sleepsinoctober

So excited - my sister is getting hitched today to a wonderful, wonderful man!

(And also, incidentally, this is also the last day I can't tell anyone the thing I haven't told anyone - except, oh, four people. But I won't have to be biting my tongue all the time anymore!)

I am a deep sleeper, but I still woke last night when I heard the good husband yelling at the cats for fighting. I then heard the growling, a low, cranky whine one of the cats was giving off in the corner of the bedroom. Since I was closest, I wearily turned on my light to see which cat was trying to kill the other. To my surprise I found that Freddie was growling with Phantom a few feet away - no reason for growling, then.

Until I saw it.

Freddie clearly had *something*. My first (tired) thought was that he had eaten some scrap fabric and was ill because of it. Second thought was he had a fuzzy mouse toy. At this point, glasses were called for. Third thought was that the mouse toys don't have wings. And that this thing had one wing and, um, half of another, um, wing - ew! Fourth thought - IS THAT BLOOD ON MY CARPET?!?!?!

So I yelped to my guy that they aren't fighting and that he has something and to get over here, now! Unbelievably, Freddie had caught a bat. This is not a mighty hunter. This cat has depth perception problems. He walks off of tables then whacks them for ending early. But here he was, defending his catch from his fellow hunter. He didn't defend the catch from me very well, though. I just opened Freddie's jaw (old pilling tricks work with bats!), pulled him back and, while prodding Phantom with my feet, carried him into the back bedroom. Where much bad language was shared between my boys. The good husband, mean-while, got to clean bat-guts out of our carpet. Fun!

This has not been the first bat adventure in our house, but at least we got the bat out safely last time. I remember being dead to the world after having just gotten back from larping, and waking to the sound of cats jumping off the back bedroom bed repeatedly trying to catch something midair. I think that was the time the hubby and I came up with an unspoken agreement - if the animal is alive, I'm in charge and will get it out. If it is dead, he is in charge and will get it out. So I closed the door (with the cute little bat dive-bombing me occasionally as it tried to find the exit), opened the top half of the windows and tried to 'shoo' it out with a towel and a waster. (Which was way, way, way too funny to me at the time). When it rested in a corner, I finally got a large tupperware and trapped it like a cup and a bug, then tossed him out into the night.

Too bad last nights bat didn't get that far. But why on god's green earth did it climb under the door to the attic? Because that is where the cats have been stationed, waiting for another victim...

Suddenly I have the urge to clean everything I know, move all the furniture, pour the basement foundation, and organize my spice rack. At the same time.

I'll settle for doing dishes for now, but I fear that will lead to sweeping, which will lead to vacuuming, and who knows where that could lead?

I am not what one would characterize as a 'hard worker.' I can fool a lot of people into thinking that I am simply by the fact that I'm usually working on something, but that is mostly just advanced fidgeting skills. But this summer I have a huge project: Project Basement.

Simply put, Project Basement is me turning our unfinished basement into a workable workshop for my husband. (If you are wondering why I'm doing it instead of him, I'm a teacher with the summers off and he's a retail guy with a home puppet business. I have waaaaaay more free time than him right now.) But before I can try to teach myself framing and drywalling (I'm good at teaching myself stuff, don't worry) I need a floor. As in, not just dirt. Fortunately, most of the basement is cement. But years ago a previous owner added an addition, foundation and all, but didn't make a real floor. It is a big pile'o'dirt.

Easy, right? Just mix some concrete and make a floor. Well, um, we kinda dug a big hole in the basement and stole some dirt for a project outside. We were too poor to buy gardening fill for a while there last year. Pretty silly move, in hindsight!

But today (after being THWARTED yesterday) I borrowed a truck and bought half a cubic yard of unsifted fill from a local gardening store. It filled almost the entire bay of the small truck! I'm pretty sure they gave me way, WAY more than half a yard.

And then began the long, slow, arduous process of getting the dirt to the basement. I'm sure I've mentioned that I am lazy before, so this was good for me. Very character building and whatnot. (But we just bought a ps3 and my husband's been hogging it! I wanna play!) I just finished sweeping out the back, but all the dirt is in the basement. (Except for the small mountain on the driveway from said sweeping. Whoops!) My hands hurt from the buckets I was carrying the dirt in, I'm filthy, my clothes are filthy, my shoes are filthy, (most likely the chair I'm sitting in is filthy...).

I feel very accomplished right now. I've succeeded in starting Project Basement, and this is the first step in a rather disproportionately large plan that the good husband and I are working on. Yay for success! (And for changing, dropping off the truck, then going out to dinner with my father. Yay for that.)

My father was nice enough to refit my mother's bicycle for me. (She hasn't ridden in, oh, forever.) He even showed me the local rail trail on Tuesday, which was awesome. We rode a gentle 8 miles round trip. I was fine with it until the last half mile - all uphill. What possessed me to buy a house that has steep hills surrounding it?

Skip to today. I was all proud of myself for getting the bike out and hitting the trail on my own. Everything was going peachy until I was a little over a mile away from home. Something sounded strange with my back wheel... Oh! Flat! That's not good...

Now it doesn't seem like the worst fate to walk a bike back home for a mile. Remember the hills I mentioned? Well, it turns out that it is exhausting to push a bike uphill for a mile in 90 degree heat. Especially as I normally wear heals, so I'm used to pointing my toe, not flexing. Urgh!

But I made it home, and as soon as I get cleaned up I'm going to karaoke with my sister. Perhaps I can sing one of my Renn Faire drinking songs...

Things I learned as Felisia Gylensdotter:

- Children will pledge to a throne specifically to be painted with blue acrylic runes.

- Said children will happily borrow your staff to beat down bad guys with. Again. And again. And again.

- Singing songs that are depressing can quiet a tavern.

- Messing up long cumulative songs will get a round of applause.

- Singing on the second day of a faire is much, much harder than singing on the first day.

- Carrying around a tankard of water makes one popular.

- People sympathize with someone who has spilled their 'ale'.

- Templars are hot.

- Cat guys can dance! (And are hot.)

- Skits that are not supposed to end in a duel may end in fighting anyway if the crowd so wishes.

- Not having to change to be a crunchy script mid-day leaves one with lots of time for causing trouble.

- Wearing a gallon of sunscreen will (mostly) prevent 'berserker tan', the sad state where runic tattoos are left in reverse on the arm.

- Summer throne members are sneaky and conniving, and will con small children.

- Other members of Winter are happy, even at the end of the second day, to try some impromptu 'pirate' style dueling.

---

End result : Felisia was tons of fun, and I look forward to having one more weekend as her. But I don't think I have the energy to be that eager to fight all the time! It was interesting playing against my normal 'type', but it made it very hard to revert back to myself on Monday. I noticed I was still heckling, even when teaching 6th grade. Whoops! Fortunately, they didn't seem to mind.

And just to confuse the school, I decided to wear my braids today. My general response to questions has simply been that I had it cut longer. (My hairdresser, evidently, is excellent!) Sad thing is, I think some of them believe me. Good luck with that, kids!

Today it was too. damn. hot. School was actually closed early because of the heat. I assure you that no learning was lost, as the kids were not learning anything anyways. At first the teachers were told they would have to stay the entire day after the kids left, but I'm not sure if they went through with that. The school nurse saw me sitting in the air-conditioned office (after my last class, I hasten to add) holding an ice-pack to the back of my neck and sent me home. Or rather, to my parent's house around the corner for air-conditioning. I curled up there for a good three hours before I felt human again.

Why didn't the weekend heat effect me, running around fighting and in a dress? I stayed hydrated the entire weekend, and didn't stop just because I came home... Ah, well.

Perhaps tonight or tomorrow I'll get a chance to write a bit about the faire. For it was awesome and needs to be recorded, lest my faulty memory do its forgetting thing. Now I need to head to my carpool for Harmonious Soul practice.

I honestly can't believe that I wove this much. Yeah, there are mistakes. Yeah, you can see the white thread from the front. But who cares? This is awesome!!!

Now I just have to go back to my list and finish the 100 other things...

Eeep. Eeep. Eeep. Eeep. This is the test of the emergency Renn Faire system. In the event of an actual Renn Faire, stop putzing around on the computer and get your arse in gear.

List time!

To Do Before Saturday Friday night:


-Felisia's Blue Dress
---Seam-rip off the old fur.
---Reapply fur trim properly, with white thread.
OR!!! Ditch this overdress, as it will be too warm to wear, and make it into a bag instead.
Pros: Can hold water, runes, paint, watch, and schedule
Cons: I already made the damn dress and it was a hell of a lot of work.
Hmm... I'm dropping this dress altogether. I'll hang onto it for a while, though.

-Felisia's Silver Dress
---Iron
---Do something with arm holes (Trim? Ignore?) ignore
---Cut away extra woven trim
---Tack down other side of woven trim
---Sew hem (Thanks for pinning it, Mom!)
-Runic Belt
---Finish weaving (2/3 of the way there!!!)
---Make into belt... somehow
-Hair - Um, I think I'll end up doing this at camp tonight.
---Redo-braids
---More braids?
-Tattoos
---Get paint ready
---Get new brush
---Make these portable to draw on others
-Under outfit - Something that can be under a script tabard
-Paint staff
-Runes
---Bag for stones
---Carve stones
-Songs
---Determine possible songlist (see below)
---Memorize songs (see below)
---Patter links
-Drinking mug? (Get from CC or the barn.)

Possible songs/order: (currently over half an hour)
*(Opener) Leis a Lurrighan
*Pirate Jenny
*Maids When You're Young
*Two Maids Went a Milking
*The Snow
*Despina Aria
*Oh No John
*Aramallee
*The Clean Song
*Good Luck to the Barley Mow
*(Closer) Witch-hazel

*=memorized

Oh, and teach classes and stuff. And that concert tomorrow. And the possible addition of another pre-concert concert by the a cappella group. Eeep, eeep, eeep...

I scripted at end of seasons last weekend, and I am black and blue all over. But it is a good kind of hurt, in a non-masochistic type way.

I had finished the trim on my dress, and moved on to making the runic belt. Every now and then during lulls in conversation in CC I would look up to find a bunch of people staring as I mystically spun the tablets. (I tried to play cool with the mistakes, like I wasn't unweaving. Sometimes the swears gave it away.) And now I've left the rest of the plans at camp. Whoops. No biggy, I can redo it.

Here is the progress thus far: (And be kind, this is my first double-sided weave, and I got better and faster as I went along!)


Aaaaaaand the loom (which I dumped a backpack on accidentally, so it is a bit smooshed):


Just another 40 inches to go! *head-desk*

The dress looks nice with the trim, though, so I know it'll look awesome with the belt. I have also decided to add some hair, as shorn locks would not be an indicator of high status. One of the directors at the game has a Winter character with a whole bunch of braids, so I asked her about them. To my surprise, she indicated that they were cheap, like a dollar or two for a bag-o-hair, which you then just have to figure out what to do with. I'm at that stage right now.


I think I should totally wear that hair-do to my student's Spring Concert tomorrow. Y/y?

Well, we are less that three weeks away from the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Faire and it is time to get serious about garb.

My Winter gal Felisia Gyllendottar needed threads, so I got sewing. As of a week or two ago, I took these pics so they could have headshots for the website:

"Under" dress (the quotes are because I intend to mostly wear this):


"Over" dress (mostly for official business or if I'm cold):


I'm sure I'm only supposed to have one dress so that everyone can find me easily and not get the characters confused, but honestly. I'm covered in acrylic paint runes carrying a huge staff, also covered in acrylic paint runes. If you can't see that is the same character, you don't deserve to find me!

The blue dress is finished, with the exception that I want to re-sew the fur, but that is on the 'if I have time' list. The silver dress ended up fitting my hips exactly, but the top has waaaaaay too much fabric. So I'm not sure how to actually get it closed in the back. Argh. Stylistically, though, I need to add some trim. Specifically, trim that I've woven myself!

Some examples:


The bottom pattern was supposed to be the one I put around the keyhole in my dress, but I found it waaaaaay too wide. So I designed my own 10 string pattern, wove it, then discovered I liked the back of it better! Yeah, I planned it that way...

What is done so far:



I still have the upper trim and the belt to go. Weaving isn't that much of a problem, it is the setup that takes forever! (And who went and designed a bunch of double sided woven runes to make the belt? Yep, me. That is the *last* project on the list and likely won't happen, but it is a nice dream...) Back to it.

My acapella group, Harmonious Soul, performed at an open mic a few months ago. We are pretty good if I do say so myself, though our repertoire was limited at the time. Myself and two other gals had just joined, so we were learning as we went, then performed all four that were memorized.

First Date:


On Children: (Gets cut off, sadly, but only after the repeat.)


Passionate Kisses/Sweet Child of Mine:


Yay music. Yay sharing. Yay me linking these videos so I can find them again someday. General yay.

My dad is very, very helpful. I sent him a message about the fire down the street, and he nags me about fire detectors. Feeling all self satisfied, I responded that not only do we have fire detectors, we have CO2 detectors. Whoops. I always seem to switch carbon-dioxide with carbon-monoxide. He helpfully responded:

***

It's easy to remember. Dioxide has seven letters. Think 2/7 - 0.2857142. Monoxide has eight letters. Think 1/8 - 0.125. Then multiply by ten and drop the decimal. Voila! Dioxide - 2; Monoxide - 1. Then associate the numeral 2 with eveness, roundness, well being, all is right with the worldness. Associate the numeral 1 with oddness, linearity, sharpness, the smell of something burning. What could be easier?

***

What could be easier, indeed?

I should be at school right now. Technically, I should have been at school forty minutes ago. The ambulance and the two fire-trucks at the end of my driveway disagree! They say I should stay here. At least until the fire is out.

What fire? Oh, not here. I wouldn't take the time to use the internet while my house burned down. Bad form, you know. The house at the end of the street, well, they weren't so lucky. I've no idea what happened (though I'm guessing 'fire'), but while I was getting in the shower we started hearing sirens, then we started seeing sirens (figuratively). The entire neighborhood went out to see what was going on. I, prudently, put on more clothes than a robe first.

A multifamily house looks pretty bad from the second floor up. There was still a bit of flames on the roof when I went out, which was comparatively pretty late. They seem to be packing up now, so hopefully I'll be at work for my 10:45 class.

And I'm glad that that is my only worry this morning. As soon as we came in from spectating, it was time to check the fire extinguisher. Just in case.

Yesterday was May 1st. Before you send me the Captain Obvious award, I'd like to point out that that is a holiday. May Day is 'celebrated' at my school by having a Spring Festival. Fellow music teacher Linda and I teach various dances, songs, and poems, then have professional musicians play for them.

I shook everything up a bit by deciding to have my fourth and fifth grades do the Maypole. Did I teach them it was a pagan phallic symbol? Nah, I'll let them discover that on their own later. But they performed well, despite missing a few people. I had to jump in to help one class perform the "Gypsy Tent", but since I love doing Maypoles it just made my day better! Four poles were being spun at once, and they did great!

My other main worry was the sixth grade. Individually, I love these kids. Even the most obnoxious (and, sorry, some of them are very obnoxious) can be great conversationalists, and they have some of the most creative ideas. But they were performing "The Blue Danube" on recorders and boomwhackers - and they weren't getting it. (They weren't dancing like the rest of the school because trying to have the sixth grade do a partner dance last year was a nightmare. I wouldn't have done it, but the other music teacher who had 4 of the 5 classes overruled me...) I needed a hook, and I needed it fast. What to do?!?!?

Solution: Kazoos. Kazoos for everyone!

Some students elected to still play the recorders, and they were the students that had put in a goodly amount of time practicing, so I was sure to have them front and center. Boomwhackers on the floor, and kazoos behind them all. They loved it, and the parents enjoyed it as well. So despite the fact that I sold out to simplicity, I'm calling it a win.

Today I'm just kind of phoning it in. Half the classes have been watching videos. My brain just isn't handling anything else. Of course, now I also have the problem that I can't remember if the sixth grade that is going to be coming in has finished "Mad Hot Ballroom" or not. Emergency game on standby!

Last End of Seasons event we were up until o'dark hundred freezing our butts off defending an arcane artifact. Don't get me wrong, the artifact had to be protected so the bad guys couldn't use it. But we were frozen and our wits were reduce to yelling amazingly creative insults such as "You suck!" by the end. Despite thermals, pants, long sleeve shirt, dress, wool cloak, hat, gloves and fingerless mitts I was so. Bloody. Cold. (Not cold enough to go to the tavern, but that was just 2 am insanity talking. Logic doesn't work well past 1am.)

Now this weekend is the next event. Not much time between the two events, just three weeks. And this time I'm not even bringing the thermals and I'm trying to figure out how to ditch the velvet dress and still be proper. What the heck happened?

(All temperature are mentally increased by 10 degrees, due to unfamiliarity with warmth. Damn but heat was expensive this year!)

Last year I played around at the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Faire and had a blast. This year, I'm going to be part of the cast on purpose. The only problem? This proper Autumn Lady and Singing Gypsy suddenly is a Norse Runic Guardian. Let's peruse the costume closet... nope, nothing! And they need head-shots in costume ASAP! (Yes, head-shots with costumes. You can see *some* of it, so ignore the contradiction.)

So this past week I've been trying to put together some slightly authentic costuming. I'm a sucker for having at least some accuracy. On the not-so-accurate side, I've already made a Blue overdress, trimmed in white fur. Easy, and I thought that would be enough for the photo, but I couldn't find anything to wear under it, so I've gone right back in to make my keyhole neckline, back lacing dress. Lovely silver, with silver/blue jewelry. And, for the accuracy, I'm taking up an entire new hobby - tablet weaving. This will take a bit before the belt/trim is ready, so I'll just finish up everything else. Like, oh, the dress.

I'm having to make some adaptations. I want my arms free so I can cover them in runes. (See-Runic Guardian) I kind of suck at following patterns to begin with, so adapting them is going, um, strangely. Strangely well so far. Of course, I'm wasting time posting to avoid sewing... (I was researching 'under-stitch' online, since I had no clue what that meant. Damn patterns, lousy explanations...)

After this, I only have to decide how to wear my hair and which tattoos go where. And how to wear said tattoos. (Temporary tattoos or makeup?) And if I should use the overdress at all. Decisions, decisions. Pictures to follow when finished!

Quote from sixth grade music:

Male student: (As he is putting equipment away on a bottom shelf, complete with the dance), "Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low..."
Me: "Unless you are wearing apple bottom jeans, please sit down."
General hubbub: "Oh, burn!"
Other student: "Wait, you know that song?"

Because evidently 29 is way too old to listen to the radio. I couldn't *not* know the song if I tried!

And I'd tell them that I know songs with worse lyrics then what you can hear on the radio, but I don't think they'd be interested in 16th century French bawdy songs. Or would they be? Hmm...

I swear that someday I will actually use livejournal to chronicle the events in my life, instead of using it as a fun list-crossing-off place. Strangely, I've actually started using a physical journal. I've never had one before, and I have to say I like it! Perhaps if I had a computer to use regularly at work... Ah, well.

Today the good husband and I are both home - hallelujah! And before we go out mall-crawling and movie-renting, there are just a few things to take care of...

Start my BEST portfolio plans, so when my principal asks to see them I don't have to pull an all-nighter
- - - Class composition
- - - Daily sketch
- - - Create/Perform/Respond
- - - Song list
Plan silent music lessons for during the Connecticut Mastery Test
- - - The more fun worksheets!
Plan 'punishment' lessons for the kids who drive me nuts, so I can get them out of class
- - - Short answers to essays?
Spring Festival
- - - Plan out songs
- - - Space out dances - done by May 1st!

And, just to cover everything:
Finish writing in my character journal
Send update to End of Seasons board
Practice music for Harmonious Soul (although this one should be constant)

Last week I was working on the house, and I mushed together my love of being online with my love of making lists (and my illicit love of crossing things off them.) I was willing to vacuum that room, do those dishes, and mop that floor, all for the joys of crossing it off my list.

So let's see how far I can push this, shall we?

For this weekend at Lione, I would like to:
- Finish my 'new' bodice
- - - cut fabric
- - - plan ties
- - - grommets
- Finish the velvet dress
- - - find new velvet in house
- - - plan sleeves
- - - slit skirt
- - - hem
- - - hooks
- Make spell packets
- - - 20
- - - 40
- - - 60
- - - 80
- - - 100 (optimistic, eh?) (final count ~ 140. Yay, mindless movies!)
- Finish knitting coin bag
- Add adhesive to face tattoos
- Check on other tattoo
- Lose some weight (ha!!!)
- - - 5 (oops, was I supposed to eat Friday? Or is that why I felt sick?)
- - - 10
- - - 15
- Check banner
- - - Add silver to thorns
- - - Make smaller... somehow
- - - Extra guide strips
- - - Check for loose fabric
- Check red dress arms

(Hmm. Sudden idea - The red dress' arms won't fit over multiple under layers, which is why I started other dresses in the first place. But if I take some extra stretch velvet and create a bit of 'buffer' in the arms... Well, this might merit some thought...)