My Own Coronation Musings.

.....It was not a bad weekend. I did not get nearly as much done as I would have liked. But I'm still glad I went in any case.

.....TBT and I hit the road in Lobelia by 10AM. I was amazed at how closely we followed our scheduled all day. We traveled the speed limit nearly the entire way, the only slowdown being the construction area over the pass. We had a nice lunch in Ellenburg, and then a final leisurely stroll into Yakima itself.

.....There was a little bit of foo in setting up the R.V. Ghetto. The R.V.'s were stationed between the camping and the parking. Fullbright Park is sooo huge, I don't think it would have harmed anything to let us park just a little closer to the actual event itself. They were expecting over 1,000 people to hit site. The 600 or so who actually did took up less than a quarter of the space.

.....Master Ralg negotiated the space, and we finally set up a short time later. I put up the long poles and banners and even hung up TBT's banner. I wish now that I had more poles as I had more banners I could have hung. It's too bad the collapsable poles are so expensive. I am mulling over various ideas of how to come up with a less expensive method of setting up a twenty to twenty-five foot pole, that still collapses into a length that is transportable. I foresee a wandering trip through Lowes or Home Depot this weekend. :-)

.....Friday afternoon was hot and things slowed down considerably. Master Ralg, Ellen, TBT and myself decided to take advantage of air conditioning and went out for dinner. I'm glad we did. Air Conditioning definitely made the evening better. :-)

.....When I arrived home we wandered the site and found the Baronial encampment. I helped a little in setting things up, but there was no hurry and plenty of hands in the help. The Baronial went up on the erics in no time flat. His Excellency has his own method of setting up the Baronial and I've pretty much discovered that there is no better or worse way of setting up a Panther. The best method is to go with ONE method and move forward smartly. :-)

.....After lots of conversation we went to bed and I pretty much slept well. The evening was not too hot nor too cold. Especially inside Lobelia.

.....Breakfast was early in order that Master Ralg and I could make our 0800 Pelican Council meeting. It started about ten minutes after the hour and ended at about a quarter until 0900. No foo whatsoever. I like those kinds of meetings very much. Some have complained about how often the Pelicans have had to meet at 0800 and I'm not one of them as I love getting the meeting DONE so I can concentrate on other things.

.....I waited around the Baronial for an hour and talked with various people before the Seneschal's Meeting. I finally had a chance to site down with Countess E and Raphaella and talk a little about next year's Culinary Symposium. There has been a little mis-communication and I was glad to see practically everything smoothed out. Even though Dragon's Laire has been a guiding force for the event in the past, I think we all believe that the important thing is that the event itself continue. It matters not whose name is on the forms. Wyewood is running with it this year and I think it will be fantastic. We'll help with whatever is needed.

.....The Seneschal's Meeting was another foo-less event and the hour went by pretty quick. I was supposed to meet THL Elonda after the Noon Exchequer's Meeting to discuss the transfer of Chronicler funding over to Kingdom, but we kept missing each other. Time for Plan B on that one. I think that I'll just move forward on a path of moving the funds out of the Chronicler's Account and sending them to Kingdom, rather than trying to transfer the account. That way I can get it out of my hair as soon as possible.

.....Helped TBT put out Largesse for display before afternoon Coronation Court. We missed the start of Court and I missed the awarding of the Wolfstan's with a Court Baroncy. I had sold Eadric several of my Wolf Pattern Circlets from Ingasbo. He bought at least two of them at full price before I finally had a chance to sell him another at a reduced 'Friends Price'. If I'd known the final destination I think I would have insisted in a far greater reduction in price. Especially after seeing the extra work Eadric put into them with the adding of the pearls and liner (and rivets). He did a nice job on them. I'll have to see if I can get him to take some pictures for me.

.....I'm convinced that the word 'Yakima' is some sort of native salish for 'Hell's Furnace' or something along those lines. Saturday was absolutely and miserably hot. And of course I was a dork and not watching my water intake nearly well enough. I was feeling wretched and was a total grouch by about 1500. TBT and I stumbled back to Lobelia where I turned on the generator and cranked up the Air Conditioner. I was grateful to have had Lobelia on Saturday, that's for sure.

.....After a while, and a lowering of the body temperature, things started looking up and we thought about dinner. Great timing for a Laurel's meeting. :-)

.....A friend of Barnet's and Tsurko's stopped by the encampment and startled me with his disdain of my efforts to conceal Lobelia with banners and poles. Now, I hadn't intended to 'hide' Lobelia, merely dress her up for the occasion. I like the look of banners and flags and such and will continue to do so. But the conversation made me think about the look of the encampment some more.

.....I definitely want a large standard. Two as a matter of fact. One with my heraldic insignia and one with TBT's. In fact I spent most of the early evening tonight pulling out my heraldry books and looking at examples. I think I know what I want. And definitely want it BIG. But several people correctly pointed out that something BIG requires a BIG base, taking up a lot of room to stake it down. I'll have to ponder this some more and come up with a good compromise. But I'm still thinking at least a couple of meters in length. Maybe a meter in height.

.....So, on the agenda this weekend is a.) a decision as to size, b.) collection of wood for a frame, and c.) steal a bit of design time with TBT and sketch out a rough draft of a design I can stick on the refrigerator for a week or two and soak in for final thoughts. September Crown is the deadline. It can happen.

.....Sunday was fantastic! We were off-site by 0800 for breakfast and on the road by 0900. Dumped the tanks just outside of Yakima (thanks for the hint Ralph!) and were home by 12:30. We missed all the bad traffic and road foo and had plenty of time to de-stress and get ready for the work week. :-)

.....Busy day today, but no Big Boss, so it was relatively pleasant. Although he is back tomorrow. Starting to look like no trip to Georgia, which I would have enjoyed, but not the heat. :-) Only four more days until a low stress and easy weekend. Looking forward to it. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.