Weekend Update with Arontius.

.....Wow! What a busy weekend. But only a precursor to the week and next weekend itself. :-) I should be doing five hundred other things, but needed a break. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that 'taking a break' consists of writing in Live Journal? :-)

.....Went to FotCoG yesterday at Orting. It was rather warm. Got to see quite a few people. Then I wandered around site for a while, reliving old memories of the place. I went to my first war there, Guard Wars in 1992. It was the one with the 'ships' made of PVC tubing that kept breaking apart. The 'ship's' had a heck of a time even making it to 'shore', the archers were that good. Orting was also my first event as Inga's apprentice Shopkeeper. I had a good time that year and learned a lot. :-) Spent a number of events at Orting with the Spenser-Longfellow Trading Company (SLTC). We always had quite the merry encampment. Then there is always South Sound Unity Tourney, 2004. Ludya was the autocrat, but me, Giovanni and Frederick were her co-autocrats. The planning stage was confusing as hell (the Big K. made all our lives hell that summer). But when the event finally happened we were all amazed at how well it turned out. I'll miss Orting.

.....Stopped by Gwen and Rich's last night to say Hi to Rich one last time before he departs. Stayed for the Bar-B-Que portion of the program, but started falling asleep when the movie started up. Got to preview the site copy for J.C. though. It is coming together very well.

.....Worked on circlets last night as well as The Crier. Got up this morning and did the same thing. :-) The Crier is 95% complete. Only thing missing is the missive from Their Highnesses. They promised it to me today so I made .pdf files out of every page but that one and will wait until tomorrow to send it to the printer. Four circlet orders are complete and packaged and ready for drop off at USPS tomorrow. Dropped all the numbers into my Spread Sheet and realized that I've dropped below minimum wage again. I may have to raise prices again, which doesn't make me feel comfortable but I have to make at least minimum wage I think.

.....Cleaned the house and did laundry. Had to make a run to work to get some paper issued. That took me until about 5PM. Then I sat down and worked on the bills. That's when I noticed a little postcard that arrived in yesterday's bundle of mail. The 'Notice of Change of Value' for the house. Holy Cow! In just one year my house went from $181K up to $218K. IN ONE YEAR!!! I can't freakin' believe it! I keep wondering if there was a mistake made or something. I may just call (sometime AFTER J.C. :-)) to find out what the heck is happening.

.....Going to get my 'to-do' list for J.C. put together before I go to bed. Most things are coming together well. I was worried about the Site Security (guarding the side roads against 'ghosting'), but we're finally starting to get our arms around that one. Only big worry left is handicapped parking. I was hoping for volunteers to shuttle people from the Mill Lot to the hill top, but no takers. Renting a van is very pricey and I can't hit the budget that hard. I'm going to have to send out a note to the lists so that people are prepared to walk (or grab rides from friends). I'm not looking forward to that e-mail, that's for sure.

.....Gotta go to be early tonight. Tomorrow is the big transition to Code 392. Going to hit the floor running as it looks like we have two or three big projects already waiting in the wings for estimates and plans. Ack! What timing, three days before J.C. :-) I gotta take a break for a while after this one, I gotta recover what is left of my sanity and nurture it for a while. :-)

.....See you all next weekend. Stop me and say hi if I should pass you and not say anything. :-)

.....Arontius / Aaron.