'Allo!!

Jinkies! What a crazy couple of weeks it's been. I feel like I've barely had time to breath, let alone blog, since I got off the plane from Texas. Of course, the fact that I got sick as hell right after may have contributed to the feeling. I'm still a bit sniffly. Is it because I'm getting older, or have the rhino viruses gotten nastier of late? It used to be that a cold would get a foothold, make me miserable for three days, then go away. These days it seems they linger for weeks. Anyway, on to the news.
The big news is that Sir Turtle and Rabid Attack Sheep are getting married! This is wonderful news. As you know, Turtle is one of my oldest and dearest friends, and his luck with the ladies has been, if possible, even more hit and miss than mine. He is the proverbial gentle giant who has been taken advantage of many times, and had his heart cruelly abused far too often. You will not find a more worthy, honorable, and chivalrous person, and I cannot effuse enough as to my joy that he has found in Sheeps a true soulmate. They are tying the knot at TMT, a big SCA event over the Memorial Day weekend, and I have already asked the missus to put in for the time off. There is no way in hell I'm missing this wedding.

Here is the set that has been kicking my ass of late:


It looks deceptively simple, but making 'stone' walls is a somewhat elaborate process involving Styrofoam, acetone, and lots of paint. The center platform is 8' tall and free standing, and the wall/platform unit on the left is 5' high with few right angles. And while the majority of the hanging pieces are made from hula hoops, the two large ones needed to be fashioned out of heat-bent PVC pipe, which is a relatively simple(once we figured it out) but time consuming process. I am actually quite pleased with how this came out. I'll try to get a shot with the actual lighting on to show you the other half of my contribution.

Locally Mrs. Marius has a rather large and painful kidney stone that must be removed next week some time. She has been in pain and feeling unwell for quite a while now, and the stone is too big to be shattered using ultrasound. The doctor is hoping to do the procedure, which involves a type of catheterization, next Friday. If prayer is your thing, please put in a good word with the man upstairs that all goes smoothly.

And finally, in the weird events department, my coffee pot has joined the military. A few nights ago, as is my pre-bed ritual, I filled the coffee maker with coffee, and water, and set the timer. The next morning I arose, grudgingly, at 5am, and heard a strange hissing noise coming from the kitchen. Turning on the light revealed that in my exhausted stupor I neglected to put the carafe back in the coffee maker ere retiring. The mess was considerable, made the worse by the realization that my morning cup-o-joe would be on the other side of a massive clean up operation followed by the interminable brewing time. So I cleaned, and grumbled, and the missus wisely retired to the safety of our bedroom.
Fast forward to that evening as I arrived home from rehearsal. The aforementioned appliance read that it was 2:32. I knew full well that it was 10:32, so I reasoned that we had had yet another of the many power fluctuations that this area is heir to. However, when I went to reset the clock, the numbers didn't make sense. Finally it sunk in that the first LED was malfunctioning, and that somehow the clock had set itself to military time. What I thought was 2:32 was, in fact, 22:32 with the first 2 not working properly. I tossed the manual years ago, so I don't know how, or even if, there is a way to change it, but so long as it salutes me properly, and makes my coffee when told, I don't suppose it's that big an issue.

Ok, that's all for now. So how have you all been?

Peace,
Marius