Out of Avalon

August 25th, 2009 by Ascelyn

Last fall, I cleared the quick-growing weeds and rocks out of my newly-built herb garden.  All my actual herbs were in pots on the back deck, as usual.  Since I had so much empty space and wanted to get my poor plants through the winter intact, I carefully buried them up to their throats in soft black soil and vowed to dig them back up come springtime.  The plants included thyme and several varieties of mint.

Yes, I can hear you laughing through your modem.

Of course, by the time the ground thawed and we stopped having more than occasional frosts, I was tired and pregnant and not about to drag myself outside to kneel over a patch of dirt.  By late May, I’d regained enough energy to fill in the spaces around the surviving plants with more herbs, but not enough to dig up the mint.  I meant to–really!

By late July/early August, things were really starting to get out of control.  The peppermint and chocolate mint were massive, gangly invaders, and the lemon balm–which had started as a cute little sweet-smelling plant I’d bought just because I liked it and thought it would remain small–was even worse than the mint.  It had crowded out my poor tricolor sage, and while the sage fought valiantly, it was a losing battle.  I chopped mints and lemon balm back drastically several times, and each time it just grew right back with a vengeance.

Just prior to Pennsic, I dug up the orange mint, smallest of them all, and relocated it to a pot on the deck.  It seems to like it there, and I like having a pepper plant in its place.  Sunday night, I finally took a deep breath and started hacking away at the two remaining mints and the lemon balm.  The central portion of each was potted, and the runners were thrown down over the hill.  Maybe they’ll take hold; maybe not.  I don’t really care about that patch of ground and likely never will.  I sent the leafy cuttings to work with J for one of his coworkers.  The peppermint had A LOT of roots and runners, and I was careful to churn up the entirely surrounding area to get them all out.  I’ll be keeping an eye on it for the rest of the year to make sure it doesn’t come back.  The chocolate mint wasn’t nearly as bad, to my surprise.  I didn’t actually uproot the lemon balm, but I cut it back so far that there are only a few leaves remaining.  It’s supposed to be an annual anyway, so I’m not as concerned with it long-term.  Luckily, it hadn’t flowered yet, so I don’t think I’ll have to worry about seeds.

And so this is a story about how I won the war against my own stupidity.  You can actually see soil again in my lovely little garden, and I plan to sprinkle more weed preventer (corn gluten meal) over it tonight or tomorrow, whenever I have time.  I’d been neglecting to do so this summer, and the weeds started to get out of control as well.  I need to cage the tomato J planted for me, and I have two medium-size green bell peppers that I’m keeping an eye on.  I think my two biggest concerns will be how to help the more tender perennials make it through the winter and how I ought to treat my lavender, which is overstepping its bounds just a little thanks to all the rain we had here during Pennsic.

Don’t worry, lavender.  I still love you.  Just play nice for now on, okay?

August 25th, 2009 by Ascelyn

Today has been a bad day.  Yesterday was worse, partially because it’s what started it all.  Pregnancy is starting to suck.  I can’t bend or move properly because the kid’s in the way of everything, so I’m stuck twisting funny and straining my back to get my work done.  Also, hormones combined with having crappy joints to begin with has made my hips, among other things, start to act up in ways that they haven’t since they were bad enough back in ‘04 to make me leave NROTC.  Hips and back combined means I have a lot of trouble sleeping.  I’ll be plenty tired, but instead of sleeping, I just lay in bed and hurt.

So today there’s the pain, as there was yesterday, plus the tiredness and headache.  And oh, yeah, the stupid contractions.  They’re back for round number three.  I don’t like them.  They’re harmless enough, sure, but they range between distracting and really rather painful.  But still, I have work to do, so there’s not much I can do about that.  I’m hoping I can go home for lunch and lay down for a while.  We’ll see.

On a less whiny note, the weekend was great, and much was accomplished.  I ordered them majority of the remaining baby items that we’re going to need at the beginning, bought enough 0-3 month clothes and one or two newborn outfits to know that at least the kid won’t die of exposure, bought a rug and curtains, plus curtain rods to hold them, and new sheets and a comforter for the twin bed that’s staying in the nursery.  All of it was at decent prices and pretty truly necessary–yes, even the sheets and curtains.  Only one of the two windows in that room had curtains, and they were old and stained and ugly.  The sheets had a mallard duck pattern on them that ought to be reserved for use in sleeping bags only, and the comforter was falling apart and looked like it was straight off the set of Saved by the Bell.  Online purchases were of things like a stroller, bottles, and a changing pad.  The clothes are basic onesies and sleepers, though I did get two or three pair of pants for outings.  J teases me about how much money we’ve spent on the kid so far, but the only thing I’ve really splurged on is the hand-knit Jayne hat sized to fit the baby through his first winter.  The all-knowing internets say babies need hats anyway, but this was a little cuter (and a little more expensive) than the cheap fabric ones at Walmart.  Baby walks down the street in this hat, people know he’s not afraid of anything.

Look at me go.  I’ve just blown 20 minutes in which I didn’t focus on hurting.  Yay me!

In other baby-prep news, I’m slowly starting to stock up the freezer.  Finally.  I have two meatloafs (meatloaves?), one fully cooked and one raw, a few packages of cooked ground beef to throw into spaghetti sauce and stuff, and a loaf of pumpkin bread.  Actually, now that I type that out, it doesn’t sound like much.  I have big plans–really, I do.  It’s just a matter of spending the time and energy necessary to accomplish them.  For example, pork roasts (is that what they’re called? hunks of pig meat that aren’t hams, I mean!) were buy one/get one at the market last week, so I intended to pick two up, let them sit in the crock pot all day, then shred them and mix with barbecue sauce to make quick pulled pork.  I figured it was bound to freeze well, since my parents bought those little plastic containers of frozen pulled pork when I was growing up.  Except, well, I still haven’t made it to the market.  Every time I say we need to go while we’re in town, the driver (guess who?) “forgets.”  That’s also why I’ve been obsessed with getting corn on the cob for the last couple of weeks and am still corn-less.  Anyway, here’s my fancy list of foods I plan to make and freeze.  Maybe having it out there for all to see will shame me into actually cooking.

• Lasagna
• Meatballs
• Soups of various sorts (vegetable beef, potato, chili, Italian wedding soup, Irish stew)
• Precooked ground beef
• Beef burritos
• Chicken pot pie
• Apple pie, cookies, and other desserts
• Shepherd’s pie
• Mac & cheese
• Pastichio
• Meatloaf
• Pulled pork/chicken
• Cooked chicken breast strips (for fettuccine alfredo, etc.)
• Breaded chicken tenders
• Homemade bread
• Pizza
• Waffles (plain, blueberry, chocolate chip)
• Muffins (blueberry, chocolate chip, cinnamon streusel, apple)
• French toast
• Tuna casserole
• Quick bread/”friendship” bread
• Anything that can conceivably be thrown in the oven, crock pot, or microwave without much prep or brain power

I think I have a long way to go.  I tried to talk my mom into helping, but she can’t for the life of her figure out why I don’t just want to stock up on convenience food from the freezer aisle at the store.  Because, um, homemade tastes better.  And it’s generally healthier.  But my differences in opinion on food compared to my parents’ is another topic for another post.

This is making me hungry.  Time to go see about lunch.  Maybe I won’t just attempt to sleep through it after all.  Today’s farmer’s market day at the mall–maybe I can even buy corn!

August 18th, 2009 by Ascelyn

I had this whole long thing I was writing about food.  But instead, I’m trying not to laugh and reading Dr. McNinja.  Hee!

August 17th, 2009 by Ascelyn

I weeded and cut back the herb garden the morning I left to go on vacation, but apparently that whole week it was hot and rainy. I returned to a giant patch of green insanity. Unfortunately, it’s stayed hot, and with my big belly in the way I haven’t been as willing to kneel on the ground and pull weeds (or overgrown herbs) as I normally would be. Instead, I glare it it as I walk by on the way into the house in the evening and hope it knows what’s good for it. (It doesn’t.)

My lavender really picked up this month, particularly the Munstead, but it was a bigger plant than the other two to begin with. The cilantro is now officially coriander, and the basil flowered a bit too much while I was away and the leaves are starting to die off. Otherwise, though, it’s been the most productive, bushiest basil plant I’ve ever had, probably because it was planted just before a late cold snap and died back almost to the ground right away. My basil is usually tall and leggy because I don’t cut it enough early on, and this solved that problem. Both kinds of thyme are doing great, as is the purple sage, but the tricolor has been overshadowed by some rampant chocolate mint and hasn’t spread out as much as I might have wished. Stupid mints. I meant to move them out of the garden first thing this spring, and never got around to doing the major digging it would require. Also, the lovely little lemon balm plant I picked up a few months ago? Is apparently related to mint. Therefore, it is awesome but evil. It’s also part to blame for the sage’s current predicament.

The oregano is doing well now that I’ve been cutting bits of it off to give away to people, though it’s funny looking because it topples over in places and stays upright in others. Chamomile is still clinging to life but getting browner by the day, though I never actually got around to drying any. I’m surprised how big that one little plant got. There’s something to be said for cute little flowers. The parsley is…uh…gone? I don’t even know where I planted it. I think I’ll blame its apparent demise on the mint just for good measure.

I also stuck two little bell pepper plants in the ground very, very late in the season. One grew over a foot while I was gone, and the other has a medium-size pepper on it! I’m so excited! My tomato and pepper plants always went on the hill beside my house before, and while the tomatoes were usually okay because I planted them so deep and at the top (flatter) part, I don’t know that I ever got a pepper off all those plants I so carefully nurtured from seed. Now I have one. Go me! My one tomato plant for this year, on the other hand, is still only about 8″ tall, so I’m not expecting much. I use peppers more anyway, so whatever.

I lurve my little garden, can you tell? It’s been the perfect size for me, and I rather like getting to make people a little happier by giving away free fresh herbs. So much easier than finding people to take yet another tomato or zucchini. My next goal is to figure out how to help the perennials, most of which are “tender,” make it through the winter without resorting to mulch, bane of my existence that it is. It’s also nice having a small garden full of cheap plants so that when I inevitably kill something off I know it’s only a matter of a few dollars or a few months’ patience with seedlings to make everything better.

August 12th, 2009 by Ascelyn

I’ve been told I’m crazy.  This is nothing new.  I really don’t think I am this time, though.  Of course, that’s also nothing new.

After the first few weeks of the poop-stravaganza that is having a newborn, when I’ll have J at home with me and at least the potential of outside forms of help, I want to try cloth diapers.  This is not because I am filled with boundless energy, or am a Crazy Liberal Treehugger ™, or even (I think) because I’m crazy.  It’s actually because I’m cheap and lazy.

Let me make a comparison.  I hope and plan to breastfeed.  There are a hundred and forty-two different reasons for this, some of which are that it’s better for the baby, better for me, saves tons of money on formula, saves tons of time driving back and forth to the store buying formula and then mixing it up, and so on and so forth.  Also, biologically, the whole thing is very cool.  Also, the smell of formula makes me gag, and I don’t like gagging.  So while I can totally see how it would be a pain for some people, it makes sense for me to try.  Very few people will disagree with this.  Those who will have, so far, just seemed angry that my choice may somehow invalidate their choice to formula feed from birth on.  They can do what they want, and I’ll do what I want, and can’t we all just get along?

Diapers are much the same.  One must drive to the store, all of which are somewhat significantly out of the way for us, and then pay lots and lots of money for pieces of plastic and chemicals.  And while I’m no hippy treehugger, some of the things that are coming out about those chemicals and their long-term effects, particularly on boys, are disturbing.  But back to the cheap/lazy aspect.  Once acquiring the disposable diapers (over and over and over again) and having the child fill them with really nasty substances, one must find a way to dispose of them.  Hence the “disposable” in the name.  This is what makes most people like them, but what makes me really not want to deal with the issue.  Sure, the average person can remove the diaper from the child, throw it in a plastic bag, and put it out on the curb every other day or so to be whisked away by overall-clad men in large green trucks.  We out here in the sticks have neither curbs nor trash pickup, though.  Our refuse must be carted to the “local” landfill, about 30-45 minutes away if you don’t get stuck behind some old man out for a pleasure cruise.  The landfill charges a minimum of about $12 per visit, then additional fees based on weight.  Since the idea of used diapers accumulating under my back porch until a reasonable weight is reached to make a dump run is really disgusting–especially when we have all manner of local wildlife that love to tear into our trash even when it’s only left outside on the deck for twenty minutes–well, eww.  At the same time, we can’t be driving over an hour every couple of days and paying ridiculous amounts of money to get rid of the things.  My parents have kindly offered to let us drop off the occasional bag at their house, but it’s still out of our way and would involve driving around with poopy diapers in the car.  While it wouldn’t be anticipated, I know us well enough to realize that at times it would also involve those diapers sitting in the car in the sun all day while we were at work, because both J and I are very much NOT morning people and tend to just barely make it to work on time as it is.  I know we’d push things to the last minute and not have time to drop off diapers on many occasions.  Again, eww.

On the other hand, if you run out of cloth diapers, you run an emergency load of laundry.  Inconvenient in the middle of the night, yes, but at least it can be done in pajamas without leaving the house, and it probably would take less time than driving all the way to the store and back.  And every other day, instead of driving to the dump, the dirty diapers are tossed in the wash.  Would it end up using more hot water and detergent than only washing clothes?  Sure.  But it also means I won’t be paying the landfill crazy amounts of cash, and again, a load of laundry takes less time than driving to the dump.  It can also be done while I’m doing other things, while driving is pretty much driving and cannot be multitasked.

See?  Cheap.  And lazy.  I’ve been told by the majority of the people who know I intend to try this that I’m nuts and will give up once I know how little time I have after the baby’s born, but the time is just the thing.  I won’t have any, so I can’t handle all that extra driving.  At least I can spend time with the baby while the washer is running.

I’ve been looking into cloth for a while, but now that the time for decision-making is drawing nigh, I’m really starting to read reviews of different brands and systems.  There seem to be three major possibilities:  prefolds, contours, or fitteds with covers; pocket diapers; and all-in-ones (or -twos).  From what I can tell, both cost and ease of use increase in that order.  AIOs have the absorbent and waterproof layers sewn together, so they function essentially as disposables that can be washed between uses.  Pockets have a waterproof outer layer and a wicking inner layer sewn together with a pocket between the two to hold an absorbent insert or folded prefold.  You have to take the insert out before washing, then restuff them before using, but if you stuff all the clean diapers at once when they’re finished drying, they function like disposables.  Prefolds are absorbent and need to be folded and held on the baby using either pins or a Snappi before putting on a waterproof cover, or potentially just folded and laid in the cover before putting the cover on the baby.  Contours are essentially prefolds that have been cut down to the shape necessary to fit on a baby without needing to be folded; they’re a little more expensive.  Fitteds have elastic around the legs and often have velcro or snaps at the waist, negating the need for pins or Snappis.  You still need to use a cover, though.  They’re fairly pricey compared to prefolds, but not as much so as pockets or AIOs.

What we use will depend on our circumstances by the time the baby’s born.  Assuming I go back to work full time, the daycare provider will have a massive say in what we use, or even if we can use cloth at all.  The lady we’re really hoping to get for countless reasons uses Montessori methods, so I’m hoping she’s a bit more open to things like cloth and breastfeeding than some of the places that are more…what?  Old-school?  Super-conservative?  Regimental?  I don’t know what to call them.  But if she’ll only use disposables, then that’s just how it goes.  If she’ll use cloth but wants the convenience of AIOs or prestuffed pockets, which is understandable when you’re watching multiple children at once, then we’ll need at least enough of those to send with her.  If I stay home, on the other hand, and try to do things the cheapest way possible, it will likely be prefolds or contours with covers.

For a while, I was really excited about bumGenius 3.0 diapers.  They’re pockets, but they’re one size fits all.  With most systems you have to buy different sizes three or four times.  Sure, they’re more expensive then a prefold and a cover, but you don’t have to keep buying them multiple times throughout your child’s diaper-clad life.  Also, people who have used them seem to love them.  Lately, though, I’ve become more hesitant.  One of my original thoughts was that you could buy enough bumGenius diapers right at the start, use them all through the first kid, and then have them for any subsequent children provided the first is potty-trained by the time they’re born.  I’ve been reading a large number of reviews, though, that say that while they’re great for the first few months, the Velcro starts to give out and the elastic lose its stretch after a while.  Apparently the diapers aren’t lasting through a single child’s use for many people, much less multiple children.  Maybe it would be more cost-efficient to buy sized covers and prefolds/contours after all.  I’ll have to crunch some numbers later, at some point when my brain is working again.  This is all ignoring the possibility of gDiapers, as well, which combine a washable cover with flushable absorbent liners.  At this point, I’m not sure why that would be any easier than cloth, though, especially using flushable liners once the baby’s no longer taking in breastmilk alone.  It might end up just costing more and requiring ordering of liners all the time without being any more convenient.

Before I do anything, I’m getting a sampler pack so I can test out some of the different styles.  Thanks Mama has a nice one that includes a Bumkins AIO, a bumGenius one-size pocket, an Indian prefold, a Kissaluvs contour, a Kissaluvs fitted diaper, a Bummis super whisper wrap, a pair of Bummis whisper pants, and a Snappi.  While I’m sure there are differences between brands, I think it should give us a good feel for what system or systems in general will work best for us.  Since I’ve found a local lady who is about to start making and selling cloth diapers of her own design (apparently prefolds/covers and pockets), that’s another option I’d really like to pursue.

One small peeve.  A lot of the pockets and AIOs boast that they’re so easy “even dad can do it.”  I’m starting to get irritated with how crappy a reputation dads are given.  My husband is a great guy, absurdly intelligent, and very hardworking.  He’ll figure out which system works best for him, optimize it, and probably only complain that it could have been engineered better by doing this, this, and this.  Some dads suck, yes, but so do some moms.  If a dad can’t figure out prefolds and covers but a mom can, it’s because the former is lazy, not stupid.  Give J a little credit.  Sheesh.

I need food.  This, as you can probably tell, makes me irritable.  Time to find the man and get some sort of sustenance.

August 12th, 2009 by Ascelyn

This week seems to be one for ramping up for impending motherhood on all accounts.  I’ve been sick and exhausted, which in turn makes me irritable and ready to scream or cry in turn.  This afternoon has hosted the first of the Braxton Hicks contractions I’d been warned about.  They seem to be another one of those things that you can’t fathom ahead of time but just recognize when they happen to you, sort of like the baby moving.  Yesterday, on the other hand, I was thoroughly miserable and having what the doctor said may or may not have been contractions leading up to my appointment.  He told me to take the rest of the day off, lay around the house, and drink water, but I went ahead and worked through the afternoon after I started to feel better.  Yeah, I suck.  Can’t really afford to lose the PTO, though, when I’ve got it all planned out so nicely.  Maybe painful possible contractions just lead up to painless BH ones like those in turn lead up to more painful labor ones?  Either way, things are fine now, though I definitely liked being seven months a heck of a lot better than I like being eight months so far.

On the bright side, our car seat and my pump arrived yesterday.  Diapers.com rocks.  They have great prices, ship quickly and for free, and their customer service is possibly the best I’ve ever experienced–on par with if not better than Newegg, my previous heroes.  I wish I would’ve gotten more from them while I could use the 10% new customer discount, but I was being particularly stupid Saturday when I placed the order and got the Pack & Play from Amazon instead (with bassinet and changer, to keep in our room for the first little bit so I don’t have to climb stairs at night).  Also, even though no one else seems to have the Chicco travel system with the 30 lb. max car seat, only the 22, Diapers.com apparently does.  I could’ve saved close to $15 by getting them together instead of getting the car seat now and holding off to get the stroller later.  Oh well.  I’m thinking of cheating and opening an account under Jason’s name to get the rest of the gear in a few weeks so that I can get the 10% off again, plus the $10 referral discount for using my special code.

I feel much better having a car seat, somewhere for the baby to sleep near where I will be, and a smattering of newborn clothes, even if they’re mostly basic shirts and onesies.  At least if the baby were to come a bit early, he’d have somewhere to sleep, something to wear, something to eat, and a way to get home to all of it.  Not having those essentials had me in a bit of a panic in the weeks before Pennsic.  I like to plan and be prepared, and while I know that’s not fully possible when it comes to having a child, I don’t want to go into it completely unprepared either.

I will now proceed to be a whiny brat, but I figure that’s okay since it’s my own blog and I only know of a whopping three people who read it anyway.  You see, a lot of people have made a lot of promises since I got pregnant, which has been extraordinarily nice of them and which I feel bad for accepting.  I’m used to being on the giving end, not the receiving, and I feel guilty when people do things for me.  Now that the time’s drawing nearer that I could really use the offered help in all forms, though, people kind of disappear.  One person promised that I could borrow their maternity clothes when I first got pregnant, then lent them to a friend a week later and didn’t bother to tell me, which is totally her right but left me in kind of an awkward position.  A few have offered hand-me-down baby gear now that their own babies are outgrowing it, but I don’t know if that’s going to materialize or if I should go ahead and buy things myself.  I don’t want to wait too long and then have to run to the store right before or after the baby’s born.  Several, more than I ever would have guessed, told me they were planning to throw me baby showers, which while overwhelmingly generous was also a bit nerve-wracking.  I don’t deal well with being the center of attention, and typical showers, be they baby or bridal, tend to be a bit of an estrogen overload.  These people’s ideas of “fun” and mine tend to clash badly.  But they were insistent, and I held off buying things a little at a time like I would have to spread out the expenditures because I figured I should wait until after the shower(s).  Then they didn’t happen, so I started buying things for myself, since after all it’s less than six weeks before I’m considered full term.  Now a couple of people have decided again that they want to have showers after all, which is once again very kind, but we start Qual #1 at work in a few days and are severely shorthanded.  If they bump the qual runs up to 50 meters, the runs will take well over 24 hours if they go perfectly smooth, which they rarely do and almost definitely won’t since we’ve never done a run longer than maybe 12 m.  I’m not going to have any weekends or evenings to spare.  I’ll be sitting at work.  When I do have time, I want to sleep, and also need to buy glasses, get a haircut, go to the dentist….  So thanks, and you rock, but seriously, you’re making my life more stressful.  I feel like an ungrateful, whiny brat saying it, but I wish people hadn’t waited so long or would understand that when I say work is taking over my life and I have no time, I really, really mean that.  This is why Pennsic was so awesome and totally needed.  Practically stress-free, with healthy food and time to sleep like a reasonable (pregnant) person.  The stress builds and builds, and my mind and body start to break down because of it.  I’m going to feel incredibly guilty doing it, like I’m abandoning Jen #2 and the rest of the team when they really can’t afford to lose another person, but if it keeps going like this I’m going to ask Dr. W. to write me a note telling me to leave work a week or two before I’m due.  I need time to recover mentally and physically before trying to have a baby, and I really don’t need to be continuing with the heavy lifting at 9 1/2 months that the interns did all summer and now aren’t around to do.

But whining about work is another topic altogether, and one I’ll return to later as I’ve been meaning to do for weeks.  Also, diapers.  Those go in another post so I can find it easily.  Right now I’m going to sneak to the one unalarmed door in our little building and watch the rain beat down on the parking lot.

August 12th, 2009 by Ascelyn

I’m home from Pennsic.  Obviously.  Now I’m at the stage where people keep asking me how it was and what I did.  The answer is simple.

It was great.  I took lots of naps and ate large quantities of wonderful food that I didn’t have to cook for myself.  I spent a week with a large percentage of my favoritest people in the world.  Also, there were warm apple dumplings with ice cream.  Mmm.

And then people ask, “But what did you do?”  I dislike repeating myself because other people aren’t listening.  I mean, sure, I repeat myself all the time because I forget that I’ve said something already.  But that’s because I’m mentally deficient, not because people aren’t listening.  And so I have to give them the whole spiel all over again.

Naps.  Food.  Friends.  Not necessarily in that order.

Because really, that’s what I did this year.  I took no classes.  I watched no battles.  I went to no parties (big surprise there, right?).  I didn’t wander around Pennsic looking at all the pretties and taking pictures.  I never even made it farther south than the Historic Enterprises booth.  Mostly, I would slowly wander from my tent to the Vortex of Evil booth, talk or maybe attempt to sew, slowly wander back to camp for lunch, take a nap, and repeat until dinner.  I don’t think I stayed up past midnight a single night, and that was a special exception for Midnight Madness.

It wasn’t my usual Pennsic plan, but it was what I needed.  Time away from work and the soul-sucking drama thereof, time to sleep and eat and recover my energy before the third trimester hit me full blast.  Which it now has.  I really, really miss those naps and relatively balanced meals.

Sadly, the boots I ordered from Armlann last year didn’t end up fitting.  It wasn’t even a pregnancy issue in the end; I have an absurdly high instep, which causes issues when buying modern shoes as well.  It took several minutes and a shoehorn to get one of the boots on, and after all that it still hurt where the seam came across the annoying bone in the top of my foot.  He was very kind, though, and put them out for regular sale instead of making me take them.  I hope someone bought them.  They were really very lovely and looked like they would’ve been marvelously comfortable.  I’ll try again someday and make sure he leaves lots of extra room.

Instead, I spent the money on an awl from Spanish Peacock, a silver ring set with a small piece of coral from By My Hand that ought to vet for La Belle, a belt knife that will hopefully also vet, a pair of tapestry needles for lacing my gown and a felted hedgehog pin cushion, several books (Textiles and Clothing, Dress Accessories, and The Medieval Garden), and birthday gifts for my father.

Also, ice cream.  Did I mention ice cream?

By the end of the week, though, I was missing Jason and strongly considering coming home on Friday even if the camp didn’t end up packing up a day early like it did.  I got home around 10:00 Friday evening, which gave me the next day to hang around at home and do nothing more taxing than eventually drive the fifteen minutes to my parents’ house to order some major pieces of baby equipment (car seat, pack & play, breast pump, diaper bag).  On Sunday, we spent some time with J’s mom and sister, then drove to Hagerstown to buy me a dress for his sister’s wedding next month and meet that same sister and her fiance for dinner, where she complained that it was too cold and I complained that I was too hot and we both decided that the other was crazy.  Also, I blew some cash at Toys R Us waiting for them to make it into town for dinner, so the kid now has a few more sets of basic clothing.  But really, that has nothing to do with Pennsic.

One final note.  My tent rocks.  I need to set it up this weekend and clean the dust off, then let it dry again before repacking.  First, though, I need to make a new pole for one of the sides, since several of my original ones broke during a storm the first week.  The canvas held up well, though, and only sustained a minor tear along a seam on the door flap that I’ll be able to sew while it’s up.  It should never have an issue with leakage there, so I’m content.  It was a good size for two people with the partition up, and I think it will work marvelously if J and the baby come to an event, as well.

And that’s all there is to say about that.