Mama Moira Sez

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-30T23:30:32Z

Happy Halloween!
Originally uploaded by jds-emma

Asha claims she wants to be a vampire rabbit for Halloween next year. she's started on her costume already.

Off to Pioneer Day

2009-10-21T20:05:59Z

Off to Pioneer Day
Originally uploaded by jds-emma

Cats, herding

2009-06-24T00:28:59Z

This summer is being a bit more hectic than is typical for me. Both the kids are out of school, of course, except not entirely; Niki is doing summer school (half-days, Monday through Thursdays) through the month of June. Then next week (end of June/early July) is Choir Camp afternoons. And, of course, the library's summer reading program, of which we are largely skipping the planned twice-a-week performances/shows, because that's just one too many things for me to keep juggling.

I have must-attend SCA events this weekend, a big one the second weekend in July (really that Thurs-Sun), and then another on the third weekend in July. All of which I'll enjoy, no doubt, but there's always planning leading up to them that takes like... thought. Planning. Packing. I say 'no doubt', but in truth I'm a bit leery of this weekend's event, because it's an outdoor event and it's been 102F every day this week. But it's our local group's event, and I'm helping to run one part of it, so.

The reality of becoming Star Principal Herald on that second weekend in July is starting to sink in, and I'm wondering what massive planning I should be doing that I haven't really. Got to get my ducks in a row soon anyway, I've reports and letters to start writing this week.

Pendant Audio is going about as well as can be expected; I do enjoy helping out with the directing in general, but there's this one scene in specific that is making me balk a bit. I need to buckle down and work on it, and then I'll feel much better (and more caught up), I'm sure.

I had some other thought I was going to write down, but it's already flown my head. Ah well.

Surreal moments in SCA parenting

2009-03-24T22:52:20Z

Niki has been singing the chorus of "Born on the List Field" over and over again, pretty much ever since Gulf Wars. And taught it to Asha, of course.

Realized she was singing it repeatedly this afternoon...to a friend on the phone. Listened in on the conversation, and she's actually doing a very good job of teaching the chorus to her non-SCA friend, purely orally as it's supposed to be done.

She's 9 and a half.

Edited to add: Now she's teaching her the round "Ding Dong". (Words to the tune of 'Rose': Ding dong, ding dong / Wedding bells on an April morn / Carve our names on a moss covered stone / On a moss covered stone). And getting Asha to demonstrate.

Gulf Wars!

2009-03-23T15:41:16Z

Absolutely lovely weather all around. Highs in the mid 70s, lows around 48-50, which made it nippy in the morning, but once the sun came up it would warm up quickly.

We didn't arrive until Wednesday, so missed the rain earlier in the week, yay. I do always regret having to arrive so 'late', but that's what happens when you have to work around the realities of, well, work. Maybe some year we'll be able to show up on Sunday or Monday.

Overall I really enjoyed myself. I didn't get to spend nearly as much time as I originally intended working in the Heralds' tent (amazing how an afternoon's work flew by in what FELT like an hour, tops). Played for two nights of dancing (Reis managed an additional night when I was dead on my feet and opted to go crash instead), which were a blast as always. Excellent, excellent pit and dance organization.

I admit one afternoon I intended to work the Heralds' tent got tossed in favor of staying in camp and doing ALL the dishes I could find (Niki and Asha helped collect mugs and then dry them) and then making a huge number of deviled eggs. Rhiannon brought something silly like 7 dozen boiled eggs, and I'd brought a dozen myself. After the first batch, I had help with peeling the eggs from Jason and Eirik, which was much appreciated.

Did a fairly large amount of shopping, of course. :) The best shopping -- the merchants there definitely know their audience, and know what is useful to sell instead of merely decorative or novelty. I bought enough linen ($3 a yard, very good quality!) to make a dress each for Asha (hot pink) and Niki (bright turquoise blue), and then later more black linen to attempt to make stockings for Reis and myself, because I bought myself a nice pair of period low boots from Revival, you see... oh and some little replica arming buckles so I can weave some garters for the stockings at some point too. And of course the girls each had to have a little silver ring, and a coloring book, and I'm probably forgetting something...

Hanging out and talking and singing and eating with Mooneschadowe and all our friends was fun as usual. Also got to see friends from elsewhere around the kingdom that I don't run across all that often, of course, as well as meeting new people -- mostly musicians or heralds, naturally! Just a really good time.

I think Reis had a good time as well, and I know both girls did. Asha was largely content to either stand near her current subject of interest (me, Thea, Duchess Alisha her new Best Friend apparently, other children), or to sit quietly in a chair and color or read. Niki had a few grouchy moments now and then because she was just so tired, but did have fun playing with the other kids. We let her go off with Lilianna and Caer to a children's bardic thingy, which she wound up entering and getting a little scroll certificate for, probably one of her highlights of the war. I wish I'd seen it, of course, but there it is. There's always so much going on at the same time you just can't make everything. Both kids were pretty self-sufficient, although the bathrooms (porta-johns) were too far away for Niki to successfully find at night, which meant I got to get up at 3am or whatever and walk her there and back in the cold. Fun. And we made Niki escort Asha to the bathrooms during the day, which led to one incident:

Early morning, Asha declares she has to go to the bathroom NOW, and Niki offers to take her. Not really being all that awake yet, I said sure and then laid there in bed wondering if that was really such a good idea as it was so early and so on. Got up, went out to the portapotties, and no kids. At any of the nearby sets of portapotties. And none of the tents of friends-with-kids they might have decided to go visit were open yet. So it's dawn, and I have two missing children. I should mention that this is the first event at which Asha has had to use a portapotty, and she was Not Impressed. I believe her words upon first seeing the inside of one were a disgusted "WHAT is THIS??"

Just as several of us set out to go looking for them, it occurred to me that Niki knew where the actual flush toilets were down at the shower house (about a good city block away), and perhaps she would have gotten it into her head to take Asha there... and sure enough, there they were just walking back from the shower house, holding hands and staying well out of the road. Both got a good talking to about not leaving camp at ALL EVER without making sure they had permission from me or Reis, at which point Asha pipes up and announces that she knows how to get to the clean toilets by herself now, so I had to inform her that at age 4 she wasn't just allowed to walk by herself that far even with permission, so Do Not Even Ask.

So after everything, I'm dead bone tired. And I may have caught the coughing plague that started going around the group. And yet, in spite of all that, I'm more mentally energized than I have been in a while, and I have PLANS.

The biggest one, probably, is a task I'd set myself before we even left for Gulf -- to decide whether or not to apply for Star Principal Herald. Talked to the current Star, the previous Star, got advice from a few friends, and in general thought about it quite a bit, and finally decided that yeah, this is the right thing for me to be doing now. It's always been on my '5 year plan', but frankly at some point time does pass, so here we are. Now to write the danged application...

That, plus just general wear-and-tear that already-old clothing received at Gulf, means I really *do* need to make myself at least one more new dress. Chop chop!

It also means that I've committed to doing a touch more travel than I've done in the past. Fortunately, the price of gas has come down out of the stratosphere, and the kids are both old enough that it's not as much of a hassle to either bring one or both of them along or leave them both with Reis or find an overnight stay with a non-SCA friend. And I've talked to a couple of friends about carpooling more, which will also help.

We also revamped the musicians group a tiny bit, which means basically that Reis is now the guild head such as it is, and we're working on scheduling practices again. Feodora played with us, and did quite well, and we still need (well, want anyway) to recruit more. The more the merrier! The more the easier it is to blow a piece entirely and have no one notice! :)

And there was other stuff mostly minor, and stuff that I've forgotten at the moment and may remember to post about later, or not, depending on if I get distracted again or not. Ha!

Niki's bathroom signs

2009-02-27T18:57:14Z

Bathroom door sign #2
Originally uploaded by jds-emma

I have no explanation for this.

Soooo.... Pendant Audio

2009-02-06T16:56:09Z

Regular readers (ha!) may notice that I've never really mentioned Pendant Audio before. Said readers may also be readers of rfrancis, who mentions it all the time.

And since, y'know, being married and all, he got me interested in it... I've tried out for one or two minor roles, but nothing so far. This does not overly surprise me, as a) I generally hate all my takes, b) haven't found a role yet that really interests me to REALLY try for it, c) microphones and me just don't get along.

Aaanyway, I do have a rather severe case of balloon-hand at times. So when Russ passed along a vague opportunity, I said "yeah I can do that!" A bit of wrangling and discussion and explanations, and now where he's the guy dealing with the writers and scripts, I'm now the girl dealing with the directors and episodes/trailers/commentaries. Woo!

There's a frequent metaphor about the director mines. Does this make me the person standing at the top of the shaft with a flashlight peering down into the deep dark hole? :)

blar

2009-02-01T20:21:29Z

(Thank you, st_rev.)

This past week was..interesting.

Sunday night: Niki puking every hour on the hour, until 6am.
Monday: Van in shop to diagnose mysterious "no windshield washer spray" problem; reluctantly turned sewing machine into the local shop for servicing; Niki puked at school again. Ice storm rolls in.
Tuesday: No school, ice. Blar.
Wednesday: No school, ice. Mom starts going insane.
Thursday: School, yay! Mom sleeps in all morning, feeling like crap. Actually started cleaning the secondary desk/shelves behind my regular desk, stirred up a bunch of dust, blar.
Friday: Van in shop to finish mysterious problem -- except not, because the guy that supposedly ordered in a new pump on Monday ("it'll be here this afternoon") apparently didn't order the pump, AND has gone on vacation and can't be reached by the shop manager. Thankfully, manager offers to honor the fancy 15%-off coupon I have that expires on Feb 1st, and will call whenever he gets ahold of a pump. Finally get to pick up the sewing machine, now happily serviced.
Saturday: Played a bunch of LotRO. :) Balloon-hand disease struck again, volunteered for a thing that I'll maybe talk about later once I know more details if it actually happens like I think.
Sunday: Decided to do some sysadminly work for ansteorra.org, and promptly got smacked down by the laws of fate or whatever. Not only is there an ongoing DoS attack against our hosting provider (Dreamhost) complicating things, but the stupid "one-click install!" thingy I was doing is Not Cooperating. That last part may not be Dreamhost's fault, but I can't tell yet; filed a 'help help' message over on the software vendor's forum, we'll see how THAT goes. Blar.

Tomorrow is Monday, yay. May it go smoother....

What I first thought when seeing this page:

2008-11-14T02:04:30Z

OMG EYE OF SAURON

COLORS

2008-10-30T23:41:08Z

At least she's learning something in school.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-30T18:14:32Z

Happy Halloween!
Originally uploaded by jds-emma

Well tomorrow, but you know.

Five Little Pumpkins

2008-10-23T22:39:57Z

when you're old

2008-09-17T02:57:15Z

Niki does analogies at school. On her paper:

book : read :: record : ______

Her answer? 'break'

WHY

2008-05-22T04:40:36Z

On tonight's American Idol finale, why was Randy Jackson wearing Captain Kangaroo's old suit?

Asha wackiness

2008-05-05T23:03:08Z

Recorded this today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSk6M2Kk7wY

Because I have to put this somewhere

2008-04-19T02:27:04Z

Niki spies some DVD at Walmart, and declares she needs it, she's seen the commercial and it looked really good, etc. I tell her I read that it wasn't that good after all.

Niki: "Don't judge a book by its cover."
Me: "...You're judging the movie by its commercial!"
Niki: "It's really good, I can tell!"
Me: "...Do you even know what 'judging a book by its cover' means?"
Niki: "No."

There it is, then.

Asha's alphabet

2008-02-25T18:05:56Z

A - apple
B - button
C - cookie
D - dog
E - exersize
F - frog, Frodo
G - grownup
H - horse
I - igloo
J - jump
K - kiss
L - lion
M - mom
N - Niki
O - owl
P - pig
Q - queen
R - rooster
S - sun
T - turtle
U - umbrella
V - volcano
W - water
X - X-ray
Y - yo-yo
Z - zoo

Poems from Niki

2008-02-16T00:35:29Z

She's started writing poetry.

You are nice.
You guys are cool.
I really like you
when you drool.

Why I like you:
Because you're nice.
I give you shelter <- [sic] quoting parents, apparently
I give you ice.

First (okay second) contact

2008-02-14T17:53:55Z

So Monday Niki and I both went to the optometrist to get fitted for soft contacts. I've worn them in the past (rigid gas permeables), but not in about 10 years or so; when I last wore them, soft contacts weren't an option for me both due to my prescription ("blind as a bat") and astigmatism.

Niki has one near-sighted eye and one far-sighted eye, and an astigmatism as well. But due to her bizarre vision, she *needs* contacts badly, so we can train her eyes to work together properly.

I wanted something extended-wear for Niki. Eventually she's supposed to be able to sleep in hers and everything for a week, and then we'll take them out for a good cleaning overnight; and they're monthly disposables. Mine are two-week disposables, and theoretically can be worn extended wear for up to a week, but I tend to have dry eyes that make a lot of protein deposits, so I'm wearing them as dailies and cleaning every night.

So far... interesting. I find the soft lenses a great deal more comfortable than the RGP ones I had before (although those were fine), but getting them back out is way more difficult. And getting Niki's in and out is an adventure every day so far. She's gotten used to the feeling, but complains that things look fuzzy, so we'll probably wind up tweaking her prescription next visit.

Fun fun.

Just have to share this

2008-01-15T17:18:43Z

Asha, now 3, is definitely a supervillain in the making. Witness this exchange early one morning:

Asha: [loud, getting louder]
Mom: [yelling] Hey, be quiet!
Niki: Mo-ooomm! Asha keeps yelling, in my EAR!
Asha: [quiet crafty sly voice] In your EAR, huh??

AUGH! MEME!

2007-09-13T19:03:22Z

1. Go to www.careercruising.com
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top umpty results:

1. Archivist
2. Taxidermist
3. Historian
4. Industrial Designer
5. Editor
6. Anthropologist
7. Interior Designer
8. Drafter
9. Dental Assistant
10. Computer Trainer

...yes, I've always had a burning desire to be a taxidermist... (?!)

New dog!

2007-09-01T21:03:17Z

This is Desi, a supposedly poodle/schnauzer mix from the local animal shelter, less than a year old. Very sweet and playful. She needs a bath and a trim pretty badly, but as she's just been spayed we'll wait a few more days before doing that. So far she gets along well with Molly, but we'll see how the next few days do.

Irony

2007-05-20T18:41:00Z

Behind our house was a large undeveloped plot of land, all natural meadow with a few creeks running through it, half in a flood plain. It got bought, and is being "redeveloped" as a housing addition with a few commercial stores.

All of the trees that were there, including some right up against our back fence, were bulldozed. All of them.

The name of the development?

Arbor Village.

A POST!

2007-05-08T17:00:46Z

Yeah yeah, I know.

So we got a canvas tent, for SCA camping. And I want to paint it. So these are my options. Yes, it's a big picture.

Option #1 is based on...well, stripey tents are ubiquitous in period. The upside is that this is darned easy, but the downside is that it's boring.

Option #2 is based on some illustration from c1400, most notably the tent in the upper righthand corner. The upside is that this would look fairly spiff. The downside is all those circles...

Option #2 is based on some Sienese tents from 1479, particularly the one on the lefthand side. Again, fairly spiff, but again, all those engrailings...

Options #2 and #3 both have the added upside of me being able to paint our devices onto the doors (or the roof of #2) later on, without having to worry about painting over something already there.

So...woot or whatever. Opinions?

ICE

2007-01-14T21:25:07Z

Closeup of ice
Originally uploaded by jds-emma.

Closeup of the ice pellets on the ice block in the green turtle sandbox.