herveus

Friday, I met up with Vortigern and brought Bella home.
 
Bella was born feral but immediately confined with mom and got lots of human attention from the getgo, so she's pretty well socialized. She's maybe six weeks old. Very affectionate. Loves to curl up on my chest to nap. Runs around with vigor. Climbs. Climbs a lot.

The two older cats are still not sure about this. Or more accurately, are unamused. Alexx, at least, has gotten as far as sniffing at Bella when she's napping in her crate and not growled or hissed then. No paw-sticuffs so far. 

Of note, Bella immediately took to the litter box for business. No oopsies so far.

 Father's Day weekend was splendid. It was also the first date with my girlfriend. 

Just to be clear, I'm doing this with the enthusiastic encouragement and consent of my wife. As in, upon discussing the concept with names attached, I was commanded "Then ask her out". So I did. And after six plus months of regular phone chats, we finally were able to get together. We are not experiencing marital difficulties -- just some envelope expanding into new territory. 

Alys Mackintoich would be the girlfriend. The weekend went swimmingly, and we look forward to repeat engagements. Ocean City, NJ, is a pretty neat town. The dolphin watching cruise was a dry hole for dolphins, so we have a voucher to do it again. The cruise was otherwise pretty nice, module a stiff breeze (yes, I did end up a touch windburnt). Got to see friends I have seen very little of over the pandemic. 

It turns out that Alys is a hockey fan, so we watched the Stanley Cup game Saturday night. Alys is also a herald (how I got to know her to start with), a fencer who can't any more, and a lawyer for a day job. We've known each other for the better part of a decade. 

Wheee!

 Some years back, I ran across a post from Tina Bean on FaceBook with this picture:

She was wondering if anyone could help her with working up a pattern. I don't think I ever shared my pattern with her (but I can fix that), but I cooked one up using 13 cards. 

Note the stuff going on on the left side. I read that as the beginning of the band. Like the weaver did a length, and this got cut off and somehow survived. I was really excited by that recognition. When I chart out a band for twill or Snartemo, I do something like this to start it out. 

I finally hit the right combination of empty loom and motivation to try this out.

Some years ago, I had picked up some cones of a 10.8nm shetland single from Webs. It was a mill end, but they still have the description on their web site. It's 5000 yards per pound. When I examined it, it seemed to be nice and tightly spun. 

This seemed to be a suitable yarn to try. I went with the beige and brown. 

1 cm wide. 

The warp is behaving just fine. A bit of the wool sticking together, but nothing very bad. It's not very fuzzy yarn. Unweaving has not been an ordeal.

As weft, it's a bit more fragile. I've broken the weft half a dozen times or more. It's no big deal to cope with.

If you note the loop of warp hanging down, you'll see that it's twisted back on itself. I read that as the yarn being a bit overspun, which I take as a Good Thing™ in this context.

I am reckoning it will be six to eight hours per yard of weaving time. I'm guessing I have two feet or so done now. There's a nice little roll on the cloth beam.

The pattern is 52 picks long and it is twist neutral. 

I have the cards all threaded S (as I use the term). Note the slashes that show how the cards lean. Backslash is a backward turn; slash is a forward turn. The vertical line is an idling card. Row 18 is the transition from rep to twill; the odd numbered cards turn; the even numbered cards idle. That's all it takes.

You can also see this post on our Patreon (www.patreon.com/posts/moscavaja-balka-61128582)

 ...as in, my pants. Totally bankrupt after two weeks out west.

White Wolf and Phoenix set up shop at Great Western War (GWW). I flew out to Tucson to join my wife, who is staying in Tucson for a bit longer to visit.

Other than having to get up at 0400, the trip out was unremarkable. I did not even have to change planes in Houston (Hobby). I did have to check a bag going out because I had extra stuff going out, but I could leave the bag behind coming home.

MJ had Alexx with her. Alexx's last road trip was when she was quite young, while her girl parts were still there. She has been inured to being on a leash from the getgo. Her sisters are not so sure (or worse) about the idea. So, roadie cat. Alexx really liked (preferred) being outside in Tucson. There was tall grass she could hide in and lounge. 

After I got back home, Alexx managed to slip out of the RV unleashed and declined to come back. Of course this was in the evening. Thankfully, the next morning saw a cat with more than the usual amount of burrs come trotting right up, apparently none the worse for the wear of being outside all night loose. There was much worry overnight.

We headed off to Bakersfield Sunday afternoon with the aim to get to the Winco on Panama Ln and park there for the night. That had us going around LA after dark on a Sunday evening and traffic was no issue. One dinner stop and two gas stops and twelve hours later, we parked for the night. 

Setup at GWW went remarkably smoothly. We did not get in each other's way at all. We got the RV situated in Dry RV parking -- about a third of a mile walk from the booth. Heading back there on Tuesday evening, I heard a familiar voice and found Ryrid, with whom I had a cribbage date. I even had Rorik's cribbage board for memorial purposes. There was cribbage and Scotch and good fellowship along with much smack.

We had modest expectations for sales, hoping to cover expenses. That meant we had a target amount to make each day. The first day surpassed that number. Each succeeding day was better. We even did a useful amount of sales on Sunday morning before packing down. The end result is that we did considerably better than merely covering costs and made a small profit. Yay!

Ottavio invited me to the 3DC whisk[e]y tasting as his guest. That was spectacular. I tried maybe ten different whiskies and managed to not get plastered. Well buzzed, but no more. And met more people who I knew or had met decades ago.

I sent whisky out with MJ in order to be properly equipped to share it as is my wont. There were several impromptu tastings, and more than once, a customer got a bonus tasting of whisky in the shop.

The site rules said "mask up in public spaces". Period. The streets and merchant booths were among the areas defined as "public spaces". Camps could insist on vaccination or relax masking at their discretion. There were camps with signs requesting that visitors be vaccinated. People were pretty good about masking up. That was encouraging, especially in the light of Kern County being more problematic than most counties in the state. Outdoors and not crowded were pluses. There was a report of one attendee who developed symptoms and departed with their party and tested positive. One. One more who showed symptoms a couple of days after the event. 

As Янка noted, one of the food vendors was Oscar's Meat Pies. English meat pies. I'd never tried steak and kidney pie, for no particular reason. I've fixed that gap, and they were really good. One more food onto the "get this" list when opportunity knocks. 

Sunday was pack down and leave. MJ wanted to be down to maybe just the roof and floor before sunset. We did considerably better than that. As with setup, teardown went particularly smoothly, with each of us working different aspects and not getting in each other's way. We were off site and approaching I-5 before 1700, giving us an hour and a half of daylight to go. We got over Tejon pass and stopped for dinner at the bottom of the other side. The goal was to get to I-10 before stopping; we hit the first rest stop and found a place to park for the night. One good sleep later, we headed the rest of the way to Tucson, getting in in time to greet Wander before she headed off to tend to her father.

Megan's associate (we don't call her "apprentice" since she leveled up; she's a "journeywoman" now) sent us a couple of parcels with pieces she had woven while stuck at home. OMG! She was instructed to include the time spent weaving each band on its tag, and that number informed the price. Several pieces never made it to GWW, being shortstopped in Tucson. Several more went home with other people at GWW. More excellence.

All in all, the entire two weeks were made of win. It seemed like each day was better and more glorious than the previous. When I stepped on the scales at home after all that, I find that they showed new-to-me numbers, as in down seven pounds from when I left, as of this morning. There was plenty of walking, and less snacking, and starting to use a fresh hole in the belt. In the last year, I'm down about 30 pounds, and it's been good for me in diverse ways, and that without any gimmicks. Just eat a bit less and be a bit more active. Go me!

We went to Armistice and set up shop. For a 1,500 person event, sales were excellent. As it was, we did not do much more than cover expenses, but we're OK with that.

It was good for our souls, and the drama level was negligible.

People were mostly not masking, but aside from one troll merchant, there was not really any drama around it. Being outdoors and light enough on the ground was a big plus here.

A memorial ship was made and burned to good effect. We got a new person to make a boat kind of late in the process, but it was there, floated, and burned.

The Longship Company made arrangements to bring the Gyrfalcon, their four oar boat, and it was a big hit. Many of the Coopers insisted on getting a turn. It will be interesting to see if similar arrangements can be made for Pennsic. It's slightly complicated. The Pennsic rule about no boats and other floating things on the lake is not a Cooper rule; it's a Pennsic rule.

Setup and teardown were uncomplicated. The weather was quite civil, and even at the end, it did not get into stinky hot.

...so, my pants are totally bankrupt.

And we're now aiming to come to GWW. Megan really wants to visit friends in Tucson, and I'm really nervous about October in Mississippi. Delta should simply be referring to the big river nearby, but noooooooo. The Tater in Jackson is totally Not Helping. 

Howdy!

There's two parts here. First is the announcement of Virtual Heralds Point, in which you can make that (those?) heraldic submission(s) you've been sitting on because COVID or "I have to write a check?". Second is my personal bits of coolness.

The announcement:

From Dame Marie de Blois on behalf of Dame Lillia de Vaux, Virtual Heralds Point coordinator:

The SCA College of Arms will be hosting a Virtual Heralds Point beginning on Sunday, 24 Jan 2021, and ending 14 Feb 2021.

Are you in need of heraldic consultation for names, devices, badges, household names, etc? This Virtual Heralds Point can help.

You'll be paired up with a herald for the consultation and do the consult via any compatible contact - email, Facebook, Zoom, etc - so that it can be live or asynchronous as needed. The herald working with you will have other heralds to lean on for advice; we also have processes for senior heralds to doublecheck things after your consult and before final approval, so the entire process may take a few days to complete from beginning to end.

As an extra bonus, for this Virtual Heralds Point only, we will be able to accept electronic payments via PayPal invoicing. The cost per item will be as usual for your kingdom.

Sign up to request a consult here: http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldspoint/

Additionally, if you are willing to assist with this effort by being a consulting herald or a heraldic artist, we would be glad to have you! We need both name and armory heralds, and both by-hand and digital artists are welcome.

If you are familiar with the forms program and processes used at Pennsic, you'll be very familiar with the program and processes we are using for this Virtual Heralds Point (and it's been updated and improved by Istvan). If you are not yet familiar with them, we will be happy to get you up to speed on them with user guides, checklists, and Zoom training as needed.

Sign up to be a consulting herald or artist here: http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldspoint/

As this is a new thing, and we haven't tried it out yet, there may be a few snags as we figure out the best ways of managing everything remotely. Please be patient as we work out the bugs.

==============
Second: Having been to Korea on business enough times to have experienced all the seasons and having developed an affection for Korea and things Korean, I jumped at the chance to acquire a copy of a book that listed names from the Goryeo period (900s into 1400s). Given the evidence in the 13th century of an Englishman writing of his travel to Korea, the time range in the SCA for Korean names is pushed back to the 13th century. I have a spreadsheet with the data from the book, and it's currently filtered on 13-14c. And I've used it to help document Korean name submissions quite successfully. 

I was approached by someone to assist a submitter with getting their Korean name submitted. As it happens, the name appears to be unremarkable for 13-14c Korea, and is probably unremarkable from several hundred years earlier all the way to today. But that's not surprising. 

Instead of simply giving the submitter the documentation to put in the submission, I steered her to the Virtual Heralds Point. She signed up and asked for me to be her herald (and I covered that angle from the other side). We chatted in FB and I showed her the writeup for the Korean name and the English name she had tried to submit several years ago (paperwork black hole). Both were simple and fine names, and to put the cherry on top, her submission was the first one to get all the way through to payment, beating out something from Ansteorra by about half an hour. 

Am I kvelling a bit? You bet. Is it silly to do so? Of course. But I can only be honest about it.

So in today's kittom update:

Alexx is fully in heat. Assuming the position and begging for service. Calleigh will put a chomp on her throat and mount, but that's as far as her instincts take her. It's kind of funny to see. And up in the apartment, Marisol is doing the same thing, getting the same treatment from Jessamine, who is full sized and can really smother Marisol.

Otherwise, Calleigh has been in my lap repeatedly demanding and getting scritchins'. And the fur flies...  

 Yesterday (Sunday) we went to my nephew's wedding. I characterized our trip as "going to Falwell land". (being not far from Lynchburg). 

I did not realize how thoroughly apt that statement was.

My nephew and his wife are both recent graduates of Liberty University. I found that to be rather disturbing, given the actual mission Liberty [sic] University has been working to.

The service was somewhat uncomfortable. The pastor spoke at considerable length before we got to the vows. You might call it a full-fledged sermon. You might be right. He made sure to trot out the claim the the Biblical definition of marriage is one man and one woman. It was plain that the vision of marriage he was pushing was needlessly asymmetrical in responsibilities and authority. 

I did behave myself. But there was discussion in the car on the way home. 

 The contract I have been working under for the past seven and a half years was supposed to be recompeted for something like three or four years ago. Haha... MSC finally got a solicitation out and made an award a month ago or so. 

The current contract ends with the end of the year. The new one kicks in on 2 January. Lots of transition. Yeah.

CACI won the new contract, and they appear to be picking up pretty much all of us. They did not even call me in for an interview before making me an offer of employment. It was satisfactory, and I accepted it. Now for the paperwork. 

I will be technically Out Of Work on New Years Day.

The new job will have me commuting to Chantilly, at least for the time being. That will suck. I figure my commute will roughly double. And Metro is not a viable option at all. On the other hand, all of us on the team will be working at a location instead of teleworking most or all of the time. I look forward to the social aspects.

We've been in the new house for over a year now. The front bathroom was a known project when we moved in, but there is a second full bathroom to carry the load.

We stripped the bathroom down to bare studs, leaving only the toilet in place for now. I was able to recycle the tub and sink to Community Forklift. That beats tossing them.

The ceiling looked like it was sagging badly. The curvature was profound.

It wasn't rotten drywall ready to fall down. It was a ceiling joist that had bowed down a lot, probably because the "vent" fan was blowing its output along that joist *under* the insulation. Amazing.

The past two weekends involved getting the ceiling redone right and rearranging the wiring, in part to shift the door for the linen closet from the hallway to the bathroom.  Last weekend was pulling down wall board, doing and redoing some electrical bits, and cutting out studs that needed cutting. Oh, and pulling up most of the tile from the floor.

Yesterday, we finished removing the nasty insulation from above and then dropped the drywall. The bowed joist was well out of line, maybe an inch and a half at the worst. Trimming that with a circular saw was an adventure. We hung a new bathroom vent fan so that it could be vented properly.

Today, I wrestled with the soffit where the fan was to vent. The alligator tapped out.

Vent tubing was installed, secured, and taped up with the generous application of aluminum tape.

With the ceiling bare, I could finish the wiring. The fan worked and it's quiet!

R-30 fiberglass batts got emplaced. Nice, clean, thick batts. Not the nasty multi-layered, vapor-barriered compressed thin batts that I pulled out of there.

Finally came the sheetrock. Panel lift for the win.

I still have bare studs, but it's progressed to 'having a good ceiling'.

I'm sore, but it's a good sore. Dr. ZRFQ has been in invaluable help in this. Both in the grunt work and in providing spare neurons for the making of synapses.