Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted since August... I have been busy, but still... Got to stop neglecting the journal.

Today I'm clearing out bunches of mail and messages that have piled up, since I'm stuck at home with the creeping crud. I ache everywhere. I'm just glad I didn't get whatever it was that roomie trouble131 had. Nausea is worse than the general malaise I have.

Turns out my high-school sweetheart and life-long friend cerilus is on LJ, and dropped me a line. It seems the cat I gave him many, many years ago has just recently passed away. Sad to hear, but I am stunned the kitty lived so long! He was somewhere around 16, which is quite a respectful age for a housecat! It is good to hear from him again.

Tomas is heading up to Belleville, Illinois, this afternoon for Crystal Ball. I was looking forward to going, since it was a slavic-themed event. But feeling ill, I decided staying home was the wisest course.

Had breakfast this morning with my sister, her new husband, and some of his extended family. They introduced Phil and me to a very nice little diner chain that has cropped up in Toledo sometime in the past few years... Star Diner. The food there is wonderful! The portions are large, price reasonable, and everything I tried tasted good. I will definitely eat there again!

After breakfast Kelly and I went out to the cemeteries to leave flowers for our people there. I forgot my laptop, though, so I couldn't find two of the plots. When I checked later, it turns out we walked right by one (a very old one) a number of times, so I think the stone has finally worn down to illegibility. I might look at getting it replaced one day.

After that, Phil and I went and spent the evening visiting my Dad and stepmom. We ate dinner together, and sat around and talked until it got dark.

Finally we headed back to my sister's house, and sat around eating ice cream and watching a movie... I introduced her to Repo! The Genetic Opera. I thought she'd like it, but maybe I was wrong. She seemed lukewarm to it at best.

Anyhow, tomorrow we drive home, so I'd better get to bed.

Again, I will be brief, as my sister isn't as open online as I am. Her wedding was BEAUTIFUL, even though she was going for "completely informal". It was moved at the last minute to a friend's GORGEOUS Victorian house. I took a few pictures, and I might add one or two later if I get permission.

The reception was fun, mainly because it was totally NOT formal or traditional. Key words here are "party llama" and "nacho cheese fountain". Yup, you read correctly. Llamont the party Llama was there, carrying beverages in his saddlebags all evening.

Reached Toledo this evening. Drove up with my husband for my sister's wedding! The drive itself was uneventful, once we actually got going. The car broke a belt right before we left, which added an annoying delay to our departure.

I haven't said much about this, since my sister can tell her own story over on her MySpace Page. She's a bit more private than I am online. But I can't resist saying a little.

Kelly and Brian asked me to make their rings. I worked on them all month, and I am thrilled to say that they LOVED them. It was the first time I have worked with gold, and also the first time I carved rings entirely from scratch. Once the wedding photos are done, I'll see if I can post a couple pictures.

Brian's kids were over at the house tonight, and it turns out I have an online game (Runescape) in common with one of them. We traded usernames so we can chat.

But the big day is tomorrow, so it is time for me to get some sleep.

Tomas is up at the site of the Great Lakes Medieval Faire, picking up the tent and remaining merchandise. The event ended the same weekend as GenCon, but we all needed a few days to rest after a very busy month. Our next show is the Ohio Renaissance Festival that begins on Labor Day weekend.

My sister's wedding is this upcoming weekend! Phil and I will be leaving for Toledo on Friday morning. I am looking forward to seeing my family again.

trouble131 no longer works for Aztar; it is up to her to talk about it if she wants to. It isn't a bad thing; she has an interview this afternoon for a new job that looks good.

Well, this Sunday has been interesting. In an "Ancient Chinese Curse" sort of way, anyhow.

First the "good" news. We received word from our crew at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire. The faire was open this weekend like usual, and unharrassed. As it turns out, the citations issued last weekend were thrown out by the clerk of courts. The police apparently intentionally misfiled the citations, since they themselves didn't support the township's actions. And this weekend they were "busy" with other duties and unable to "fix their errors". So the faire had its last weekend without problems. Also, our friend Ed Beard was one of the ones who were cited, and he called not only his lawyer, but also the media. Perhaps once the state-level officials get a whiff of what the township is doing, this will stop. But the long-term future of the faire is still in doubt.

The "bad" news? Well, last night there was a fire alarm in the convention center after the exhibition hall closed. A burnt pizza in one of the food areas was the culprit. No one was hurt. BUT some ASS took advantage of the chaos. The exhibition hall was entered that night, and several vendors (including us) were robbed. The theft was reported to proper authorities, and we can hope that the culprit was caught on camera, but there is virtually no chance of recovering our property. Also, the question is raised, who could enter the hall at night? Was it someone with a key, or was a door left unlocked? I don't know.

All I know is the incident left me with an "ugly" feeling. I was in a foul mood most of the day. The feeling wasn't helped any by the fact that breakdown was done by and large without Tomas' help. We were not permitted to park the trailer anywhere near the convention center without paying an exhorbitant fee. So we ended up leaving it at our motel, outside the loop. I did most of the breakdown while Tomas drove all the way back to the motel for the trailer, and then sat in line at the marshal yard until he was permitted to park it for loading at the convention center (which was when I was done).

But at least we ended the day on a good note. We had dinner with the crew from Dragonfire Laser Crafts at Shapiro's before driving home. The drive was blissfully uneventful. We listed to a Terry Prachett audiobook and laughed at the humorous tale of Discworld.

Home for a day between Pennsic and GenCon. Will try to insert some posts for the days I was gone, and edit this one for more information, later. Things are fine with us, though we are exhausted! See you at GenCon!

We did get the big tent set up and washed off today, only for it to start raining here. *sigh* Yesterday was just a long day of driving. Nothing really interesting going on yesterday or today.

Well, we are on our way home from Pennsic, and we have heard from our crew that is running the Great Lakes Medieval Faire for us... and the news isn't good.

For years, the local township officials have been obstructing the faire in any way they can think of. It was annoying, but not really a huge deal. Well, they finally upped the ante. The township passed a number of ordinances designed specifically to target the faire, and sent the local police out to "enforce" them. The result is piles of citations that requires the merchant booth owners to appear in the local courts or face more serious felony charges. The ordinances are silly things, and many of us feel that the township has no legal grounds to harrass us in this way, but they've made their point. It seems clear that they don't really care if they win the citations or not. They just want to force us to waste time and (more importantly) money on court appearances. Either way, they win. They either shut down the faire, or cripple the merchants' ability to make money and force them out, which also results in the faire losing out.

The first court dates are this week. Luckily, our booth hasn't been cited (yet). It seems the police may have run out of forms before they got as far back from the gate as we are. So we've been lucky. But I don't count on our luck to hold out.

At this point, it seems doubtful that the Great Lakes Medieval Faire will continue as it is after this year. I hope it continues, and that we can be a part of it... But we'll have to wait and see.

And just to add insult to injury, so to speak... It rained today. We had to pack up wet canvas. That always is a pain in the butt. Now we have to set up both the tents to get cleaned and dry during our day and a half between shows.

Well, we are set up at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire, and today is the opening! I hope things go well. I did drive up with Tomas and Susan to help set things up, but I will not be selling this weekend, as I have other business I need to attend to. Fear not, Jennifer and Mary should be there to assist Tomas and Susan; we have a great crew for this show.

Most of the perennials we planted in our garden last year survived the winter, which is good. I was disappointed that the Hydrangea died back to the ground, and is just re-sprouting from the roots. It and the foxglove are smaller than last year when we bought them. But the ferns have thrived. We picked up some other attractive plants and it looks better than ever. It took me several hours of weeding and planting, but the garden is fantastic this year. I hope Tomas thinks to get a picture of it.

I regret that our building will not be erected during faire this year in any form. We just couldn't get it finished. Time did not allow; we picked up too many commissions at Origins. But we will continue working on it when we are at home this summer, and we should be able to erect it before Great Lakes opens next year. Progress continues...

And we are now on the two-week countdown to Pennsic! I am looking forward to "coming home" to the SCA's biggest event. Pennsic is hard work, but also a lot of fun for us.

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!

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.

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.

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. )

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. :)

Annual Miles 2009: 6729
The Tennessee Renaissance Festival is now over for the year. Monday was the last day. We packed up the booth and drove home yesterday.

Warm and sunny weather this weekend meant we had good crowds! It was a nice change. Tomas made a couple torcs I need to get photographed asap, as one needs to be mailed off by tomorrow morning. The other is a large solid sterling one, that just looks stunning! It needs to go on the website.

Tomorrow morning we leave for the Virginia Renaissance Festival. It is a new show for us, so we aren't sure quite what to expect. Hopefully we will have a fun (and profitable) weekend!

And for your viewing pleasure, patron blogs and other photos:

Associated Content News

Fifo stopped by our booth, and tried on our tiaras. :)

These ladies like our tiaras too!

TennRen on video

Les Jones: A bouquet of weeds

Prairie Bluestem

Flickr photo set

The TennRen MySpace Page

Of course there are a lot more out there if you search for them. :) I just wish more of them had our wares in them! :P

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!

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.

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.

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!

Next Monday (one week from today) is 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.