A Fight Practice Posting.

.....It's a rare Fight Practice that is a little bit of a slower pace than it has been of late. Helen is teaching a class on sewing in part of the room. There are a small number of other regulars. But most of the rest of the crowd seems to be absent this evening. I know that at least a handful of people are helping Cedric and Brighid remove carpets from the home in Poulsbo. But am not sure where everyone else is this evening.

.....Not necessarily a bad thing. I haven't had a chance to catch up on Live Journal for a number of days.

.....Last Saturday we managed to wake ourselves up early enough to make it out the door by 0700. We had a 0755 ferry to catch to Edmonds, with a 0930 meeting in Mount Vernon to meet with the July Coronation Autocrat Team and walk the site. We took the drive at a fairly leisurely pace and still drove into the parking lot at precisely 0930. That actually made me feel good in that the drive from Edmonds to Mount Vernon is not that long. Less than an hour.

.....We will not be able to set up much on Thursday at Edgewater Park as the contract is pretty strict about not setting up infrastructure before Friday. But we're going to politely ask if we could at least chalk mark lines on the field. I'd very much like to go up to site on Thursday and set up lines before the Merchants arrive on Friday. I've deliberately kept the advertising low key as the space alotted is compact. I'd like to aim for no more than thirty five or so merchants in the Marketplace. But we'll see. Pastische is already in the queue though. :-)

.....Edgewater Park is somewhat deceptive in size. When you first park in the parking area you generally think the park is rather small. But when you walk from end-to-end it is actually a distance. I'd say approximately the area that Wastekeep had for July Coronation last year. Bryson gave us a map of the park with the following dimensions: 536' by 468' by 594' x 310' by 700'. This is just the grassy field portion and does not take into account the RV area and the separate parking areas. There are also a couple of break-out park areas that can be used in a pinch for overflow camping.

.....But it will be tight.

.....We settled on the area for the Marketplace. It will be close to the RV area. I'm going to capture a set of parking places in that area for those of the merchants who need handicapped parking. The gate from this area opens right from parking into the Marketplace. Good location.

.....I have seven merchant applications now. I'm going to post on a weekly basis how much territory we take up so that Bryson can keep track of the space on his master map.

.....I took a group of pictures that I'll post as soon as I can get them off of the camera. They'll show the park location right next to the Skagit River and the close proximity of downtown Mount Vernon. I think a goodly number of people might actually decide to stay in the hotels that are really close by. We will certainly not lack for grocery stores or restaurants either.

.....We took off from Mount Vernon at around 1100 and headed south. Around noon we were in North Seattle and decided we wanted lunch. Neither of us were familiar with the Northgate area so we went bumming around the mall to see what we could find. There was an Oriental Buffet place called 'Bluefin'. I'm used to the Kitsap County version of this place, affectionately known as 'Crappy Chinese Buffet'. But I'd forgotten how much classier everything is in Seattle. The food was actually REALLY GOOD. Fresh made sushi by the gross. Yum.

.....We drove the rest of the way to Madrone and set ourselves up for the Madrone feast. After several hours of good conversation, some good music and dance, it was time for the feast. I definitely ate well this day. All the food was really good.

.....Sunday was a little less hectic. Birthday breakfast for Bernie over at Gwen's. Then time at home trying to clean up a few things and get ready for the work week.

.....I've managed to work on the new banner every night since then. It is about two-thirds done now. Only one color left to apply. It doesn't look spectacular, but I think that it will look pretty cool flying over our encampment at May Crown. I think I can finish the painting / dying by this weekend. I need to get it steamed and washed, which I think I can also get done this weekend. Then I'll have to subtly beg TBT to roll the edges and put a staff link on one end so I can fly it on a banner pole. I can't wait. :-)

.....Next banner will be same length. It will have twice the Or and Argent Checky. It will have the red and black bars for the Baronial Populace, along with the double-headed dragon. It will have the Team Haggis badge next, and then elements from my device. I'll keep the early dragon, but have a seme of quill-pens behind it. A motto bar would be nice as well.

.....Need to pack for NORWESCON this weekend as well. It's almost here! :-)

.....Looking forward to May the big event is May Crown. Space has already been reserved on the Erics for the Baronial. I need to make some sort of arrangement to do something in it for the day. Maybe some munchies and water at the very minimum. Adelheidi is running with the Baronial Encampment. I'd very much like to see if we can get the Barony to host some sort of bardic gathering there on Saturday night. I'll have to remember to talk to Jahnkin and see if we can arrange something. Something at least a little organized.

.....Disjointed post this evening. Am rather tired and sleepy. Going to be a somewhat longish week. Dinner tomorrow night at Brian and Janes. Thursday is a Dragon's Pearls meeting (which is very local at the very least). Friday is still free at this point. Saturday looks to be a trip to a huge fabric sale in Tacoma. I think there is something happening on Sunday, but I can't remember what.

.....Almost time to go. Crowd is definitely small tonight.

.....Aaron / Arontius.