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2001-10-15 - 4:50 p.m. Not even a reasonable facsimile of a Zachary There's a University professor doing serious research on songs that get stuck in your head. He's done a large survey and the top things that get stuck are : "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands," the themes for "Mission Impossible" and "Gilligan's Island", "We Will Rock You" and (shudder) "Macarena". "This research is expected to provide creative guidelines to advertisers that wish to increase the memorability of their ads," says Kellaris. "It should also yield insights concerning the operation of human memory." Like I need more people playing with my head. Where's the fall weather? Rant, rant, rant. I packed for Kingdom Crusades expecting the 60ish days 40ish nights that I love about fall and we have 80s. What the hell? I am so *done* with heat and humidity. Friday evening was fun. The best part was watching Aarrad get put on vigil. Ah, so cluelessly trapped. All the knights assembled in front of the royal cabin then the head lady in waiting came in and told all the retainers the King wanted to have an impromptu court. Our Queen did a great job of pretending to be very grumpy Did he want to tell me? and herding everyone outside. In a fit of inventiveness, Gen sent Aarrad upstairs for the sword of state, giving us an extra 20 seconds. He rushes out the front door, skates up to the King, and hands Galmr the sword trying to look inconspicuous. As he prepares to dance away, the King says But we have business with you.... Slowly, it dawns on him. Props to our boy because Aarrad did not hit himself in the head or say Doh, or anything else similarly silly. The order trooped him over to the vigil. (The vigilino tent was just gorgeous. I'm envious of the tent painting job.) I'm sorry I didn't get in to see him, but Amalric said his friends could congratulate him in the morning, so I gave up on waiting, though I did spend a while chatting. I got to see Liam and Izzy and Pavla - though she did not even bring a reasonable facsimile of a Zachary. Sigh. Friday night, however, no sleep for Theodora. And it was *not* Ragnarr's fault. The problem was, about 12:30 am, we decided we actually wanted to get some sleep. Let me say not the best cabin arrangements this time. The Atlantian and Eastern royal retainers split a cabin, and, goodness, I couldn't get a word out of my cabinmates. Usually I can get a conversation out of a fencepost, southern training and all that, but I couldn't even entice them into polite introductions. Then, the other half of the building, decided to stay up until 3 am talking very loudly, despite a polite request to be quiet. Then our cabinmates came in half-hour increments all the rest of the night. Plus, we had the inevitable champion snorers. I think I managed to get two hours of sleep Friday night. Just to finish this rant, one of the 3 am talkers, spent Saturday evening grumpily asking everyone in court to shut up because he was trying to hear. I got out of bed about 7:30 to get dressed for the field. Major props to the MoLs. They were there and on time and the Eastern KMoL ran a great show. Not that I expected less because Ellesbeth is wonderful. We did have to track down the MoL tent (pop up frame, easily walkable) someone had moved down the field and not bothered to move back - glad that was convenient for them. She fed me breakfast then most of the morning passed in a wild check-in rush. Her Shire brought a fantastic lunch so I was well fed. Burp. Francesca came down with Duke Timothy from the East! Yes, the Francesca from the Bob-the-spiky-fake-fruit-thingy. Bob still occupies a place of honor on top of her television, next to the jingling purple octopus. Gen got to meet Francesca, finally, so she no longer thinks of her as a myth - she's still a bit envious Francesca owns a purple octopus, when Bubbles has yet to acquire one.
I did a spot of shopping (ask me about my lovely new green shawl) and chatting in the early afternoon, but was only so successful. I tried to chat with Padraiga and Kymber, but we could only make it ten minutes without someone coming over with a chirurgeon, waterbearer or MoL question. Padraiga also fed me the great roasted pepper dip she found... ummmm. Susie's David walked up and handed me a minute maid frozen grape bar in the middle of the afternoon heat. I love this man. I had a fascinating conversation with Anastasia, Hyrim's lady wife, about Carolingan knighthood - the topic of her dissertation. I must make more time to talk to her because there's a lot of new material on the subject, most of which is in German. I can't read it, but she has access to in through her research. Maybe I can talk her into teaching history of knighthood at University. Would a history of chivalry track be good? I've taught history of tournament before and it was surprisingly popularly. (Want to be intimidated? Show up to teach a ten person class and find 42 people waiting for you to amuse them.) The Carolingan chronicles include the story of one heir to the throne that was pursuing a woman on horseback rather, um, ardently. As he rode her down, she dodged into a building. Undeterred, he wheeled the horse in after her and *bam* slammed his head so hard on the lintel he died. It's funny, because I know people that would do that. You know people you would do that. Anastasia said the chronicles are funny, because you can tell which writers are trying to obscure the idiocy and which are just amused. Yes, I've decided she needs to teach me more. I fed all the Atlantian retainers and our monarchs a peasants dinner of cheese, bread, beef stew and un-period brownies just before court, ah the life of a retainer groupie. I dashed off to court, leaving the retinue to their own devices. I assume court was good - I don't think anyone past row ten heard a word unless the heralds repeated it. Very frustrating not being able to hear. Susanna was inducted into the Order of St. Aiden, which is wonderful. (I was reading Arthurian history yesterday and somewhere in the middle of the Vulgate Cycle I decided Susie would be a good choice for playing Galahad in a Pas d'Armes, especially if I persuade Corbie to play Perceval. Moving my friends around like pieces on a chessboard... and you thought that was Alan's hobby... grin) Major props to my sneaky monarchs. They inducted Kyneburh into the order of the Pearl and did a great job surprising her. She came forth to conduct chirurgeon business, then the Queen asked her to stay and thanked her for making the site tokens and rambled sweetly on, until Aryanna had the order of the pearl called forward. I love surprises - and at least she had good hair. After court we headed home. With the only two hours of sleep, I just wasn't looking forward to another sleepless night. My back injuries were also rebelling, telling me if they didn't get a real rest I would have a seized back the next day, so we made it home a bit before midnight and slept in our own *quiet* house. Sunday we were blissfully lazy, which is good. I need the relaxation just before the final last minute autocrat flurry. I made Roland watch "Bridget Jones's Diary" with me on Sunday, which he laughed at having enough estrogen to appreciate the bits. I did replay the end scene with Colin Firth a couple times. Nice boys don't kiss like that. The hell we don't. I'm going home now to my nice boy, who may just have time to kiss me before fighter practice. � � � 
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