As promised ...

I don't know if it's appropriate for the co-host to say this about her own party, but I think it was a success. The last 4 people didn't leave till something after 4:00 a.m. I made a ton of food, but it was worth it, because almost all of it was eaten (the 25 or so pepperoni rolls I made disappeared about 10 minutes after I brought them out - apparently that's a favorite).

The unanimous highlight of the party was the 'special drink' - the Purple Pixie (no, that's not it's whole name, but I will only allow a certain level of lewdity on this blog, and that drink's real name exceeds it). This is a drink I discovered at Pennsic, and replicated for the party. I didn't invent it, once again, thanks to Springwood Forest and the talented woman (whose name I forgot to ask) who made this, then shared the recipe with me. You don't make this one by the glass - you make it by the jug or other large vessel. I happen to have this cool drink dispenser received as a Christmas gift one year, probably holds about 2 gallons of liquid, and has a little handle dispenser - very nice. We made our batches of Purple Pixie in that, and made three - yes, three batches of it ... and it was all gone by the end of the party.

Anyway, enough blather - on to the pictures.

The bar. You can barely see it, but the Purple Pixie dispenser is just to the left of the fan, sitting on the table. Umm ... empty, again.

Midnight Drunken (R) Pirate Lawn Darts (tm) - Berg throwing spears.

Midnight Drunken (R) croquet: Robin, Rose, Matt (aka Paddy O'Furniture), Rachael (aka "My name's not Joan!")

Midnight Drunken (R) White Trash Pirate (tm) Cornhole. The targets were holes cut out of pieces of cardboard, and the tossers were rice in baggies fastened with a twist-tie. Matt (not Paddy, the other Matt), Connell, Tria, and Robin.

Rose, Berg, Paddy.

Connell, Rachael, Tria.

Connell was declared the overall winner of the games, and receives the appropriate Pirate bling - a big, cheap plastic gold medallion.



Ulfr and Robin ... yeah, I don't know what's going on there. It was late. I blame the Purple Pixie.


Well, that was fun. A nice time for our only real party this summer. Thanks everyone for coming out, and putting up with and/or participating in our Midnight Drunken (R) shenanigans.

Catching Up

Haven't posted in awhile, thought I'd play catch-up.

I haven't practiced poi since last Saturday when I learned the 3-beat weave. I developed a pretty bad pain in my left shoulderblade area. It just feels like just a sore muscle, so I thought it was from whacking myself too many times, too hard, with the poi in that area, or maybe from the new and unusual movement of my arm. I decided to take a break. But the pain hasn't gotten any better in almost 5 days, so I'm not sure that's what it was. If it was that, I would have thought it would have started showing some improvement by now. It's hard to tell - I'm plagued by random aches and pains anymore. I tried a heating pad for awhile last night, and it helped, but only as long as the heating pad was on it. As soon as I moved it came back. I'll have to try some other stuff here over the next few days and see if I can't clear it up, because I miss my poi!

I have done no knitting in weeks! I must be in another knitting slump. That's okay, though - that sometimes happens in the summer. I'm sure I'll get back to it soon, although I'd like to get that sweater done before too much longer. And make some more socks! I'm also going to have Christmas knitting to start thinking about, if I plan to do any. Haven't decided about that yet.

Oi, Christmas - that's something I'd like to start on any time now. Not because I really think that Christmas should be such an extended, commercialized monster that goes on for months. But because waiting till the last minute is always a pain in the butt. I'd really rather start early and have nice relaxing time of it. Of course, I stopped going out shopping for Christmas years ago, and do all of my shopping online now - which alleviates the stress, except when I wait too late to order stuff and have to pay exorbitant amounts of money for 2-day shipping to get the stuff in time!

Part of my problem is that I never know what to get anyone. I guess I'm just not that creative in the gift-giving department. Greg can buy me a whole slew of Christmas gifts without ever once asking me what I want, and it's always cool stuff. Me, I can't seem to think of anything to get anyone without them telling me specifically what they want - and most people never will tell me anything they want. Well ... one of my goals for the year was to simplify things more, so I suspect I can start with this whole Christmas thing. Simple, thoughtful gifts, instead of the commercialized feeding frenzy it often deteriorates into when waiting too long.

Which brings me back to knitting - knitted gifts are always nice, because I get the bonus of enjoying the act of knitting them, and the recipient gets a hand-made gift. But that only works if I leave myself enough time to do the knitting.

In other news ... we planned a porch party for this weekend. Used to have these all the time, then kind of stopped, and haven't really had one all year. I decided it was time for one, before summer was over. Potentially there will be Midnight Drunken (R) shenanigans, with pictures to follow. I'm considering a game that's a combination of croquet, horsehoes, and cornhole. We'll see.

Not much else going on ... I've been exhausted for the past two weeks, and doing little to nothing in the evenings after work. I couldn't figure out what was causing this till Greg pointed out something - Tyler's got this itchy allergic reaction thing going on again, and is waking me up throughout the night with his scratching and chewing. When I started paying attention, I noticed that usually by 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. he's waking me up, and once it starts, it goes on every little bit the rest of the night. That means that I haven't gotten a good, full night's restful sleep in about 3 week (because I never sleep entirely well when camping). No wonder I'm tired! I never know what to do about Tyler, though - this has been an ongoing problem for years and years, and even after a very expensive trip to an allergy specialist vet an hour away, there was no solution. Making him sleep on the floor isn't an option - he'd never stay unless I put him in a crate, and the he'd probably whine and howl all night, because he'd be pissed about that. This dog's never had to sleep in a crate, or anywhere without me (except when I'm away and he's being dog-sat) since he was a puppy. Even when he was recovering from surgery and couldn't get on the bed, we slept on the living room floor with him, instead. Spoiled? Yeah, I don't want to hear about it.

So anyway, I guess it's time to get off my duff and get ready for work. Party pictures Sunday!

Beaver River Regatta; and Poi Success!!

Yesterday we went down to Bridgewater Landing, where my brother docks his boat, for the Beaver River Regatta. We had a really good time. We got to take the boat out, and this time nothing went wrong. We had a nice ride up and down the river, dropped anchor for awhile and played a little music, then came back in the evening for the regatta parade.

Playing modern-day captain.


Navigator Ashley.

Going into Montgomery Lock.



Inside the lock.

The dam that made the lock necessary.


Music pirate.
Yeah - no explanation necessary.


The boat decorated for the regatta.


Bridgewater Landings decorated up for the regatta.

In poi news ... I LEARNED THE 3 BEAT WEAVE!!! Yeah, that's a big deal. You see, the 3 beat weave is supposed to be a beginner's move, yet it's very impressive looking in it's own right, seems to be a staple move in most poi-routine videos I've seen, and it's an important step in learning more advanced moves.

But for the first few days I was trying to learn it, I just could not get it. Not even a little bit. I was beginning to despair of ever progressing in my poi spinning if I couldn't learn this allegedly simple move. In some forums I was reading, people were saying they'd learned this move in a day or even a few hours. I was going on a week and couldn't get it.

Yesterday I wasn't even really planning to work on it, but I'd started doing a simple forward spin in split time (left and right poi spinning in opposing circles, one poi up when the other's down, sorta thing), and then started crossing them over. Simple as that is, I'd only ever done the crossovers in same time. As soon as I started doing that, I realized that was the "2 beat weave" that was the precursor to the 3 beat. So I stood and did that for awhile, while picturing the tutorial videos in my mind. Watching those tutorial videos over and over and over, even when you haven't been able to begin learning the move yet, seems to be a really good thing to do ... it's like training your mind to 'know' what to do so it can then tell your muscles what to do, before you've even physically done it yet. While standing there doing the 2 beat weave and picturing in my mind what my arms should be doing, I was just suddenly able to start doing it!

It took about 20 minutes of practice to begin to get it set in my mind to where I can purposely replicate it, and not just have it happen almost 'by accident.' It's still pretty sloppy, and I can only seem to maintain it for 10 seconds or so before I lose it - but I can do it, which means I'm sure I'll get better at it and progress from there.

So yeah - it was a very big deal to me.

I'd learned a couple other tricks this week too - despite feeling as if I'm not really making much progress, I guess in a way I am - I've managed to learn something new almost each day this week. Maybe in a few weeks I'll know enough moves well enough to put together a little routine, tape it, and post it somewhere. Yay me.

Poi-licious

Yeah, I couldn't stay away. I managed not to play with my balls ... umm, tennis balls ... until late tonight, after dark, but then Greg whipped out his staff ... okay, this conversation is just degrading. Let me try again.

When I got interested in poi, Greg decided to start working with staff again, with the goal in mind of eventually working up to fire staff. He's done staff work in the past, just never lit. The staff, that is.

So, Greg got out the staff, and I couldn't resist, and got out the poi. Cool thing I learned: practicing poi in the dark (with non-glowing poi) is really interesting. I couldn't see them, so I had to do everything by feel. It was an excellent exercise in understanding how the movements are supposed to feel, not just look. I think I'll incorporate some after-dark practice into my routine on a regular basis.

I got back the moves I'd lost yesterday, so that was - as I thought - just a minor flux. I was much encouraged after tonight's practice

As for unpacking and whatnot ... yeah, not so much. I haven't unpacked a single damned thing out of the truck since I came home last Saturday. Can we all say "Slackass" with a capital Slack. Oh well. It'll get done ... eventually. Probably before Saturday, as we're off to my brother's boat for the Beaver River Regatta. To fit us all in the truck, I have to unpack it. (grumble grumble)

That's about it for now. I think I'm off for some more after-dark poi practice.

Rambling

I've been back from Pennsic for five days, and I'm just now starting to think about going back to 'normal life.' I had a really hard time adjusting out of this vacation, for some reason. My truck isn't unpacked yet ... the house is kind of a mess ... it's been rough.

Tonight I plan to start getting some stuff done. 'Plan,' anyway. We'll see how that works out. Part of my problem is that I've been exhausted every night this week, so tired I can barely move or keep my eyes open from about 2:00 in the afternoon until about 8:00, when for some reason I tend to get a second wind. Since that's the same schedule I was on at Pennsic, maybe that's all it is - a carryover from vacation. There, I blamed it on the weather - in the hottest part of the day I'd get sleepy and want to take a nap. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't, but either way I never felt really awake again until something after 8:00. But I have to break myself of that here - that schedule just isn't going to fly now, and it's causing me to get nothing done.

Despite the tiredness, the only thing I have been doing in the evening is practicing poi. But I think I'm going to take a break for a day or two. I was doing fairly okay with it, but yesterday I seemed to have a regression - things I'd already learned I suddenly couldn't remember how to do. I think it's just a matter of letting the lessons sink into my muscle memory. I used to go through this with fiddle. I'd be trying to learn something new, and I'd play it a lot, and only half get it ... then I'd take a break for a few days or longer, and when I'd come back to it, even after not playing for awhile, suddenly I'd "have" whatever the thing was I'd been struggling with before.

At least I hope it works that way with poi - if not, I'm going to be starting all over! That's okay, but it's a wee bit discouraging because I don't seem to be doing very well with it. But I'll give it some more time and see how things go. It's only been five days! It's a whole new skill set, can't expect to learn it in less than a week.

So that's where I'm at ... trying to ramp up the energy to start unpacking, cleaning up the house, and getting back on track. The knitting's still packed, so I haven't done any of that either. It'd be nice to get my sweater done in time for cooler fall weather - which will probably be in about 6 weeks. I might be able to do it.

Rayne's Addiction

This poi bug has bitten hard. I'm totally enthralled and completely obsessed. I've been practicting every morning before work for a little bit, then every night after work for half an hour to an hour.

Apparently I'm no genius at this (something I suspected from the start). It doesn't just come 'naturally' to me. I've read on forums where people learned (allegedly) beginner moves in an hour or two, that I'm still working on after several days. But I'm not worried about it. I also read on said same forums that everyone's different, and just because you don't pick something up immediately doesn't mean you can't eventually be good at it. I've had no experience with this type of thing. To quote my friend Wren, for most of my life the sole purpose of my body has been to tote my head around. I'm not a physically oriented person at all. The most physical thing I used to do on a regular basis, many many years ago, was horseback riding, which required good hands, but held mostly stationary and close to the body. That's the very training I have to now try to undo to learn poi.

Greg mentioned, and I agree, that anyone who had any prior experience in a 'movement discipline' - dance, martial arts, etc. - would probably find this far easier at the outset. So - no biggie. I'm just working with a slight handicap, but I'm confident that in time I can learn what I want to learn.

And the important part is, I'm having a ton of fun, and it's already making me more body-conscious. I already notice myself moving differently, holding myself differently. People at work even remarked on it, though they blamed it on my relaxing vacation. I don't think that's what did it. I think it's because I've got poi on the brain right now, and somewhere in the back of my mind I'm constantly thinking about it - and it actually affects the way I stand and move. Interesting!

Even if it's nothing more than exercise and a fun eye-hand-body coordination experiment, it's still a blast, and for now I'm totally addicted. I know I've had tendencies in the past to get completely absorbed in something for a period of time, then eventually completely lose interest and never care if I pick it up again. This could well go that way, too. Time will tell.

For now, I've got 20 minutes before I have to get ready for work - I think I'll go hit myself with some tennis balls!

Home From War

Well, that was the best Pennsic I've had since my first one. And the first one was phenomenal. This year more than made up for the disaster of last year.

The weather was beautiful. It wasn't as hot as it's been some years (don't get me wrong, it was hot there for awhile - but not brain-baking hot like some I've seen). Then during War Week it began to rain off and on - generally sporadic and shortlived, often at night or in the early morning when it really had no effect on the day - definitely nothing that was very troublesome at all. Along with that came a change in the weather, it cooled down considerably. Days were breezy and cool, and nights - well, this is the first time I ever remember being actually cold at Pennsic at night. The last two nights I was there I was freezing when I first went to bed, although after I'd snuggled in I was fine. But that was a definite first.

We had a great time. Greg and I spent more time together than at most previous Pennsics, we went out a few nights wandering, stayed in some nights just hanging out by the fire. I did some shopping, which went extremely well. I watched some fire performers one night at a party, which renewed my interest in poi ... which looks like this ...




That video is of GlitterGirl of Temple of Poi - the best poi dancer I found in my online searching yesterday. I'd gotten interested in it last year after seeing a performance, but hadn't thought much about it again until this year. So I bought my first set of practice poi balls, and that's already become a minor addiction (though I don't seem to be getting the hang of it very quickly).

Even though we came home Saturday evening, and tear-down and pack-up went as well as it could, I was so exhausted. We re-inflated the air mattress and plopped it in the living room, and barely got off of it all day Sunday (except for me to go out and practice poi a bit). I never even unpacked the truck. It's going to be a long week.

Anyway - on to the pictures.

A view up the road from our camp.

Rum tasting in camp.

The rum to taste - straight from Tortuga, brought by a friend of ours whose parents sailed around the Caribbean this summer.

We had a wedding this year. Dante and Elspeth got hand-fasted (and legally remarried) at the Chalkman Pub next door to our camp.

This guy sat still way longer than I expected, allowing me to get this crazy closeup.

The guys of our combined camps, Sea Chameleon and Shire of Hornwood: Archibald, Gavin, Dante, Robin, Berg

Our neighbor's beautiful little set-up. Greg and I hope to have something like this soon, although ours will be bigger - because with the kids there are more of us, and - well - we're bigger slobs, so need more places to hide stuff.

Pirates Night Out! Me, Robin, Berg.

The Commodore and his Wench. (umm, that's me and Greg)

The pirate coat! The embroidery wasn't completely done, but I put the cuffs on and wore it anyway, and I'm glad I did - it was great fun.

Sorry, Berg - that's not a pirate hat either.

Then it was over, all too soon ... this is the disaster that is tear-down and packing up.

And so ends another Pennsic. I have lots of great memories this year, and a good year at Pennsic has one major side-effect. We're now so excited about next year we're already making plans to improve our camp. Can't wait! But the best part of coming home was getting to see Tyler again. I really missed him ... but he's home and settled in and, in fact, sleeping right next to me now.