Adventure, mayhem, and pretty things

Hello folks.  How ya been?

I keep forgetting to mention the embroidery project, which is in its final stages for color.  I'm working on the blue background, finally, or I would be except the project is currently stalled.  Why? Well, because, it's sitting in top of my scanner, waiting for me to take pictures of it to share with all of you.

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I also keep forgetting to mention that I've been given an art commission to paint some Celtic knotwork on a large antique metal milk-canister.  I've spent the past several days drawing out the knotwork on paper, reworking it to my satisfaction, and the past two days using an exacto knife to cut the drawing into a decent stencil.  Relax, it's just to get the guide lines on.

If we hadn't killed my van today, I'd be heading to the store first thing tomorrow morning to pick up paints and such so I can begin the transfer onto the can.

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Related to the knotwork is the fact that I recently claimed an SCA "scribal" assignment - a request for volunteers to do calligraphy for our society's award certificates (we're medieval history buffs and re-enactors, did you think we were going to print awards off on a computer?? Psh!) - for the first time in about five years.  The SCA is, by and large, a game where we dress up and pretend to be medieval, but like anything, it has its group dynamics and its politics, and between the political stuff and some honest burnout, I haven't really had the heart to do a "scroll" in about five years.  If you look back through the archives, you'll find a private commission for a gentleman's SCA award from about two or three years ago, but the regular stuff with deadlines hasn't held any interest for me in quite some time.  I think it'll be good to get back into the swing of things; here's to hoping I'm right.

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Oh, and I'm also auditioning tomorrow to join the Lafayette Chamber Singers, one of those very small groups where you can only get in if someone else dies.  Fortunately, no one died this time around, but they did move far far away, freeing up one slot; and the conductor has decided to expand the soprano section so they can take on more ambitious compositions, which has opened up another one or two slots besides.  Talk about luck for me... wish me some, if you would.

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Finally, in addition to the van, we're very sorry for breaking much of the rest of the Lafayatte area earlier today.  The van broke down on the access drive to Wolf Park, where we had been planning to observe their weekly wolf-bison interaction, only it got cancelled for the first time in pretty much ever due to the potential for more storms (yesterday's were "apocalyptic" according to Amy Prettybaby) and the heat index heading toward the ridiculous zone (kind of like Ludicrous Speed in the movie Spaceballs).

Once we got the van towed, the husband's car acquired, and the rest of us collected from the park premises, it was time for an early dinner.  So we headed to Pizza Hut, ordered our meal, and watched over drinks while the lights flickered impressively for about half a minute before going out altogether.  The manager came out and told us he was very sorry, but the transformer out back had just shot "really kinda beautiful" sparks and lightning into the air in all directions, caught fire, and fallen into the street, and he hoped we wouldn't be too upset that our dinner wasn't going to be happening there that evening.

At this point, after starting as, "oh, bummer" and progressing to, "eh, it's a nice day to be stuck at a nature park, and hey, y'all are really nice people", the day's catastrophic failures became completely hilarious.  I'm still chuckling as I type this, to be honest - I mean, what are the odds of all this happening at all, much less happening all on the same day, back to back, while my father-in-law is in town visiting?  Plus there wasn't any reason to actually be upset - we weren't in any hurry, no one was hurt, and it really was a nice day to be stuck at a nature park with really nice, gracious, and extremely helpful staff.  While we were trying to see if we could fix things ourselves and/or jump-start the van, my daughter and I got to check out the nature along the side of the road, in the form of wildflowers and a whole crowd of butterflies and other harmless bugs.  She was an angel the whole time and thought that riding in the tow truck with Daddy was cooool.

Anyway, after everything else, we were almost afraid to go to the next-closest Pizza Hut, since we weren't sure what other damage might be caused just by us being near the place.  Luckily, nothing went wrong (except that their cable and radio had gone out shortly before we arrived, though I don't think we can really claim that as ours), dinner was yummy, and we had a good visit with my father-in-law after all.

Our motto for the day: If you know where you're going, it's not an adventure.

Hope to see you at the Farmer's Market if you live nearby, and if you don't, then maybe some other time.

Cheers!