Arontius of Bygelswade

.....I finally made the decision this morning to not attend Sport of Kings. I'm bummed in that I wanted to spend time seeing people at the event, spend time with TBT, and work out with Renart in the kitchen. But at the same time, it is a whole day that I can have at home to get caught up on a few things. I'm feeling really behind at the moment and would very much like to get to a point where I am actually learning and performing as the Kingdom Exchequer, rather than simply reacting to whatever new situation happens to hit my computer on any particular day. Oy!

.....I did get to help at least a little tiny bit Sport of Kings (or SpOrK, as some call it :-)). On Tuesday I pulled out my 12x12 and awning, with all its associated parts, and delivered to Renart at the Tuesday Social for use at Sport of Kings. A group flew in from Avacal and needed shelter that they couldn't bring with them.

.....There is a little corner of my mind that rather wishes I had not accepted the work of putting together a bunch of circlets for Their Majesties. Mainly because it has taken much more time than I had anticipated. On the other hand, I'm hearing good reports coming in from people who are really appreciating the receiving of them. Plus, it is a paycheck of a sort. So I don't have a whole lot of room to complain, so I should stop now. :-)

.....Tomorrow morning TBT will hit the road at 6AM for her trip to Sport of Kings. I plan to hit the workbench shortly thereafter and get started on the next batch. We're still at the point of having twenty-five cut and drilled and ready to go. I have five more to drill and then I can start the edging and facing process. I've budgeted four hours to make that happen tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, it isn't going to be quite as easy as it sounds to get started. I've spent the past several weeks filling the garage with empty plastic storage bins and the remains of July Coronation. I'm going to have to spend the first hour or so clearing out enough space to get to the workbench and out the garage door. I need to do that anyway to get started on packing for September Crown. The packing of which will start next weekend. If I go ahead and get the pavilion and accessories pulled out of the garage and staged in Lord Flasheart, I'll feel much more in control of September Crown preparations.

.....Tomorrow morning on circlets, with a break for lunch. In the afternoon, the plan is to move the remaining items from the Heated Storage Unit to the Large Storage Unit. It is not very much at all. Some portable closet pieces, some bins of craft supplies, and some odds-and-ends. The most difficult item will be the shelving unit and the filing cabinet. I'll leave them for last and if they are heavier than I want to deal with, I'll wait until sometime next week and get some help. The Large Storage Unit has some space for the loose bins on the back shelving unit. I need to organize some of the garden hoses, but that will not take long. Than everything will go neatly on a shelf. There is still a lot of clean-up to do in there, but I need it to happen on a weekend where I have some help. This isn't going to happen until sometime this Fall. It would be nice to have it happen BEFORE Yule Feast, but I'm not confident on that at this time. September, October and November all look full of commitments already.

.....I'm budgeting three to four hours for that move. After that I should be able to plan for a turnover of the smaller unit to the complex before the following weekend and the Barony will have one less bill to pay.

.....After that it'll be on to excavation of the Computer Room. Last week, the wall of boxes in the Living Room was completed. There is still an enormous stack of them in the Dining Room, but all of them are filled with items to be sold on E-Bay or equivalent. Sometime over the next month or so, either TBT or myself will make arrangements to have 'someone' take possession of them and go through the effort of photographing them all and listing them. TBT is thinking of someone out of Tacoma. I'm still hopeful I can find someone local who'll take care of them for us. It'll mean less transportation, and it would be nice for the commission to go to someone we know and like personally. But we'll see. It will take some time and effort to make the sales operation happen, and the commission we have in mind may not be worth it for someone who does not really do this sort of thing for a living. And really? I just want the bins gone!

.....There are still a few piles of loose things left to go through in the Living Room. There is one huge pile of bags, briefcases, computer cases, etc. I need to go through that pile and segregate between 'keep' and 'Goodwill'. There are some nice, padded, computer bags in there. I just don't know if they would work with anything we currently have. There is also a pile of loose beading and embroidery supplies. There is a nice organizer for all this stuff ready to accept all the materials. I just have to sit down, sort through it all and make it happen. After that point I'll clean out the Living Room and we'll be ready for the upcoming Christmas Season. :-)

.....So, what does one do with all the 'stuff' that is too useful or 'cool' to go to Goodwill? Well, one puts it in the Computer Room for future sorting. That may not have been my smartest move. It was already a very crowded place. It's much worse now. There is one path between the door and the desk chair, complete with an obstacle course of stuff to trip you up just in the getting there! Then HUGE mounds of stuff from the floor to the second or third shelf of the bookcases in there. I've managed to knock over the piles several times now while entering and exiting the room. It was bad enough to where I spent at least an hour on Wednesday, and again on Thursday, to try and reclaim some control of this space. I did manage to do some re-organization, and threw out a couple of piles of paper products. It is marginally better now. But a good couple of solid hours is needed to tame this beast to any degree. I'm looking at the East side bookcase and thinking that it is time for a selection of books located there to go away. They are titles I know I'll never read again and are just taking up valuable real estate. I think at least a third to a half of this bookcase can conceivably go to Goodwill. After that point, I can move a metric butt-tonnage of files to the shelving. I'm salivating at the thought. I never imagined a time where empty floor space would actually be sexy. :-)

.....Wherever I end up on Saturday though, Sunday will have to be about excavating the Bedroom. It became the secondary repository of stuff recovered from bins in the Living Room. Mainly in the form of linens and empty stacking boxes. TBT wants to take some time to go through the closet and get rid of a bunch of stuff. But I find it difficult to believe that we'll get to that point before December. The clothes themselves will be fairly easy. It is everything else stored in the closet that will not. I know I have a huge pile of artwork and pictures in there that I have no clue what should happen. There are a number of framed awards. Several large wooden carvings from Maryn Grey. At least one or two painting from people I have known personally and like. None of these things are things I can just casually toss in the trash pile. TBT will probably want to package them up for storage in the garage, but even that is problematic and a large portion of this still will not fit nicely in a storage box! Sigh. I need to start thinking of a solution. Depending on how much the awards and the artwork mean to me personally, I might just opt to make them go away. Hmmm...

.....Still no word from Society on NMS clarification. This could be taken as good news on some levels. Tir Righ had a Level 2 event last weekend that was not advertised in The Crier and that they had geared towards not having to charge for NMS. However, under the newly 'clarified' rules, events that advertise in local newsletters or on local web-site or now liable to collect for NMS. This event of Seagirt's was advertised locally, mainly as a demonstration event to try and recruit new members. We officially asked for an exemption specifically for this event as the 'clarification' came via e-mail approximately a week before the event itself. We did not get a reply, but are running with that at the moment as acceptance of the exemption. We have put out the word though and have warned as many as possible in An Tir that the rules are changing and to get prepared.

.....Actually, I think the part of this 'clarification' that makes people the most nervous is whether or not the Society will declare even Fight Practices that ask for funds from those attending to defray the cost of the site use will have to pay NMS. I've already been warned that this will cause quite a commotion and possibly open rebellion. Although, to be honest, I don't blame them for the warning. I'm personally of the same opinion. But I'll have to obey the rules handed to me. If this is a move towards 'Pay to Play', I would have implemented things differently. But maybe this uber-gradual approach is for the best?

.....With September Crown quickly approaching, I'm starting to get a little nervous in regards to preparations on behalf of Exchequer duties. We're starting to get organized on the Signature Card transfer on the Friday before Crown, but still have to come to a final solution on where and what time. As well as making sure everyone involved can actually be there. I still need to finish my agenda for the Exchequer's Meeting on Saturday of September Crown and send out an e-mail to the e-list to see if there are any other burning topics that Exchequer Corps would like answered. Then I have to pull together all the documentation I need to support the Financial Committee Meeting of Monday morning. Etiennette has promised me that I'll see her Priority List / Check List this weekend sometime. With that list I should have a good game plan of what I need to put together over the next two weeks.

.....Society put out a call for audit material yesterday. The State of California requested a number of items from the SCA that involves all of us. We're required in this round to provide copies of the last bank statement of 2014 and a listing of 'donations' processed through An Tir over the course of 2014. With the Doomsday Reports in hand, this should be fairly straight-forward. Not necessarily easy, but fairly straight-forward. Etiennette is running with this at the moment as she knows exactly where to go and how to pull it all together. I have a pretty good idea of how this is going to work, but Etiennette has promised me that we'll sit down sometime in the next couple of weeks and go through her process for gathering all this information. Then we'll see how close my thought of the process and how it works in reality match.

.....The July Coronation Kingdom Profit Check arrived yesterday. I still have to get with Attia and Nadezdha on reviewing the final report for An Tir / West War so I can write the check of profit and get it deposited. Between the two we should see an increase for a change instead of the loss we've been seeing most of this year.

.....Many, many irons in the fire at the moment with the Exchequerate. A KAS / KBC bid hit my e-mail yesterday. From Glymm Mere. I'm actually happy to see it, probably almost as happy as Julia. :-) At initial glance it looks pretty good. The hotel gave a pretty good price for the space. The bid is missing a few items that have been included in the budgets of the past couple of KAS / KBC events, but I don't think any of the items are Earth-shattering. I am going to do some quick comparisons this weekend and probably give my thumbs up before Monday.

.....At some point on Sunday I need to take some time to sit down and organize my 'to-do' list for the Exchequer Office. If you aren't paying attention you could drown in the details very, very quickly. That's going to be my biggest challenge over the next six months I think. I should have taken this on with much less distraction so that I could concentrate on learning the processes. I think my error was in comparing my thought of what it would be with what moving into the Office of the Chronicler was like. There is a large amount of detail in managing a publication that is actually printed (as it was in my tenure), but in comparison to the detail level involved in managing the Exchequer's Office, it is not much of a comparison.

.....Today, being the 18th birthday of The Rhys Monster, we were talking about going out to dinner or something. I was given no details, but that is not unusual. :-) I am thinking dinner would be a good thing now and should go find out.

.....And here starts the weekend. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....Tell me why we're doing this again? Oh, yeah, we're going to see some great Arts, Sciences and Bardic being performed and displayed on behalf of the Kingdom Championships. I gotta keep reminding myself of that. It is too early to be up and not headed to work. :-)

.....I suppose that staying up until Midnight wasn't the most brilliant of ideas either. Both TBT and I are a little zombie like this morning. But everything is packed and ready for the arrival of Florence the Wonder Van's appearance. We'll load her up and hit the 7:20AM ferry. Of course, with a stop at Starbucks along the way.

.....It seems strange to not be packing a dozen bins or so worth of 'stuff'. I've got one suitcase, one bin and my backpack, and I'm sure that TBT would say that I've still packed way too much stuff.

.....Let's see, I've got garb for two days. I've got clothes for return trip. I've got toiletries. I've got the bling and the Coronet. Food is packed. Vitamins and protein are packed. The documentation is packed. Victoria (the GPS) is packed. Enhanced Driver's License is packed. New SCA membership card is packed. I think I've got everything.

.....Looks like I get to judge one entry with Angharad and another with Brighid. Hopefully, we'll keep the geekdom arguments to a minimum. But the entries will be fun to argue. The documentation for all the items I have leave lots of room to learn more and ask lots of questions.

.....It'll be very interesting to hear the Latin being spoken. Or will it be sung? And what will be the justification for style? :-) The Terza Rima will be exceedingly interesting. It is done in a thoroughly modern English. I struggle with that immensely myself as using more period language and grammar styles sounds very strange to me unless I really work at it. That's still the chasm I have to leap.

.....Was hoping that Renart and / or Aelianora would have been at the Business Meeting last night. I was looking in the mail the other day at a circular packet of coupons and there was ne in there for a CSA Farm up in the north end of the county. I was curious to see what they thought of them. 'Abundantly Green' is the name of their farm. Gotta remember to ask them about it.

.....The meeting was light on attendance, but not as light as I suspected it might be. But the group approved the picnic going to two days, even at the possibility of a funding loss (although small in scope). I was surprised to hear that. But, you know, you camp and do the SCA to get away from the 'Modern Lifestyle', so I suppose it makes sense to a degree.

.....Now I'm rambling, more than usual. Time to get ready to go. Pinticton, B.C., here we come. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....It's probably a good thing that we had nothing planned for this weekend, and that it is a three day weekend, because we is sick! TBT is collapsed on the couch downstairs. Asleep, and has been for hours. I thought I was getting better, then the throat starting getting sore again. The ears clogged up again. Yuck! I hope it doesn't get any worse.

.....The line up for KAS / KBC was e-mailed out to everyone last night. I'm up for judging three bardic entries. The titles were more tantalizing teases than any real base to start researching. I hope we see some documentation in the next few days.

.....One is an instrumental for an instrument that could be any number of items in a branch. Just some quick internet searches ended up adding more questions than were solved. I'll definitely have to see the documentation to see the intent.

.....Another was a poem in a rhyming style fairly common in period. So again, it'll have to be the intent of the poem that dictates how it is judged.

.....The third one is rather intriguing in that I believe it is going to be a Latin poem. I am hoping that it'll be performed in Latin. Latin poetry has a nicely lyrical ring to it if done right. And, of course, thinking of the typical liturgical chant usually done in Latin. Although I don't think this one is going to be eclesiastical in nature.

.....But that is all another two weeks away. A lot could change in that time. I might end up judging none of these things. Which would be rather sad. Especially after a really long drive to site! Gotta remember to unearth the passport. I think I know where it is, but need to actually have to put my hands on it.

.....Glad tomorrow is Friday in any case. The past handful of weeks have been somewhat hectic and I'm looking forward to a little down time. I still would like to get a few things done. Namely a working 'to-do' list for the next month or so. We've got some Serjeantry scheduling to do, as well as some decisions to make.

.....Would like to wrap up some things for September Crown. ACCEPS is ready to launch. Just have to review the form and make a few minor tweaks to it. We'll probably be live with pre-registration in a week or so. Would also like to get the Marketplace Application completed as well. Bronwyn has the July Coronation application as a go-by now. She takes off for Disneyland in a week or so, so I'd definitely like to get this squared away soonest. Then we can put it on the September Crown web-site and announce its availability.

.....Madrone A&S Championship next weekend. I think a group of us are going to be there.

.....Would also like to do some house clean up as well this weekend. And maybe take the stuff in Heather to the landfill. After that I think a weekend of sleeping in and generally not doing much more is in order. I've got a huge stack of books next to the bed that are begging to be read. Maybe Sunday or Monday will be spent entirely in bed. :-) Sounds amazingly lazy but fun. :-)

.....One more day of work to do though. I think that it is time for bed.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....I wish I made more time to post to Live Journal. I am always checking into it to see how others are doing, what they are thinking, what's happening in their lives. I always seem to feel like the runner in the marathon who is at the tail end of the pack just doing his best to keep ahead of the street sweeper. :-) But I usually find that I'm not alone back there and that fact helps me catch my breath and take off again. :-)

.....You know, KAS / KBC wore me out! And I was neither the Autocrat or the Competition Coordinator! :-) On Monday I was an absolute zombie. Tuesday and Wednesday weren't much better. Thursday was Migraine hell day. But I started feeling better on Friday, which turned out to be a good thing.

.....I found KAS / KBC fun and fulfilling though, even though it was a work out. Friday was a breeze for set up. I helped Oliver, Renart and Tegus set up the Baronial Pavilion in the back of the hotel. After that the day mainly consisted of sitting around watching the hotel put up banners and set up gate. Had lots of good conversation with people though, lots of good friend time.

.....I lucked out and had two things to judge on Saturday. The first being a recorder piece by Galeron in the morning. It was a complex Italian version of an Estampie (a dance piece). He played it as a recital piece, with lots of ornamentation. The judging panel had mainly positive things to say about it. But I was thoroughly astounded when I found out that he'd only really been playing that piece for two weeks prior to KAS / KBC. I wasn't sure what to think of that. On one hand, the fact that he did as great a job as he did with only two weeks of practice showed what a great musician he was. But the fact that he only spent two weeks practicing for a Kingdom Championship made me gulp a bit. But he did demonstrate his considerable abilities on a recorder, as well as quite a depth of knowledge. I ended up mainly being impressed.

.....The afternoon judging session was with Jahnkin and his Bertrand oratory. I found the subject matter extremely interesting. It was easy to see that Jahnkin was absolutely in love with what Bertrand did as he was passionate about the style of Bertrand and what Bertrand exposed in Society. But as a performance Jahnkin just wasn't sure where to go with it. I think if he had given the performance some fire and passion he might have taken it much farther. It was fun talking to him about that very thing later in the weekend. I found I had an easy time talking to him about that very thing as I have the same problem with my Sonnetry. It's fun to write, but to perform it with passion? That's the hard part. :-)

.....Spent most of the rest of the day wandering around site and doing my best to recognize the good deeds of the Baronial Populace, which were many. This Baron gig is hard work! :-) But I did make it out to witness Dame Gwen's KAS pottery demonstration and was impressed with the depth of information presented. She could easily have filled another hour or so with just facts and demonstrations surrounding her Pipkin alone. It'll be interesting to see what might happen to KAS / KBC in the future if the single item approach we're proposing at the Baronial level makes it to the Kingdom stage.

.....On Sunday, I was given an ultimate complement. Maestro Giuseppe was looking to be running late for the KBC Sunday judging. I was asked if I would consider jumping into her spot for the day. In spite of myself I was flattered to have even been asked. Giuseppe showed up right at the stroke of the hour, but I was not fussed at all. Even to have been asked was an honour as far as I was concerned and so it made my day. :-)

.....By Sunday evening I was already in Zombieland, but TBT and I still managed to get our e-letters out to the list with all of our thank-yous and acknowledgments. I'm still surprised at how much people pay attention to those e-mails. This is especially true when you forget someone, or spell their names wrong. :-) But I think we finally managed to do it right as the usual suspects didn't say a word. :-) Maybe we'll figure this thing out yet.

.....Think good thoughts for TBT. She is tender right now and will be for a while. No fat in her diet at all and she must make her medical appointments. I might sick Gwen and Madrun on her, but I think even the threat of that will do the deed for me. :-) Although as bad as she has felt over the past week I think will do the deed actually.

.....July Coronation Marketplace Applications are starting to hit the lists, inquiries are starting to come in. I need to get up to Edgewater Park and find out just how much real estate we have with which to work.

.....Lots more to say, but we have to get moving. I probably should have started this earlier today. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....That's kind of unusual for me. Maybe it really IS one of the harbingers of DOOM!!! The one that is scheduled just DAYS before my 44th birthday. :-)

.....Arrived home to a note from a disgruntled customer. They did NOT read the instructions at Ingasbo and went ahead throwing money in my direction for a circlet that was not in stock and would not be anytime soon. They were VERY put out when they received my e-mail to let them know that what they wanted they couldn't have. Demanded to know when they'd receive their refund. I made sure that happened immediately. Rude customers who don't read instructions are never fun.

.....But they tend to be balanced out by those who are actually pleasant. I had another customer, who again did not read the instructions before sending money my way. But politely asked if the circlet they wanted really was in stock and if so, how soon could they have it? A little politeness goes a long way really. It is rather amazing. I went ahead and gave them a deal on a larger circlet of the same design I had in my completed bin. They will be getting it for the same price as the smaller size. That's definitely what you get for being polite immediately following a dork. :-)

.....Responded to a handful of e-mails. Anne reminded me that I should post a note about the 'tour' TBT and I want to do next Wednesday of the June Faire site and our lay-out tweaks.

.....Am getting excited about KAS / KBC. Makes me wish I were the Autocrat again. :-) But that would take away from Oliver's fun, and I certainly don't want to do that. :-) But even with all the planning foo surrounding the event, it'll end up being smooth and fun. I like that about Dragon's Laire. :-)

.....Then there's Ian. Sigh! A good person and a hard worker. But a maniac in all ways dealing with Society. No secret either, I've told that to him in person on many occasions. :-) But I do my best to find things for him to do. The latest being a number of heraldry projects for awards that TBT and I would like to add to the Baronial awards listing. My e-mail inbox was inundated with a plethora of ideas from him today. Any other Monday I would have run screaming. But I actually took some time to answer his latest couple of e-mails tonight. He was happy, and then immediately refilled the e-mail inbox. :-)

.....But the biggest chunk of time this evening was spent on the silk banner. TBT and I stretched it on the frame yesterday. This evening I took the gouda tipped bottle of black and went over all of the outlines. I was a little wobbly at first, but the lines slowly started improving as I started to get used to the flow of the gouda from the tip. From a distance it doesn't look half bad. Don't get too close though or the wobbly lines will hypnotize you. :-)

.....TBT would have done a much better job with it, but I really want to learn how to do this right. I have visions of many more banners in our future.

.....TBT will go over the lines once the gouda dries to make sure that I did indeed make all the proper connections. We might be actually painting sometime this week. That would be way cool.

.....The banner is looking very Victorian in nature. It has the Kingdom's Or and Argent Checky, then the Gules and Sable of the Barony. Then I took elements of my device and TBT penciled them on the remainder. The Python is very stylized Anglo-Saxon. But the winged cat heads look like they came from the '60's. :-) It was my practice piece and it will be a banner flying at May Crown, so I'm not going to whine. :-)

.....But in my mind though I was seeing the next banner take shape. The Python on it will be very 1350. I might put a seme of Quill Pens around it, a la The Black Prince. It looks cool in my mind, but will have to see it on paper.

.....I think that the next one will have the Team Haggis badge on it as well, between the Baronial Colours and the personal device elements. I'll have to make the Winged Sheep a lot more buff though to fit in with the device elements.

.....Am actually contemplating a tweak to my personal device. I've never been happy with the winged cat in the base. It looks cool on its own, but in conjunction with the Python it just makes the whole thing look too 'busy'. I know, think heraldically, not artistically. But still...

.....Just don't know if I want to run the heraldic gauntlet again though. They are a tough crowd. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.