You know how whenever someone stops blogging regularly it’s because they’ve fallen off the wagon.. or something dire has happened? Yeah, not so much. A lot has happened.. and honestly I don’t think any of it was bad. I’ve been busy busy busy and haven’t had time (or in some cases Internet access). So I’ll take a bit to bring us all up to speed.
1. Work/Programming
My pet project -finally- went live. It spend forever and a day in testing and it actually got to the point where I was hounding the testers daily to get’er’done so we could just launch this puppy. It’s almost a let down to say that nothing went wrong when we launched live.. but I guess that’s owing to the fact that we spent for-freaking-ever testing the bugger.
Not only did I launch my pet project live I also launched live the pet project I adopted from the other girl who was in my group. I’m happy to say that that tool is now faster, more organized and a little bit less schitzophrenic. It was a good learning experience for me. I think I’ll be able to make very good use out of what I learned with that project. As I was working on it I had to fight the urge to make improvements to the project as I was going along. Since what I was doing was a back-end rewrite I was really supposed to keep all of the current features working the same. Regardless I made a few tiny tweaks (where I couldn’t stand to -not- tweak it) and I made about a page of suggested updates to the folks who control the feature prioritization for that project.
That said.. I have a new pet project. It’s still kind of hush-y hush since it hasn’t -officially- been approved for development.. but my boss asked me if I could bang out a prototype so that we could have something concrete to go on. This project could have HUGE impact on my future (you know.. assuming it officially gets approved for development). I’m very pleased that all the things I’ve learned from the pet project.. and my adopted pet project went into my new-new pet project.**
Anyway, things are going along swimmingly. I now have my office setup in the new house.. and it is SPLENDID. I love having a nice quite bright office to work in when I’m at home. It could use a bit of furniture.. but I’ll make do for now.
**I’m fighting the urge to give codenames to my pet projects.. since they already =have= official code names.
2. Home
I love it. No.. “I love it” doesn’t really convey the grinning-like-an-idiot that happens as I stroll from room to room. Tonight we setup a bookcase and hung a few pictures. I absolutely freaking adore the house and I’m giddy with happy to be here. Happiness level goes to eleven.
We will be having a Housewarming/Holiday/Shots party December 1. Let me know if you’re interested in attending and haven’t yet seen the invitation.
3. Health
I liked having red hair. I intensely DISLIKED having red hair dye rub off on my white linen head coverings. It was an interesting experience.. but I think at least for now I’ll stick with my own hair color.
Pennsic + moving did a number on my weight. I’m struggling and up a little.. but I’ve got my eye on it and I’m working on it. I need to go grocery shopping.. oh.. and hit up a farmer’s market. I think there’s one tomorrow. Ponder.
I finally set up an appointment and visited a chiropractor in California. I resent that Kaiser doesn’t cover it at all.. but I found one that is $90 for the first visit and $40 for any visits after that. A few days after my appointment I actually had a completely pain free day where my back didn’t hurt even a tiny bit. It was.. nice.
Today I finally went and visited an Optometrist in Santa Rosa. Just after Pennsic I ran out of contacts.. and I’ve been putting it off because I was worried about having enough money to pay for the rental. It turns out it only cost $120 out of pocket for the visit+ a year’s supply of contacts. I’m super pleased about that. I can wear glasses if I have to.. but I really prefer contacts.
4. SCA/Projects
Pennsic happened. Everyone wore clothes. I managed to wear a kirtle for every day of the war except one. Of course all the pictures of me were taken on the day when I didn’t wear a kirtle. Bah Fooey. Regardless, loving the kirtles. Since I’ve been back I’ve finished my Cobalt kirtle (which I wore at Purgatorio) and I’m almost done with my Mocha Kirtle. I just need to finish the hem and I’ll be able to wear it next weekend.
The weekend after-next is October Crown. I am horribly not ready. I need like 4 more weeks of freetime to work on projects to be ready. I am one of Zanobia’s Queen’s Artisans.. and we’ve been asked to display our best works at October Crown. I wanted to get so much done.. but my project list far exceeded my free time. I have things to display.. but I wanted to do so much more. It feels like I could have done better. Ah well. It is what it is.
Things I have to display:
- Tablet woven belt of possibly anglo-saxon provenance. I want to clean up my documentation about what it is, where it was found, how it was made and then cite the evidence that suggests that this pattern is actually 14th century rather than 6th century. I may also include a brocaded piece I did which is based on an Anglo-Saxon filet.
- Kirtle research. I know I need to have at least one dress on display.. but I wonder if I should show more than one. I’ve learned something from each of the dresses I’ve done (black, red, blue, brown) but I don’t know if it’s wothwhile to show more than one of them as an example.
- Two-tailed cap and open hood. I need to finish writing up my info about the open hood. I really need to get access to my books.. which are still in storage. *sigh*
- Paternosters. I plan to display a few of the paternosters I’ve made
- Arianwen’s Saxony Dress I happen to have a wicker dress dummy which I think is almost exactly Ari’s size. I think it will display the dress nicely.
- Reproduction of the Viborg Shirt. Again, I’ll need to clean up my class handout about this.
- A Huvet (AKA: Cap of St. Birgitta) I think I can straight up use my class handout for this.
If I have papers about the projects.. how many copies should I put out? One so people can read about them.. or more than one so that they can take copies?
5.
We’re still in the honeymoon phase with the house. It’s so nice, clean and uncluttered we just want to keep it that way. I’m ok with that. I’m giddy with happy about the house. I wish, even for a moment, that I had felt like this about the house I bought. I don’t think I did. Or if I did that sparkle of positive was totally worn away by the bleak grey which became my day-to-day. It’s much better now.
Added bonus, the house gets lots of sunlight. I’m totally lizarding in my own (rented) house.
We’re in the process of fetching everything from our storage unit. The thinking is that we can save $100/month if we move all the stuff out of storage and into the house. I like that initial goal.. but I also want to cull all the things and eliminate the clutter. It’s a good goal.. but hard to put into effect. I’m working on it though.
Future:
Sept 28 FREE WEEKEND (we’re not attending Mists Fall Coronet)
Oct 6 ???
Oct 12 October Crown
Oct 20 FREE WEEKEND!!
Oct 25 Cynaguan Fall Coronet
Nov 3 FREE WEEKEND!!
Nov 10 Colligium Occiental
Nov 17 Mists Fall Investiture
Nov 24 Thanks Giving and Golden River Anniversary (my parents will be in town)
Dec 1 Housewarming/Holiday/Shots Party
August 31, 2013 My wedding in Billings Montana