Arontius of Bygelswade

.....It was my first Saturday in a while where I didn't have to be anywhere. As well as the only free one for a handful to follow. And do you think I could actually sleep in? Naw, I woke up at 4:30 and finally stopped trying about 5:30. :-)

.....I was able to take off from work at 2:30 and ran to the theatre to meet TBT and the Rhys Monster so we could watch Harry Potter. The movie was not bad. It was long though, but there were a lot of details and backgrounds missing. I could see the logic behind some of it, but the details really become important to the end game. So it will be interesting to see exactly how the movie wraps up next July. I suppose that it is hard to get all of the details on to the movie screen. But I was a little surprised in that most of the previous movies were very faithful to the books they were following, even down to a lot of the details. This one not so much so. More liberties were taken.

.....Makes it sound like I hated it, which I didn't. It was actually enjoyable.

.....Looking forward to 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' next month though. The previews look pretty good. Although it is evident that the story line has changed, so we'll see.

.....Still trying to get my brain wrapped around a 'to-do' list for the weekend. But brainstorming:

* A couple of circlets.
* Grind and paint bell (and ask Eleanor if I can borrow her tripod for Yule Feast).
* Clean computer room, bedroom and bathroom.
* Transfer files to portable hard drive in preparation to wipe computer.
* Block out ceremonials for Yule and chart out day.
* Ensure that we have completed ceremonials for Championship and remaining fealty groups.
* Outline Sargeantry and talk to various people to join discussion group.
* Do laundry.
* Take Mom shopping and help with a few chores.
* Deposit Crier checks and update records.
* Look at e-reader.
* Review 'to-do' list for upcoming weeks and update.

.....That's enough for one weekend I think. How much of it will I actually get done? I have no clue. :-) The nice thing is that next weekend is a four day holiday. I'm looking forward to it. Then in four weeks and a little change will be Christmas vacation. Nearly three weeks of must leave to use! I'm salivating at the thought. :-)

.....When we come back to work in January there will be a few changes to work through. The former Big Boss will be gone for real. It's not like he has been involved much in our daily lives lately, but the presence is still felt in a big way. I've passed him a good half-dozen times over the past handful of weeks. It's been interesting. They've been variations of what happened the week before last. I was sitting at a desk in the Admin. Building, talking to the Resource Manager, when he walked on by. I tensed up immediately, expecting some stinging comment or command. It was one of those weird scenes where something horrible is about to happen and time just seems to slow down as you witness every detail. In this case though, he saw me and looked for a few seconds. It looked like he was trying to recall what my name was. He then continued walking and didn't say a thing. At first I felt a great deal of relief. Then I was rather angry. How could someone that evil, who had caused so much agony for four long years, be so casual and non-chalant. Finally, I just laughed. Both at the fact that I had such a strong reaction, then because of the fact that he had already erased me so completely from his life. I'm just glad that I will not be part of his life anymore starting in January. :-)

.....We asked OPG to let us have Port Gamble for July Coronation next year. They came back and formally said no. I was a little surprised. They've never said no completely to us in the past. But then came the real answer. All three days that weekend are booked solid with weddings. Each of those weddings brings in a minimum of $3,500. That's a lot of money when compared to the scope of what we bring to town for the weekend, how much space we take, and how little we pay them in comparison to the amount of territory and support we take up. But what it means to us is that we're looking through alternatives. I've got an application at the Fairgrounds and feelers out to at least one other location. Oliver has a site or two to check out and Jahnkin is going to see what he can stir up with the local military installations. Doesn't look all that great at the moment though.

.....I wonder if we're going to see snow this weekend? The weather reporters are showing snow up in Bellingham and they are talking snow for down here later tomorrow. I could be driving through the snow on Monday on the way into work.

.....Dusty Strings sent me their latest e-mail sales brochure. There was a picture of the last Harp Symposium there. And in the back row of the class was Master Connor from Three Mountains. :-) I'm going to have to grab that picture and send it to him. Just looking at the Class Agenda was making me wish I had the time and the funds to go some time. Looks like a lot of fun.

.....Angharad is going a good job at promoting bardic activities again. I keep wanting to pull out my recorder and / or gemshorn and play some music. I wonder if there would be enough interest to form a regular consort of some type. Would be a lot of fun to have at least a mini-concert at Candlemas. :-)

.....I know I'm getting old now. Was in Safeway a few days ago and I was absent-mindedly humming along with the elevator music that the store was piping over the intercom. I was paying close attention to it at first. Then all of a sudden I stopped short when it percolated into my brain just what was playing. It was Guns 'n Roses, 'sWeet Child O' Mine', set to elevator music! Oh, Wow! I had to laugh! This was hard rock much that I remember vividly from my early twenties. This was stuff I remember hearing at ten million decibels rocking out at the King Dome in Seattle (and not being able to hear for a week afterwards). Amazing! :-) I wonder if Axl Rose was embarrassed at all when he signed for the release that allowed this to happen. Although, you know, it didn't sound that bad for elevator music. :-)

.....Enough randomness for the time being I guess.

.....Aaron / Arontius.