What a fun day! It didn’t start out well, though. We accidentally set the alarm for p.m. instead of a.m., and woke up about an hour and forty-five minutes late. A moment of grumpiness followed by acceptance: There’s nothing that can be done about it, so what if we miss Opening Court because our friends aren’t stepping up as new Baron/ess until Closing Court, etc. We got out expediently and the drive was uneventful (although I hate the 5 freeway with a passion). As we were getting stuff out of the car, I said, “Where’s the feast gear box and my parasol?” which I had carefully placed in the middle of the garage last night so we won’t forget them. Guess what? We forgot them. It was beastly hot, and that was annoying w/o the parasol, but it looks like I didn’t get too much sun. Opening Court was still going on, so we hung out for awhile, but it was hot and sun-squinty and, something rare for us, we left before Court was over.

This was in the Barony of the Angels, and the theme of the day was Saints and Sinners. Everybody got a Sin card—the sins actually being positive things, like entering the A&S contest and volunteering and such. If you got all five sins punched, you could buy an indulgence to be absolved of your sins. Then, if Death found you (Death being a very hot looking young man in black robes and hood) and laid his hand on your shoulder, you would die w/o sin. (Before I’d committed my last sin and bought my indulgence, I actually hid from Death. Hee. Instead, when I was ready, I found him and swooned and said I couldn’t take this life anymore…) If you died w/o sin, you then had to perform a miracle, at which point you’d be made a Saint, get a silly pinfeather halo, and possibly win the contest for the day. My miracle was Ken—“He’s a miracle in my life.” They gave me my halo to shut up the schmaltzy stuff, I’m sure. Eilidh’s miracle was that she actually didn’t volunteer for anything all day, which is impressive for her. At that point, you can sin with impunity, which I gleefully announced to anyone who commented on my halo. I didn’t win the overall contest, because someone else volunteered way more than I did. Ah well. I also didn’t win anything in the A&S or People’s Prize contest. No idea if there were judging forms so I don’t know how my entries actually did.

I won a box in the raffle. About 15 years ago, if you spent a certain amount of money at Victoria’s Secret, you got a free brocade-covered box for storing letters or whatnot. I have one, and it’s the perfect size for a novel manuscript. So when I saw the one in the raffle, I had to have it. I was pleasantly surprised to discover it contained four napkins (which came in very handy at the feast!).

Afterwards, our friends Morgaine and Jason were invested as the new Baron/ess, and then there was a revel at which good food was provided (game hens stuffed with oranges and cooked until the meat was falling off the bone, couscous, bread and cheese, fruit, and, alas, carrots cooked with mushrooms). We sat with Kelvin and Debbie, down the table from the rest of the Darach gang, and Maren and a woman from the Midrealm whom I met in the bathroom (after I opened the bathroom door and hit the Queen in the butt. Oops. Although She shouldn’t’ve been standing so close to the door, really.) We didn’t stay for the dancing, because we were tired and need to get stuff done here.

In fact, we were going to go to Disneyland with Ken’s mom tomorrow (and his nephews), but we have too much to do before he leaves at o’dark early Monday for Portland. So.

Now, of course, I don’t want to do any work. It’s 11 p.m. and I want to…not work. Hang out. Watch TV. Go swimming. I dunno.