Results Typical

1. Work/Programming
No change so far with my work situation. I’m employed through the end of the year.. and still up in the air as to what will happen next year.

One note of concern: last week the company laid off all of the System Administrators in the San Francisco office(probably 8 people that I know of). This does not a “dependable and steady” employer make. I’m concerned about the future of Software Engineers at a company that says it’s in the business of publishing content, not developing software.

There is one other tiny nibble.. another department that I work very closely with is starting to lobby Management that they need a technical support person in a continuing role after December. I am the obvious fit for that role.. but I’m not sure that it jives with my future career (and life) goals. We’ll see how it develops.

This last week, on company time, I read books about Jquery, Jquery UI, and Jquery Mobile. I’ve also spent a lot of time experimenting with these concepts. I’m finding it kind of curious that I’ve been instructed to play with it and figure it out.. but meh, whatever.

Jquery Mobile is -very- interesting. I’m really looking forward to spending a lot more time experimenting with it.

2. Home
Last weekend we tore down our guest bed and gave the bed frame away. The intention is that when we have house guests we’ll setup our camping bed and use that in the guest bedroom. This also allows me to turn the guest bedroom (at least temporarily) back into my sewing room. Hooray for again having a dedicated sewing room.

I am a smidge concerned about what we’re going to do when we have visitors from out of town for F’s Knighting. If we’re already camping for the knighting.. then the camping bed will not be available to setup in the guest bedroom as a guest bed.

Meh. We may end up getting a futon and using it in that room instead.

3. Health
Doing pretty well. Making healthy choices in the face of lots of social eating. At this point I’m pleased with maintaining.

Other than weight I really don’t have any current medical complaints. At a recent doctor’s appointment for the first time in nearly three years my blood pressure measured “normal” instead of “high-ish” or “concerning”. I’m going to take these triumphs where I may.

I -want- to use my treadmill.. but I also am terribly terribly tired. So the idea of getting up an extra hour early (when I’m already getting up at 6-6:30) is so completely the opposite of thrilling. I’m starting to consider after-dinner treadmilling.

4. SCA/Projects
I’ve decided, for a couple of different reasons, to focus on Kentish Anglo-Saxon clothing for at least the next year or so.** I really badly want to knuckle down and do some heavy research into the Kentish Anglo-Saxon books that I have. Unfortunately I have other projects which currently take priority. So the heavy research is back-burnered until I clear out my project list.

Project list:
– Paint box for Lord and Lady of Golden Rivers. (Due June 1) Need to get a copy of the arms for Golden River, then paint the arms on the box, then seal the box.
– Black Linen Rus pants for Fearghus (Due June 22) These are cut out, just need to be sewn together.
– Blue Linen Tunic to try out new pattern for Fearghus (Due ASAP) I have the new pattern figure out.. and I’ve done a muslin trial run, I just need to find the blue linen and cut out my second trial run with this new pattern. I’m intentionally tweaking the pattern a smidge to get the pattern to fit on a piece of white linen I want to use for his final knighing tunic. The white piece is a scotch too small for the pattern.. so I want to run a trial in the blue before I do it again in the white.
– White Linen Tunic for Fearghus (Due June 22)
– Trim for white tunic for Fearghus (Due June 22)
– Viborg undershirt for Fearghus (Due June 22)

** I realize this is a bit of an about-face since I’ve spent the last year or so focused on French 15th century waisted kirtles.. but believe me, I have several very good reasons. Add to that.. the little bit of heavy research I’ve already done into the Kentish stuff is SO DAMN COOL!

5.
One good thing about my current job is the occasionally they reward me with stock (or stock options) and currently our stock is doing pretty well ($46/share). This last week I cashed in a bunch of stocks and will be using the proceeds to get completely out of credit card debt (meaning the only debt I am carrying is my car payment and month-to-month bills), pay for the wedding (or at least as much as I can) and buy Fearghus a knighting gift.

We still need to pick out and buy our wedding rings and make the down payment on the tux rentals.

Future:
April 27: Civil Unrest (daytrip)
May 3-5: Beltane
May 11 Mists-Cyn War (daytrip)
May 18: FREE WEEKEND!!! (We’re not attending Mists Spring Investiture)
May 24-26: Cynaguan Coronet
June 1: Golden River’s Championship (daytrip)
June 8 A&S Tournament (probably daytrip)
June 14: Attending a wedding (hotel)
June 21-23: June Crown
June 29: Attending a wedding, Nevada City (hotel)
July 6: FREE WEEKEND!!! (We’re not attending West/An Tir War)
July 13: Cynaguan Summer Investiture (daytrip)
July 20: FREE WEEKEND!!! (We’re not attending Pennsic)
July 27: FREE WEEKEND!!!
August 3: FREE WEEKEND!!!
August 10: FREE WEEKEND!!!
August 17: FREE WEEKEND!!!
August 23-25: Purgatorio (not sure if we’re attending)
August 31, 2013 My wedding in Billings Montana (Wedding website: https://sites.google.com/site/stroudwed/)

I can’t help but note here that the world did indeed not end on December 21st 2012. I haven’t yet heard the new end date.. but I will continue development (on my life) until a new date is officially announced.

1. Work/Programming
So this is what a Lame Duck Engineer feels like .

The current plan is to continue to be employed by CBS until at least 12/31/2013. Hopefully a few months before that I’ll know what I’m going to do after that. There’s a fair to middling prospect that I’ll end up moving back to Montana.. but that’s still TBD.

Anyway. I continue with work projects. We have little/no QA people available to our department now (they’ve all moved to other departments) so we’re going to just do without. I’m not looking forward to that. At this point it looks like some sites are going to adopt my new pet project as a stop-gap between now and the end of the year.. but it’s not looking good for living beyond that. (ie, prospects of my job as it currently exists continuing past the end of the year are looking grim.. so that’s probably no longer one of the possible outcomes).

2. Home

On December 21st, when the world did not end, F and I flew off to spend Christmas with my family in Montana. On the 22nd we had a lovely bonfire (second annual) and Christmas was smashing. It was really great to get to spend time with my extended family.

Post-Christmas we returned to find the house pretty much as we left it. Linnet house-sat for us while we were gone and she did a great job. The only thing that’s off now is that suddenly we have ants. Need to deal with that.

Fynriss is mostly back to normal. Occasionally he’ll whimper from pain.. but he’s pretty much back to his normal self.

3. Health
Last year was not-good in the weight loss department. Well.. ok, most of the year was ok.. but then the last 3 months I gained A LOT of weight. Technically it is baby weight.. but we have no baby to show for it(which does indeed suck). So I’m back on the wagon of getting this all back into check. The goal is to have some moderate weight loss in the next few months while we’re waiting for my body to re-start the baby-making factory. That translates to sane (and somewhat restrictive) eating. Really it’s the slightly-more-strict version of what I should be doing anyway.. but I’m officially giving up sodas and french fries entirely. I don’t think I’ve had a soda in the last few months.. so I don’t expect to miss it.. and mentally I just need to get to the point where I expect that the entree is plenty.. and I don’t need the added bulk of french fries. More news as we progress.

We do want to get pregnant.. but the OB/GYN advised us to wait at least a month. Once I -do- get pregnant all dieting is off limits. I assume I can stick to “sane” eating.. but nothing like CrazyStupidDiet.

Speaking of which.. F wants to do a round of CrazyStupidDiet. I’ll check in with him on that after his cold. He’s sick now.. so it’s not the time to discuss it.

4. SCA/Projects
F has caught a chest cold and so won’t be attending 12th night. I am one of Zanobia’s Queen’s Artisans so I have regalia to hand over so I’ll be there.

A vicious rumor says that the incoming King and Queen have cancelled the Laurel meeting at 12th night.. and are thinking about cancelling the one at March Crown also because “There’s no one even close.. and no one even worth discussing”.

Ouch. I mean.. just ouch.

5.
F and I have been inviting friends over for dinners on Wednesday. This week I made a spiral sliced ham, scalloped potatoes, baked apple sauce (it was supposed to be baked apples but they disintegrated). Our guests brought Brussels sprouts and some bread. It was a really really good dinner. Considering I don’t normally care for ham I was surprised about how good it turned out. The ham came from Costco… I’ll definitely do that again.

After dinner we played a couple rounds of Zombie Munchkin. I last played Munchkin about 5 years ago.. and over Christmas I told F I’d be interested in playing it again. I find it utterly hilarious to announce that my Atomic, Flaming, Fast Zombie “Kicks down the door”.

It was a lot of fun.

Later (in fact a few days later) F asked me what we’d do if we didn’t do SCA (we have a few friends who are falling out of the SCA). I told him we’d have spare time and extra money.. and that we’d fritter it away watching more TV and buying more toys. Now that I think about it some more.. I think without the SCA our life would be a lot like dinner was on Wednesday… and that’s not all bad.

Future:
Jan 5 12th Night
Jan 26 Cynaguan Winter Investiture
Feb 2 War College (maybe)
Feb 23 Northern Wolf Prize Tournament
Mar 22-24 March Crown

August 31, 2013 My wedding in Billings Montana

1. Work/Programming
Last week I did a cart-before-the-horse and presented a design for the prototype I’ve been working on for the last 2-3 weeks. There was still good feedback from the group.. but it was kind of nice to be able to say “it works this way” instead of “I kind of think it might maybe work this way.. but I may need to play with it.” OH, that and my new-new pet project got official approval for me to work on it (good thing since that’s what I’d been doing for the last 3 weeks or so). So that’s going along swimmingly.

No one in the office noticed anything weird when I “worked from home” from Montana. I told them that was the point.

2. Home
Still loving the house. This last weekend we had a cleaning binge. With being out of town to Montana..and then working furiously on a bunch of projects for Crown the house had gotten a bit messy. We spent most of Sunday cleaning, vacuuming and straightening. It wasn’t hard to do.. but it made a world of difference. I still need to spend some quality time in my sewing room and tame that growing monster.

This week we’re planning to be completely out of the storage unit. That does mean the garage will runneth over. Whatever. It’s what we need to do.

As of today we’ve been in the house for a month. I need to contact the Property Management and get on their case to fix the things that we identified on move in. Last night I finally got tired of putting our wet towels on the floor (the towel bar broke the first day in the house) so we installed a new bar.. but seriously that’s -their- job, not mine.

3. Health
Contacts are full of win. I’m terribly please to be back to wearing them. I told Fearghus I “feel prettier wearing contacts”.. he told me I look pretty either way. Aww.

Weight is still weighty. Not sure what I’m going to do about that.. other than argue against eating out.. and cook more veggies. Meh.

4. SCA/Projects
The first weekend of this month we flew out to Billings Montana to attend Artemisian Crown. The event site was my parent’s farm so it seemed wrong to not attend. That and Allegiant Air is now flying directly from Oakland to Billings for ~$100 round trip (well $100 before they start nickle and diming you to death). We flew out on Thursday (which I took off of work) and then I “worked from home” on Friday from my parent’s house.. and then we attended Crown on Saturday and flew back on Sunday. It was a secret from my Brother and his Wife. They were due-ly surprised.

This is the first time I have attended a Crown tournament in another kindgom. It was weird. There are things that I’ve come to depend on as constants which it turns out weren’t actually constant. Three simple examples which caught me off guard:
1. Their fighting field was 36′x36′ which they divided into four fields. It just felt TINY! West Crown fields are 300′x100′ and are divided into 6 fields (or this last one, into 4 fields). For finals the herald announced that the populace could approach the list ropes to witness finals.. and I was scared to. I’ve never been that close to fighting and I was afraid some stray shot would fly out over the ropes because they were so close to it. Definitely weird.
2. None of the populace camped. Okay, I know it got down in the 30s at night.. so it was a bit chilly.. but still. The only people who camped were the merchants.. and even then my parents invited one of them to sleep in the front room of the house. My parents had already given rooms to Their Majesties of Artemisia and their Retinue. BUT STILL! It’s a Crown event. And people drove 9+ hours to get there.. and we had a HUGE bonfire. Just weird.
3. Their fealty oath is different. At final court they made someone a member of the Order of the Pelican and at the end they were reciting the fealty oath. I thought to myself “Oh! I know how this goes!” and mentally started mouthing along with it.. only to stop short when I realized they were using different words. In the West the oath holds “until the King departs from His Throne, or death takes me or the world ends” In this Artemisian oath they swore “until the mountains crumble into the sea”. I just sat there gape-mouthed. And then I kind of teared up. Someday I plan to move to Artemisia.. and someday I hope to be a peer.. and this means that someday I’ll be mouthing some other fealty oath.. and that kind of makes me sad.

This last weekend we attended Western October Crown. We decided to day-trip but stayed in a hotel on Friday night so we could be on-site early Saturday morning. On Friday night we parked in the hotel parking lot next to a big delivery box truck. On Saturday morning, as we were packing up to leave the front desk clerk came out and let us know that during the night that box truck had hit our car. She gave us the driver’s contact info.

We were well within the lines for our parking space. It looks like when the truck driver went to leave, they pulled forward and then went right too soon and their bumper hit the side of our car. The bumper then hooked our headlight, ripped it out and creased our bumper. The right front quarter panel, headlight and probably front bumper will need to be replaced. We’re working with them to get this handled.. but it meant that we had to drive home with only one headlight. Add to that.. the car just looks creepy with an empty eye socket. Fearghus has started calling the car “Popeye”.

It was a grumpy start to the day.. but we still made it to site in time for Fearghus to sign up on the lists. He was #15 on the unbelt side. He says that’s the lowest he’s been in the list for probably 5 years. Fearghus did get called over to stand with the Chivalry.

Because I am one of Zanobia’s Queen’s Artisans I was going to need to sit in the A&S Display pavilion for the display. I consorted for Fearghus for the first two rounds.. but then I had to go off and setup at the display pavilion. It’s the first time since I started consorting for him that I haven’t been actively present for all of his fights in a Crown/Coronet list. He went 5 and then sent me a half-dozen roses.

The display went great. There was some initial stress that we didn’t have nearly enough table space but that got worked out and everything got setup. For food I had made Prince-biskets, Stuffed eggs, gyngerbrede and sweet leaches(milk jellies). Sadly the sweed leaches drowned in melt water in the cooler so I had to toss them without serving any of them. All of the food items were well received, in fact I think a lot more of the Gyngerbrede got eaten than I expected. It is very strong and will absolutely clean out your sinuses.

We had a pretty constant crowd of people walking through the display. In fact there were a lot more people than I’d expected. Usually the display pavilion is kind of empty so it was a pleasant change to see so many people coming through, looking at the items and sampling the food-ie bits. I am very glad that I had a dress dummy to show of Arianwen’s dress. It showed very well (especially when Fearghus started sending me roses and I stuck them down the back of her dress so they almost made a rosy halo over the dress form). My blue kirtle displayed less well (think heap of blue shapeless cloth with a description pinned to it). In retrospect I think I should have stuck with 1 bigger item (Ari’s dress) and then a handful of other smaller items. As I expected, people came through to browse the showings not to inspect them critically. In all cases the single-page description seemed sufficient and in fact I’m not certain most of the descriptions even got read. Although I kind of wanted to include a couple of 6-10 page papers in depth about some of the items.. I think it would have been wasted effort.

Tonight I’ll get started on my secret superhero project for Cynaguan Coronet.

5.
I had the good fortune to catch a brief glimpse of “Pillars of the Earth” on television. It’s a mini-series that actually aired a few years ago but was being re-broadcast recently. It’s set in the 12th century.. and costuming is a bit “off” if you ask me.. but it’s still interesting to see the medieval attitudes in action. What if you really did believe with every ounce of your being that your sins would send you to Hell.. and that only a priest could absolve you of those sins so that you could get into Heaven? That would give the priest, and the church a lot of power.. and as is known.. absolute power corrupts.. absolutely. If you haven’t seen it I definitely recommend checking it out. It’s probably available from Netflix.. I plan to order it from Amazon.

Future:
Oct 20 FREE WEEKEND!!
Oct 25 Cynaguan Fall Coronet
Nov 3 FREE WEEKEND!!
Nov 10 Colligium Occiental
Nov 17 Mists Fall Investiture
Nov 24 Thanksgiving and Golden River Anniversary (my parents will be in town)
Dec 1 Housewarming/Holiday/Shots Party

August 31, 2013 My wedding in Billings Montana

I wrote this before I left for Pennsic.. and forgot to post it. So.. just pretend you saw this a week an a half ago.

1. Work/Programming
I’ve started back up with doing Work Friday Fives. At the end of each week I send a quick note to my boss letting him know what I’m working on, what I’m stuck on and what I think he should know about. I think with working from home more this will re-assure him that I’m staying busy even when I’m quietly puttering away.

New version of Pet Project is code completed and headed for QA.

I’ve adopted the pet project of the gal who was in my group. Essentially she made this really cool awesome tool.. and the folks who use the tool continue to want enhancements to it even though the gal who wrote it is currently working in a different department (and may or may not come back). It feels weird adopting someone else’s project. She thinks and organized different than I do. I’m slogging through her code and it’s slowly becoming clear. There are some things I want to re-architecture.. but I don’t want to offend her by immediately clobbering her code the moment her eyes are averted.. so atm I’m just reading through it and adding comments (and spacing).

Oh DEAR GOD! I spent two years teaching computer science.. and I was an absolute stickler for proper spacing in code (it was part of the grade on every project). It’s like having the right grammar. I guess I’ve grown up to be a code formatting stickler. The gal whose pet project I inherited.. yeah.. not so much with the code formatting. It’s making my eyes bleed. AND IF I SEE ONE MORE VARIABLE OR FUNCTION NAMED MYWHATEVER, I, J or some random word that has nothing to do with the variables use or function I AM GOING TO CLAW OUT MY EYES.

Just sayin’. The next time you write code (or documentation) please for the love of little fuzzy bunnies… think about the next person who has to look at (and decipher) your chicken scrawlings.. and help them out.. just a little.

2. Home
I was a good girl.. and over the week that I ended up staying here alone I not only keep the place tidy.. and washed the dishes.. and I also managed to take a load of stuff over and put it into the storage unit.

I’ve emptied the fridge, done my final tidying. The house/pet sitter has the keys.. and the dogs/cat/birds have enough food to last them while we’re gone.

After Pennsic we’ll assess finances and look at moving out. But that’s not for a while yet.

While working on sewing projects I like to have TV on in the background. Normally it’s cooking channels, but on Tuesday I ended up watching the renovation/DIY channel. I realized while watching this that owning (and then short selling) my house has made me very pessimistic about renovations. I’m still optimistic about owning a home.. but only if it’s a home that I helped build. Until I bought my home I didn’t realize that there are people out in the world who will do a shitty job building or renovating a house.. and just… leave that shitty mess hidden so that the next person who comes around will end up having to pay to fix the issues they created. I wonder if they ever think twice about it.. or feel even a small smidge of guilt. I was just surprised to realize how jaded I am about renovations. I can remember bursting into tears when I found out what a shitty job Mr. O had done on a “fix” to the house. It shattered my optimism when it comes to owning a home.

3. Health
Last Saturday I dyed my hair red. I’ve been planning to do it for a while. It was supposed to be surprise for Fearghus (he hasn’t seen me since last Tuesday). Unfortunately I’m (obviously) very bad at keeping secrets. Based on the fact that I commented on Facebook that “I’ve already done something impulsive” he deduced that I had dyed my hair. Meh. Secrets are wasted on him.

My weight is back on track. I guess I just needed a few days of freaking out about carbs to get it out of my system. I’m not sure how it will go with Pennsic and all.. but I can only do my best.

4. SCA/Projects
PENNSIC IS HERE!

Here were the Goals for Pennsic I posted in May and my progress against those goals:
– 3 pairs of braies for me (need to fiddle with my pattern to make it less awkward)
– 3 pairs of braies for Fearghus
I made a total of 4 pairs of braies. Fearghus said he’d rather have Rus pants instead of braies.

– 2 more waisted cotehardies (red, blue) for me
I finished the Red Kirtle.. and I’m currently working on the Blue one. I -may- be able to wear it by the end of Pennsic.

– 3 short-sleeved tunics for Fearghus
I finished 1 short-sleeved tunic for Fearghus and then he told me he has plenty of tunics. I have cut out two more tunic and stored them in ziplock project bags. I may try to sew that together at Pennsic.. but it’s not a “have-to”

– 20 kits for class
– Update class pictures to include images from Mac Bible.
– Update class notes to include “how to wear a veil and wimple with your St. Birgitta cap” with pictures and instructions and source links.

I finished all the kits.. and added the Mac Bible images.. but I haven’t update my notes about “how to wear a veil and wimple”. I do have a veil and wimple.. so I will talk about it in the class.. but it’s not part of my handout.

– (stretch goal) 2 pairs sewn linen socks for me
Nope.. this didn’t happen I did start on it.. but do you know how hard it is to fit a stocking onto your own foot? Believe me.. I’m not really that flexible… but I have a cunning plan. After Pennsic I’m going to make a Third Leg (Duct Tape Foot Dummy) and use that for doing the major portions of fitting for the stockings (Thanks Oda Wlslagre dicta Widoeghe and Edyth Miller for the inspiration).

In addition to my stated goals I also did the following:
– Replaced all the stake loops on our Regent
– Completed 2 pairs of Rus pants (1 for Bob and 1 for Fearghus)
– Reinforced Fearghus’ fighter pants with leather patches
– Made a tarp to cover up the back door of the Regent to cut down on the rain intrusion
– Completed 2 chemise for me
– Completed 2 Huvet (St. Birgitta Coif). 1 for Esmeralda and 1 for Cathy
– Completed 1 lined linen French Open Hood
– Cut out 1 pair of Rus pants

At this point I can say I’m terribly bored with sewing underwear. I’m ready to move on to a meatier project.

Projects on the horizon:
– Replace Regent internal infrastructure with a center-pole free infrastructure
– Cloth socks
– Viborg for Fearghus
– Wool coat for Fearghus
– Wool Kirtle
– Wickelbander for Fearghus
– Head-to-toe Kentish outfit
– Wall hangings for sunshade
– -=Super Secret=- project for Cynaguan Fall Coronet

5.
I hope to post pictures/blurbs on my Research Blog while I’m at Pennsic. That said..we all know how good intentions go.

Regardless, when I get back we -have- to get started on the save-the-date pictures and cares. I’m now running a little bit late on this. I’m not panic’d.. but it needs to get done.

Future:
August 2-August 12 Pennsic
Aug 18 FREE WEEKEND!! Fall down go BOOM!
Aug 24-26 Purgatorio
Aug 31-Sept 2 Free weekend (we’re not attending Ducal Prize)
Sept 8 Cyn/Mists War
Sept 15 FREE WEEKEND!!
Sept 22 FREE WEEKEND!!
Sept 28 Mists Fall Coronet
Oct 6 Artemesian Crown (it’s at my Mom and Dad’s farm)
Oct 12 October Crown
Oct 20 FREE WEEKEND!!
Oct 25 Cynaguan Fall Coronet

August 31, 2013 My wedding in Billings Montana