A seething mass of turgid drama.

Saturday was a normal-type day for us; we did stuff around the house. The wife put in a massive amount of effort and basically completed the project on our outside level. (There's one level to go that she hasn't started.) It looks great! Still to come is filling the big planter with dirt (and plants), and planting some wooly thyme around the pavers.

Sunday was the first GSP rehearsal. Not everyone was there, and it was... rough. Not unexpected for a first run-through that isn't that well defined, and not everyone has done improv before. Bones are good but at least one actor needs to learn that "big" does not mean cartoonish overacting. That was most of my day.

Monday Matt & Crystal picked us up around 8 AM and we drove to our friend Edward's place along the Russian River (about two hours away but a lot of windy riverside roads). He's making some 16^th c slat chairs for us, and asked that we help with the project. I'm not sure how much help we were as only the wife has really done woodworking before, but Edward seemed to enjoy both the company and the teaching. We didn't get home until close to 9 PM so it was a long day.

So I am drained today, and this afternoon is a series of long meetings (some of them important). That is not helping the exhaustion.

The local SCA group is restarting with a new younger group of people. This is a good thing. We've never been particularly involved, partly because the small group of previous people were mainly focused on being medium fish in their very small pond. But supporting the new group seems like a good thing to do, and they were holding the monthly meeting a mile from our house, so we really had no excuse not to go (other than donwannas).

It was good we went. Especially because the new exchequer hasn't had any training and didn't know he needs very specific paperwork from the Corporate head to be authorized for getting on the bank account. (He was planning to show up at the bank with his SCA warrant of office. That... will never work.) So I promised him training and walking through everything, possibly in a couple hours at our house. I have also promised that for another new local exchequer in Oakland.

The new seneschal is a British expat and his wife misses British sausages. I also promised if they want to do a project day I'd help them make some British-style sausages to take home. (It's partly spicing and mostly using breadcrumbs as filler, which give them a softer texture that I don't like as much.)

Tired today, because we got home around 9 and it took me a while to wind down and get to sleep. But worthwhile to have gone.

We went to Coronet Saturday. We probably wouldn't have if not for the job, which as I have mentioned before was one of my motivations for taking the job. We had a good time. The fighting seemed to go fine, my job was accomplished without any real stress or problems, and loads of good chattage. Hirsch got a deserved award for all the history and awards stuff he continues to do.

Afterwards we went out to the same Mexican restaurant we visited two weeks ago. My garlic shrimp wasn't as good as the chile relleno, but it was still decent. The drive home was a bit long due to highway construction and if it had been much longer I would have swapped driving; I was fighting exhaustion for the last leg of the trip, but it didn't seem worthwhile to change when we only had 10 miles to go.

We're packed for Twelfth Night Saturday, except for toiletries needed tomorrow morning. As usual, I feel like I have forgotten eleven things. I don't think I have - that's why I have a list - but nevertheless.

Yesterday we went down to M&C's for a joint birthday party - Matt's and John T's. Both the wife and I hit the donwannas earlier in the day but we pushed through; we were pretty sure we'd have a good time once we actually were there. And we did.

It was a lovely outdoor garden party with lots of port and cheese. Some people dressed up, others didn't; the wife and I were somewhat in the middle, though we both wore our Panama hats. The weather was perfect and the socializing was good.

Even better, another pair of friends has recently had electrical work done on their Victorian house; we need a light fixture replaced and the wiring checked, so we're getting the contact info. Much better than Yelp.

We went to Mists Coronet yesterday. We had a pretty good time, mostly sitting and socializing. The wife helped judge the arts competitions, so that was helpful.

I stepped up as Principality exchequer, and I was glad to see that the office medallion had not gotten lost. The then-Prince (2017ish?) thought the office needed more bling and made this. It's a 3" heater shield with a dollar sign, on a heavy ring chain. It is the bling-iest exchequer medallion possible, completely non-period and obnoxious like a rapper medallion, and I love it. I may not wear it again until I step down, but it tickles my sense of humor. The job stuff for the day went pretty easily.

The rest of the Company was dining onsite, but we did not feel inspired and planned to bugger out instead. We stayed in a local hotel overnight because I had to attend the officers' meeting Sunday morning - which ended up getting rescheduled for a Zoom call due to incoming rain. It was getting very cold and windy, so after helping our hosts break down their sunshade we were happy that we weren't staying. We drove to the hotel, changed, and ended up at a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. Pretty good birria tacos.

We took our time leaving Sunday since we didn't have any obligations. We were still pretty drained and honestly, I am glad we didn't have to make the two-hour drive home Saturday night.

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).

I was telling myself that I had to come up with a class for next year's Culinary Symposium, and nothing was feeling particularly inspiring. I was thinking about adapting a basic fresh sausage recipe to make caul fat-wrapped meatballs, so I glanced through the Charcuterie Doc.

And then I hit a variation on the Herb Omelette Sausage. I did a couple classes on this in previous years so I didn't want to repeat it - but the variant sounded... interesting. And suddenly there went the muse plotting out the recipe and class. I even came up with a decent working class title right away.

Guess I'm doing that one, then.

("He who wants to make a sausage, take bread crumbs and grated cheese and eggs and spices, and put it in a gut, and get a needle and pierce it, and make it boil and cook in water, and then roast it in among the bread, if you like that.")

Our Caidan friend Claudia is in town for the annual Salesfarce convention, and she was free last night. Getting together anywhere close to downtown is a fool's errand this week so the curvy upstairs neighbor suggested our local Fronch bistro, which is pretty good without being too pricy.

We had good chattage and dinner. She is feeling uninspired by the SCA the same way we are. Two data points are not a trend, but.

I am dragging significantly today, which is not due to the one glass of wine I had - perhaps eating an hour later is responsible?

We had planned to go to Mists Coronet next weekend, as a way to get us back into SCA events. Yesterday I realized we had already booked a trip to San Diego for the weekend.
D'oh! I guess we'll go to Investiture in November.