Red-Handed Jill

^ A cannon for Jack's birthday. < IMO, Online shopping is the best thing since sliced bread. V What was your last big pirate purchase?

1) Mandarin orange 2) Resin turtle tchochke 3) Anupama 4) Ray-Ray

^ Last night. Went to an incredible Indian restaurant - the food was unbelieveably good. < So much to do before the Queen Bess and the Pyrates faire!!!! V Last great dessert eaten?

I have a friend with four parrots and lots of feathers. PM me to let me know how to get them to you.

I prefer to at least attempt optimism. Life has a way of changing when you least expect it, oftentimes for the better. I think about my life at various times and see how over the years there have been good periods and bad periods within it. After one particularly bad period in my life, I did everything I could to change my situation; it took awhile, but it did happen. Keep a vision of what it is that you want firmly in your mind and work at making that vision happen, no matter what. Sounds like a cliché, but it is true.

^Just sent me a nice PM - thanks!

^ Let's see... Vactor operator, civil servant, marine pathologist, tech trainer, operations/IT manager (twice), applications developer/sys admin, college professor, financial advisor/advisor coach, software trainer/course developer - that makes ten. I liked teaching the best. < That doesn't include the odd jobs I did while in school or the couple of small businesses I had. V Pass the question on.

^ Hmmm... probably one of the few coincidences that hasn't happened to me - yet. < Jack's picking me up a key lime pie for my birthday - woo hoo! V Any weird ancestral stories?

^ It's a toss-up between key lime and lemon meringue. < When I was very young, my father thought to "cure" me of what he considered to be my inordinate enjoyment of lemon meringue pie. So he sat me down and put an entire pie in front of me and ordered me to eat it. Of course, for me that was Christmas come early, so I devoured that pie with a vengeance. I had almost all of it consumed when my mom came downstairs into the kitchen, freaked out and snatched the remains of the pie. The "cure" didn't take, much to my father's chagrin. V Favorite ice cream flavor?

http://www.queenbessandthepyrates.com/ This faire was formerly in Bakersfield, but due to the fairly inhospitable conditions, it has been moved up to Woodward Park in Fresno. I've never been to this park but have been told that it is a perfect location for this kind of faire. Tales of the Seven Seas will be there so stop by and say hello!

Depends on the lady. I put traditional wedding and baby showers up there with Tupperware parties. Tales of the Seven Seas will be having a very non-traditional baby shower for one of our pirates (can you guess the theme?) at the Queen Bess and the Pyrate faire in May.

^Is Hester's alter-ego.

Iron Jack, Patrick Hand and I spent the weekend at the Mt. Ranch Muzzleloaders Rendezvous in Railroad Flat, California (which is in the mountains northeast of the Stockton area.) We decided to try our hand at creating a primitive camp and representing pirates at this event. Patt has been trying to get other folks to join him at these events for awhile so we took him up on this one. We got there Friday morning and were met at the gate by a man with a dead coyote on his head. He gave us the rules and told us where everything was, in particular the primitive camp area. At this event, you have the option of camping in the "tin tipi" area or the primitive area, but in the primitive area, you have to at least look fairly authentic. Jack and I had been scrambling the last couple of weeks to put together our camp. So we made our way back to the primitive area and scouted out a place to set up our camp. A man named Jimmy walked over and welcomed us and after talking awhile, told us about a small but secluded spot up the hill. We took a meandering trail and ended up in a clearing surrounded by manzanita bushes. It was too small for his camp, but it would be big enough for us and Patt. So we carried our gear to the site and set up our camp. While setting up, I encountered a very cute three-legged toad. I moved him so that he would not be accidentally trampled, since he couldn't move very fast. Did I mention that it was awfully cute? This was our kitchen. I cooked us some lunch and then we scouted around. Jimmy showed us some of the details of his camp, which gave us some good ideas. Then we hiked around a bit and ended up at Trader's Row. We bought a few things, registered for the weekend's events, arranged to fire Queen Anne, our small but mighty carronade in the morning and hiked around some more and ended back at our camp. A man stopped by and told us that folks around the camp mentioned that there were pirates at the event. He was with, I think, a local radio station and had brought recording equipment with him; he wanted to know when the cannon firing would be so he could record it. We kept hearing folks talking about "the pirates"; seems we had created a bit of a stir. Our garb was along the lines of the authentic rather than the more publicly-recognized Howard Pyle or Hollywood versions, so we didn't stick out readily as pirates. However, Jack and I had talked about our piratical activities at one of the vendors' tents and the word spread like wildfire. And for some reason, between about 2:30 and 4:00 it got very cold. I kept warm by splitting lumber, then it warmed up again. Eerie. Then Patt showed up and we helped him carry his gear next to our tent and he set up his lean-to. I gave him some supper and then we built up the fire, drank hot buttered rum and swapped stories. Jack brought out his guitar and sang a few songs. It got pretty late and we all went to bed. We were expecting it to be in the 40's, but it was somewhat colder than that. For some reason, my butt got REALLY cold. You'd think that an area where I have so much padding could take the cold... At any rate, we were very happy that we had brought extra blankets and I'm sure Patt was glad that he followed his instincts and brought four blankets rather than two. He was still pretty cold, though. The next morning we got up, had breakfast and Jack and Patt wheeled the cannon to the registration area. It was fired three times, each time punctuated by Jack's maniacal laugh. I heard a few folks around the camp yell "woo hoo!" each time the cannon went off. Jack and I got ready for our event that day, which was a combination of a trail walk/target shooting and a tomahawk/knife throwing trail. Patt needed balls for his gun and went off to Trader's Row. He came back disappointed and we got a bit of mileage out of Patt not being able to find his balls. So the three of us went to the tomahawk/knife throwing practice area and threw some tomahawks and knives. Then Patt got to talking to some of the other folks and Jack and I went on our trail walks. It was about then that I started getting the coffee jitters (foolish me - I thought just this once I'll have some coffee...) and it seriously interfered with my aim. I felt that although I probably could hit the broad side of a barn, the targets along this trail were quite safe from me. So I watched Jack finish all of his target shooting instead. He did very well, even hitting some of the really difficult targets. Then we went on the tomahawk/knife throwing trail. I did pretty well, except for the stations with the goofier requirements. (Michael, the president of the group, told us that he designed that course himself and wanted it to be a bit goofy.) We did a bit more shopping in Trader's Row and went back to the camp to have lunch and relax before some more tomahawk throwing and firing the cannon. Right on schedule, it got cold again and I started splitting lumber. It started to rain and we dismantled and packed our half of the camp and got the cannon set up to be fired. Then we went over to the registration area, where we had the undivided attention of everyone nearby. Some folks brought cameras and we fired the cannon three times, much to everyone's delight. Then we spent a bit more time throwing tomahawks and Patt left to move his lean-to so that it would be closer to the campfire. It rained pretty hard on the drive home, so I hope he's doing okay tonight. At any rate, I really recommend doing one of these. This particular group does two a year, in Spring and Fall; the next one is in early October. Other groups hold these as well, some throughout most of the year. If you can get a primitive campsite together, I recommend doing that as well. Our camp included a couple of nods to the modern, such as one of those plastic cubes of water, air mattresses and a small cooler (as a nod to the health department.) But those were hidden and covered inside the tent and all our cooking was done over an open flame and we used oil lamps rather than electric or propane lanterns. So it's very do-able. We're looking for viable replacements for the few modern things we brought, though. We're definitely looking forward to the next one!

^ An umbilical cord connects me to the ocean. I could never move away from it. <Just got back from a black powder rendezvous. Camped in the primitive area and got in some shooting and a LOT of tomahawk throwing. Fun! V Favourite rainy day activity?

That is a hell of a lot to deal with at once! At least you're doing the right thing and looking after yourself. Hope you find something fun to do this weekend!

^ Some of each. Although I love looking in used book stores for out-of-print books. < A used book store just opened up near where I work - woo hoo! V Best rare or out-of-print book find?

I'm not worried about Hilary for president. After eight years of Bush in the white house, my left buttock would do a better job as president. I remember how outraged people got after Kerry's remark and I noticed these same people turned the other way when Bush joked about not finding WMD's in Iraq. He was caught on film, joking around, looking for WMD's in desk drawers and not finding any. He seemed to think that was really funny. Think about it - the idiot who decided to send our military over there to die by the thousands thought it was one big joke. If you're going to be outraged, be outraged about stuff that really merits it! I could rant all day, but it would make me more outraged than I already am. Although I've gotten much satisfaction today listening to the senate hearing for Gonzales. They are pulling no punches on this one, which is good.

^ I would live where I do now, but get a place up in Vancouver and in Hawaii. I'd also buy a bigger boat to live on occasionally. < Agree that living on a boat is good for limited amounts of time. V If you had the opportunity to go into space, would you?

Yeah - I LOVE the smell of laundry hung out to dry. And anywhere with plants after the first rain in a long time. And really fresh shitake mushrooms cooking in butter, my herb bread right out of the oven, sandalwood, the smell of spices when stepping into an Indian grocery - that's just what comes to mind right now.

And it usually happens when you are busy concentrating on other things. This kind of thing tends to happen when you're happy with yourself and people can't help but be attracted to that, because it shows. Best advice is to get on with reaching your goals and do whatever it is that makes you happy.

^ In the closet, the office, the attic, the garage... < Oh - you mean figurative. Yes - a couple here and there. V Pass the question on.

^Likes the smell of Lavendar.

Mid 70's temps in the spring? Is that an East coast thing? (Typical spring in Northern California is usually in the 50's, sometimes as high as the 60's, rain and fog.) We've had unusual weather - either warmer or colder than typical and unseasonably dry. Except it's supposed to rain this weekend - exactly when I'll be at a black powder rendezvous, camping in the primitive area. Our hand-made tent is going to be tested!

^"Fun-sized" peanut butter cup. Small, but potent. < Going to get back into tomahawk throwing this weekend. It's been too long... V Have you picked up any esoteric skills lately?

Definitely lined - and in the same material. Vests should be lined; at least the front panels.