Sorcha inghean Maille

Linen thread

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:04:25 GMT

Hi. Someone on my friends' list was talking about linen thread and some place in the TC was mentioned. Now I've no memory of the person the comments were helpful for or the places suggested. Anyone care to re-educate me on good places to get linen thread in the Cities? Thanks in advance!

This is a very funny blog

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:37:11 GMT

Not OMG enlightening or over the top with humor but I like it. Just sharing. http://theredneckmommy.com/2009/09/18/why-blogging-with-tissue-up-your-nose-is-a-bad-idea/

Improv Everywhere

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:24:18 GMT

Man...just make happy happen. Few of us can do something like this but we can do something, can't we? I mostly love these people for the happy. I think my fav ever is the high-five skit with Rob.

Armored Women - a collection. Do you know any other images?

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:02:17 GMT

Medieval and Renaissance Armored Women.

This is a collection of images from the Middle Ages and Renaissance showing women in armor, and mostly later period. So...do you know of any others?

Fledging down! Big Hoopla!

Sun, 24 May 2009 19:55:38 GMT

I was working in my yard and had stopped to talk to a neighbor about shared space along between the properties. And suddenly this huge noise of birds exploded in my front tree, the one with the baby robins all nested up. A squirrel was attacking the nest - and here I was worrying about the cats getting them.

At least one baby made it out of the nest and fluttered off to the back of the house with a whole troop of adult robins flying in to protect and defend. I was trying not to look like a fool in front of the new neighbors while waving and yelling at the squirrel; their 8-9 yo son had not ever seen a fledging and thought it was hurt, and thought his small dog should play with it. So I firmly, politely made it plain the fledging was not a toy and to back off and let the anxious parents do their work now.Made sure the cats were all inside.

Finished the conversation with the neighbors then came in here to post, letting those robin parents round up whatever younglings they have on the ground. And i'm going to start a fire pretty quick. I think roasting root vegetables in a dutch oven is a good thing to try today. Chicken on the grill. Icecream for desert.

Still trying to merge posting tasks

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:13:18 GMT

08:55 am: Testing this facebook update thing

It's actually 9:12 and I'm starving! but I want to find out what it takes to make this piece actually work...

What I would really like to have is a path that takes a post from my main blog and throws it here and into facebook, all at the same time. Some people would get duplicates but I know that others are really only checking one or the other of my social networking sites. I don't know, exactly, how to make it all work and maybe we just are not there yet but I'm looking around now for that opportunity. One post, three sites. My goal.

So today I should be putting a note into FB that tells people there that I have posted this post in LJ. It is a public post where most of my posts on LJ are closed.

I went through the proper steps with TypePad to have those posts also show up in FB, which is supposed to work but does not seem to do so. That was frustrating, lol, but I willl go back later and try again. Silly that way.

OK, posting already...

Polar Plunge Sponsorship

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:25:17 GMT

Good morning. I am passing this opportunity to everyone via every venue I can. Please just ignore if you are not interested. I know that Becky is also looking for volunteers to support the plungers - hand them towels, hot cocoa, run tables, help with a variety of work. Her email is below if you would like to take part without having to jump into the water yourself.

And yes, this is copy/pasted email so it looks kinda odd. I'm at work and not wanting to take a lot of time over it.

Thank you!

Jonya

Jonya Pacey
IT Help Desk Manager
SELCO (Southeastern Libraries Cooperating)
Phone 507-288-5513
Email: jonya@selco.info
-----Original Message-----
From: Becky Cleveland [mailto:beckycleveland@charter.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 8:11 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: Polar Plunge Sponsorship

Hi Everyone;
I am asking for your help for Bill to be "Freezin' for a Reason" . Bill
is going to be taking the "Super Plunge" on Feb. 14, 2009 at Foster
Arrends Park here in Rochester. For 24 hours, he will plunge 24
times! In order to do this, we need your help by making a donation to
Special Olympics Minnesota.

You can donate on-line at www.specialolympicsminnesota.org Under the
Find a Plunger -- Rochester Bill Cleveland

As many of you know, I have taken this plunge myself many times. Due to
the required 3,000 dollars he needs to raise, I've stepped back and said
I would help him raise this money. As you know, I am very involved in
Special Olympics. I am head coach once again for the Swim Team this
year. We have started practice with 46 athletes training currently!!

Please consider helping out these great athletes by donating to Bill.
He has a matching grant so every dollar you donate will be doubled!

Thank you!
Becky Cleveland

I'm posting this everywhere...

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:04:16 GMT

Luce said I could. Their website is http://www.jason-liz.net/ourlife/ if you want to send a message. Posted today on FaceBook: Liz Luce Coltom is VERY HAPPY, that Iggy/Jason is finally back Stateside and on his way to Ft Lewis!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:38:20 GMT

Everyone have a good time and get ready for a great 2009! I am.

First sign of spring!

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:46:08 GMT

Be of good cheer! The winter will certainly give way to spring. I have seen the first real sign today. The Gurney's Seed Catalog hit our mailbox and is sitting down there at my feet, cheering me. There are so many promises in a seed catalog. Here on the front page, I see Vital Green Spinach and Drippin' Honey Pears and Yumm Yumm Necterines and I anticipate more delights inside.

I love the seed catalogs. One year I got six! That was the year after I had ordered all my seeds via catalogs and got on all the mailing lists. The websites, navigatible as they may be, are not as tactile and interesting as a paper catalog. I can circle things and tuck lists in between the pages. Their arrival this last week of December have always meant Spring is Coming to me.

Lunch with Jacques

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:05:21 GMT

I took Gin with me to meet Rachel and Nick for lunch today. We went to Pannekoken's. What was nice was the gentleman at the next table, who took the opportunity to talk to Nick, thank him and show some concern about him. Our waitress did as well but for some reason, people who have seen service and who feel a kinship with our current batch of fresh-eyed determined soldiers, well, it makes me proud. So we talked, shared stories, caught up on his plans. Then as we were leaving, he puts on that cap, can't really call it a hat, and it was so darn cute I snapped a picture.

Heading to Nordskogen this evening for practice so we will have even more time to talk. Mostly about fighting, but some about the dreams and hopes and wild plans we are both making in our lives. He's pretty much got the next couple of years committed and he did go into it with his eyes open, as open as they can be before you are in the middle of it. Sort of like being pregnant. Until you experience the whole gamut of growing a child in your belly and giving birth, it's all book-learning and an intellectual game.

If you like dogs...

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:15:53 GMT

http://www.pitbullunited.com/wallacethepitbull/ and go watch "You can't bring me down" video under general vids. I don't even like dogs and this one brought tears to my eyes.

Trying an experiment

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:37:02 GMT

This is the kind of experiment that can't be undone. So it's more like a change or a decision, I guess.

It involves FaceBook and something I learned at MLA. One of the sessions, about 23 Things on a Stick, contained a presentation by a Ramsey County librarian who joined FaceBook with six of her coworkers at other branches, as they could use this as a tool to communicate. The premise is to both build community and to tap into each other's knowledge when doing reference work and similar library tasks. Shortly after the presenter created her account, her family found and friended her - all 30 of them.

I found that a great story. I'm already a member of the MLA group on FaceBook, and used that to start friending the professional people I already know. I am exploring the friends' lists of library-involved people I already have friended, looking for those connections in the network. I had to think first about mixing my professional life with the rest of what I do, including the times I get whiney about working out, and decided that just about everything I do on FaceBook is mirrored on some other Web 2.0 venue. Anyone in the library community could have found my casual adventures in living via my blogs or my LiveJournal acccounts, or googled me, or looked for me on flick'r. And soon - LibraryThing.

During these few days, however, it has changed my update postings. Already, I am more thoughtful as to what I tell people; I don't know how long that will last but I believe I will never be unaware of the entirety of my audience. But I've always been aware of the real people on the other side of the screen. The experiment comes from fully embracing the opportunity to network and build community - that's the advertising, isn't it? That my network intermingling with other people's networks and as snippets of information are shared, usefulness happens. People find jobs, find new friends, find answers.

The next step is to move the intellectual nature of my network to face-to-face meetings, to tap into web-based friendliness and support in real time. But maybe that is organic and impossible to predict. I will find out! See you online!

Crossposted to other blogs.

Halloween make-believe

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:51:39 GMT

This is myself and Aletheia. I really enjoyed this set up, and wish there was some other place we could wear and share these. Any ideas? Skits for... I don't know. Anti-drugs? Maybe background characters at something for kids? Any suggestions?

"please"

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:22:27 GMT

This is fricken hilarious. What are we doing to our kids?? Teaching them manners and all... I've had three sets of kids answer the "what do you say?" question with "please?" tonight, instead of "Trick or Treat!!!" Those are wonderful magic words, mostly, but not tonight. I am not dealing with that. It's "Trick or Treat!!!" or nothing.

This is a night for socially acceptable greed from our children, so those of us too old to indulge can appreciate it.

I'm dressing up in my yip-yip alien costume asap and walking about. Damn straight!

Knightly virtues in today's world

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:10:04 GMT

smlibrarian has a poll asking people how they treat the chivalric virtues we admire. http://smlibrarian.livejournal.com/ if you are interested in reading what she says and maybe join in the discussion.

Would this be of use to anyone?

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:10:50 GMT

About five years ago, a friend was moving away and she gave me a loom that her aunt or a friend's aunt had given to her. This aunt had spent years teaching weaving and most of her tools went on to students and other teachers. This friend passed this small teaching loom onto me, as she really didn't have any thought about ever taking up weaving and I was just getting into the SCA and she thought I might be interested. So here is my question. The Structa artcraft loom is a four harness, eiight-inch weaving area. It seems to be in good shape, just dusty. I have no interest in it. Would anyone on my friend's list be interested in a teaching loom? Or if you know of someone that might, please contact me.

a picture of our own Aletheia!

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:19:31 GMT

http://www.flickr.com/photos/selco/2909541705/ Yep! She's under there. And having a blast! I'm so happy she's taken this opportunity at SELCO to work in library outreach!

i decided something last night

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:53:00 GMT

I have a very political husband, and while he has strong feelings about the issues, he's slipped a bit too far into the dirt-slinging side of this game. There are other people who do this but he's convenient in my life to talk about. As if I'm going to believe dirt without researching it for myself. heh. So I decided something last night, after deleting some stuff from other people and after he was talking to me about something he heard. I don't want to hear dirt.

Instead, I told him, tell me what your candidate is doing right. Tell me the issue and what *you* think is the right answer, and if I'm interested, I'll ask you who supports that issue the best, along the lines you think is the right answer. That will help me the best understand what it is that is important to you. And since you are also my friend as well as my husband, it's good for me to discuss these things with you. But dirt-slinging, it is a big turn-off. I will go do something else if you start into it.

And I'm hoping this both helps me learn about the candidates and keeps me from getting angry about the negativity. I don't need that. Do you?

Story-time!

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:00:06 GMT

About a dozen of us went to Applebees North to have a meal to honor Jacques and his decision to join the military. He leaves today. And it was a nice company of people, and I had a good time, but that’s not really what this story is about.

I’m sitting there with two people on my right and four on my left, and I say “huh. That fellow is bringing in a pumpkin.” And they all look and sure enough, there is a gentleman holding a small pumpkin coming up the walk. But when he came in, he had his body between us and his prize so the people across my table did not see where he sat down.

But nevertheless we enjoyed speculating about why a grown person would bring a pumpkin into the restaurant. To be made into a pie? Designated driver, perhaps, if he needed to magic it into a coach? An obsession with gourds? Did it have a face drawn on it, and could it be called Gourdon Lightfoot? Well, the meal went on, and I continued to drink lots of lemonade…

So as time went on, I needed to mark my chart. I asked for the two people on my right to let me out, and belledlr got a twinkle in her eye – “You are going to go find out about that pumpkin, aren’t you??” and I said “I can do that!” and she said “well, I’m not afraid to ask, let’s go!” so we walked together to the other side of the room. There was a birthday party going on over there and really, how hard is it to see a pumpkin on a table??

But it was…we had to double-back and take the risk we were annoying some perfectly innocent people. And then we were trying so hard to be polite and apologetic if the family we initially asked were the wrong people and we were making it seem that this nice man was the sort to drag gourds into places. And who knows?? Maybe the pumpkin was in the kitchen being made into a pie.

Well, we did not mistake our quarry and the two couples sitting there were not insulted in the least bit. The story went like this: every year, this man grew pumpkins for his six grandchildren’s Halloween jack-o-lanterns. And as they were going traveling soon, and it was a family gathering anyway, he was delivering one to a granddaughter that very day. And he was happy to share the story and the family seemed pleased that anyone cared enough to ask.

This family tradition, which it is by now as some of the grandchildren were old enough to have outgrown jack-o-lanterns, is a good one. An example of the glue that holds a family together, just as we on the other side of the room were performing a celebration of a young man’s enlistment into the military, another necessary tradition. Sometimes the rituals are sad, sometimes they are very happy. But they are universal and comforting in their similarities to other families around the world, holding the same rituals, speaking the same words, sharing hopefully the same desire to continue loving each other and appreciating each other’s good points. Just not always with pumpkins, tenderly carried into a family meal.

testie-fied that..

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:42:09 GMT

I'm dead. Where's my coffee?

38 seconds

Gardening work

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:00:47 GMT

I didn't spend much time out there again this year. So i'm cutting back all the old plants and getting it ready for its yearly leaf mulching. And every year, I have to reinvestigate what it is I put down first -bone meal? Lime? Something that helps the dirt be all happy about the leaves.

I realized I needed coffee so typing while it perks.

The indigo I bought from Shepherd Seeds so many years ago have seed pods; when I saw that developing this year, I decided not to try to do anything with the leaves until the pods had matured. I'll try growing them this winter. This was bought under the understanding at the time it was the type that would produce blue dye, but that was years ago and I can no longer claim to be sure of it. Just that I had a book that said "this type, not that other" and I am like ....um maybe 75% sure I bought the right type. Just an example of how time and lack of attention on something can make the memory fade, I guess.

I keep having to stop the edger and pull up the hand shears to go through tree trunks. Even in a year, these small walnut and maple and whatever this other type is, grows quickly. Plus the morning glories have spread further, and some of the mint (well, duh). But mostly it's the daisies and echinacia and black-eyed susans and lilies that I'm cutting back. Avoided the sage - it's still blooming! I like having my own sage.

Huh. Look at the sorting/filtering options that Shepherd Seeds now has...I know,, it says White Flower Farm now but I fell in love with the company under their original name. Anyway,useful filtering tool.

These are kinda funny

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:47:46 GMT

Funny nonevent t-shirts

Day of Fencing

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:18:54 GMT

Day of Fencing was a sucess in a great part because of the attendees and their participation and enthusiasm. Plus the day was gorgeous and so were the gardens. As mayor, I kept having to pay to get back the various goods that my Good Moneychanger had "procured" for me from who-knows-where... No questions asked, except for the livestock. I do wonder why we had so many pigs...There were three ships against a band of good guys helping the City Guards so lots of fighting, from about 11 am to about 3:30. And the melee teams kept going even afterwards! But anyway, I kept running up and down in response to Terry's request for my company (or...my moneybags), and then to help with whatever I was asked about.

I'm estimating 35-40 rapier fighters geared up, and some of the melee battles during the game were of maybe 5-7 per side. It's fun to be watching a fight, and to look up and realize people are watching from the terrace above, and to look behind me and see people there, too. It seemed the fighters were enjoying themselves. Plus, and this is good, everyone was very careful of any mundane group that was out enjoying a walk in the park. Being that it was a public park we made a point of greeting people and making sure that they knew what was going on, and that we would be watching them whenever we had a fight break out. Similar to a game of touch football or frisbee-throwing in any common grounds, I suppose.

The Tavern was fantastic! I heard that over and over again and I enjoyed my food very much. Brenna and her crew did a fabulous job. And the whole crew did a fantastic job, really. People pulled together and did the work that needed to be done, most of them working all day or most of the day, double-shifts. The welcoming, the friendliness of my group was very evident. And well-developed friendships make it easy for people to work together. You see it in Lyulf and Ingus and Theoweard's interactions with each other and how they problem-solve and how they laugh. I saw that in other ways as well; Belle and Aig and Rose working troll, for example. Brenna and Gwyn and Zsofia in the kitchen. Brenna and Koko working together. This is the glue. When I am asked, and I have been asked, what sort of people are we, I pull these stories out and share them. It's not unique to the SCA, and it's not as high or hard as reaching for the ideals/challenges found in our peerage oaths. But I feel these relationships are history and bedrock and promise.

Well, aren't I getting philosophical here. heh. sorry.

Very few people used the inside of the house for more than resting and eating. A lovely day so we mostly spent it outside. People not fighting seemed to find enjoyment in just talking to each other and working on handcrafts, or wandering about the grounds looking at the gardens and the fighting. I did not need to worry about people entertaining themselves at all, or at least that was my impression. Time might prove me to be incorrect, though.

On a personal note, the only real problem was a fuse blown. And OMG that basement is creepy. Went down there a couple of times, once by myself, to try to find the correct fuse box. Finally Lyulf found it for us. We all love too tell horrible stories about what went on down there...probably silly. Probably mostly those were servants' rooms and storage rooms and not at all really that there were cadavers and medical work being done down there. But brrrr....creepy. The rest of the house, very appropriate...well. I guess scary, creepy dungeons are period. OK. Never mind.

I liked what some of the ships' crews had done. Captain Teffan won over Captain Margalit and Captain Ambros, being much more ruthless in their looting, I think. One of the crews had piratey scarves on around their masks. Another had looting bags. The third was very agressive about kidnapping and demanding ransom - to the point, I found out later, that some of our guests were not finding enough money to random themselves back out often enough. I feel badly about that; it didn't ruin the game for them, just made it harder to continue. I should have been throwing the money around, passing back out tax money, perhaps.

It was a very fun, silly day. Glad it happened!

Cakes

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:04:07 GMT

Have you been to Cake Wrecks? If you haven't, you really should. Pics are work safe in my opinion and will not make you hungry at all.