blackjohn

Nice pics! And I'm glad you had fun! Though between you and me, I think we were a bit rusty from sitting on our duffs all winter. But all things considered, I think we did a decent job playing to the crowd. Here are a few of my pics... Balls Camp Bad captain! But I think this is my favorite... Landing party

I really need to get back to doing this... 20 minutes walk around the block... it's a (re)start!

Feeling lazy, so I'm just going to copy what I posted on the Pirate Brethren forum and paste it here... I will add one thing. Kelly aka Rogue Mermaid was there, with her peeps. Always nice to see a friend from here in real life. And here ranger is now 17th level! And now, the report... copied and pasted as promised... First, let me say thank you to those who turned out! Lisa and the kids. Balls. Dray. Owen. Munk. Adele. And the fine folks of the Baltimore Rangers, with the ever wonderful Art and Janet. The day was hot, and I am exhausted, but the event was well worth the effort. The site has plenty of great shade trees, with a huge field on which to fight. Nearby is a river. All in all, an excellent choice for a place to have future events. Our plan of action was the standard "we are pirates from Pennsylvania come to Maryland to stir up trouble." Art and the Rangers waylaid us, looking for our passes, which we had none. Commence the shooting. Two battles in four hours. Not too shabby. After hours, we staged a few photo ops -- us coming up from the river, standing in marsh, attacking an old stone house. I'll post 'em when I get 'em. Until then, view Adele's pics at: http://countessadele.myphotoalbum.com/view...bumName=album15

Thanks! I appreciate that! Stress test... went well enough as far as I can tell. Of course, I haven't gone to the follow-up yet, but when the doctor got my heart rate up to 153, he said as far as he could tell from the readout on the monitor my heart looked perfectly normal. His theory is I could've have an esophageal spasm, which hurts every bit as much as a heart attack. I think burning the candle at both ends and in the middle is finally catching up with me.

I'm going to assume four hours of walking around dressed as a pirate in near 90° weather wearing three layers of wool counts as exercise...

Long walk, maybe?

If I told you where it goes, you wouldn't even believe me. They took me totally by surprise, and that is all I will say.

Even 7 inches can cover quite an area of land on a very gentle slope...

That bizarre religious twist of the Cylons is very interesting, isn't it. The show is very dark, and generally I don't like dark shows. I think what this has going for it is the fact that it does a good job of examining how the characters react to that darkness, and by so doing gives us something to reflect upon.

Yes, indeed it is! And it sounds as if it's going to be relatively well attended, with many of my group, some of Merrick's Privateers, and the Duke of Albany & York's Maritime Regiment to provide opposing forces! The gates open at 10, as I understand it, and close at 2. We'll try to fit at least two battles into that block of time. Maybe some guys will do some swordfighting too. Hope to see you there.

Wooo! That's great Tom! Keep up the good work! I haven't done squat lately. Too much real world stuff bogging me down... the library is a disaster again, which means the exercise bike is buried under hats and wigs and swords and books and stuff. On the plus side, the teeny little closet in the library where I keep the overflow of stuff is now very tidy, with everything packed into a plastic storage bin. But I did cut the grass the other day, and meant to use that as a justification to post...

It's the reason I quit the RevWar unit I was in. One person was just too iffy. I feel pretty safe among my pirates. They are all experienced and take safety serious.

Dang... season 3 gets better and better... the stuff the can make a Battlestar do with these 21stC special effects boggles my mind!

Walked about a mile with a ~35lb kid on my shoulders... that hurt.

I made out like a bandit at the market fair this year. Not only did I get a new set of buckles for my mostly wrong shoes, I picked up three calabashes for $5!!! Oh, I shouldn't forget I also picked up the most excellent pair of barely used and in every way perfect pair of 1680s shoes custom made by Sarah Juniper for the measly sum of $200!!! Dang! What a freakin' bargain!!! And Mrs Blackjohn purchased $200 worth of hand-painted delft tiles for the backsplash of the someday to be 18thC tavern. The theme of the tiles is Dutch tradesmen, circa 1700. They are amazing!

I know a guy who has written a rather nice little article on British regulars in America during our era. I asked permission to put it on my site. He agreed. Look for it there in the next couple of days.

Well, it is 1697 in this painting, which means hats cocked on three sides are becoming more and more common. Though honestly, your eyes must be better than mine, because I don't see the figure wearing a three-cornered hat with a headscarf beneath it.

Thanks. I don't suppose the 4 hours it took me to cut the grass with my push mower counts as taking a break does it?!?!? Gotta post some pics of my adventures in shopping yesterday. I scored BIG TIME on a very expensive pair of 1680s shoes!!!

Tell me about it! The first two episodes of season three are total cliffhangers! And now I can't watch 'em back to back, since I'm watching them as they are being aired as repeats instead of on disk! Aaaaaahhhhhh! Dang this show is good!

I kinda thought I had been, but I guess not. I'm still feeling odd... but I seem to be able to do stuff without keeling over dead. I went on a school field trip with son #2 yesterday, and walked around with him on my shoulders for a good half an hour or more. Then went for a mile+ walk around the neighborhood yesterday evening. But I've been having dizzy spells and weird pains ever since. Oh well. Whatever. Stress test scheduled for May 16, hopefully that'll figure out what's up.

I got a kick out of Richard Hatch being on the show. As a kid, being a lefty I didn't have many left-handed heroes to take pride in, so I thought Hatch as Apollo just rocked back in the day! And... man! Season 3 is awesome! Ok, I've only seen the first episode, but dang! These guys know how to make good tv!

Since I'm sore, I'm going to count all the yard work I did yesterday as exercise. With that, I may not do real exercise again after my upcoming stress test. Yes, stress test. The other day while attending a dry-rum for an upcoming training class on how to chart piers, I had this incredibly intense pain in my chest. It felt like someone reached into my chest and grabbed my heart and didn't want to let go. As I sat there debating whether to tough it out, go back to my cube, go home, whatever, it got worse. Then I got really dizzy, so I put my head between my legs hoping it would go away. No such luck. At that point I said, "hey, I hate to break up the meeting, but could someone call 911, I think I may be having a heart attack." Long story short, after two blood tests, a chest x-ray, a cat scan, and so on, there is no evidence of anything wrong with me. Other than mild age related brain atrophy, but then, we knew that already didn't we. I have had a few weird similar pains the last few days, but nothing anywhere near the same level of pain. So... like I said, I'm going to take it easy for awhile, keep myself low-stressed, and maybe drop out of society and go tend sheep on a mountainside with my wife and kids.

It seemed so appropriate, though, didn't it. I love his character, in all his "evil" quirkiness. Just you wait... I agree about the spinal glow. Just goofy. Oh well. With that in mind, Jim Hawk(in)s said he read the following on a message board the other day. Some dude posted... "if 25 years ago you had told me I liked Battlestar Galactica better than Star Wars, I would've punched you right in the nose." Wow. True. It really is. Have you seen the one... naaa... never mind. I don't want to spoil anything for you!

Whooo! Congrats! My exercise habits took a totally unexpected turn. The last week or so it has been evening walks with the family, usually with son #2 riding on my shoulders for the last 1/2 mile. Did traditional exercise just now...

What? No gunfire? (he says, feigning annoyance.) That pretty much seals the deal for me.