Beltane thinky thoughts
May. 2nd, 2022 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerIt had been a long time since we went to an SCA event - Twelfth Night 2020 in fact. Significantly longer since we camped; during my exchequer tenure (drink!) we mostly stayed in a hotel, because I didn't really have the bandwidth to deal with setting up and breaking down. Or the time, since I spent much of the event running around doing the job. I'm not actually sure what event we camped last. Maybe West-An Tir 2018?
Since we're planning on going to WAT this year, we treated this as a dry run to get the kinks out and find out what needed to be fixed/changed/replaced. This was also the first time we'd packed the new car for an event. With about double the space of the old car, packing was easy. We were able to be efficient while still having tons of room left over. We were even able to get the pavilion poles inside the car! This saved us a good 45 minutes effort tying everything down (as well as irritation -- we'd get the car fully packed, and then we'd need to spend a lot of time and effort doing that before leaving on Sunday...) It wasn't cost-free though; the two longest poles barely fit, and they sat a couple inches short of the dashboard and covered the console in between our seats. Not having cupholders isn't a big deal, though for WAT we'll probably tie those on top just to give ourselves more comfort and to help avoid any scratches on the dashboard screen.
Friday morning we both kind of didn't want to go. There was not wanting to leave the cat on her own over the weekend, but mostly it was not wanting to deal with the effort. We sucked it up and left anyway. The drive was long (3.5 hours) but straightforward. It was a nice site: a rec area, flat with lots of trees and plenty of room to spread out. The pavilion went up surprisingly easy. We've had it for 20 years maybe? So the muscle memory was still there. We found some minor damage we'll have to get repaired sooner rather than later, but it shouldn't be a problem for the war.
After we set up we went offsite to get a few things we'd forgotten and grab dinner. We basically had the choice of diner, steakhouse, or Mexican. We went with Mexican and lucked into a decent local place. It was pretty packed. The wife had a chile relleno, which was better than the usual but still short of my "this compares to the ones my mother made when I was a kid" (I understand why: chile rellenos are time-consuming and you can't make them ahead of time.) I had a birria plate, because any chance I can get braised goat I will. It was really good and I ate the leftovers for lunch today.
It was a nice, laid-back event. I didn't have any responsibilities so I visited a few people, socialized and reconnected, and generally tried to re-adjust to an SCA weekend. We invitedthreadwalker and Siobhan to join us for Saturday dinner as even with just the two couples, we had too much food. Also extra table space, so they were great company. (Dinner was lamb ribs; asparagus; and cheese quiche from the neighbors. I made cod in sumac sauce and "A Dish of Mountain Mushrooms" which is basically sauteed/steamed mushrooms with onion.) We offered leftovers to passers-by but unsurprisingly, no one took any of my two dishes. Very few people will take something unless it's finger food... which is why at WAT we have disposable plates and utensils available when we're offering leftovers. I did discover that I had forgotten to replenish my spice box. Oops. Fortunately the few things I needed were readily stealable from others.
The wife looked really good, and knew it. She had modified a couple older dresses to fit to her current much-smaller shape. Part of going was honestly her wanting to show off a bit. She's earned it with the work she put in.
An acquaintance had made a cured sausage for the first time and we chatted about it. It was, honestly, not good. She didn't weigh anything so just kept adding salt (because she understandably did not want to kill anyone with botulism, but hadn't used curing salt) and then dried it probably beyond 50-60% loss of original weight. (For reference, the one I brought was dried to a 35% loss, typical for a hard salami.) It was saltier than a bouillon cube (but with less flavor) and had the texture of freeze-dried styrofoam. I tried to give her constructive criticism though.
The wife wanted to stay for Sunday court for a double peerage that was happening. I didn't feel strongly about it either way so that was fine. It meant that we didn't leave until 3:15 though, and we weren't home until close to 7 PM or fully unpacked until later than that. Bea screamed at us when we got home. At least the feeder meant she didn't eat everything Friday night! She was a snugglebug after I went to bed, kept running across the bed to make sure we were there, and eventually slept for a bit at our feet. She kept wanting to go under covers and then leaving.
Tired today - I could have used a vacation day to recover from my vacation. It was good though.
Since we're planning on going to WAT this year, we treated this as a dry run to get the kinks out and find out what needed to be fixed/changed/replaced. This was also the first time we'd packed the new car for an event. With about double the space of the old car, packing was easy. We were able to be efficient while still having tons of room left over. We were even able to get the pavilion poles inside the car! This saved us a good 45 minutes effort tying everything down (as well as irritation -- we'd get the car fully packed, and then we'd need to spend a lot of time and effort doing that before leaving on Sunday...) It wasn't cost-free though; the two longest poles barely fit, and they sat a couple inches short of the dashboard and covered the console in between our seats. Not having cupholders isn't a big deal, though for WAT we'll probably tie those on top just to give ourselves more comfort and to help avoid any scratches on the dashboard screen.
Friday morning we both kind of didn't want to go. There was not wanting to leave the cat on her own over the weekend, but mostly it was not wanting to deal with the effort. We sucked it up and left anyway. The drive was long (3.5 hours) but straightforward. It was a nice site: a rec area, flat with lots of trees and plenty of room to spread out. The pavilion went up surprisingly easy. We've had it for 20 years maybe? So the muscle memory was still there. We found some minor damage we'll have to get repaired sooner rather than later, but it shouldn't be a problem for the war.
After we set up we went offsite to get a few things we'd forgotten and grab dinner. We basically had the choice of diner, steakhouse, or Mexican. We went with Mexican and lucked into a decent local place. It was pretty packed. The wife had a chile relleno, which was better than the usual but still short of my "this compares to the ones my mother made when I was a kid" (I understand why: chile rellenos are time-consuming and you can't make them ahead of time.) I had a birria plate, because any chance I can get braised goat I will. It was really good and I ate the leftovers for lunch today.
It was a nice, laid-back event. I didn't have any responsibilities so I visited a few people, socialized and reconnected, and generally tried to re-adjust to an SCA weekend. We invited
threadwalker and Siobhan to join us for Saturday dinner as even with just the two couples, we had too much food. Also extra table space, so they were great company. (Dinner was lamb ribs; asparagus; and cheese quiche from the neighbors. I made cod in sumac sauce and "A Dish of Mountain Mushrooms" which is basically sauteed/steamed mushrooms with onion.) We offered leftovers to passers-by but unsurprisingly, no one took any of my two dishes. Very few people will take something unless it's finger food... which is why at WAT we have disposable plates and utensils available when we're offering leftovers. I did discover that I had forgotten to replenish my spice box. Oops. Fortunately the few things I needed were readily stealable from others.The wife looked really good, and knew it. She had modified a couple older dresses to fit to her current much-smaller shape. Part of going was honestly her wanting to show off a bit. She's earned it with the work she put in.
An acquaintance had made a cured sausage for the first time and we chatted about it. It was, honestly, not good. She didn't weigh anything so just kept adding salt (because she understandably did not want to kill anyone with botulism, but hadn't used curing salt) and then dried it probably beyond 50-60% loss of original weight. (For reference, the one I brought was dried to a 35% loss, typical for a hard salami.) It was saltier than a bouillon cube (but with less flavor) and had the texture of freeze-dried styrofoam. I tried to give her constructive criticism though.
The wife wanted to stay for Sunday court for a double peerage that was happening. I didn't feel strongly about it either way so that was fine. It meant that we didn't leave until 3:15 though, and we weren't home until close to 7 PM or fully unpacked until later than that. Bea screamed at us when we got home. At least the feeder meant she didn't eat everything Friday night! She was a snugglebug after I went to bed, kept running across the bed to make sure we were there, and eventually slept for a bit at our feet. She kept wanting to go under covers and then leaving.
Tired today - I could have used a vacation day to recover from my vacation. It was good though.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-02 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-02 09:33 pm (UTC)My cats were also very vocal when I got home. Ha ha ha.. We have our furry dictators.