Ordered canvas to make a small storage tent for Pennsic this year. Hopefully I’ll find time and energy to complete projects this summer.

Yesterday’s concert with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Billy Idol was unsurprisingly amazing. We were far enough back that pictures are of the monitors - but also lawn seat prices made this experience possible.

Totally just drafted the doublet pattern on a spare napkin by draping. The pattern shape is just manipulation with moving darts around is now MUCH more obvious after watching a bunch of YT videos by the Closet Historian where she’s manipulating body blocks to make whatever she wants. Huh…

Debating how to phrase “70 year old plastic can be as brittle as bones. Please be gentle” Clara now has enough underwear to go out in public.

I need to have my fridge cleaned out by Wednesday, because the CSA pickup starts this week! Definitely will be canvassing for meal ideas when I know what I’ll have.

Today is one of those days where I wake up at 5am (or before) convinced I’m late for work, despite all evidence to the contrary. Like, if my brain hadn’t fully engaged, I’d be on my way to work, despite it being a Saturday. As it is, coffee is made and dishwasher is running.

First push mower grass cutting of the year is done. I’m done, rather than the job being finished. Started listening to “The Wife Drought” by Annabel Crabb. Def gives food for thought. I kinda want to have conversations at work about the premise that experts look for expertise that looks like them.

Yesterday I spent the day at a low key SCA event with friends, watching people do the things they love and getting fed wonderful food for both lunch and dinner.

New-to-me car shows pollen very well. Still torn whether this is a good thing or not.

Seen today: “A final reminder that the TRICARE Online Patient Portal (TOPP) will decommission on 1 April 2025, and encourage all personnel (military, retirees, veterans, family members) download a copy of their legacy health record before the suspense. BL: Your records won’t transfer.”

It's only taken me 26 loads to realize why running the dishwasher makes me feel lousy. Totally kicking myself for taking so long to realize that the issue is allergies/asthma and that buying lemon-eucalyptus scented dishwasher pods is dumb when you’re still allergic to eucalyptus.

This weekend’s project of playing with stamp carving turned out okay. At some point I should “upgrade” to trying to make wood stamps, but that’s definitely a long ways away.

Yesterday’s fun at work - telling coworkers about savory toasted cheese (medieval fondue) and trying to come up with SOMETHING it would not go well on. We failed. But we also made my boss run away to go get food, so winning?

Just pointing out - at what point does someone at a much higher paygrade than me have to worry about classification by compilation so as not to have a security spill on the OPM server? “What I did last week” is going to have to be so watered down anyway that this is an utterly pointless exercise.

It’ll be better in the long run, but I’d forgotten how utterly draining allergy shot days can be. Don’t know that my “first thing in the morning” plan for shots is actually feasible, while also wondering if I will need to worry about energy levels at work in a few weeks. Do not like this timeline.

Reading “Where the Iron Crosses Grow” by Forczyk about WW2 Crimea, based on recommendation by distant coworkers. Just oof on the 1st page:

Me: Try something new this weekend & pull a bunch of apps off your phone. Also me: ugggghhhh. Why did I not plan better for spending hours at the allergist today?

I felt a certain amount of satisfaction getting notice for the third week in a row of a snow day for work. “Well, golly gee. That ‘return to work’ EO sure is saving a lot of money”

I’m rereading (or rather relistening) to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and trying to take heart from that. There’s so many parallels that one can draw, but I’m trying my best to frame some of those parallels as hope. Some days it’s a real struggle, but absolutely worth the effort.

Was expecting a rainy day, not a snowy day. This doesn’t make us want to go outside…

Enough snow that the old well cap and casing are more than halfway covered. Also enough snow that I’ll have to shovel the driveway, preferably before the neighborhood’s snow plow comes through.

Advice from folks at work has me contemplating learning a bunch of new things to info-dump to coworkers. “No, this is historical info. Why do you think this relates to current politics?” while talking about cultures that didn’t consider a portion of their society chattel.

The current top thing bothering me about the “defending women” executive order is that we are apparently not capable to defend ourselves, but instead have to rely on the “white male protectors“ to defend us. Which is complete and utter bullshit because it’s like trusting a fox to guard the chickens.

Icy trees are pretty but also somewhat worrisome.

It’s raining now, but all the trees have bitty icicles on them, and the evergreens are slicked down. I miss being a kid and thinking this was pretty!

Up and awake with first coffee. This morning’s rain-sleet-snow-ick mix has been going for a while, and I still need to take my rubbish bin to the street. But hey, now that telework is verboten, I don’t have to do anything but worry about trees until it’s time for (delayed) work.

Today’s big accomplishment- ordered CSA (community supported agriculture) shares for the summer. This time, trying a half-share of veggies plus milk, meat (could include eggs), cheese, berries. Basically most of my groceries. Looking forward to May!

So that i can find it again- there’s a lovely late 16c Spanish woman’s doublet in the Museo del Traje. The museum has zoomable pictures! www.cultura.gob.es/mtraje/visit...

Okay that’s fun. I was looking for independent bookstores near me and stumbled on www.bookshop.org Was able to order the book I wanted at the same price as B&N or BAM AND was able to pick a local independent bookstore to receive the full profit from my purchase. Win win!!

Different subject - one of my goals this year is to buy a physical book a month. Hopefully read it this year. But this gives me something fun to do that isn’t time on the internet. Anyone have good books to suggest? Series are awesome. As is fiction that doesn’t require a lot of braining.

The moon and Venus were very bright tonight!

Yesterday’s experiment of putting some “starch alternative” (Mary Ellen’s Best Press) in a continuous mister/spray bottle went well. The fabric didn’t get as amazingly stiff as with spray starch, but it also wasn’t as obvious where it went on unevenly.

Tomorrow when it’s “warm” I need to check the tire pressure for my car. This morning’s “hey we need air” at 10 deg F needs to be a one time thing…. I feel like I’m finally warm today, 12 hours later.

Finished the cutting out of a coat, and now onto sewing! Definitely contemplating buying starch for clothing/sewing in larger-than-spray quantities. Have Yuri’s kosode outer fabric also cut out, and need to make final decision on lining. Yay deadlines?!?

In today’s “omg brain, WHY?!??” I finally managed to start on a project that has a relatively soon deadline, and got about half of my fabric stamped. I guess I know what I’ll be doing after work tomorrow and Tuesday… It’s always so satisfying to turn plain fabric into something fancier!

This morning’s sunrise was colorful. And it was warm enough to step outside for a picture without regrets :)

Best part of today - cleaning out the fridge and getting the trash can out before the trash truck came. Second best part of today - hearing the trash truck come so I can assuage the inexplicable fear that I missed this week’s delayed pickup.

Sunrise this morning was very colorful - more so the couple minutes before this when I was actively driving and not stopped at the traffic light.

Ooh. I’m listening to random “Words Unraveled” YouTube shows, and they mentioned the word “roorback” (pronounced more like rawback, maybe?). A deliberate lie spread for political gain….

Yesterday, I totally won the work parking lot lottery by grabbing the last available parking spot at 0715. Must remember to celebrate the little things…. It’s not usually that bad, but the parking garage was closed for cleaning, so we were down a LOT of parking spaces.

Much of recent life has been work, work and more work. Today my boss and I were talking about how to deal with a difficult coworker, and I got told that I certainly didn’t need that coworker’s approval to call work complete. Sometimes it’s nice to hear things said out loud.