Did my annual visit to Golden Gate Faire yesterday and got to visit with the lovely folks at both the Cardiff Rose and Sta. Maria which was pleasant as always. I probably dragged Killian, Poe and Thumper around more booths than they could possibly have wanted, and spent a bit more money that I usually do when browsing vendor booths, but I found a couple things I just didn't want to resist (most of which will show up in jewelry soon). I _did_ resist the lovely statuette of Lady Justice at the Wicked Things booth and a piece that Tudor Wolf Creations had in their case.

Today was my first official day of vacation for this week. Started off the day with brunch and coffee with bettybaker and then spent the afternoon dealing with laundry, groceries and the pool. I would have been off to SFO by now to pick up the traveling cousin, but her trip got hugely delayed due to mechanical problems. She only just got off the ground in NYC (which was where they got her to after the Boston to Atlanta leg didn't work out) and won't be in SF until almost midnight. Guess I'll be staying up late tonight...good thing I didn't have anything planned for us to do tomorrow!

Hopefully the rest of her trip will go more smoothly. I need to call the Deviant again and see if he got my message about entertaining her while I geek out tomorrow night, or if I'm going to be prevailing on Adnate and Killian to keep her entertained while we roll dice. And I need to confirm with the folks that they remember she's in town and that we plan to be down their way on Thursday.

If all goes well, I'll be sufficiently occupied that I'll be LJ-silent for the next several days -- which I'm sure will be so very very different from usual. :P

But not as busy as last week and did get time to breathe this weekend, which was good. I even got time to take my bike out for a bit on Saturday (new tires are the greatest thing ever), though I forced myself to keep it short in deference to knowing how out of condition I am. (I'll be back up to 20 mi rides soon though if I can keep getting out there!) And I cleaned the house, which felt amazingly good. It felt like I was catching up on my life again...and I needed that.

Went up to Folsom yesterday for the Renaissance Faire so I could attend jeebachu's knighting, and enjoyed a nice day in the sun seeing people I mostly only see at faire, talking to vendors and cooing over Poe and Killian's little one -- and NOT worrying about my Blackberry for the first time in a week. There were two different jewelry vendors who were more than happy to talk technique and give tips to a newbie, which was really wonderful. AdmiralOrko, Poe and Killian all showed tremendous patience with me while I talked settings and solder and various other topics with artists whose skill I can only dream of having.

Of course now I have several people trying to convince me to build up my own collection and either set up a booth of my own for one faire next year or sell a few pieces through other vendors who are willing to pick up pieces on consignment. We'll see...I'm not sure how much I can actually produce, since a lot of what I make these days is already promised out to people, either through commissions or gifts.

But that's something to worry about another day. For now I'm just satisfied to be able to breathe again and to have relaxed enough to not fear the office today -- although I did have a dream just before my alarm went off that involved a FedEx package arriving from my boss with a bunch of documents to be reviewed before I got to the office today.

I think I just hit the wall. Feels like I hit a wall at least. I was rolling along just fine with my morning and then WHAM! - suddenly I was fighting to keep my eyes open. Apparently the weekend finally caught up with me and hit me like an 18-wheeler to the temple.

The weekend, as previously noted, was good though and well worth the crash. I'm finding that faire is more enjoyable when I'm there with someone else but without a feeling of obligation. I liked having the freedom to bounce around to multiple groups, and it was fun to have an alternative place to be when I needed to just sit and watch the flow of the crowd and the day for a while. Fortunately, both Sta Maria and the Cardiff Rose allowed me some crash space this weekend, which was nice.

I'm very glad I got to see seaweasel knighted. That was a lovely ceremony for an amazing woman. (Chelleann said something about there being no better person to want to be when she grows up...and I'm inclined to agree with that sentiment.) And I had a good time watching the fencing and meeting new folks at the Rose - although it does make me miss fencing and regret that my equipment has been languishing for several years now. (I'm not even sure I could manage a full bout at this point without feeling like I was going to die...but it might be a fun way to go if it did kill me. :D )

As always, getting out and just being outside for the weekend was a wonderful feeling, and it's always fantastic to spend time with Poe & Killian and little Blue Eyes (who continues to be ridiculously cute even when he's fussing). And I had the delightful surprise of running into va_peterson on Saturday, which was wholly unexpected and very pleasant. =D

So hopefully I managed to say hello to everyone that I should have said hello too, and that no one feels that I neglected them too much...and now that my printer has finally finished with the stack o' documents I needed, I'm going to sign off, grab some lunch, and see if I can catch a quick nap in the car before I fall asleep over what I just printed.

Just a quick update -- made my annual visit to the Pittsburg renaissance faire this weekend with Poeso and Killian. Thank you as always to the Guild of Santa Maria in general for letting me hang out with them and to several folks specifically for their good company. Special thanks to Snoopy (and by extension Enrico and Arabella) for letting us stash our gear in the pill. It was, in all, a good weekend. I got a good fix of sunshine and friends, got to enjoy the cannon fire and got to see folks I don't see often. And I'm pretty sure that after two days with him, Poe & Killian's little one has me solidly wrapped around his finger (even WITH the screaming). =D

And now back to trying to get something accomplish in (or perhaps in spite of) the mess of my desk.

Sometimes I feel like I'm leading two separate lives...one at work and one, well, NOT at work. Sometimes those feel like two very, VERY separate things and I get this feeling like maybe where I am isn't real, or I'm in the wrong place, or some other sense of the surreal. Walking into my office today was one of those moments...I had a lovely time last night at the Sta Maria dinner, but I'm rarely social on Sunday evenings, so it's got me a bit mentally disorented, and the thick fog this morning isn't helping the sort of sense that I'm dreaming still. I feel like I should be at home, drinking my morning tea, reading a book, or figuring out a project. Mental images of other places keep drifting in...

I suppose it'll clear up by mid-day. The fog will burn off, and my head will clear - but in the meantime, it's an odd feeling to live like a waking dream.

And speaking of last night's festivities, I mentioned there were pictures of the "Greatest Rosary Never Seen" and I heard a few "oh, I'd like to see that" comments...so, in the off chance that any of those folks follow LJ, or the folks that do follow my LJ might want to pass the link along, the pictures I took of the Duchessa's rosary are on my Deviant Art page at http://kailara.deviantart.com and you're welcome to pass that link along. Just look in the gallery for the Moonstone & Garnet Rosary images. And hopefully, someday, it will be resurrected.

Yeesh...August needs to just be DONE now please...

( It hasn't been a bad month - just really busy. And I'm tired. )

I don't have time to write even a fraction of what I'd like to...so I'll have to sum things up:

I had a really good time this weekend. (Yeah, that about covers it.)

So with the help of snoopyh42 I have put out an offer to Sta. Maria to make rosaries for interested persons at a small fee.

Now I'm having the nervous "what ifs"...

Guess we'll see. :D

Oy, I think I'm nuts...there's no way I'm going to get this all done...

[update: 5:00 - progress has been made and I even got a NAP! :) ]
[collapsed in utter fog of exhaustion at 11:30ish]

( Kai's Long-Ass List of Stuff to Do(TM) )
Yep - I'm insane...

And away we go!

Apparently there's a stomach flu of some variety going around. Aside from sami406's problems this last week, fully half my office is complaining of stomach upset. I'd wonder being that everyone having problems is female, but then this IS a rather female dominated office. And most of the guys are out right now or are quiet enough that I wouldn't hear if they have problems.

( Excuse me sir, may I be excused? I seem to have the plague )
( Busy weekend )
( Slow boat to boredom )

Anyhow, I should wander back to work. Stuff to read has landed in my in-box...

So I decided I wasn't going to completely give up on the Eclipse - though I'm still not sure it's what I'm going to wind up with in the end. But I am giving it one more shot...used Edmunds.com to send an internet inquiry to other local dealers. The San Mateo dealership assures me that they have, in stock, the model we wanted with the automatic transmission...

the same model that the Concord dealership told me wasn't available in an automatic closer than San Diego. My opinion of them continues to lower - and it didn't have much room left before hitting rock bottom already.

( Que sera, sera )

In other news, I had a fairly productive weekend while everyone I know was gone at SLO Faire. Granted, I still haven't gotten as much gossip about that as I'd like, but I'll live. (I may resist joining the guild but I love hearing the stories! *grin*)

( Sewing projects )

Now I just need to figure out what to wear to the handfasting...

I was working on pulling something period together for Saturday, but I'm not sure the plans I had will work out (have to check with loneromeo since he was helping me out with that and I haven't seen him since Thursday) - so I may be looking for something else. We'll see...it might be easier to just be one more person in modern clothes to hide in the back.

Ok, so I've been REALLY less than productive all afternoon...might as well share.

Drawn from a chat with snoopyh42 about acquiring some Blood O' Jeebus (TM) for myself...

( I'm a nerd )
Kailara: that's me - the walking body shot!

I went to the Pittsburg Renaissance Faire yesterday. I had a really good time there too, although I'm very glad I chose to borrow some garb so that I could blend in. I don't know what I would have done as a full patron for the day - there's only so much wandering about and sighing over things you can't buy that a person can do in a day. Fortunately, I was spared this by being allowed in the guild yard for the group a number of my friends are in.
( Read more... )

And on that note - the Thought of the Day:

The benefit of play-acting a period that requires women to have a male escort is that sometimes you get to have a good looking guy all to yourself. Of course, you do have to give up your autonomy to do it...which is difficult for a 90's kind of gal like me. :)