Sat Oct 29 - I'm really fortunate in where I live nowadays. When I was out getting scone ingredients I noticed a faint clicking in my engine, and remembered I was overdue for an oil change. One of my car-guys places is just 2 blocks from my apartment, so I dropped off the groceries, dropped off the car, walked home, made scones, dressed for the party, and my roomie took me back to pick up my car. Yay roomie!

I ended up ditching the idea of actually sewing a hat with lace for the party, and changed it to pinning a long length of 6" wide lace into my hair. The effect was wonderful, and just what I pictured in the first place. I also managed to finish sewing some of the side seams on the over dress, and just enough to make the dress look finished, even if it wasn't really. And the Victorian button-up boots just barely fit (just as I remembered them) and weren't so bad after all. I've decided this outfit will be the one for Monday at work.

Recently Lynn asked on her journal for people to share their cooking disasters. I'm glad that my scone-mistake didn't turn into a complete disaster, but it was kinda funny. The recipe I printed off the internet had "self-rising flour or flour plus baking powder plus salt" all on one line. So when I got home from the store with the unbleached flour, I forgot to ask my roomie for her baking powder and I misread/forgot-to-read the recipe correctly and ended up forgetting the baking powder completely. It wasn't until the pumpkin scones were half-baked and I was washing the last dish that I remembered!

Fortunately the recipe called for eggs and I used slightly more pumpkin than the recipe called for, so the centers were very cake-like. And with the sugar and spices, they were tasty, so you almost didn't notice how dense they were. And with clotted cream and berry preserves they were *amazingly* good, so I think that recipe is a keeper... although I'm sure to try it *with* a leavening agent next time!

The traffic wasn't too bad, wasn't too good, and fortunately one of the girls from choir remembered to phone me about the key to reheasal on Sunday. It was perfect timing to just run over to her house, drop off the key to the church, and then drive over to Morgana's for an evening of Goth High Tea.

The party at Morgana's was amazingly fun, and the costumes were *fantastic.* It was a markedly different kind of party from Friday night at my apartment—much more dark and gloomy, rather than the bright and loud raucous party we threw. *grin*

I got some great photos from the party, and I'll be working on my new photo album site during November, so you'll probably get to see them later. (But keep reading, there's a photo link later in this journal entry. *wink*)

I stayed a little too late at Morgana's and so part of the way home I realized I was starting to get too tired to drive. So I stopped at a Denny's parking lot (which means there's always a 24-hour bathroom when I wake up from my nap later), locked the doors, put up the sunshade to block out the more obnoxious street lighting, pulled out my warm blanket, and curled up to sleep. I actually woke several times, dreaming about composing songs for the Lyon Bard competition on Sunday.

Sun Oct 30 - And I fortunately remembered the song snippets that I seemed to have written in my sleep.

I finally felt awake enough to drive at about 4:30 am (new time: Happy Not Daylight Savings Time Anymore, everyone), and made it home before the sun was really up yet. It was actually very restful to drive as the sky was just starting to lighten up. I haven't watched a sunrise in a long time.

The event was called the "Baron's Birthday and BBQ" and as a surprise for the Baron, we were asked to all try and dress-up in Middle-Eastern costuming/garb. I used to have several middle-eastern ethnic outfits, which in my mind are my old "slumming" clothes or my "bad garb" that I really want to get rid of or give away. But for the Baron, I went and picked out some of my old stuff, got minimally dressed, and sat at the computer to start composing. Yes, I know, I've been meaning to prepare for this Bardic competition for weeks now, but even though I scheduled time in my PDA this week [blocked out several hours on several days, even set alarms to remind myself] I just continued to change my priorities and put other things ahead of working on the music.

So there I was, 7 am on Sunday the day of the competition, reviewing the rules of the competition and composing songs on the fly. I revived one of my historical songs from the Bard of Caid competition earlier this year (I think this is the last time I'll enter this song in a competition). Then I took another song from the BoC and wrote original lyrics, in celebration of the Barony. Then I wrote a completely original piece (music and lyrics) to chronicle the complete history of the Barons and Baronesses in this barony. [These were the three requirements.] Ran over to Kinko's, made copies, and raced out the door to the event.

Fortunately the day was running much later and much slower than expected, so it was a lazy day of hanging out with friends and waiting around for things to happen. Eli's father entered too, and we had a wonderful time performing. And here's the promised link to photos from the event, especially just from the competition itself: http://www.crescentwing.com/oct2005/.

(Special bonus: The last two photos are from my Saturday/Monday goth costume.)

Oh! I almost forgot to mention: I won. *grin* Meet the newest Lyon Bard. *flourish and courtsey* This means that for the next year, I'm at the personal beck and call of the Baroness to perform historical and original music, stories, and other entertainment. I'm thrilled!

After the event, six of us went to one of the guy's apartment and just hung out, ordered pizza, and relaxed. But by 8:30 pm, we were yawning and starting to feel sleepy, so I actually got home at a reasonable hour before collapsing.

Mon Oct 31 - So, for the fourth day in a row, I'm in a costume. I'm looking forward to wearing "normal" clothes by tomorrow! There's a Haunted House here at work that opens at 2:30, and we had a costume contest in the morning (voting results are not in yet). And I'm knee-deep in this huge project with the scary deadline, but I still wanted to share my weekend with you all.

Happy Halloween!

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Recently Listened to: Gravity Willing Requia
Recently Watched: Saturday Night Live
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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Jan and Brad, Megan and Kara: Sisto, your family continually inspires me. Your girls are awesome, your home is so welcoming, and you do so much to make me proud. Brad, thank you for all you do in Jan's life, and thank you for all your Service to this country. And girls, you are the most beautiful nieces I could ever wish for. Love you bunches!