So, the War! We left Wednesday evening, after carefully packing everything into all the tiny nooks and crannies in the RV, which I ended up dubbing the Make Love Not War Machine. Got to the site, checked in, drove to our spot, and plugged in. Gee…quite a bit easier than raising a pavilion in the dark! and we didn’t even have to leave a vehicle in the parking lot. We changed, and then, um…see, I’m already forgetting. Hung out with folks, I guess. No, I know! We went to the Darach encampment and found that Lucia and Ismay had recently arrived, so we helped Lucia put up her pavilion because Kelvin wasn’t arriving until later. That’s it. We ended up in bed by midnight, boring old people that we are.

Thursday we walked around the merchants and scoped out some of the stuff we wanted to buy. Not everyone was open yet. Picked up Caid stickers for the car (they’re out of print, so we grabbed two), our commemorative goblet from Christel Illusions (pre-ordered, so our names are engraved on it), and our commemorative t-shirt. Umberto went off to see if Gate needed money run to the bank, and I settled down with the laptop and did three hours of copy editing. That evening, we worked gate for a couple of hours, then had dinner with Gyldenholt (we were on Lasairfhiona’s meal plan).

Friday…man, this is all so fuzzy! We got up early-ish to take a leather mask-making class. It was surprisingly easy! I kept thinking I’d done something wrong because I whipped through the beginning so quickly. The class was hampered by people who showed up late and began asking a ton of questions that had already been addressed, and by a 10-year-old obnoxious boy whom the teacher was kind enough to let into the class when he should have been at the Children’s Pavilion. Anyway, we walked away with nearly-finished Green Man/Woman masks. We need to cut the edges, dye them, and I’m going to cut out a few more leaves to glue onto mine for a 3-D effect. They’re going to be green, with the edges painted red and orange and gold so that the leaves look like they’re turning. We’re going to have them for Harvest Tourney in just over a week. Anyway, I then ran to a tablet-weaving class. Anwyn taught me how to do it ages ago, but I didn’t for awhile and the next time I tried, I screwed something up. The teacher was really good and I totally get it now (although other patterns may be harder—my biggest problem now is remembering which direction I’m going in). Our friend Thorin, who’s been coming to sewing nights and is a really nice guy, was in the class. He had the hots for the teacher. It’s so cute. Unfortunately, she’s from the Outlands. They ended up arranging a date (“It’s just a _dance_”) later that night at the dance pavilion. I think we went through merchants again, and I know people showed up, and so forth. We went to Gate and worked 6:00–8:30, a shift I love because that’s when a lot of people are arriving. I like being busy and welcoming all my friends. Lasairfhiona sent food down to us, too. We went back and wandered around until midnight, stopping at the Scotch-tasting party where we ran into Albra and escorted her back to her yurt. Then we returned to Gate until 4 a.m., because, well, nobody else had signed up to do it and we’d planned to work some late shifts. Thorin was there, too. It was slow but steady until about 2 a.m., and after that it trickled off and we got very silly and punchy. It was good to finally catch a golf cart ride home and crawl into bed. (And it was very, very good to have a real bed, and a bathroom two steps away…)

We slept late on Saturday, quelle surprise, and had just gotten up when Donna called to say she and Darla had arrived on site. So I showered and garbed up and walked around merchants with them for a few hours, and we had lunch together in the nice air-conditioned RV. Umberto did another money run for Gate and worked there from 4–10, as I recall. I went to Court and sat with Thea, Kuang Ch’i and Berengere and Julian showed up partway through. André’s lady, Katherine, got her AoA, and then he proposed to her. I cried, of course. We brought the boy into the SCA. We’re not losing a son, we’re gaining a daughter… There was a lovely Knighting of a gentle from Western Seas (Hawaii), complete with nearly naked men blowing conch shells and a woman singing in Hawaiian. It was one of those SCA moments, you know? When it just works. The ceremony was so fitting, and so meaningful to him. So, then I went to merchants again for Midnight Madness, because I was looking for clasps for my cotehardie for Harvest Tourney. The ones I wanted weren’t right, so I wandered around to no avail. Then I had dinner with Gyldenholt, and when Umberto returned, we decided that night gate was covered; it was our night off. We went back to Merchants Row and I bought some clasps at Justina’s. We played glow-in-the-dark bocce with a bunch of folks, then wandered around with Lasairfhiona and Maren and Aiesha and eventually Thorin. We re-built Strawhenge, bigger and better than Potrero years ago, but then some amateurs came along and tried to help and it all fell down. I think we got to bed between 3 and 4 a.m. Gods only know. What was depressing was that most of the parties seemed to end early.

Sunday we slept in again, then did a final Merchants Row run. Eilidh said, “Didn’t you see the oak leaf clasps at so-and-so’s?” Well, no, I hadn’t! So she took me there, and I fell in love with them, and actually ordered six sets of just the loops sides, so I can sew them on and then lace through them. Umberto went back and hung out yet again at Gaukler Medieval Wares, where the wonderful man sells actual period artefacts as well as reproductions. Umberto bought a 15th-C key, and we bought another rude pilgrim badge, affectionately known as Mr. Happy Pants. (Alas, when we unpacked, Mr. Happy Pants was nowhere to be found. I have to e-mail the man anyway, because he’s going to send me pictures of period silver heart pins so I can commission one.) Elsewhere, Umberto bought two Italian books and I bought one on lucet braiding. I got a twisty metal thing for my hair (non-SCA) and a t-shirt about being a protégé. (Actually, we ran into someone wearing one, and I fell in love. Next thing I knew, Umberto had disappared to go buy it for me.). I think that was it. We had to leave before dinner because we were meeting with Tetchubah, who’s doing our taxes, but Lasairfhiona gave us food to take with us, the sweetheart. So we raced home and scarfed food and went over tax stuff, and then checked e-mail and caught up on life and collapsed in our own wonderful bed.

We’re both already on staff for next year, unsurprisingly. Umberto was Deputy Exchequer this year with the expectation of taking over next year. I’m doing Booklets again—now that I know the ropes, I want to do them better—and I was recommended for Publicity, which should be pretty easy and ties in well with Booklets. I also want to start putting together a procedures manual for the different jobs. I immediately came up with a ton of questions—nothing major, but necessary—about Publicity when I volunteered to do it. Somebody’s gotta start writing this down. The main Stewards for next year are Rowan and Ceridwen, Gyldenholt folks that we know. They’ll be good. I’m looking forward to working with them.

And that, my friends, was War. I confess I had a better time than I expected (which may be due in part to the RV…), and now I’m already looking forward to Estrella. Current plans are to have the pavilion done by then—wish us luck!