AETW: 0
exercise: 15 CT, 1/2 abs

It is rather startling to look out your study window and see the turrets of a castle rising behind your outbuilding.

Apparently the neighbours have rented a bouncy castle. But still. Startling.

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I finished one of my Viking apron dresses this morning, to wear to Yule tonight: pinstripes of black or dark blue, green, and a dark pinky-red. I’ll wear it with a white linen underdress, some sort of head covering (or not—haven’t decided yet, and sources conflict on what’s appropriate), coronet, and boots. I confess I didn’t put the straps on the period way, which is with loops through which to pin the turtle brooches. With my first Viking apron, I found that just looping the pins through the loops made the brooches flop around, so I started pinning them through the fabric anyway. So I just sewed these straps on.

Then I got silly and sewed together the neverending cotehardie. As expected, it’s too big—I cut it out about 2 years ago, just before we left Wales. My pattern was too big, plus I’ve lost weight since then. So I’ll have to do some fiddling. I need to cut out the sleeves soon (maybe tonight) so I can start beading them. I’d like it to be done for Twelfth Night, but I’m not going to stress about it.

I also exercised, yay me. I finally seem to have the right motivation: travelling. I want my riding pants to fit better (hell, I’d like to fit into my old, smaller riding pants!). I want to be comfortable clambering around the Great Wall in China (or whatever, wherever). Overall, I want my back to stop hurting if I stand or walk for too long. Today I finally hit that point where even though exercising hurt, afterwards I felt like I have more energy.

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So, I’m switching to Mac Mail (or, simply, “Mail”), from Entourage, which was the front-end program I’ve been using since 2000. I really liked Entourage, for a lot of reasons. I’m switching to Mail because it’s automatically linked online, which means I can read it anywhere. Entourage tended to not like to be copied over to the laptop and back again.

But, Entourage was also my address book and calendar program, neatly and conveniently tied into one linked package. I now have to switch to Mac’s Address Book and iCal. Again, the biggest plus is that they’re linked online. But they don’t do things I want them to…

Mail doesn’t seem to have a bcc: function. Ack! And with Entourage, when I wrote an e-mail, I could choose what folder into which it would be saved (including the Deleted Mail folder). Now, everything goes into Sent Mail, and I have to manually move things around. And with Entourage’s address section, I had the option of “copy name and address to clipboard”, which meant it was easy to copy-and-paste onto a label.

Little things, but I really miss them already.

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Tonight was Gyldenholt/Lyondemere Yule (Lyondemere being the barony to our north, encompassing Long Beach). Morgaine and Jason, some friends of ours from Angels, came down early and we spent an hour or so chatting before heading to the event. They’re cool people to hang out with. The event itself seemed reasonably well attended, with folks from both baronies as well as at least two from Calafia (the barony to our south) and, of course, Morgaine and Jason (who are Baron/ess of Angels). Max and I were each other’s “date”, because Umberto was away and Max’s wife doesn’t play. (Rhyme unintended.) There was good food, good alcohol, and much amusement. Someone whom I really didn’t expect to fondled my butt. I was in no way offended, just surprised that it was that person. And he did it more than once, much to my continued amazement.

Afterwards, Max, and Morgana and Jamie, came over to hang out for a bit. (Morgana not being our dear friend Morgana from Darach. She’s the _other_ Morgana in the SCA. Ironically, Morgana from Darach legally changed her actual name to Morgana when she got married, and Morgana from here is doing the same thing. Oh, my head.)