Diosa De Cancion

DO you still want feedback? If you want corrections let me know. If not, then I will refrain from telling you that it's Don Maitz, the trial was once a day, but on two separate days and that Don does, in fact, paint us every year. I have the collection of paintings and drawings he has done over the years during the trial. I always bid on them in the auctions :) Thanks for the journal! Love reading it!!

I know them well. Didn't you leave them attached to the four poster at your hotel? Nah, they were out at the fort in the tent long after they were at the hotel....

That's very cool and a might bit eerie and has me wondering if he too had the drooling problem... perhaps that is genetic :)

Darn it, I'm late too, I'll blame Reggie though? Why is it his fault? Do I really need a reason? Nope, all Reggie's fault! :) Love ya Salty and I hope you had a fantastic birthday!

Thanks Momma and Poppa! Merry Christmas!! Much Love to you both!!

Nice Video Dutch! However, NEVER go up the stairs before the camera... or were you trying to show off your backside to us? I just dropped in a little $$. I am assuming going through the http://www.colonialseaport.org/ 'donate' link was the way to go. I am not sure what other projects the CSF is funding right now, but is there a way to earmark for Luna if there are multiple options for where the $$ goes?

OK, so I am actually missing a pair of my shackles.... I had two sets and as I sort things out I only have one set left. They were used in the trial on Friday and Saturday and I think perhaps the one set may have gone missing over at the waterfront area. I was repacking all of my props I bring down for the trial and the one pair of shackles is missing You know, they're the full metal shackles with the chain between them... look at any of the trial pics to see them. Thanks!

Well done Mission. The 'diseased porcupine' bit actually made me spit coffee laughing.... my computer does not, however, appreciate you right now :)

Well I would say go! Folks like Kate and Mickey and Callenish travel much further to be there! It's a fantastic group of people.

Ahoy all! Here is the updated link for the Pirate Profile I wrote a few days ago for First Mate Matt on my blog. There was a glitch on the page before, but it has been repaired. Click below and enjoy! Profile Blog Link

Sign me up! A-frame camping :)

See, it wasn't just me. He'll just watch you and let you pass by. Next time, just look at him and say 'damascus' and you should get a couple of sentences. :)

Ah William!!! I hope you have the happiest of birthdays! Go get in some trouble, there are no pyrate hunters around to watch you :)

OK kids! Time for the next family member to be profiled. This time it's First Mate Matt. Click below and enjoy! Lemme know what you think. Pirate Profiles Blog

DB & Pete - Fantastic! Love them both :)

mine started working today, thanks!

PIP 2004 (just as a note, this starts out a little slower...with info on how the fest was run, but there are some fun stories a little later on :) ) 2004 was the first time I saw Fort Zachary Taylor Park as it was the first year on the beach. My crewe was setting up a display area where I was also selling pirate jewelry, coins and other offerings. In the one year's time since I had gone to my first pirate event, I was now not only going to attend the fest again, but this time I was part of a crewe and taking part in MANY events! I know we had some sails on the wolf early on, which were very fun I also recall working with the kiddies at Mel Fisher's on Saturday November 27th. We had fun out doing activities and playing games with the kids all day at the museum. I do miss that. In addition to doing the kids event, I also had a meeting with the management there to sell jewelry and other pirate items to them for their gift shop, a relationship that still continues. I've gone through many sales managers and now I just deal with the Executive Director, Melissa Kendrick who is an awesome and fun chick who loves pirates!...yeah, I know.. I'm off track... I also met with the folks at Pirate Soul (and got a behind the scene tour) and met Pat Croce and his daughter Kelly. She was picking out items for them to sell in the store there as well and featured some of my jewelry. Later that day, we hosted a pub stroll… ok, to be honest, I remember being exhausted before the pub crawl even got underway because someone forgot to tell the pubs we were coming and make sure they were ready and had drink deals set up. So I was literally running all over town trying to sort it all out in the 30 minutes or so before the crawl started. I love organization... Funny enough, what I do remember is that while I am not a drinker, the 'punch' that Crabby Bills was serving was pretty yummy! We had 20-30 people on the stroll and had a good time wandering through the streets of KW for the evening. After that, we went to the Brethren of the Coast's Pirate Feast at the Key West Yacht Club. This is another of those examples of how things moved all over the island in these days. There was a great dinner at the Club and an auction to raise money for one of many charities. To be honest, I don't recall what charity it was…usually it was an arts in education type of thing. But there were a number of these charity auctions and silent auctions held over the course of the event. Sunday November 28th had a number of events back to back as well. I am sitting here wondering how we made it to all of them to be honest. The first one was the Southernmost Hotel & Resort's Pirates' Pool Party. That one was easy since we were staying at the Hotel. We were doing music and had a couple display for the kiddies. Sully (who used to be known as Master Studley) and Olaf had arrived by then and set up a little makeshift 'booth' area and were playing period games. That was the first time I saw and played sweat rag when sully brought it out and taught me the game! Later on was the Literature & the Sea Authors and Historians Reception at The Gardens Hotel. The Gardens had a very beautiful area out back. There were little trails you could walk though and see the colorful foliage. I remember hearing Kat Epple (http://www.katepple.com/) playing while I walked through the greenery. I remember walking with Sheila and bitching about men ☺ I also remember that we were playing some music, sitting on the stairs that entered the garden area. At some point Finbar jumped in on the conga and I think Kat even popped in. For the life of me, I cannot remember what song it was. I do remember the feeling of the moment being such an enjoyable confluence of musicians in a stunning setting. From there, we headed over to the Atlantic Shores Resort's One-Eyed Pirates Tea Dance. It was a blast and I am sad this resort went condo and no longer is used as a venue. They had a long pier that you could walk out on with your drinks and was just a very fun social setting. I also remember one of the best responses I have been given. On the rare occurrences I actually drink, it's usually something really yummy or I won't touch it…so I walked up to the bar and said 'Hi, I would like something that's not too strong and really fruity." To which the bartender pointed to the bartender next to him and said 'I hear he's available." I laughed and then he went to work and created a 'pearl diver' for me. (Which by the way is coconut rum, melon liqueur and pineapple juice) I don't remember anything amazingly noteworthy of the next few days, but I do remember the Hog's Breath Saloon evening with the most buxom wench contest. If I recall, Jamaica Rose walked away with that one! Speaking of walking…. I also remember Thursday night's "Banana Bay Resort's Buccaneer Bash & Norma Miller's 85th Birthday Party where Hurricane tried to walk on water, but that's his story to tell…. Also on Thursday was prep for the weekend festival at Fort Taylor. As has been mentioned before, the set up of this was a little messy. The signage for the event had been taken with an angry former Mary Read as she left the island…. So, once Raven and the signs left, Julie asked Hurricane and I what we could do… our answer… work! She supplied sailcloth and paint, and we lined the decks of the hotel making signs for all the areas of the fest site. And thankfully, I took a picture! It was one of those 'bonding' experiences. Then we were able to set up our space on site which was kind of pirate looking, but not period correct Among the weekend offerings were land/sea battles with the Wolf sailing up the coast along the shoreline, fight circles where everyone fighting was named Jack (it was that group's gimmick) and the Dread Pirate Game competition. Steve Edmiston, the designer of the game came to KW with a number of the games and set up a pirate competition. He would teach the basics and the winners tended to get the game, which was a good deal since it was the nice 'premium' edition. He also had the "Master and Commander' version of the game, which had just come out. So, being a good pirate, I figured out a way to get one without having to pay a fortune for it. As I mentioned, there were a lot of auctions going on. One of the silent auctions that week at El Meson De Pepe was for a game. I was bidding back and forth with a guy, and it got to $100 and he let it drop. Well, at least I thought he did. In actuality, he had not made it back to the table to up his bid. So, after I collected it, he came up to me and offered twice the amount to buy it from me. I sold it to him for $200 and handed the $200 to Julie and asked her to find me another one (since we had the designer in town, it was not a problem, she had a whole box of them) So, the charity got a double donation and I got my game without paying for it :) I still have it, and inside, it is signed to me by the designer. One of my first signed souvenirs from PIP ☺ And since this is rambling on longer than it should, just one more story to share and I will be done…. It was the year of the first Walk the Plank competition. Thinking of how cool it would look, the decision was made to have the Wolf sail up off the beach, just past those break rocks that were about 100 yards out in the water. Because of its draft, the ship had to go a little further out. We thought we had it all covered. I was perched at one end of the ship and Deadly Aim at the other. We were both swimmers and going to be the safety personnel, ready to jump in and help someone who was having a problem. The water looked ok from the surface… oh, what the surface doesn't tell you…. The first plank walker was Jennifer (who placed this year) She swam around the ship and climbed back on board with little problem. Then the other contestants started walking and decided to swim ashore (as it would take a while for the Wolf to get back to the marina and for them to get back to the festival) Among those making the leap were Don Maitz and Sheila. They quickly realized there was something not so friendly happening under the surface. The current was desperately trying to take them to Cuba. I watched them struggle to get to the break rocks, but they made it. I breathed a sigh of relief when we ran out of contestants…. That sigh was premature. Nigel, who was a judge perched on a rowboat with Master Sully, was going to make a cute little display and 'fall in the water' so he could get back to shore…. He swore to me he was a great swimmer. He lied (Sorry Nigel, I love you though! ☺) He hit the water and the current started pulling him. I saw him bob under a few times and knew he needed help. I dove in the water and swam towards him. He was, perhaps, 20 yards from the rocks, but was not making any headway. I got up to him and tried to tell him to relax and let me help him, but he kept trying to swim, in a different manner than I was, which made things worse. He dragged me under a few times and when I was close enough to the rocks I was somehow able to somewhat toss him through the water onto them. I'm still not sure how I did it, but I suppose the desire not to be drowned helped. I remember later seeing the cuts and blood from him landing on the rocks, but he was breathing, so I considered it a good rescue. Then Deadly Aim decided to hop into the water to get to shore. Well. I had intentionally dressed in 'pirate-looking' clothing that was all tight-fitting to help me swim…she had put on a skirt. She hit the water and started to sink. Luckily some of the guys on the Wolf had, by then, un-tethered the dinghy and rescued her. Here's a look at us post-event Also, just as another side not (I know, I said I was wrapping up…but it's still related.) So, this relates to Master Sully's arms and strength. He was rowing the boat that Nigel was in. Let's remember, there was an INSANE current, yet he was able to control that rowboat in like it was in a kiddie pool. And the moment I remember fondly is a few of us who were on the Wolf chuckling and watching his rowboat (and two others) launch from the shore. He was able to move that boat through the water at such speed, as compared to the others, it looked like they were standing still. While this pic doesn't show it, damn, you should see that man's arms... To this day I'm in lust of them… but wait…I'm his pirate mom. That would be incest…sigh… I'll admire from a distance… Ahem! Alrighty then, that's what I recall from PIP 2004 and my view of the event's history that year

(AP) Maybe pirates took the bronze ship's cannon from the front of a Charleston store. The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Tuesday the owner of Galleons Lost reported someone took the 18th century cannon last week. Owner Rich Mutschler said he put the gun out front about 9 a.m. Friday and it was gone 90 minutes later. Mutschler says he had put the cannon in front of the store for weeks and no one bothered it. Mutschler says the gun could be fired. It is three feet long and weighs about 250 pounds. It's valued at $10,000.

These are all Momma and Poppa Ratzi pics. I never remembered to take my damn camera out, but I am going through the pics Tony gave me before I left that they had taken over the weekend. So, I suppose his usual rule stands, give credit and you should be good to go.

agreed...amazing display, very nicely done! As I said in my FTPI review... totally put me to shame and had me want to start working on bettering my display pieces.....

Ok, I have started putting up photos from Poppa Ratzi et al. I have a billion to go through, but have started to go through some of them and pick a few to post. Here's the link, but there will be more coming in the next few days. Also, Mission, I think you asked for a photo of jollyjacktar. There is one in here. Diosa's PIP Album

here ya go!! Click on this image. And while you all are at it. If you see people in pics I have not been able to tag, please tag away. I have gone through the first couple thousand of the pics taken by Poppa and Momma Ratzi... I will keep going through them..trying to pull out the 100 best pics of PIP... IMHO anyways....Beauwolf Snuggle Pic

I'm actually NOT getting any e-mail alerts when there are messages. I looked at my settings and it says I should be, but they're not happening.....

I have a pic!!! Gimme a couple hours to find it and post it. I think Tony took it and I have all his pics!

No, what was the use... there was no Dogge... we all just said 'screw it! Forget the ghost walk!' Actually I am not sure if anyone went. I know some folks did a stroll on their own, but I don;t think there was a 'coordinated' walk.