Big Weekend

Here comes the cavalry...and the pike men, and the arquebusiers, etc. I've been sewing all week for this thing. Tomorrow I bake bread. Monday we begin the big moving thing in earnest: life is crazy sometimes!

The Big Muck-out

We've gone in "thirdsies" with two neighbors on a 40 cubic yard dumpster. It's been here since about 0830 this morning and it's about 1/2 full already. When we inherited this place from Gordo's folks we also inherited 60+ years of accumulated stuff stored in half-baked "additions" (read: lean-tos) around the main house. Over the years leaky roofing, rats, cats & squirrels have taken their toll on the piles of mostly cardboard boxes and odd objects. When we first moved in we filled THREE 40 cu yd dumpsters one after another, now we're getting to the rest of it. Moving is a pain, but it's also a blessing in that it forces you to do "junk triage".
Since it never rains but it pours, everything is happening at once this week. Dumpster time, finishing the last of the paperwork on the new house, and prepping for the school of the soldier this weekend...and Gordo's grandson is visiting. He's a great kid and it's a good thing this visit is happening because I don't know when we'll see him and his mommy next after we move.

The Easter-ness of "Star Wars"

Here's an Easter Sunday cartoon from Bill Amend ("Foxtrot"). I was almost as nerdy as Jason at that age. I'm slightly less nerdy now.

Happy Easter!

He did it all for us and sits on the throne...

Got questions?

It's Official

We have the house...and pasture, and barn, etc. I'm so tired I haven't had the energy to do the mass emailing to notify friends & family, but we are still very excited! Now we just have to work out the little detail of when we can actually move in. The "take possession" date went from "three days after closing" to "fourteen days after closing" at some mysterious point during the contract signing process. Two weeks? Um, do we just drive around in a holding pattern?! Our agent has spoken to the current owners and it turns out it will be much less time than that, and in the meanwhile we'll be able to turn the horses out there and have the moving company deposit our worldly goods in the giant garage. It still means we'll be camped out at my folks' place with five cats and three chickens...but we'll see what really happens. We're going to try to get an extension on our occupancy down here (it's not like somebody's waiting to move in, this place is going to be radically remodeled...if you know what I mean). The man just went out for more boxes. It's really finally happening and I'm actually starting to allow myself to feel the excitement.

On another note, our lunchtime and evening entertainment lately has been to work our way through the BBC mini I, Claudius. It's really well done and hardly dated at all. Patrick Stewart with hair! A young John Rhys-Davies! John Hurt...with the same gravelly, husky voice he has now (I think he's a cyborg, he never seems to change...)! If you have a really crazy or dysfunctional family (or step family or in-laws or whatever), this is a good mini to watch. It will make you feel just peachy about your own situation. If it's just the same old same old, seek police protection immediately! Grandma Livia is the original Battle Axe Potempkin Uber Dragonlady...and it just gets worse from there. Any doubt that inbreeding and lead pipes (& cooking pots) are a bad idea will be erased permanently. Any doubt as to why classical fashions for women have re-surfaced over the centuries will also be erased: they make a girl look goooooood! (I'll take Connie Neilson's entire wardrobe from "Gladiator", thank you.)

Dining Out (about 500 years out, actually)

Last Saturday, after shopping and bopping until dropping at the Rakkasah Belly Dance Festival, we attended the annual "Emperor's Birthday" of the Renaissance Military Society. I was tired but it was nice to sit down with some friends to a yummy 16th century meal and chat about the upcoming soldier school, among other things.

Two Gordon's (there's one behind the mug) and a Neb.