Five Things: Tick Tick Tick

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/)