Red-Handed Jill

Sigh - now Karl Malden has died. I really liked him in "Streets of San Francisco". Karl Malden Dead

Canada Day is today - so happy Canada Day, eh?

Discovering a new author and looking forward to reading everything he or she wrote.

Congratulations! One year - the first of many!

Or perhaps a troll?...

So you're still taking orders, then? If that's the case, I'd like to order a small one and a large one. Let me know and I'll send you the payment asap.

Captain Hayden likes to sail Aldebaran on her ear - and she sails just fine that way. I've been up to my knees in water on her on more than one occasion.

Yay - glad to see someone got the "full moon over Vallejo" shot!

Sjöröveren, I'm guessing you saw the series "Connections"...

Go to Flickr and in the Search field type: Northern California Pirate Festival. Then sort by most recent. Folks are still recovering, so I'm sure there will be more pics available soon!

Who is that scurvy pirate?

I'm sure Ransom will have lots to post as well - and lots of great pics. We had a blast - literally - at the NorCal faire. It started for us on Friday morning. We all sailed up to the festival on the Schooner Aldebaran, the ship featured in the cannon battle. This year, Ransom and Chain Shot joined us for this sail and acquitted themselves well. We got some great wind and got there in pretty good time. Then we had an impromptu dinner aboard and discussed the plans for Saturday's battle. We were all beat so we all went to our respective beds and bunks fairly early. The next day was spent prepping, going through cannon drills and then it was time for the battle! We fought bravely, sending those British Navy wusses back across the pond where they came from by means of weaponry and taunts. They set the shore battery in a different spot this time and we could really hear the reports as they fired on us! Ransom and Chain Shot were the gun crew for the largest cannon and I spent the day loading small arms. Iron Jack's best friend Phil was aboard, along with his son and his son's friend. We went over particular safety procedures for them and a number of times we remarked how Max was an "old hand" at this, having done this last year. For an eleven year old, that's a Big Deal - the lad was walking tall for the rest of the day. On the shore battery, the Tales crew was joined by none other than Oderless Eye, who I'm sure has plenty of stories of his own to tell. (Ransom - should I mention about mooning the Brits?...) And one of our cannon crew on shore got big props from the black powder master about how safe he was. Jack and I have been working with him for some time on this and he's been a very willing student. Not only was he singled out for the compliment, he was also asked to oversee the safety procedures for some of the other groups! Then we spent the rest of the day at the festival, where I got to meet several old and new friends and folks I hadn't seen in ages. It was wonderful to see everyone! The festival was busy, but not as insanely busy as it had been two years ago - one could actually walk through the crowds. But the vendors I talked to were very happy with the turnout and the brisk business they were doing, which I was extremely glad to hear. Our stomachs announced that it was time to eat and the Aldebaran crew adjourned to a local watering hole for dinner and then to our various berths and beds again. The next day wasn't quite as windy as Saturday and we were able to put up more sail. We had fewer people aboard so I asked Ransom if she wouldn't mind also helping to sail the boat as well as working the cannon. She gave the idea two thumbs-up and then it was time to shove off. As on Saturday, we acquitted ourselves well, although the British Navy had an additional weapon up their figurative sleeves: they pelted us with hard tack as we went by. Just wait... we have a special surprise for you gents next year! At the end of the battle, we sailed back to port where some of our crew, including Ransom and Chain Shot, disembarked and after a birthday toast with Ransom's new flask, we bid adieu and sailed off into the sunset. (Okay - we were sailing East, but you get the idea.)

Patt - do you want us to see if we can do this at Ojai?

Patt - we really don't know why the decision was made. I'd say still go and have fun with us.

Hmmm... depends on how you want to handle it and the discomfort level. I suppose folks here will let you know if they are uncomfortable with that. Here's another tack - if we're dealing with alternate history, why don't we make it more about rivalry rather than one group erroneously thinking that "God made them naturally superior" - master race crap and all that? Or switch it around, like the Chinese used the Italians to dig in their mines, that sort of thing.

Yeah - we've been gnashing our teeth over this one. The pirates of Emerson can do zombie pirates but we can't do airship pirates. We've basically been told we can't do Steampunk in our camp but if you want to walk around as a member of the "public" as an airship pirate and if other steampunk enthusiasts just happen to want to hang out in the Tales camp...

Gnashing my teeth. We had certain plans for our camp at this weekend's event and at the last minute were told that we couldn't do them. A number of people have put some effort into this (particularly Patrick) and now it's all for nothing. Wish we had been told this earlier - sigh...

Picked up a couple of parts this weekend - the stuff I knew I could get at a local hardware store. I found a copper toilet float which will be on the back part of the gun. Then I bought other stuff to use as a trigger and other parts. The middle and front sections, as well as a "steam gauge" with the look I want I don't think I'll find outside of antique stores but Jack's carving the handle for me and I can use two or three feet of slim copper tubing (also found at local hardware stores.) The gun should end up being about 15-18" long. One of these days I'll do a larger plan of my ray gun - the current one is on a Post-It, crammed full of tiny notes.

By the way, there are two parties planned after hours - one for Friday and one for Saturday. You'll need a special bracelet to get in after hours. Contact the folks at the NorCal festival if your group will be staying after hours so you can get on the gate list.

Exactly, Patt. Reproductions don't quite have the right look, patina or details, oftentimes. And yay for your "new" bike! I've got some industrial-sized, old nuts and bolts I've been keeping for a project but I'll bet you can find a better use for them. The bolts have a domed rather than hexagonal top. They are about six inches long and an inch in diameter, with 1-1/2 inch or so tops and nuts.

This is a fairly recent festival - this will be the third one.

Oi Blackjohn - that Old Time Candy store has the British version of the Marathon bar - apparently it's supposed to be just the same (albeit with better chocolate...) Old Time Candy - Curly Wurly And Ghiradelli makes a 99% cacao bar - yes, I've had it. Extremely intense chocolate flavour, not sweet. I usually like my chocolate extra bittersweet as well, in the 80% range.

Also a big fan of salt water taffy. There's a store in Monterey that has big barrels of them. I've seen other stores with the same but this particular store seems to have about twice as many varieties as the other stores.

I've really become a fan of Vosges chocolate with Himalayan salt bars. The salt really accentuates the chocolate. And although I prefer dark to milk chocolate, these have a respectable 41% cacao content. William Red Wake would no doubt be a big fan of their bacon chocolate bars.

One of the things that I like about antiques is that oftentimes they would make some of the most mundane things look like works of art, even plumbing implementia. That's essentially why I'm looking for the antiques - they might make similar things now but they wouldn't quite look the way I want.