Gentle Readers,

A little over 3 years ago we adopted an 8 year old Great Pyrenees named Shadow. He was a charming fellow who was going to be put down because of age and depression. His previous owner had to give him up because she was living on a fixed income and was having trouble feeding both of them. His coming medical bills were what finally convinced them.

Last Friday it became clear that he was no longer going to be able to move around unassisted and there was no way to keep up his quality of life. We had a vet come and put him down. That sentence was incredibly hard to write. It just doesn't seem to capture the magnitude of what we did. Of what happened. We stayed with him while he fought to keep watch as he always did for us. Until he finally relaxed and let go and the thing that made him Shadow was gone.

He was so strong and so brave and so tough and so irreplaceable.

I'll always remember his patience, his gravitas and his sense of humour. His stubborn insistence that when you told him something, it was just a request to be considered. His guilty face when he had managed to steal some food (even if he hadn't gotten caught). His love, in particular, for peanut butter.

Hrm. Maybe writing this at work wasn't the best plan. Thank goodness it's allergy season.

Lydia was also very brave and stayed with us until the very end. I think it's the hardest thing she's ever had to do.

I would be very happy if we could go at least a few months without someone I care about losing someone who was special to them.

Gentle Readers,

It's been a long day today. Just like yesterday I was up and out the door just after 7 to try an get to work early enough that I wouldn't feel too bad about leaving at 4. Things have been switched around and I've had to pick up lydia from her afterschool program the last couple of days. Unfortunately we had no students yesterday. Fortunately today Craig canceled the classes so we could both go to his brother's 40th birthday.

It was a lovely gathering. Lydia had to come with me and she was pretty meh about the whole thing until the band fronted by one of Glen's (the brother) employees started. It was a treo of women with stringed instruments and they were lovely. Just beautiful voices. The Muesettes.

Now, time for sleep. Tomorrow's another early morning.

Gentle Readers,

Lydia and I went to see the Lorax this evening. It's sad to see that particular character shilling for Mazda and a disposable diaper companies. However, the overall movie wasn't awful. It was funny and enjoyable and Lydia, who fell in love with the story last week was happy with it, especially because she got to see the Barbalutes and other animals come back to a reforested land.

However, I think they should have been a bit more explicit with the message about what was causing the problem. It's not the planting of trees that solves the problem. It's the consumption. In particular the consumption of worthless shit like Thneeds and Bottled Air.

That being said, the basic message:

Unless someone like you
cares a whole awful lot.
Nothing is going to get better.
It's not.

Is true for everything. Be it concerns about health care, robocalling, human rights, feminism or whatever.

Anyway, at least there was something slightly more upbeat, instead of thinking of how I'm failing the coming generations, sent my way.

Many many years ago, Skud brought back a book for Lydia from Australia called "Possum Magic" which is about a possum who was turned invisible for her own protection and who now wants to be visible again. In order to become visible, she must eat a varieity of australian foods. (as a side note, Australian possums are way more cute than north american ones).

Today Skud posted retweeted about a possum who got into a bakery and stuffed itself so full of pastriess it couldn't move. There was also a picture.

Sarah Hoppy Hopkins ‏ @Hoppy_Jnr
1) Possum broke into the local bakery and ate so many pastries he couldnt move! This is how the bakery owners found him!! http://pic.twitter.com/7fqhZzCg
2) Ok everyone I just found out WIRES was called and they picked the little guy up and took him to a vet! All good! pic.twitter.com/4XLrchhE


and with that adorable cuteness, I leave you to your evening. As I'm ready for sleep and I have to get off the internet before I start looking up how I should be citing Tweets.

Gentle Readers,

It's been such a whirlwind here this weekend, that all of us are exhausted and in bed even though it's not even 9pm yet, even Reyl. He spent the weekend working. The rest of us had a much less mundane weekend.

Originally we were supposed to go to Kingston Friday night for Saturday's Baronial 12th night, but even though it broke Lydia's heart, we decided that it was the smarter plan to not go. The storm that was ploughing through had knocked out power with our hosts and with that also taken out their heat. Given that there was also the remaining dregs of the blizzard to drive through, we decided to recognise that the Friday the 13th had won and sleep in our own beds.

We managed to get ourselves moving fairly early and made it to the event site by 10, just as they were setting up. We settled ourselves in and I spent much of the day sitting and sewing with Ilanikan. There were a couple of important points in the day.

The first was our early court. We managed some business and delivered some presents (which were hopefuly funny enough to make the court time worthwhile). The big thing was declaring the taxes for our forth year. Following our tradition of one word tax declarations (previously Supplies, Song and Presen[ts.
|ce]) our taxes this year is Pilgrimage. We want our people to head out into the bigger pond of sca and share a taste of Scrael. We also expect Hospitality i.e. providing for visitors to our barony) to also be part of this taxation.

The other cool thing was taking a more active role in one of our Skrael traditions. To elaborate, in Skraeling Althing, we have the dubious privileged of being visited by Black Peter to help purge us of our sins each year. I'm sure this is one of the reasons that Skrael is so pure. This year he was unable to make it and sent one of his peers, a monster known as the Krampus. For a Krampus, Moira took an old Gorilla stuffy and added tusks, a long forked tongue, evil eyebrows, terrible claws and horns and opened up a hole in him to turn him into a puppet. The thing about a puppet, is that they need an operator. That operator was me. So, for a basket full of sins, I was The Krampus. With a voice halfway between Cookie Monster and Rodante Kapor I scared the sin out of the populace. Well the voice and a big stick.

Even better was I got Lydia to help me. She read the sins out loud to the audience!

I think I got it right as lots of people complimented my performance.

We headed back to Moira's were Cortejo "learned" tablero and I had a lovely time socialising with some new friends. Eventually people managed to leave or fall asleep and I did the same. Unfortunately, shortly after I fell asleep, Lydia came in asking to sleep with us. We made some space for her bed and she slept fitfully all night. At one point I woke up to find her cuddling my left foot.

Sunday we got woken up early by a min-pin puppy who seemed to think that doggy french kisses are the best thing to wake someone up with. We managed to get out the door to get home by 11 (an hour after my proposed time (just as I planned)). We got home in time for Cortejo to have a nap before we Zoomed off to the Ottawa Classical Swordplay demo.

The demo went amazingly well, even if none of the people I invited showed up. There were still about 75 people there which was awesome. I didn't do so good with the Longsword freeplay but won the Rapier freeplay which is as it should be since I am the instructor. I did talk a bit too much for my section, but I should have been paying more attention to time.

After that, we were originally intending on going skating, but some forgotten equipment complicated that. We tried checking out dow's lake, but the ice wasn't ready there and the only open part of the Canal was in poor condition. So instead we went to the local rink and Lydia and I skated for a half hour or so.

Such a busy weekend I can't keep my eyes open any longer to type.

Good night.

Gentle Readers,

I'm not going to make a long post, but I am going to post something because andrewducker is right: The more you post, the more likely it is that other people will post too. Unfortunately for you lot, I'm super tired and really need to go to sleep so you're not getting much.

I saw the movie theater broadcast nutcracker today with lydia.
She loved it.

And so, to bed. Good night.

Gentle Readers,

Happy Thanksgiving. Sure, you may not be celebrating it, but I can still wish it to you.

Once again, as is frequently the case at my house during the daylight hours, I am the only person awake. Not a bad thing, but it can be a little lonely. Less so when one of the sleepyheads is curled up beside me. Aparenly my room is the household Thanksgiving napping destination, much to my surprise when I walk in to discover people asleep on my bed.

Among the many things running through my head, I'm thinking what I can enter in Kingdom A&S (at least partly because I have to have the entries submitted by the 13th). I've got the Landsknect and Lydia's kirtle. I need to pad and strap a helmet so that would count. I could do a brief presentation on Gros Messer. I could do a small bit of calligraphy, as I have been practicing my letters.

I think, given all that, I can (and should) enter Pent.

In other news, I'm getting rid of stuff at a good clip. I cleaned out my closet and was able to get a dresser out of my room (speaking of which, anyone want a nice drawer unit, formerly from our kitchen and of late used for clothes? Free). I've got slightly more floor space now and plently of light. I've got a couple more piles to deal with this afternoon and tomorrow morning. Still it was great to get rid of a full car load of stuff. It's remarkable what I still have trouble letting go of. So many little pieces of personal history that have an emotional resonance but no practical purpose in my life.

I need to take William Morris' advice more consistently.

In other news we spent last night stuffing ourselves with the piles of food that Reyl spent the day making. Today we will spend the night stuffing our selves with the food that ClinkerFiasco has spent a couple of days making without the benefit of an oven. She's a brave woman.

OK. lets see if I can deal with another pile without waking up snori.

Gentle Readers,

Today is my daughter's 7th birthday. How amazing is that?

I'm back at work after 2 marvelous weeks of vacation. Still feeling relaxed but that might be related to the sleep dep from last night. Not sure what caused it but I just couldn't sleep and so that killed my intention to go to aikido as I really don't feel safe driving when I'm feeling so exhausted, especially when I'm alone in the car.

In other news, an important life tip: always check apples for rotten spots before polishing them on your shirt.

Gentle Readers,

My Daughter, Lydia. Aged Almost 7.



photo by Clinker Fiasco.

Gentle Readers,

I have to say it's a little disturbing to get an email that starts out: "To Whom it May Concern; I know about your involvement with orphans..." Really, if they knew about my involvement with orphans, wouldn't they also know my name? Or is it something more sinister.

I keep reading about the veil issue in Quebec. On one hand, I can't help but want more cultural assimilation. However, it's not these ladies fault that our society has evolved under the assumption that faces will always be visible. Really the government has no place telling me that I'm not allowed to cover up various parts of my body. The precedent would be there for them to force me to wear ass-less chaps.

My daughter is currently obsessed with her Skip-it. This morning she had a melt down because she had to wear rubber boots and she can't get it to work with rubber boots. She cried all the way to the bus stop and when a coincidence of timing had me meeting up with her bus at Carling as I walked to the bus station, she was still crying. Poor thing. I hope she feels better once she gets to school. April is being a rough month for her for stresses and mood swings.

This will be the last lazy weekend in a little while as the SCA summer season begins next weekend at coronation. Should be fun, but tiring. On a related note, I'm trading off some swords that I don't use for some new armour. Gauntlets and arms in particular. I'm really excited.

Oh, and equating left-wing nutjobs with right-wing nutjobs is not a fair comparison. Not because the lefties are any less crazy, but because unlike the right-wing wackos they have no power. The right wing nut-jobs are in charge.

Gentle Readers,

This morning, my daughter was telling her visiting friend how great it was to be a feminist.

"G, do you want to be a Feminist? You get to do what you want."
"I want to go outside."

Also, they were playing "Mommy". Lydia was the mommy and G was the 6 year old teenager.