All in a Garden Green

Pennsic is in less than a week. I leave here at ohgodthirty in the morning on Friday, for a week of a very unique type of relaxation... Cannot wait to see everybody, and wake up every morning under canvas.

I'm packed. Mostly. Ish. Everything on my checklist is pretty much in one big pile in the basement. It's not that big a pile, looking at it... I could possibly do this in my car, but J is letting me steal his truck for a week because it has a roof rack, and tent poles really do work better up above...

Still ToDo (besides the last minute whoops-I-forgot-X packing):
- Get tent/poles (once they're repaired), and cot from Max & Mickel
- Make new fencing/sword bag. Mine are just about worn out.
- Get EK Artisan Exchange project in a better transportable state so I can work on it onsite
- buy fruit & water (Thursday PM)
- water houseplants (Wednesday PM)

I of course feel like I'm forgetting things, and my brain says no way do I have enough of anything to be gone for a week, but I know I do...

This is gonna be a long 4-day work week.

Right, so kurlon bought a motorcycle yesterday. I knew it wouldn't be too long before we had one in the garage after we sold the ST3, and he found the newest little obsession, which really is a cute bike. In red and silver. Definitely better than the black. And he's having a fun time chasing me around on it, and I find I am riding better, for some reason, knowing he's behind me. Dunno why, it works for me.

Thursday at Pennsic, decided to wear the pretty pretty yellow kirtle and orange sleeves, since looking at Friday's rapier schedule, I was possibly going to be in fencing gear for most of it... ( Cadet tourney in the morning, followed rather shortly after by the Rapier Champion's tourney. )

Packout Saturday went quickly. We were loaded, the tent was down, breakfast was had, and the big parts of Thanet were being packed into trucks and trailers. I said good bye to those I could find, and we were on the road by 10:45. Stopped briefly for lunch, about an hour from site (I wish I could remember the name of the place, or even the exit... I thought I'd grabbed a newsletter, but it was not from the shop. It's a cider mill, delicious bakery (got a half-dozen pretzels and a few doughnuts for the road), good sandwiches. Back on the road, we passed Justin & Astrid shortly after. The hover conversion on Mingulay worked out very well, and with very few stops, just for gas, really, and snacks, we were back in Maine and home to New Gloucester by 11PM. Good time. Sleep came shortly thereafter.

Wonderful, white, fluffy Frodo snuggled at the foot of the futon with me all night long. Was so nice. About 5:45, I think, he decided he had to go Out. *scratchscratchscratch* at the door. Trottrottrot over to the bed... *whiiiine* *scratchscratchscratch* at the door. Trottrottrot over to the bed... *whiiiine* *scratchscratchscratch* at the door. Trottrottrot over to the bed... *whiiiine* "Ok, ok... I get it... you want ME to take you outside... why..? OK... let's go." My getting up, of course, alerted Callie that Something Was Happening, and she bounded into the backroom, all excited. I found shoes (for me), leashes and collars (for the dogs), and away we went, in the half-light of morning. Up the road a piece, not too far, did what needed doing, and then back to the house. Back to bed for me, dogs went to do whatever dogs do at 6AM. Didn't move again till 9:30 or so.

Still tired, but rested. Light breakfast, unpacked the Prius, re-packed Rosie, oohed and ahhed over gifts brought from the War, and I was off to home and home at 11:30. I don't remember much of Sunday...

I am happy to be home. I am missing Pennsic and all the people I saw there. Missing being within walking distance of so many of my friends. Hoping already I can go back next year (but wondering if I'm pushing my luck... 2 pretty perfect-weather Pennsics, 3 years apart... too much to hope for 2 years in a row? :) )

Photos from the main event are here. Most taken by me, several of the 5-man melee tournament taken by the lovely Lady Connie, from Atlantia.
Photos of the Rapier Champions Tourney are here. Most were taken by Xavier.

Ok, so it's been a few days... I'm back in the routine of work (feels like I never left... kinda... I'm humming and singing a bit more, which means I'm more relaxed... that will stop soon, but I'm going to hold onto it as long as I can.), laundry is almost done, still need to do grocery shopping, the house needs cleaning, and I still can't get in my garage bay. This weekend, perhaps, all will be completed. But first...

PENNSIC.

What a wonderful, perfect week. ( Part 1 of a couple, I suspect. )

To be Continued: The woes of a Tired Camille, who missed a tourney because she was buying postcards...

Home to Maine at 11:00 last night. Home to home at 11:30 this morning. Recap later. Unpacking now, shower, rest, time with kitties and kurlon. Will go through the 1700+ photos soon.

Such a wonderful, wonderful week. Miss you all, my friends, already.

Thursday night, ludicrose and I pack the car, get a bit of sleep, and are then heading out at ohgodthirty in the morning, to arrive at Pennsic sometime Friday afternoon. YAY.

So far, some of the shopping is done, I've found most of the 'need to take this with me' stuff, have an actual 'don't forget this' list, and have made some progress on garb.

So far, one new kirtle (YELLOW! almost done, going to do eyelets and sleeve hemming perhaps on the way there), a 15th C. open hood to go with said kirtle, one set of sleeves, and have mostly repaired my purple bliaut. I want to finish another set of sleeves, and perhaps make a front-laced overgown to go with the two kirtles, if I have time. I might. They go together pretty quick... Had hoped to make another chemise or shirt, but apparently I used the large chunk of lightweight white linen I thought I had for something else... hrmph. Might be able to work something with the pieces I have... I need to make a new armor shirt before too long... Rev. 1 is nice, but I think I can make it lighter and not sacrifice protection.

If anybody wants a postcard, leave your name and address in the comments (they are screened)... hoping to have time to breathe a bit this year, since I have a day and a half "extra" that I didn't last time! I am so ready for a week off...

Returning to our regularly-scheduled Pennsic recap... it was one week ago that I was running around frantically, trying to finish garb, collect things for ease of packing, and make pickles, 'cause I'm crazy. All was done in time, and was good. Now it's still spread all over the apartment, though through the week, has gotten slightly more organized. I knew I'd need another week off to recover from my vacation; I usually do.

Today will consist of organizing the apartment, as I have no other choice. I can't use my kitchen, and I need to bake a cake. Which involves going to the grocery store, as I am out of eggs. Which will also necessitate a trip to the pet shop, maybe WalMart, to rescue another fishie, if I find one I like. I needs a little finny kitchen friend again.

( Friday-Sunday: The end of a good week. )

Ready to go again next year? Maybe... but there are motorcycle trips to Canada in the works as well...

Survived my first day back at work... relatively low-key, meetings, planning... it's going to be crazy for the next couple months. Plans are in motion... ack! And as it appears that we did not in fact bring any of the nice PA weather back with us right away, fencing practice will probably be inside tonight... pooey. Still going to go, I haven't fenced in nearly 4 days! Getting rusty already (though hopefully the swords aren't...).

Pictures are up! Sorted through the 400ish I took, and came up with what I think are the best ones... Right here.

( Monday-Tuesday Recap: Now featuring better fencing than Sunday. )
This was apparently a Fencing Pennsic for me, and I think I'm ok with that. It's where most of my friends are, and helped work off the incredible amounts of bacon that we'd been eating...

Part 1. There will be more later, once I have a brain.

We are all home now. What a blast. Had absolutely perfect weather the whole week long (mostly). Fenced nearly every day. Danced a bit. Shopped a lot. Relaxed. Met with old friends and made some new. Even packed up dry canvas on Saturday morning. Avoided the Plague. Travel home yesterday was through alternately sun and torrential downpours, which made for some slow going and a late night.

Arrived home this afternoon to an empty apartment (will see you soon, kurlon. Missed you LOTS.), and minus one betta fish. RIP Louie. Didn't expect him to last the week, really... Time to start doing laundry and catch up on my comics and email, and tackle the unpacking and organizing of a week's worth of STUFF. (that, and I think my computer monitor is finally really on the way out... it keeps going black... making this very interesting. Argh.)

Thanks to my Contubernal, anna_mickel, Max, alexsaintpierre, ninian_vesalius, and all of House Gamol Gat for an excellent week of camping.