A seething mass of turgid drama.

I almost got a spit-take when I delivered my exchequer limerick. I'm pretty happy with that reaction.

We went to Investiture yesterday. It was good seeing people we hadn't connected with as much recently. The site was small (apparently the church double-booked, and we got moved) but worked okay. It was significantly colder than we expected; I was glad I wore a felted wool hat, but the linen outfit was insufficient.

I sat with gate recon as I volunteered to take Principality Exchequer next year. I'm not actually insane; it's been five years since I stepped down from Kingdom, and Principality is a lot less work. I expect I will spend a more time at first getting everything humming along the way I like it, but that's okay. It's not that the current exchequer is doing a bad job, but I will be making some changes for efficiency and also based on how my brain works. (Spreadsheets and Google Sheets are my friend.)

The outgoing royalty started a new order, called the Keystone. Named for the arch piece that keeps everything in place. It is given to greater officers when they step down, and they call up all the members when they are giving a new one. Of course that number is small right now, but in coming years it will be impressive. This is exactly the sort of appreciation that punches far above its weight in recognition. I made sure to tell both of them as a former and future officer how much I loved the idea. Also, the incomings gave their officers coins. Again, that small token means a lot for what is often unappreciated work.

The handyman did a good job putting up the scrolls. It was a good thing we had our giant uneven folding ladder for the stairs (it was an Xmas gift from my dad shortly after we moved in here - eminently practical even if we don't need it very often).

We opened this year's aged boozy eggnog yesterday, and it was as delicious and dangerously non-boozy tasting as ever. We'll be sipping at it for the next couple days.

I took a small amount to the dairy folks at the farmers' market today. (Since I used their half-and-half in it.) I had thought about doing that each week over the last month, and then... didn't. It worked out better than I could have hoped: it was just the local manager there, and he was feeling depressed because it's the anniversary of his mom's death. So me showing up with a shot of holiday cheer boosted him far more than the nog itself.

Sometimes, little things like a gift from a random person with no ulterior motive have a greater impact than the actual gift.* I've been on the receiving end a few times in recent years so I'm happy to have been a giver this year.

*ETA: This is also one of my big complaints about officer burnout in the SCA - although it's not unique to the SCA. Basic acknowledgement by the Royals should be a bare minimum for thanking greater officers, but most of the time isn't done. Then there are other small awards that could/should be given: for example, the West's Defender of the West is for supporting the Kingdom in out-Kingdom wars, but basically "everyone who goes to Pennsic." I should have gotten it any of the times I worked the entirety of W/AT as war exchequer three times in a row.

Quite a few years ago, we realized the way had been doing dinners was flawed. Having lots of ingredients on hand so you can whip up whatever you feel like is great, but it requires inspiration and sometimes planning. Too often we fell into "It's 6 PM, I don't know what I want to have, let's get Chinese food."

So we started weekly meal planning. Near the end of the week we make up a shopping list, and most of the time involves plotting out the coming week's meals. I get bored very quickly if all the meals are similar ("meat and salad" can only happen a couple times in any given week, even if the meats are different like fish and chicken). I also try to look at the calendar and think through the week to see how much work I am willing to do. When I was Kingdom Exchequer (drink!) many more of the meals were simple and/or "the wife puts most of this together" because I didn't have much spare time or bandwidth.

I don't plot out when most of those meals will happen. We typically decide the night before. That allows the wife, who likes more spontaneity, to make changes on the fly. But it's also not locked in - last night I suggested we postpone today's meal because it would create lots of leftovers, and we already have several lunches' worth in the fridge. Instead I'm making a salad with leftover beefsteak. It's important to allow for changes when a meal that sounded good the previous Friday just doesn't appeal... we had onion soup on the list for two successive weeks before taking it off the dinner plan for now.

Not triggered by anything in particular. It's worked well for us for probably 20 years.

I basically stopped making charcuterie in the last 1.5 years of my exchequer tenure, because I had no bandwidth for art projects. I did produce a few things, but mostly because I had to fulfill orders. Not because I was enthused or inspired to do so. As you might expect, that was drudgery rather than fun.

Once the weight of the exchequerate was lifted, I thought about making All! The! Things! but... I didn't. The spark hasn't fully returned. Also, the downstairs storage freezer is pretty full - and we're not going to events for a while, which additionally reduces the need to produce lots of cured meats.

Still, after looking at the supplies I decided to make another batch of lonza. This is a reliable go-to, whether eating at home (it makes a great pizza topping) or an easy nosh for an event. The recipe I've always used involves a heavy brine, and to keep the end product from being too salty I have then had to soak the cured meat for half an hour as a salt flush. This seems... inefficient. I looked around and found a dry-cure recipe that looks promising.

However. As I tiptoe back into charcuterie, I realize I had blanked out the annoyance of lack-of-immediate-gratification. The pork loin will be in the dry cure for a month. Then I hang it for three months. Then I vacuum-seal for a month to equalize the salt and flavors (and help with case hardening). Five months until I know whether it's any good!

Are we there yet?

I should be able to pick up the car today. It's about as expensive as I feared - they fixed a combination of things. The main being the fuel injection misfire, but also replacing the rear brakes and a couple other more minor issues.

This is the first serious maintenance we've had in a while. I'm afraid the car is approaching the point of needing it more often as we rack up the miles and years. (155k I think, and 15 years) We probably have to start thinking about a new vehicle for next year. I put on 9k miles over the last three years doing official exchequer travel...

In seven days (less by this actual time) I will no longer have my volunteer job.

It's been a long three years. More specifically, this last one. But I am going to specifically try to avoid the "dancing away with glee" thing - because I kind of feel it demeans the effort involved and the volunteers involved.

I'm not sure I'm wording this right. But "I'm free!" makes it sound like it's a sentence rather than a duty worthy of praise.

30 days to go.

I have started counting events remaining. (One, Collegium. June Crown doesn't count because I am not in charge.) I haven't started counting down the days yet - that may happen in June.

ETA: I am looking forward to cracking the expensive single malt I bought in 2016 as a step-down treat, so that worked! It's even better that all three of the Principality exchequers who I worked closely with will be there to try it too.

I didn't sleep well last night. Lots of work fu going on, plus exchequery arguments with the higher-ups (they keep assigning massive expansions, and not acknowledging the additional work). My brain wouldn't shut off.

Then at the bus stop, I see this: Next bus, 86 minutes. I was pretty sure it was a lie but you can't trust that it's not.

It's been a crapstorm of a few days and the cat has picked up on the stress, puking more. Why is it only Wednesday?