due to rejurying restrictions. We will still have them, you just have to ask! Friday is kid's day, and Saturday the Festival opens to the general public. A Bit of perspective on Swine Flu:Sometimes people get panicky at the possibility of a flu "pandemic". What most don't realize is that such things are a normal part of viral evolution, and happen a lot more frequently than is commonly thought. The media tends to blow everything out of proportion sometimes. Hippocrates seems to have been the first observer to record an influenza pandemic in the year 412 B.C.
Since 1580, there have been 31 flu pandemics recorded. (That averages to one every 13-14 years)
(more information available at Hartford's History of Plagues)
The last true pandemic to receive massive publicity was in 1918, and you may be able to ask your (great)grandparents about it.
Other recent pandemics took place in 1957 and 1968. (WebMD)
The 1997 bird flu outbreak could have become pandemic, but modern health practices/awareness kept it in check. The same is true of many other virulent flus in the past century.
Is swine flu spreading? Yes. But it is just another flu. We've survived coutless ones before. We're still here. Take common-sense precautions (like washing your hands) and go about your normal life. If you are an active, healthy adult, you have very little to concern yourselves over.
Life is for living! Enjoy it! | | |
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Next Monday (one week from today) is ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) trouble131's birthday! We are celebrating at our house on Sunday. Anyone who knows her is welcome to drop by and join us for BBQ and games! trouble131 and her husband recently bought a Wii, so it is highly likely that most of the party will be spent laughing at each other as we play silly games and get varying levels of horrible scores. But that is what happens when you get game geeks a game system that actually makes you get up and move in order to play! Dinner is potluck; bring your own meat for the grill and something to share. In the mean time, I'm home cleaning up to get ready for company. | | |
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Tomas' next show will be the Tennessee Renaissance Festival, down in Triune, Tennessee. As far as we know, we'll be at our usual spot, down by the joust field. Come stop by and visit us! Tomas is still waiting for confirmation on whether or not we've been accepted to show at the Virginia Renaissance Festival. If so, we will only be attending one, or possibly two, weekends of the event. It would be the two weekends that bracket the Hampton Blackbeard Festival. We're quite busy, as for the rest of the year, these are the weekends where we do not (yet) have any shows scheduled. 13-14 June (Maybe, we might be at Virginia.)
20-21 June
4-5 July (Weird, how did that happen?)
22-23 August
29-30 August
31 Oct-1 Nov
Any weekend after that through the end of the year | | |
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Just got home from North Carolina last night. I thought (foolishly) that I would manage this trip without bringing home new dice for my collection. Not so.
One of the chainmail workers there was making dice. He had the d6, of course. His are roughly 5/8", made from pretty colored anodized aluminum rings. This one is bronze/purple.
He also had a prototype chainmail d4! He was loathe to sell the prototype, but he gladly accepted a commission for another one. I'll get it mailed to me whenever he gets it done (sometime in the next couple months). |
I wish I had thought to take the camera shopping with me that day, I'd have taken a pic of the prototype. I'll just have to get a picture of mine when it arrives. He said he wanted to do all the polyhedrals, once he could work them out. I said I'd keep in touch. :)
His info: Gorgeous Chain "One Link at a Time" Keith Prestwidge Barch, 540-421-5048, head.armoror@gmail.com
He admitted his website wasn't helpful right now, but intends to get it redone in the next couple weeks, especially when I told him I'd be posting his info to a dice collector's board.
Other than that, my trip home was not as uneventful as I might have wished. The rain from North Carolina turned into snow in West Virginia. And then the truck's water pump went out. Tomas had to stop and fix it, and we ended up getting home a few hours later yesterday than we originally intended, even though we left earlier than we thought we would. I arrived cold and damp, and was very happy to take a hot shower and go to bed. | | |
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The second weekend of the North Carolina Renaissance Festival was much better than the first. The weather was warmer and drier. The patrons actually came out, though you wouldn't know it looking across the grounds. I came to the conclusion that the faire was spread out much to thinly across the defunct golf course upon which it took place. Apparently in previous years vendors had been crowded cheek-to-jowl in a portion of the state fairgrounds. This year they went to the opposite extreme. Everyone scattered to the four winds, and there was way too much empty space. It seems that the faire would have plenty of space to grow into if they keep this site. Sunday, Tomas' nephew stopped by for a visit with a couple of his platoon buddies (82nd Airborne). They ended up helping us pack the trailer at the end of the day. We've never been organized and neatly packed so quickly! We were all grateful for the help. It started raining last night. But anyhow, here are a few pictures of the great open spaces of the fair...
A panoramic view of the field in front of our booth. You can see the SCA area and the Royal Court across the way. |
The view up the hill from our booth. It seemed steeper when we were walking it than the picture indicates. |
Looking down the hill to our right, you could just see the joust field in the distance. |
Catty-corner up the hill, where the booths and stages were thickest. |
Our booth, in a field of our own, it seemed for a while. | | | |
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Today we visited the North Carolina Museum of Art. Not really a goof-off day, but certainly as much pleasure as business. The ancient galleries were closed, since they are remodeling. That was disappointing, but the medieval/renaissance European art gallery was still worth the drive. We were permitted to use flash photography, which surprised me. The docents specifically told me flash was alright! This even went against their printed literature, but they said it was apparently a recent change by their young curator... I won't complain, I got to take a number of very nice pictures I couldn't have managed otherwise. I might get some pictures loaded later. | | |
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I'm at McDonalds, finishing a coffee and checking email before we head back to the fairgrounds to work on inventory. I'll likely edit this post later to add more information. We arrived late Friday morning, and started setting up the booth just as the rain started. By the time we got set up and made it to the campground, it was raining sheets and buckets. We're staying at a nice campground at Hill Ridge Farms. The place is really meant for RV campers, not tent camping. Since the weather has been so unpleasant, the site owner took mercy on us, and let us sleep in one of his picnic shelter/barns instead of setting up a nylon tent. That was wonderful of him. What wasn't wonderful was to learn that at least one of the neighbors of the defunct golf course at which the fair is being held has decided to be hostile. The signage for the fair has mysteriously disappeared more than once. Someone was verbally harassing rennies and videotaping us coming and going. A couple police officers appeared, apparently just to keep things from escalating, though they didn't want to get involved at this point. We (and the other rennies) did the only thing we could, which was ignore it and move on. We've encountered this before. Some people are just assholes. Saturday, we got there around 8am and finished setting up the merchandise before we opened at 10am. It went from very cloudy, to raining, to pouring and sheeting rain. The fair closed about an hour early due to the miserable weather. The parking for the vendors was marshy and vehicles were getting stuck. A tractor was pulling folks out that couldn't be pushed free. We made it with a few folks helping push. It rained all night. Sunday we started cold and cloudy, and we were concerned. The sun came out right around opening, and things started warming up. We were very happy. Then the wind started. It went from a breeze to a gale. Tents were torn apart. The gusts continued all day long. One of our poles snapped. Luckily we had a replacement; we've been through close-to-hurricane conditions before (most recently Ike). We got our tent repaired and helped several other folks through the day. But the wind was so constant and strong, we were forced to take down our vertical displays and the walls. It was like showing our underwear in public. The trailer lights showed. Our best merchandise was hardly displayed. Our sales stalled out, since we looked half-disassembled. That hurt, but it was better than things getting damaged and people getting hurt by flying merchandise. All three of us got a bit scraped up (very minor) during all this. Ironically, today the sun is out, and things are calm and clear... Figures. I feel better though, that the locals say this past weekend was very unusual weather, and it is usually nicer here. I'd hate to think this is typical spring fair conditions! But, time to get back to work. We have to inventory and start resetting everything that came down. | | |
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Well, the drive out from home was gray, rainy, and uneventful. We passed through such memorable places as "Bland, Virginia". We're in North Carolina now. We've spent the night at a motel, since it was around 11pm local time when we arrived. Now we'll head out to the site and get set up. | | |
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Annual Miles 2009: 2538 It feels good to sleep in my own bed for a few days. The cats haven't forgotten who I am, and my plants all still seem to be alive, so I'm happy. Today I retrieved all my stuff from Tomas, and set down to do laundry and catch up on home-related news and work. The neighbors to our east have moved out, but the family in the house to the west seems to have settled in nicely. They have a yappy little Dachshund, but that is just fine with me. For the most part, very little has changed since I left, but the weather is warmer so outside work on the house is now possible. I leave again early Thursday morning. We rather suddenly picked up another event; the North Carolina Renaissance Faire. Another long drive, and another two weeks, give or take a couple days, away from home. After that I should be able to work on home-improvement and sewing projects again. I've picked up a few new clickable critters today, and Phil grabbed one dragon egg for me while I was gone:
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Lagatha
StormCrow |
My DragonCave Scroll. | | |
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Annual Miles 2009: 1936 Another year of Gulf Wars is over. This one was financially better than past years, but it came with a price, as all things do.
We arrived in a timely manner Saturday, which we haven't always. When we got there, though, we discovered that our registration paperwork had gotten lost. They knew we had pre-registered though, since we were set up to merchant, so they let us in anyhow. It became quickly apparent that a lot of organizational things weren't as well done as in previous years. Our merchant space was marked like always, but our spot in the bunk-house wasn't. We had to take a guess at where we were supposed to sleep (although that worked out alright).
It started raining just as we were putting up the tent. This was a mixed blessing; it slowed down the unpacking, but also washed a good bit of the black dirt off the canvas. I got wet and filthy very quickly. The rain continued throughout Sunday and into Monday. Water got into the circuit breaker boxes and caused frequent power losses.
The facilities at King's Arrow have noticably degraded. We weren't drawing any more electricity than we ever had before, but we lost power numerous times. The merchantocrat had to go around throughout the event asking people to disconnect more and more equipment, and the power issues continued anyhow. It was clear to us that the problem was degrading circuits, not our usage, but there isn't much we could do but comply, since Seraphina (the merchantocrat) had to make do with things as they were. It was just very aggravating. We were less productive than we could have been.
None of our immediate neighbors were the same as in previous years. A lot of merchants got shuffled around. We were only one spot away from last year's location. To our right (across a path) and to our left were garb merchants. Across the street were two smaller merchants, a sutler and a reseller.
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The sutler was an older man, and apparently a lonely one... He spent the whole event bending whomever's ear he could. I felt a bit sad for him, but it was hard to be sympathetic. His attitude was so confrontational and pessimistic, he offended or drove away folks who might have otherwise befriended him. "Sir BitchaLot" complained about everything, most especially that he had no sales, which was largely his own fault!
The reseller didn't do much better. I doubt she will be allowed to sell at Gulf again. She didn't participate fully. Merchants are supposed to stay open until Midnight one night during the week (which is announced in the program book). She didn't. I've seen her selling at one or two smaller renfairs we've attended. She recognized me as well. She complained to me about low sales as well. In her case, it wasn't her attitude that hurt her; it was her merchandise. It wasn't aimed at the reinactor, really.
But, other than that, war was pretty good. By Tuesday the weather had cleared, and we enjoyed mild temperatures for the rest of Gulf. I didn't do much shopping; only a bit of linen to use for photography, and some dice. The dice have SCA kingdom heraldry on them. I bought every variation they had in stock. They said they'll have more at Pennsic.
Top row: Lochac, Calontir, Ealdomere, Calontir badge, Trimaris, West, Midrealm, Aethelmarc
2nd Row: Meridies, Pennsic XXXVII, East, Fighter Marshal, Trimaris Badge, Outlands Badge, ??? (Some Australian military order they were selling with the SCA stuff, a household maybe?), SCA International (looks like the UN logo, doesn't it?) |
The person I bought them from said that they got the dice from someone in Australia, but they look like Chessex custom dice to me... I wonder if their "Australian guy" just did the logo work and then ordered through Chessex. It would be funny. On another note, "Empress Norton" may not have been at Gulf this year. I saw someone who I thought looked like her, but dressed better and acted a lot more sane. The more I think on it, I doubt it was her. There were a lot of folks who didn't make it this year. | | |
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