dukesean

With newperspectives home sick and ldybz3 driving her car up instead of getting a ride and taking the train, we have many car issues to consider for the next few days. Then I get a call that talkisdead will need a ride back from Springfield on Monday where his dead car is. So I am thinking that leaving my car in Springfield tomorrow night might make sense. I will have to ponder this, but since two vehicles will have to drive up from St Louis to Springfield on Monday anyway, this might be the most sensible plan.

Anyone want to volunteer a place for me to park my car over the weekend? Drop off around 11 on Christmas Eve and pick up on Monday in Springfield. Street parking is OK, though I worry about weather.

I have to talk this over to see if it is the best option, but it seems like this would be the least total driving for everyone when it is all put together.

Avatar is absolutely awesome.
Saw it 3-D in the IMAX last night.  Amazing and awesome. I wanta go to Pandora.

I go to my mailbox tonight and what do I find? A Christmas card in a very small envelope. This is not too surprising, right? But it has a stamp on it for 0.95 Euros and a postmark of Nederland.

Thank you so much for the card draconisregina and dutch_ditch. This is the first foreign Christmas card I have ever received.

At least that was the plan. Chicken is hard though. I had 1.5 boneless breasts of chicken. I carefully cut it into chunks. I did not cut myself, which I considered a good start. Then I could not tell when it was done. It is much harder to move around the pan than hamburger is. I finally added the taco seasonings and water. This did not go very well as it does not work like hamburger in water does either.

I put the shells in the microwave to warm them and burned one black and the others extra crispy. So I decided that I would just mix the crushed shells, chicken, and cheese together. It was not awful. But chicken is hard.

Now I get to clean that pan...

Busy day today. Started by putting in about 90 minutes of work on a couple of servers at QNI. These happen to be the two servers I installed when I was at TriLutions. In 2003. These are quite old in computer terms and the hard drives have been running constantly for more than six years. They are starting to die and replacements are hard to find. I started a rebuild and then went on to the rest of my day.

I went to Macomb and gave Sean his new to him used MacBook for Christmas. sgtgwn and I decided to give it to him early so that I could transfer all his information on to it. They are flying to Texas on Christmas Day and he is going to be travelling all over on Christmas Eve. I work Christmas Eve, so this was the best plan. He seemed very pleased with it. We went out and got the Christmas presents for his cousins today. I am now almost done shopping now.

We then went back and got his system all setup including installing Windows on it. He can now play Mac and Windows games. Just what he needs. We then had some pizza and I headed back to Quincy about 7:30.

Another hour with the servers and a pair of other calls from users and it was nearly 11pm. Talked to ldybz3 a bit after that. Chatted on line and caught football highlights. Now I just have to organize my cracker box apartment ready to hold four people for one night.

Our friend Countess Marrianna of Atenvelt is planning to come to our 12th night celebration. (yay!) We have arranged to pick her up here at the airport and transport her up to the site, and of course we'd be happy to take her back to the airport as well, but she will be flying standby and absolutely positively needs to be home in Phoenix by sunday night. We won't be able to guarantee her to the airport before 3pm or so on sunday, and that might not work for her.
She can fly our of either PDX or SeaTac, is there someone planing on heading home sooner sunday that can get her to one of those 2 airports by noon?

thanks in advance...

So today was another day of Christmas shopping. This time it involved going over to Hannibal. I found a couple of unique gifts over there at the specialty shops. newperspectives was with as an advisor, but I do not it think it helped with one of the purchases as I bought it anyway.

On the way home we found another good one at Big Lots, a place I never shop at. Maybe I should go there more often. But then the check engine light came on in my car. What is the deal? It only has 253,454 miles on it. Stopped at AutoZone and they said it was the solenoid. Might just need cleaned. I need to do a little research on it and then likely find a trust worthy mechanic in Quincy to check it. I was told it was fine to drive on, my mileage would likely just be less.

I had only one call from work so far this weekend, but I do need to go in to do a maintenance routine after midnight.

It has been a nice day

I watched The Nativity Story on TNT tonight. This might have been a mistake. It started out OK, but then I quickly realized that this was a telling of the traditional nativity scene in historical trappings to make it feel more realistic. It did not resonate with me at all. It mixed history, the actual stories from the bible, and traditional add ons into a production that just failed for me. I did like the fact that the majority of the actors looked Semetic. I liked the use of Roman power. But after that, it just did not work for me.

http://www.cafepress.com/orderofthestick/6257881

Peace out y'all!

I had a wonderful practice last night.
It was a bit difficult to get out to the site because I had to wait for the house painter to leave and it was
bloody cold outside. But I promised I'd be there and I really need the practice.

So I got to practice and it was pretty cool out, under 40 F. But there were several people there getting into
armor so I reluctantly donned mine as well. Damn, armor left out in the truck is cold!

But I stretched a bit and tried to remember which end of the stick to hit with.
I'm still polishing up my technique with this smaller shield so I went out with the idea of not trying to win
my fights but instead to not get hit. Try to work on my defense and go offensive when the opportunity
presented itself. Well I got in the groove. The only real bruise I got was when I got cocky and tried
a big move against my squire. I have a lovely stripe down my right shoulder as a reminder to not be
stupid. I also lost another fight against a Centurion but it was just one of those things. I think I won all
the rest of my fights. It was amazing. I kept my eyes open and just watched my opponents an picked up
their attacks. I didn't over-extend my attacks and tried to focused. Even the fighters watching were
impressed and I frustrated the hell out of poor Sir Louis.

Best of all, I had fun fighting. I may be starting to get the hang of this thing.

Jan... (New Jersey) snailstichr flies out early next Monday, and I drive home, and prepare to immediately leave for Estrella.

Feb... (New Mexico) Huge props to BDR and CAAbee, who gave up the day to rescue us , and Rhianwylleth and Bohemund, who are putting us up tonight and loaning us their truck so we can get to the war.

Mar...(Missouri) The recurring theme was blood.

Apr...(Arkansas) Have I mentioned how cool my new Bohemund boots are?

May...(Virginia) In this corner, weighing in at 200 Toscanos, the Beast of the East, the Accordion from Concordia, Mah-stah Leeeeam Zaint Leeeeeam.

June...(Arkansas) I am not a man of few words, and I decided to use many of them.

July...(Indiana) Dropped trailer, drove to Walmart for tools, removed fender, replaced tire, and just now replaced burnt out fuse that kept tail lights from working.

August...(Pennsylvania) My helm basically visited a chop shop.

September...(Illinois) I have always said that being a lifelong Cubs fan has been the perfect preparation for being a Calontir bard.

October...(California) The fact that we just saw Zombieland and are going to Disneyland is sheer coincidence.

November...(Tennessee) The Calontir Overland Express rides again.

December...(Missouri) I begged the boon that my apprentice, HL Dolan Madoc, be elevated to Laurel.

Once I noticed that I was covering so many states, I made active attempts to hit a different state for every month.

This took effect yesterday, but I realized some people were only reading about it here:


To the relief of the Nursing staff in ICU at Washington Regional Medical Center,

Master Pavel has returned home to recuperate in the loving presence of his dachshund pack.

To those who took me at my word that Pavel was being starved, and were conspiring to send him naughty food, I will rephrase an offlist conversation I had with a well-meaning friend:


WMF: What can I do to help? Can I send Pizza? Can I send Gin?

Me: Only if you want to run afoul of his daughter, who wants to see him for this Christmas, and many Christmases to come.

She will bury your @$$ in tons, I say TONS, of kitty litter.

Work was crazy again today. So what did I do afterwards? Went out for Christmas shopping. It went well enough. I still have a few things to figure out but found some things. Got some options. I might even make a list. Also got a universal remote for the TV that iknowitsasong gave me. And I got it programmed and working.

All in all a good night.

I'm against animal cruelty but have eaten and enjoyed fois gras.
Now the owner of a top restaurant has taken an interesting stand about fois gras and I
think anyone who has had an opinion of this food should read it. He writes very well also.

http://www.incanto.biz/letters_-_shock_and_foie.html

I think I can eat fois gras with a lot less guilt.

He had his second trip to the surgeon today. They are skipping the second stent and treating with meds instead. He is back in his room, drugged to groggyness and hungry. Did I mention they are starving him?

These were the lines that were used while we begged the boon for Dolan.
Mistress Lynette and Countess Maerwynn joined me in the recitation.
Dolan said his ears pricked up when I said Welshman, and he had it pretty much figured out when Maerwyn got to ...leads into song.

Sure is the power of well plucked string
Showing and twining Welshmen’s folks’ art
Sure is the power of well plucked string
To send sharp arrow straight on its path.
Sure is the power of well plucked string
To sound clear note that leads into song
Sure is the power of well plucked string
Which buries that sent deep in the heart
Sure is the power of well plucked string
Or for Queen’s pleasure, or for King’s Wrath
Sure is the power of well plucked string
He ought to be called Master wielding power so strong.

Medieval Garments Reconstructed: Norse Clothing Patterns (Hardcover)
~ Lilli Fransen (Author), Anna Norgard (Author), Else Ostergard (Author), Shelly Nordtorp-Madson (Translator)

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Trying to decide if it is worth shelling out the money . . . Looks like it releases 1/2010

Dear Sekrit Santa Victim,
I have finally found, wrapped and shipped your gift! I am hoping that it will arrive in time despite my tardiness and the crossing the border possiblity of delay. Hugs and Merry Merry Christmas,
Gulenay

Headed down to Tasmania over the weekend to do some training with the folks down there.

hobart is a wonderful town - the weather is civilized, there are nice old buildings and the place has not been taken over by the regular chain stores that infect the urban landscape.

Friday I spent the afternoon with Dan. We mainly worked on some ideas around range and what you can do with it. Sliding shots to close the range and the long range casting shots to tag people as they come in with out thinking about it. i also introduced 'comfy speed' work to him and we did a number of different drills.
We also chatted about the differences between training, practice and fighting.

Sunday I had a larger group for the whole day. Firstly - these chaps are not used to doing real warm ups and exercises...yes OK, I was being mean making them run...
We worked again though a lot of the range stuff again. Some bits on basic shots, the 4/5 drill and some defensive mode drills. I would like to think everyone found this useful, at least the chaps said they were getting something out of it.

Sunday (yes day three) was the Baronial fighter training. Mostly very new people here. So it was the basic attacks, some movement/footwork stuff, shield work and I started on doing some offensive shield stuff as well. We also recapped all the drills I had done on the first two days.

So - rather tied. This sort of thing does work better if I have Ray along - the ability to tag-team the sessions means you are not feeling so trashed at the end of the day and also means you do not miss anything.
They have asked me to go back sometime in the first half of 2010. If I do go (and I would love to ) I will try to talk Ray into also heading down.


C.

The teeth are doing very well. I am eating almost everything by now. I can still feel the stitches on the left side and it is still slightly swollen. All of this is within the parameters that I got from the oral surgeon. Next year I have to figure out what kind of dental work I can afford to deal with the missing teeth. This will likely be a two year process due to dental limitations.

The car is getting a new starter. $135 worth of parts and labor. It just went from weak to dead faster than they thought it would. I am so glad it chose to die in Galesburg where Dad could come help me. I knew the theory of push starting a car, but had never done so. It will be finished tomorrow.

Now that just leaves me with Christmas and work to deal with right now.