Arontius of Bygelswade

.....I was thinking about when I last posted to Live Journal and realized that it had been over a week. The time has really run away from me. But I still would swear to anything that June Faire Season is a temporal phenomena that really messes with the mind. At least it does with mine. :-)

.....Work has been rather intense lately. The Shipyard is taking a deep breath before really launching into a grand re-structuring of the management, from the top of the civilian leadership, all the way down. A lot of people are antsy and full of anticipation. Some positive, some negative, but mainly just a 'let's hurry up and get started because we're tired of waiting'.

.....The structure of our Submarine Battery Team is something of a model for what the larger Shipyard structure is going to look like when all is said and done. In fact, our Team is specifically called out in the Desk Guide as an example of how the new model works, and can be successful. So from that standpoint, I'm not worried much about a lot of huge changes coming my way. But the desk guide I just finished reading has a lot of differences between what we do and what the new model is supposed to be, so I am a little nervous. We'll see. The model is supposed to be fully functional by the end of July.

.....Our schedule in and of itself has been rather intense as well. We're in the midst of one installation, have another fully in preparation to launch in August, and three more right behind it. Next year is going to be tough.

.....June Faire looks like it will go well. The Board is fully engaged and everything is lining up nicely. It even looks like there are people who are going to miss May Crown so that they can attend to June Faire. Well, I suppose that could be just me, but it kind of seems that way. :-)

.....The Serjeantry Schedule has been out for a while, and we'll jump into it as soon as we've recovered from June Faire. There has been a large amount of angsting about the Trials being on the same weekend as Autumn War. We are taking a harder look at it to see if we can't move the Trials to an earlier date and compress the overall schedule some. That's just me talking now. Haven't vetted that with all the other parties who play into that prominently (like the Candidates and the Secretary), but it would be nice to free up just a little more of August in preparation for September Crown.

.....Packed a little more for May Crown today. At least one stuff bag and a bin. Excavated the bedroom a bit. Most of the clothes are put away and we can walk from one end of the room to the other. The kitchen is excavated as well. The cat boxes are all cleaned. Laundry has been moving for several hours now. So I feel a little accomplished.

.....Would like to finish the bedroom tonight as tomorrow might be a little busy. The 'to-do' list is long. I think we'll try to get the sign done though. It will be such a nice day tomorrow that the paint will dry in a hurry. I don't think it will take long either. Which reminds me that I need to see about making the arrangements to get the signs to Poulsbo. They go up over the three day weekend. I must remember, I think I'll write that down now.

.....Tsuruko reminded us about June Faire Court as well. We have a rough draft, but must finalize it. Would really also like to make arrangements for a meeting with Caius so we could go through a walk-through of the plan.

.....Dame Tamlyn has been working hard to produce a set of charters for the Barony, especially some of the newer awards that TBT and I created. I had a good look at the Dragon's Company charter today. It was absolutely fantastic! We haven't been able to concentrate on the details of the charters as we would have liked, but Dame Tamlyn really ran with this one and the results are even more fantastic than I thought they might be.

.....I have whined a lot about how much work being Baron has been. But I think I need to mention the wins more often, because they are certainly there. In the end, no matter how difficult it has been, I'm actually very glad to have had the opportunity to be the Baron of Dragon's Laire. It has been and will be the biggest and best learning experiences I've had in the SCA.

.....TBT just awoke from her nap and mentioned the magic word on her way down the hall, 'dinner'. I think I'll sign off for now. Will probably post the upcoming 'to-do' list tomorrow, which will most likely be epic. I should enjoy the current good feeling for as long a moment as possible. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....It's a three day weekend for us government worker types (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). It has been a rather weird one so far, but mostly good none-the-less. Last week was a killer week at work and I was in a mood to just chill for a while. I was invited out on Friday, but after taking my mother out shopping I came home and fell asleep on the couch. The Beloved Tamm was in Oregon for the Laurel Road Show and Rhys was at his father's house for the weekend, so it was rather quiet around here. Kinda eerie actually. :-)

.....Saturday was a 'Sheep-To-Shawl' event out at RedBow's house in Belfair. I enjoyed the class quite a bit actually. We picked out some fleece from a mountain of the stuff. Then went through the process of washing and processing it. During intervals of soaking we learned various combing and cleaning techniques and basically 'geeked' out on on the preparation of wool for turning into thread and yarn. Made me want to go home with my completed wool and start carding and spinning right away. I'm looking forward to the next class.

.....Saturday night was dinner with Ralg and Bernie at Aztecas in Silverdale. They both had had pretty quiet days as well since their wives were also attending the Laurel Road Show in Oregon. When I finally home I cleaned house and went to bed. Sounds like a theme here. Kinda boring really. :-)

.....This morning I was determined to make some headway on the garage, and I actually made a pretty good start. I pulled out at least a dozen boxes of books that go into the bookcases in the Beloved Tamm's studio. Then I pulled out bins of books of which I'd totally forgotten. Two huge rubbermaid bins of Star Trek books, Mother Earth News magazines and my New Age collection. I have no idea where I'm going to put all these things, but I'll find some place. They are out of the garage though, so now there is at least a little bit more space in which to maneuver.

.....Then I went over to Lady Anne's house for a Scribal Practice. Things started out well. Besides Anne, Renart and Kassandra were already there and painting scrolls. Alys joined a little later. I went through one sheet of uncial letter. Then I lined out another sheet of Bristol for more practice. A conversation came up on a subject for which I had already apologized for profusely (and thought was a completed and 'dead' subject) and a couple of sideways comments were made on the subject. I almost lost my composure and definitely lost my concentration at that point, so I packed my stuff away to go home. But I did manage to get a good two or so hours of lettering done, so I'd still call the practice successful and was glad that Anne put it all together. I'd really like to get to a point where I was practicing my calligraphy again on a regular basis. I love lettering. I like how the concentration works. I'm not an artist, but this is the closest thing to art I think that I'll ever be able to get.

.....I'm now back at home and trying to convince myself to go put away some books. But just sitting here on the couch, listening to the Medival Music Live Journal feed just seems a lot more relaxing. :-) I know though that if I don't get off of my butt soon I'll just go ahead and fall asleep and get absolutely nothing done. :-).

.....Gotta get ready for the KAS meeting tomorrow. And I think that Ralg will want to do some storage unit clean out. I should give him a call on that.

.....Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Think good thoughts about MLK, Jr. tomorrow. He was an awesome man with a LOT of good things to say.

.....Tamm will be home soon. It'll be good to see her, I've missed her.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....So, I'm at Last Chance on Sunday and Lady Anne Brynley has this catalog from a place called 'Paper Ink Arts' (www.paperinkarts.com). It had a very nice selection of nibs, pens and inks. Reasonably priced as well. Made me pull out my calligraphy box on Sunday and last night to practice my calligraphy a little bit. Found out on Sunday and was reminded again on Monday that I need to pick up some more ink. :-)

.....The Beloved Tamm is starting to make for-real headway in the basement, and there is actually a little more room in there than I thought there might be. Her corner of the basement will be the arts area and I'm already hoping that she makes it through all of her boxes sooner rather than later so taht I can throw some paper on the table and pull out ink and pen.

.....Maybe sometime in Tamm-Vember. Just have to remember to stay out of her way when she is communing with art. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.