Cap'n Pete Straw

Rats, September 11 is the one day -- if no other -- that all Americans should have a might more respect for people in your profession. I will raise my tankard to yer health -- and mental health -- this evening.

The Fourth of July is my daughter's birthday... so.... "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy"

Yes -- I was starting to only stain the edges, but got carried away. Thus I started over. Pressing the book might flatten it out somewhat, but the warping is a desired effect. It is not extreme, and imparts the feel of a very used book -- which is what I want. You would be best ironing each and every page, and I don't want to bother trying to do that. Also, my "journal" has a soft leather cover, so the warp works out well. The various "Book(s) of Shadows" I have seen were all stark white unlined pages, but you literally cannot judge a book by its cover. You are best shopping for a leather-bound or hard-cover "sketchbook." Borders carries them as a regular item in their stock (cloth-covered hardcover), with a large easily removeable "S" sticker on the cover (in the rack next to the "J" for Journal). As mentioned, one of the Borders sketchbooks had ivory pages; I did not look in the others. Yes -- pictures to be posted, as soon as I get some better-looking pages under my belt.

Five pages done. Two illustrations thus far. The illustrations are slowing me down, as I have to completely stop the writing to do each one before continuing. I second-guessed myself and thought that the illustrations were a bad idea (because they take so long), but then I took a break and came back to it a few hours later, and am really pleased with how it looks. I will continue as planned. I am experiencing a slight amount of bleed-through of the ink from one page to the next, but I am still writing on both sides of each page; I feelit appears more authentic. I really think it is going well. While I abandoned the idea of tea-staining every single page, I still did not like the starkness of unblemished paper. Instead, I tea-soaked just the edges of the pages, and also stressed the paper edges while still wet. This resulted in warped, foxed edges. The book no longer lies flat -- rather the entire book wants to warp (buckle) either foward or backward. And I am very happy with this "extrmely used" effect. Press on... I have another instrument to sketch...

Burning Ring of Fire

Chicken Pot Pie. Lazy me. But here's what I cooked yesterday for breakfast: I first cooked up, then crumbled several Maple-syrup-cured sausages, tossed them back in the skillet with a diced green pepper (fresh out of my garden! The first from a very, very late season of crops), a diced tomato (second harvest of the morning), several eggs and some cheese. Okay, it's just a bleeding omelet, but MAN, it rocked!

Actual pussycats. No, really, nothing in the house is on, and a couple of the cats are playing with a ball-enclosed-in-a-track toy.

Sing Sing

Oh... who would have won the contest: "Shat upon by greatest number of creatures of the air"? Photos on their way! Watch this space! Some of these are to die for...

Agreed... And then I started thinking... A two-foot snowfall would make my "easy hour drive back and forth to home" into a living nightmare. I have a car, not a sleigh. Hmmm.... hotel room....

Cavalry. The horsey-guys. I actually need to make two... My "best" Confederate infantry jacket is at least a dozen seasons old. It's high time I replaced it. And I cannot carry my Confederate Sharps carbine (!!!) nor my LeMat revolver (!!!!!) on the field without a cavalry uniform. I have ALL the accoutrements for Dismounted Cav, just not the jacket... which is typically considered the easiest thing to obtain. * * * * * * * Anyway... just back from errands. I picked up some material which will serve as a lining -- either on this coat (justacorps), or another. I also identified some EXCELLENT buttons. In addition, I also found two complimentary fabric remnants. These would make a fantastic coat & complimentary lining, depending on actual yardage required. Since I am on a tight budget the next couple weeks, I stashed them in a location where I hope even the store employees will not locate them. Yes, you heard me right: I buried my treasure, and I hope to go dig it back up in a couple weeks. Of interest to the Archangel crew, I also used the photo kiosk to get reprints of recent photos, and burn a CD of everything on my camera's memory card (they will be ready tonight). This means I will be posting much-requested Ren Faire photos shortly...

Pittsburgh? And ye bemoan Chicago weather? My earlier comment was (for sake of reference): Capt. Sterling added a comment about the luxury of celebrating inside a heated four-star hotel regardless of external temperature. Plus, I plan to network with WWII Soviet reenactors, and cannot personally choose to bitch about the cold Chicago weather to them -- I doubt they would consider me "hard core."

Woo Hoo! Look at me! I just ordered the pattern! No turning back now... What? Only three yards of fabric ("at least")? My previous coat pattern called for 6.5! I passed on an excellent fabric only two weeks ago... I'll pick it up today -- at least it will serve as my lining! WHAT?!? 150 buttons???? Jesu Cristu! Oh, my poor aching fingers... I fear dreaded days of endless prickedy stitching ahead...

I am game. While I love and adore the (rather fancy, one might say "foppish") coat I made, I still want to make a plain, non-descript one. This gives me time to purchase the pattern and find the perfect fabric. And perfect my prickedy stitching techniques. The Confederate cavalry shell jacket will just have to wait a little longer... My scanner is out of whack (our computer armoire was designed for the scanner to be 6'1" from the USB port, and we only have a 6' cord, so it is continually getting pulled out)... But as soon as I reconnect it, I want to scan and post the picture I have of me in the Stormtrooper costume I made -- entirely from scratch -- in 1977. I sold it for $50, and then made another (which I wore to the opening of Emipre Strikes Back) then sold that one, too. This was when everyone was trying to make Jedi cloaks -- I was making Stormtooper outfits. (insert "smug" emoticon here)

Land shark

"Message for you, Sir...."

I think I adressed this earlier...

loneliness

Okay, it appears we have fallen into a recursive loop... leading us spiraling downward, ever downward, into an oubliette... Oh! Oubliette

This has been shared in person with a few Pub people.... My son and I were at a certain Renaissance Faire a few weeks ago (identity of Faire not divulged to retain anonymity), where we noticed a short woman and her son walking around. The woman was wearing leather (pleather? we didn't want to get closer to check) shorts that were (1) too short and (2) too tight. And she had far too much stuff that she was trying -- or neglecting -- to cram into those shorts. Oh, don't discount this... these shorts were way too tight for her available.... er... acreage. I do not mean to offend anyone who may have a similar body type, but I hope that said persons will have the ability to understand that some clothes are not the best choice for some people. I succeeded in capturing the Fashion Police violation on my camera several times: subsequent opportunities afforded better and better ... er... worse and worse photo ops. If I can crop these photos in such a way as to be somehow anonymous regarding the people (mother and son) involved, I may consider posting them... but then again, the Moderator -- and, actually, anyone with eyeballs -- might find the photos unsuitable... Everyone I have shown them to has the exactly identical facial expression: a combination of shock, horror and revulsion.

...and that brings us back to: brassiere

The drone of the dishwasher.

If my camera were silent, and did not have a built-in flash....

I just looked through last year's photo gallery! I saw an awful lot of familiar faces! The WWII Soviet group... they'd better be there this year, and I hope they don't have a problem talking with someone dressed as a pirate.... Question: The Schedule of Events is not yet posted. Based on last year, how early and late did things run? Was there any program actually on Friday night? If so, how early did that start?

Oh, someone was very, very clever with their choice of T-shirts sold in connection with this event: "Dad dresses weird on the weekend" (baby-size t-shirt & bib) "Real men take their hits" (Hear that, Yankee reenactors?) "I reenact, therefore I was" "I don't drink for me, it's for my impression." "farb" (bright yellow t-shirt. Nice.) I do not plan on getting a room -- I live not much more than an hour away. To me that is "drive-home-at-night-and-get-a-shower" distance. Although the advantage of staying on-site.... hmmm.... And isn't it true that the pool facilities are only available to paying guests?