Home Sweet Home

It is so good to be back! The kitties are healthy and happy, as are the horses and chickens. The lawn needs mowing in the worst way. We are tired, but it's nice to have a swell place to come back to!

The wedding was spiffy; Lizzie looked like royalty (and her dad looked like a prince as usual), and it was great to see friends that we won't be seeing a lot of now that we live in the PNW. We extended a lot of invitations to come and visit.
(Note to self: I have got to take that white dinner jacket in. It just hangs on Gordon. Let's just say his daddy, from whom he inherited the jacket, was quite a bit chunkier than Gordo, who is 6'4" 200 lbs.)

The food was great, due to Julie B's expertise in that area, and the cake(s) were big and yummy thanks to Holly's expertise in that area (and my amateur decorating abilities, in this case the ability to shingle the edges with split hazelnuts). More & better pics here & here.
We also got talked into hauling a few things out to the Novato Ren Faire site...so of course Gordon had to share his new acquisitions with the boys.

Nice day in Vallejo

Let me tell you, it's good to get out of the Central Valley (Stockton & environs)! Yesterday's weather was "Stockton: 90...Vallejo: 72". Hm? Which sounds more appealing? You make the call. Our friend who is catering Lizzie's wedding is letting us crash at her place. Today, while she's at work, I'm doing minor alterations to my "garden party dress", steaming out Gordon's dinner jacket & trousers, ironing his shirt and tie, and generally getting ready for tomorrow. He and famous bluesma Pork Pie Phillips (aka our buddy Carl) are driving down to San Jose to deliver some stuff to Evil Roy (things we forgot to get to him before we moved: oops). Before they left I gave Gordon his monthly haircut (whether it needs it or not). He was starting to look a bit Byronic.

It's nice and cool here and I have three kitties to keep me company and lots of historical movies to watch/listen to while I work. Tonight we're doing the last of the food prep for tomorrow, but many hands make light work.

Bizzy Weekend

The pirate festival was a hoot. We looked awesome. You'll have to take my word for it, because I forgot to pack my camera. Gordon was very Howard Pyle indeed.

Today, in honor of Father's Day...my dad helped me build a henhouse. OK, I hinted that I needed help and he and Gordon slaved away all afternoon. We'll finish it when we get back from Kalifornia. I picked up a cool door from a contact through Freecycle (it's the best). The chickens will be living large.

I'm not looking forward to driving all the way down to CA and back...but I am looking forward to Lizzie's wedding. I hate leaving the katz (the horses are in no danger from coons & coyotes), and I have some pullets that need daily attention, but between my mom and the horse/cat sitter I think everything should be fine. The folks in Stockton will be thrilled, I'm sure, to see the last of our junk go away (the stuff we didn't have room for at the last minute).

Pros: dressing up for a wedding, which will involve great food and desserts, and seeing distant friends. Also, we'll be coming back towing a cool Cabriolet (read: gas economymobile).

Cons: worrying about the kitties plus a long, hot drive.

Huzzah! (& all that...)

Today we tried our third Medieval/Renaissance Faire type thingy (well the first one was technically just an SCA event, "Maypole", but that's nitpicking), and each one has been ever so slightly better than the last. We're still feeling a bit overdressed, so here's hoping the Washington Faire in Gig Harbor this August (it's supposed to be the local "biggie") is more up to speed. Pop-up tents and pirates are getting old really fast. It sounds promising, as we spoke to the merchant coordinator for the WA Faire and apparently they're buying land and will go to a permanent site as of next year. No more pop-up tents: huzzah! (If I say that again Dr. Forrester is going to punch me..."Take that, you community theater reject!!") On the other hand, they are calling it the Renaissance Fantasy Faire, which worries me. O well, bring on the fairy wings and leather boys, I can handle it.

Let's see, we ran into at least three people we knew from other gigs: A buddy who works with the Seattle Knights, whom Gordon worked with on The Postman, a reenactor guy and his troupe of Shakespearean Actors we knew from various gigs in California, and another guy we've worked for doing workshops for schools (in CA). The last guy is pictured above (right) as "Robin Hood", in whose guise he is performing stories for this Faire.

Next week: Port Angeles Pirate Festival! Pretty much the same cast & crew...slightly different costuming. Time to scrub the rust off the cutlass...

Honorary Gamgee

Although I had thought about doing it, I hadn't really thought it would happen, but I've become the part-time gardner for my Mom and several of her lady friends. At this time of the year it's hard to keep up with even a small yard, and all of these ladies have HUGE yards/gardens. I'm glad to have some part-time work, and I'm enjoying working outside in the pleasant high 60s/low 70s weather we've had lately. The ironic thing is I'm getting tanned now that I've left California. Ha! It was too hot down there to expose your bare skin to the sun. Up here, however, I'm working on my second sunburn (minor) in as many weeks.

Fired!

Well, I shot Gordon yesterday...and the evidence is at left. Made you look! Yes, he's finally christened the back pasture by shooting his "new" doglock for the camera by way of illustrating an article he's writing. Ow, that's a clumsy sentence. O well, you know what I mean... He was all dressed up as we had just arrived home from visiting the "Medieval (ha!) Faire" across the bay (a whole eight minutes or so away), so it seemed like a good time to do the photo session.