Sat June 4 - I'm reminded again how glad I am that I'm still a non-smoker again, since being around someone who hasn't quit yet gets tedious quickly. I felt a little awkward asking her to go wash up so we could sit and chat around the house while I folded laundry before leaving, but not so awkward that I kept silent. And she's a good enough friend to not take offense.

For quite some time I've been meaning to sew little linen bands (almost "headbands" in the modern sense) that I can pin my linen veil/head covering to when I'm in my middle-ages costuming outfits (garb). You can see here, http://www.darachshire.org/galleries/Anniversary/image123.htm, that I've cheated a little bit. That veil is being held on by tiny safety pins under the veil, hooked on just a piece of black ribbon. It worked well enough for a day tourney and all the days camped "at war," but it was finally time to take some action and get something nicer.

So I grabbed some linen scraps from my sewing boxes, a needle, thread, and scissors. Packed them all with Æduin's new pins from Thursday, and headed to the event. Rather than spin yarn all day, I spent most of the time hand sewing the new linen bands. I even created a cloth button from the linen and a button loop from the thread. The whole project came out wonderfully, and looks a little like these examples here: http://www.virtue.to/articles/veils.html... the only difference being that I'm still cheating and hooking the barbette under the back of my hair, rather than under my chin. But someday I might finally put up with a chin strap. It does look nicer with a real barbette. Hmm.

Coronation itself was okay, but certainly I was glad to be there to witness the Laurel ceremony for Thomas Bronwell. For you non-SCA types: There are three "levels" of rank in our society: An Award of Arms (Lord or Lady with a capital L), a Grant of Arms (The Honorable Lord or Honorable Lady, also His Lordship and Her Ladyship), and a Patent of Arms (Sir, Dame, Master, and Mistress). There are three "pillars" to the SCA as well: Service, Artistic Achievement, and Prowess of Arms (Fighting). Knights are the Peerage for Martial Arts, Laurels and Pelicans are the Peerages for Artistic Achievement and Service, respectively. These are the highest "awards" given for achievement in our society, more or less. [This is the short version of the story.]

Anyways, I'm positive that I cannot recite *everything* Thomas Bronwell is skilled at, but some of the points mentioned as he processed in for the ceremony included Calligraphy, Illumination (fancy artwork that goes with Calligraphy), Costuming, Poetry, Philosophy, Heraldry, Alchemist (I think they actually said this, and it probably goes with the fact that he's *made* pigments and inks for his calligraphy and illumination), Dance, and others. I'd personally add "And really nice guy" but that might sound silly in the pomp and circumstance. One of my earliest SCA memories include Thomas and Colm and I at Estrella (a camping trip in Arizona, in February!), and those gentlemen escorting me and entertaining me in the midst of "5,000 of our closest friends." They were perfect gentlemen, and I've thought of them fondly ever since that event some 11-12 years ago.

There was also a repeat performance of the military presentation to the Queen, although not nearly as heart-stopping as last weekend at war.

Lilya was also staying for the feast, as a performer and an organizer for the performances, so I opted to stay for "Feast Off-Board" which means staying around, but eating your own food. I'm actually fairly glad I chose this—not that I wouldn't want to some day enjoy a feast put on by Guiseppe (renowned for his cooking) but because I really enjoyed the food I had packed for lunch during the day, and I didn't eat much for lunch. So the food was neither wasted nor was I hungry waiting for the next course to be served.

I sat outside with some 14-yr-old girls, and we had an amazingly silly and fun time together. Clearly I don't watch enough movies or cartoons, but it was easy to follow along and understand what's big these days (Invader Zim?) and even learn silly quotes from the shows ("Always make room for the tuna" and "I miss the cupcake"). Silliness personified. Oh, I will have to find out from Rhieinwen what it was that made us first coin the phrase, "I make it a point to never worship anything I cannot pronounce" because for the life of me I can only remember saying it at Sage once upon a time. But the girls loved it! Astra made a good point about the Name of God Being Unpronouncable, but since I think it was more like a fantasy, Cthulu-type, reference, she agreed that this was probably a good rule of thumb.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's okay. Sometimes some of us aren't sure either. Silliness, horror films and novels, movie quotes, and tired people make for funny quotes out of context later.