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What the hell happened to spring?

Tuesday, Apr. 01, 2003
11:27 AM

Here it is, April already... and there's still a small patch of snow on the deck. What kind of cruel joke is that, snow on the last two days of March? At least it's supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow. And here I am, coming down with a cold. Figures. I'm hoping it's going to just be a mini-cold, maybe a little annoying for a few days but not a full-blown, lay-my-ass-out illness. I hate being sick.

So I did it - I cut my hair. It's still "long" by most peoples' definition, but it's short for me, just below my shoulders. I haven't had my hair this short since I was in high school (I'm talking early high school, like freshman year). I love it! I wonder why I didn't do it long ago. Anyway, I can brush it in about ten seconds, with no major tangles. Washing it is a snap, though I have to remind myself to use way less shampoo than I'm used to. I have some long bangs, which are nice, and I can finally put my hair up in a big clip or a ponytail with a minimum of fuss and it doesn't look stupid. The only (and it's minor) drawback I can think of is that it's harder to do period hairstyles. Harder, but not impossible, and it'll probably just give me incentive to cover it more properly. All this reminds me... gotta get that ponytail in the mail to Locks of Love...

I had a fun time this weekend, though I missed out on a couple of things I had been hoping/planning to do. I didn't get down to Tir-y-Don for Margret's Laurelling like I had hoped to. Kevin decided he didn't want to go, which was fine - I figured I'd go by myself. But then I was looking at six hours of driving in one day, plus a ton of gas money, on top of an $11 day trip site fee. And it was supposed to rain. I finally decided it was too much and just stayed home. Actually it was the site fee that tipped the scale - it seemed like a lot to me to just go and hang around for the day (plus I would have had to go find lunch somewhere). Being broke had a lot to do with that decision.

Then we missed Bob's party Saturday night. I know, we suck. We'd been hanging out at Jason and Shannon's all day with a bunch of other folks and completely lost track of time. When we realized how late it really was, it was raining really hard and we were tired. We just weren't up to the trip up there. We ended up just going home and sacking out. I'm really sorry to have missed it though - especially the wacky food and Roland as a greaser. Happy (belated) Birthday to Bob!

We did actually manage to get to the barony meeting Sunday night though. I missed the last two for various reasons so I felt like I should go to this one. Fortunately it moved along a lot faster than I'd been told the last two did, so that was good. I managed to successfully convince the barony that French award names for an Italian barony was, um, inconsistent. (Not that I am biased in any way, oh no...) ;-) I think it's really cool that there are a bunch of relative newcomers to the barony who are really excited and motivated about making things go. What a change from when I was seneschal - apathy was the word of the day about a year ago. I knew things would swing upward eventually - they always do - so life in Ponte Alto is pretty good right now. I gotta give Thomas and Denise a lot of credit for helping turn things around, they've done a bang-up job as B&B and I think that has a lot to do with reviving the life of the group.

Not a lot going on around the homestead this week - trying to work on projects, waiting for supplies I ordered to come in so I can keep working on stuff... Making a wool overdress which hopefully I will be able to wear to an event before it gets too hot for fulled wool. It's a dress I'm copying from a Filippo Lippi portrait - so far it seems to be turning out OK, thanks to some help from Thjora on the sleeves. Now if I can just get the pleats to come out evenly, I'll be doing well. Next I want to make an overgown (like a coat) for Kevin, from a Piero della Francesca fresco, along with a goofy hat called a capuccio, and a cuffia (coif) for me. More fun with pattern drafting!

Actually, drafting is one of those skills that I've wanted to learn for some time and am slowly picking up as I go, mostly by experimenting. I can remember a time when drafting seemed like PFM to me. Now I am slowly getting better at it, the more I do it, the easier it gets. I still have to make several mockups of each piece that I do, but each one has its own "eureka!" moments. And each "eureka!" brings more knowledge that I can apply to the next one. My eventual goal is to be able to look at any picture or portrait and say, Yeah, I can make that.

Yay! Most of the snow left on the deck has melted while I was writing this. The sun is out, and even though it's probably still chilly out, it's a good and happy thing. I should go do something useful though.

Ciao!


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