learnteach

1. Neverhaul Was.   Finally got to tour it.    
2. Secret Eating Society:  Offal Tacos!  They lied, it was just sheep cheeks.  Tasty!  http://www.secreteatingsociety.com/
3. Naval Wars with Ball bearings:  Remote control boats.
4. Swaporamarama.  Wish I'd taken time to play.
5. Funnel Cakes.  MMMM.   Boiler bar show with coffee and funnel cakes!

Engineers without Borders!  Oh, wait, I said only 5...    http://www.ewb-usa.org/

1. Saw the sun danced up on the baylands (Deer Creek pulled 'em over.)   Still want to be a Morris Dancer.  Perhaps I should go buy a Morris?
Nah, project cars never work for me.   It was cool.  The Wolf Creek side (all 5th/6th graders) showed what a lack of caffiene combined with sticks can do, and there was a new side, wearing Orange Highway Safety Vests, and the fool had a shovel.  Got some luck (face paint off a dancer).  Hmm, there was conditioner or lotion in that luck.

2. In honor, transplanted one pot into a large plot (volunteer unknown tomato, 2 basils, added 2 marigolds) and planted two small pots...sorry, seeded two small pots with Thai basil.  Also got the back yard chopped back slightly. 

3. News today interesting:  Albert Hofman has died at age 102, at least they're using one of his more famous creations for medicine in Switzerland.   http://news.google.com/news?btcid=f869258178ca03aa ; (good commentary)
Memresistor nanotech demo'ed.    http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/scientists-prov.html
(Will have some amazing results)
and finally, Bay Area air still sucks. 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/01/BAQF10EI56.DTL

Still, from my point of view?  Better than it was in the late 70's. 

Anyway, Happy Birthday MayDayBabe and NorthernLupe!

Overall:  Excellent.  Well dressed guests, servers did fantastic, heck the whole staff!  Butler, must have for other feasts! 
Worked: serving, seating, having kitchen team/garnish team/servers/officers (panter, butler).   Trenchers!   Manchet! Carving!
Didn't work so well: Not enough glasses, which made for a huge load on the drink staff.   Some confusion on communications.  Curious interplay between certain people being "in Persona" becoming very irritating to the staff as they "played" their persona.  **

Overall, I'd do it again.  The organization worked.  Musicians excellent.

Disasters:  Well, me.  Completely stressed out by stupid things, specifically 1. seating by OP rank and the highschoolness of it all (and the large numbers of conversations that were generated, mainly concerning about 4 people) and 2. transporting the tables.  Easy when you have a van. Not so easy when you don't.  Wasted hours and hours trying to sort these out, and in the end, improvisation (sit within your mess) with a little assistance (ladies as beautiful as these cannot be separated) and the kind assistance of others (Brian and Rachel SAVE on the table).  GREAT crew. 

Minor notes:  If we had enough glasses, we could have had the standard drink (ale for them, water in some form for us) in pitchers on the table for the servers to refill, as the books mention.  A lot less running would have occurred!

Two platters for the chickens would allow the carver to carve one side onto the second platter which the server could then begin serving.

Having a food table to keep the kitchen and servers separate worked well.   Add a sideboard where the dishes could be pulled out would have made the system flawless; servers would not have bothered the kitchen staff.

**Ok, I have to relate one of  those odd breaches: a certain peer playing an Islamic sent a server back to the kitchen multiple times (basically, for every dish) concerning what was in the dish and could he eat it.   He was playing a diplomat in a faraway court where his religious dietary concerns might not be known.  But the kitchen staff had taken that into account, and already prepared for it.   They were a bit put out that he should think them so careless.   Perceptions of hospitality differ, and who is right?  Solution would have been to run it all through the marshall, who would make the appropriate responses.   The server didn't twig to what was going on, and hadn't been told to stay out of the kitchen.

Vignette two:  Grace is cool.  But the Almoner doesn't know how to pronounce or actually sing church latin, which leads to a severe disconnect in the latin mass fans.   It's probably even more period than doing it right, though!  no, it's not, but it does take the "this is religous" sting out of it.  

Yes, I'd do it again, but...I'd like to experiment with lots of small changes that would make a big difference.  And I have to say, WOW on this one.   I haven' t even related some of the fun...the dancing requested, the confusion over fanfares, the forks! 

And it was one of those places, oh so rare, where looking in any direction (but up) we looked like a medieval picture.  The linens, the trenchers, spoons, knives, serving dishes, glasses--wish I'd gotten a bunch of pictures.   The clothes, the people!  The set of women in simple italian next to the simple englishwomen!  The nobles in their richer clothes!   The Barons on Bench (Wilhelm, Cat, Antonio).  The Queen sending her wine down to be tasted by her Baron!  Sending wine and water thither and yon! 

Gah, out of time...more later.

Long Term Sub until the end of the school year for an alternative school in SJ (that's downsizing and didn't hire all their teachers back.)  Much better than day to day subbing!  So, LTS, then Tech School, then Tech job.   Off for a bit of Provo!

Vietnam.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24082827/

No draft, so no major protests, just the economy tanking under the weight of the cost.

I can't find anything where I put it.  Seriously.  The oil soap under the sink?  No.  The prybar in the toolbag?  No.  The dress shirt on the hanger?  no.   I am literally 0 for 8 on attempted projects today because I can't find anything in this disaster.

I know it's my own fault and responsibility, as I let people in the house who have moved things around, and moved things around for good reasons, and moved them in a hurry myself, but it is extremely frustrating to go backwards on everything attempted.  And I'm not willing to go buy new things--that was the other thing today, finding the second stapler, the 4rth philips screwdriver (looking for a standard, of course.)

This is really only an expression of the fact that there are a number of other things in my life which, as has been said, are processes not problems: can't fix them in one or even two shots, they're too complicated.  And they're going wrong as well.   The final capper was having the person who has the clue about the pay for the school out for 3 days.  Oh yea.  Just what I needed.   They're only two paychecks behind...no wait, every single job I'm working on is making me track them down and prove I owe them money.  And that's the less stressful stuff, compared to the stuff I'm not willing to post to the world (or write on the internet, same thing, even if the posts are locked.  Even if they're self locked.  Am I paranoid?  No, I've read the terms of this service, and they can publish or prosecute or punish based on what you write--it's all on postcards flying in the wind (metaphore).

I want to swear and hit things, but do I need more things to fix?  I think not.  Oh, and finding some of the swords?  Well, see, they need a little work.

Onto the next problem.  Hey, it's not just me.  At least I haven't grated any body parts off, had my car hit, had to work RSA, been hit with horrible allergies, been threatened by work...whatever planet or spirit is out there, it's not a happy one.   Do be careful!

Oh, and I'm thankful.  Someone anonymously sent me some money in thanks last month, disguising their path well enough that I had no chance of figuring out who did it.  Thank you.  That's the money that paid for seeing Rick and Deena's wedding, a beautiful thing between wonderful people who I hope to know as long as I live.

I can't even get an LJ cut to work.   Aieee!

The Pacific NW is green and peaceful, even in Springtucky OR.   I got some minor things accomplished (light switch, new light, braces on raised  beds), got hooked on Rome, spent some lovely time.   Cousin Joyce is a joy, and the roadtrip pleasant.    The poison oak is gone, all that's left is lots of scaly skin.

It'll be nice to get home.

The poison oak is spreading, almost two weeks after initial exposure.  The plan is to use my old Allegra to try and dehive a bit; if that doesn't work, the hospital will have stronger ones (especially in comparison to my wallet.)

A Brilliant cartoonist, Tim Eagan, is posting some of my favorite works of his on the Net.   Here's one of the million that resound:  EDIT: Here's the website they're on.

http://www.timeagan.com/ ;

Woke up this morning with my right arm itching.  Oh bother, I did get poison oak from the work weekend.