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anastasiavFor some reason, this set of photos of the "dress rehearsal" for next week's innaguration made me tear up this morning: photos.
I'm thinking maybe by topic might be the method by which to recap the weekend:
E continued to have symptoms of an intestinal bug right through the weekend. Saturday Josh's parents agreed to take him (sick as he was) overnight (on the theory that he had to be getting better soon), so we dropped him off there on our way to Richmond to (hopefully) pick up our new car. He threw up in the car just as we were pulling into their driveway, then had a bout of what I can only describe as 'explosive diaharea' about a half hour after we left. He slept well, actually ate stuff, and drank lots of water, and so again by Saturday evening we thought the worst was over. He slept well (although apparently got up a couple times to "look for mamma and daddy"), ate eggs in the morning, napped, and then around 3pm it started all over again.
So we packed him up and took him to the ER. Where we waited for two hours without being seen, and finally left. When we got home he asked for Peanut Butter and Snap Peas, which we fed him. He also asked for cake, which we did not feed him. Then he went to sleep without protest.
This morning when he woke up his first words were "I'm hungry" so we went downstairs and he ate two heaping bowls of cereal, then (after consulting with his care provider) we decided to take him to daycare and go to work. We'll see what the afternoon brings. I'm cautiusly hopeful....
Drove to Richmond on Saturday afternoon to test drive the Passat. The good: Drives well, very quiet, alignment is perfect, clutch seems to be good, body is in good shape, new tires, it has a brand new sticker. The bad: Power mirrors don't work, power locks don't work, one back window would not go down (but it may have just been frozen), and there was a ton of frost on the inside of the windshield. Oh, and it only has a tape deck.
We went back to them and said "Well, it has X, Y, and Z wrong with it, but we'll take it right now for $1000 less than your last offer" Guy (not the owner) at small dealership (its used cars and self storage, to give you an idea) says "no, sorry" and lets us walk out. When my mom gets home, however, there is a message from them that says "we'll take your offer". So my mom is calling them back today to clarify a few points (Guy at dealership seemed to think that by selling us the car "as is" he'd need to take the sticker off, but since none of the broken things are inspection items that's not true, as I confirmed this morning with the Maine State Police). The inspection sticker is a deal-breaker for us. So we'll see how it goes.
I'm moderatly disapointed that I didn't come back Saturday with the car in-hand (so to speak) but if the slight delay means we can get it for $1000 less than we expected, that's all good.
Saturday night we attended a local SCA Event - Winter Feast - which was basically just that ... a feast, in the winter. The head cook is one of Ivan's squires, and I'd been working with him to develop the menu (he just completed culinary arts training but has very little "medieval food" experience). All in all, I was very pleased with how the food went. I presonally would have liked to see a few more veggies in the mix, but he did a great job with presentation, assortment, and -- most importantly - flavor. I also loved that there were a dedicated troupe of servers so that we could sit and enjoy our meal. I was very pleased that he avoided the "one dish comes out at a time" problem that so many sCA feasts have, and that I felt instead that I was indeed being served four complete 'courses' of a formal meal.
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valkyrie1972 was the autocrat (her first time ever!) and did a great job, especially managing all the personalities that were involved in getting this done. It was a small event that started at 5pm, and I really enjoyed that format -- getting things started later in the day and the small-scale nature of the event made things feel much more relaxed. I don't know why we don't start more events in the late afternoon/early evening, actually. Also, the fact that there was so much music - vocal music, and live music for the dancing afterwards - really set the mood.
I experemented with a new way of wearing the hat and veil combo (basically have a headband to pin the veil to but wear the shiny hat under the veil rather than over it) that worked very, very well. I wasn't fussing with it all night, it was comfortable, and it didn't fall in my meal once!
At the event there was a fundraiser in place to help a local incipeint group get some seed money so they can hold their first event and otherwise get off the ground. Downstairs was a silent-auction-raffle type thing where tons of people (and I do mean tons -- I'm guessing there were more than 100 items) donated stuff and then the event attendees bought tickets (fifty cents each or 12 for five dollars) and dropped the purchased tickets (with your name on them) in a brown paper sack attached or next to the item you wanted to win. Some items got lots of tickets, some only got a few. Also, Master Julien showed up in his best, shinest, most protective armor and let you hit him with a sword for $7. Because he didn't hit back, you didn't have to wear armor and blows to the arms and legs didn't count. He could block, and a solid blow to the head or body would be a kill. Not only a great fundraiser - but very, very entertaining!! They announced at the end that the fundraiser had raised over $600 for the new group, which is a good nest egg for anyone.
I'm glad we didn't bring E, even if he had been well. There were certainly other kids there for him to play with, but I think overall he would have been bored, and it was a treat for both Ivan and I to be able to walk around and talk with people and not have to worry about who was watching the boy. We have a sitter lined up for parts of Birka, so I hope to be able to replicate that experience, at least for part of the time (mainly Friday night).
Finally, a note about my knee: Yes, I'm now walking without either the brace or crutches. I still have a significant limp (which makes me feel very old) and there is a tightness and weird feeling (not really discomfort, just a weird stiff feeling) there all the time, but I'm slowly accepting this as the new normal. The accepting is a big step for me -- for ages I wanted it to feel just like the other one, but I'm coming to grips with the fact that it just never will. That I'll always (or at least for the next couple of years) be aware of it constantly. Yes, it will continue to improve - to get stronger and my range of motion will get slightly better (so I can climb stairs with both feet again), but this is just the way its going to feel from now on. For some reason coming to grips with this has been a big step for me, and its making coping with things better.
Looking forward to: A week where no one throws up or poops on the floor; where we finally get to take the tree down; where I get a car (car = freedom); where I make crazy pants for my toddler boy; where I have a weekend off to enjoy with my family.
I'm thinking maybe by topic might be the method by which to recap the weekend:
E continued to have symptoms of an intestinal bug right through the weekend. Saturday Josh's parents agreed to take him (sick as he was) overnight (on the theory that he had to be getting better soon), so we dropped him off there on our way to Richmond to (hopefully) pick up our new car. He threw up in the car just as we were pulling into their driveway, then had a bout of what I can only describe as 'explosive diaharea' about a half hour after we left. He slept well, actually ate stuff, and drank lots of water, and so again by Saturday evening we thought the worst was over. He slept well (although apparently got up a couple times to "look for mamma and daddy"), ate eggs in the morning, napped, and then around 3pm it started all over again.
So we packed him up and took him to the ER. Where we waited for two hours without being seen, and finally left. When we got home he asked for Peanut Butter and Snap Peas, which we fed him. He also asked for cake, which we did not feed him. Then he went to sleep without protest.
This morning when he woke up his first words were "I'm hungry" so we went downstairs and he ate two heaping bowls of cereal, then (after consulting with his care provider) we decided to take him to daycare and go to work. We'll see what the afternoon brings. I'm cautiusly hopeful....
Drove to Richmond on Saturday afternoon to test drive the Passat. The good: Drives well, very quiet, alignment is perfect, clutch seems to be good, body is in good shape, new tires, it has a brand new sticker. The bad: Power mirrors don't work, power locks don't work, one back window would not go down (but it may have just been frozen), and there was a ton of frost on the inside of the windshield. Oh, and it only has a tape deck.
We went back to them and said "Well, it has X, Y, and Z wrong with it, but we'll take it right now for $1000 less than your last offer" Guy (not the owner) at small dealership (its used cars and self storage, to give you an idea) says "no, sorry" and lets us walk out. When my mom gets home, however, there is a message from them that says "we'll take your offer". So my mom is calling them back today to clarify a few points (Guy at dealership seemed to think that by selling us the car "as is" he'd need to take the sticker off, but since none of the broken things are inspection items that's not true, as I confirmed this morning with the Maine State Police). The inspection sticker is a deal-breaker for us. So we'll see how it goes.
I'm moderatly disapointed that I didn't come back Saturday with the car in-hand (so to speak) but if the slight delay means we can get it for $1000 less than we expected, that's all good.
Saturday night we attended a local SCA Event - Winter Feast - which was basically just that ... a feast, in the winter. The head cook is one of Ivan's squires, and I'd been working with him to develop the menu (he just completed culinary arts training but has very little "medieval food" experience). All in all, I was very pleased with how the food went. I presonally would have liked to see a few more veggies in the mix, but he did a great job with presentation, assortment, and -- most importantly - flavor. I also loved that there were a dedicated troupe of servers so that we could sit and enjoy our meal. I was very pleased that he avoided the "one dish comes out at a time" problem that so many sCA feasts have, and that I felt instead that I was indeed being served four complete 'courses' of a formal meal.
valkyrie1972 was the autocrat (her first time ever!) and did a great job, especially managing all the personalities that were involved in getting this done. It was a small event that started at 5pm, and I really enjoyed that format -- getting things started later in the day and the small-scale nature of the event made things feel much more relaxed. I don't know why we don't start more events in the late afternoon/early evening, actually. Also, the fact that there was so much music - vocal music, and live music for the dancing afterwards - really set the mood.I experemented with a new way of wearing the hat and veil combo (basically have a headband to pin the veil to but wear the shiny hat under the veil rather than over it) that worked very, very well. I wasn't fussing with it all night, it was comfortable, and it didn't fall in my meal once!
At the event there was a fundraiser in place to help a local incipeint group get some seed money so they can hold their first event and otherwise get off the ground. Downstairs was a silent-auction-raffle type thing where tons of people (and I do mean tons -- I'm guessing there were more than 100 items) donated stuff and then the event attendees bought tickets (fifty cents each or 12 for five dollars) and dropped the purchased tickets (with your name on them) in a brown paper sack attached or next to the item you wanted to win. Some items got lots of tickets, some only got a few. Also, Master Julien showed up in his best, shinest, most protective armor and let you hit him with a sword for $7. Because he didn't hit back, you didn't have to wear armor and blows to the arms and legs didn't count. He could block, and a solid blow to the head or body would be a kill. Not only a great fundraiser - but very, very entertaining!! They announced at the end that the fundraiser had raised over $600 for the new group, which is a good nest egg for anyone.
I'm glad we didn't bring E, even if he had been well. There were certainly other kids there for him to play with, but I think overall he would have been bored, and it was a treat for both Ivan and I to be able to walk around and talk with people and not have to worry about who was watching the boy. We have a sitter lined up for parts of Birka, so I hope to be able to replicate that experience, at least for part of the time (mainly Friday night).
Finally, a note about my knee: Yes, I'm now walking without either the brace or crutches. I still have a significant limp (which makes me feel very old) and there is a tightness and weird feeling (not really discomfort, just a weird stiff feeling) there all the time, but I'm slowly accepting this as the new normal. The accepting is a big step for me -- for ages I wanted it to feel just like the other one, but I'm coming to grips with the fact that it just never will. That I'll always (or at least for the next couple of years) be aware of it constantly. Yes, it will continue to improve - to get stronger and my range of motion will get slightly better (so I can climb stairs with both feet again), but this is just the way its going to feel from now on. For some reason coming to grips with this has been a big step for me, and its making coping with things better.
Looking forward to: A week where no one throws up or poops on the floor; where we finally get to take the tree down; where I get a car (car = freedom); where I make crazy pants for my toddler boy; where I have a weekend off to enjoy with my family.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 06:05 pm (UTC)as far as the knee keep up the good work.. find a way to do excersizes that strengthen it DO NOT ACCEPT that you will have a limp cause then you will..
no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 06:06 pm (UTC)Heh. I know. Josh and I were laughing about it during the test drive, actually. I suspect a couple of fuses might mix the problems.... Or, you know, $600 worth of electrical work....
no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 07:37 pm (UTC)As to the knee, do not accept! Just keep doing all the PT exercises and don't get discouraged.
My ankle (broken in 6 places - twice each bone) is far better then anyone expected because I just kept at the PT. It's about 98% and I was projected to get about 85% back with muscle pain and weakness.
Good luck w/both issues.
And you have my sympathy with the sick boy.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 07:58 pm (UTC)This will be my fourth VW, and all of them have had weird-ass electrical issues. Why on earth should this one be any different.
I love VWs. I love how they drive, and how solid they feel in the snow.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 06:29 pm (UTC)I'm hopeful you and E remain on the mend. Not much else to add to the post, but Hi!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 08:00 pm (UTC)If I had to guess, my guess would be because it made it a little easier for the folks stage managing the thing to remember who was who if they couldn't read the signs.
You'll note that the ladies "playing" the Obama daughters are actually about the right age/size to be the Obama daughters as well.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 08:06 pm (UTC)"Sergeant Brooks’s principal qualification to play Mr. Obama was that he bore a rough resemblance to the real thing: he stands 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 185 pounds and thus fills the basic spatial parameters for lighting and camera-angle purposes — the main reason for the rehearsal, organizers said."
no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 09:48 pm (UTC)