Throughout: Sox fever. I will admit, I didn't think they were going to make it through the ALCS -- I had figured that they would get to Game 7 and choke. I'm quite happy to be proven wrong, though. Of course, if we instead choke in game 7 of the World Series, the whole "curse" thing is going to get focused on the Cardinals now.
Last Friday: Weekly date was Olive Garden. I need to remember that the Gorgonzola & Vinaigrette steak & pasta combo is excellent, but the Chicken Marsala (which
msmemory usually gets) is arguably better.Last Sunday: The main focus of last weekend was
ladysprite's wedding; while there was presumably a Saturday there, I'm not remembering much about it.The wedding started in the mid-afternoon, so we spent the day slowly getting our act together. Wrapping the present was a mild adventure, since it was the size and weight of a small boulder, but we managed to find one piece of wrapping paper that was large enough (and not covered with Christmas trees) and wrestled it around the prezzie. I spent a while dithering between looking respectable by wearing a suit, or looking celebratory in my favorite festive vest.
msmemory, ever insightful, pointed out that they might work together, and they did -- I got a number of compliments over the course of the afternoon. I'll have to remember that particular combination.We drove
learnedax over, since tpau was in the wedding party and had gone over very early. Unsurprisingly, we were among the first of the friends to show up, but folks continued to drift steadily in for the next half-hour. I spent the time before the wedding marveling at the diversity of the crowd, which had cross-sections of an unusually large number of different circles.We eventually were herded inside for the ceremony, and after much shuffling most of the various SCAdians managed to form a well-defined ghetto. The ceremony was marvelous;
ladysprite and umbran had spent ages fretting about it, and the care showed. The music was pretty, the ceremony was a good length, and the various elements wound up blending quite nicely. (Even the ones that Ben tossed in at the last minute, like having the entire bridal party kiss the handfasting ribbon.) ladysprite was lovely, and the bridesmaids' dresses were a delightful red and gold, rather than the more usual washed-out tones.Afterwards, we all retired to the ballroom for the reception. We milled around for a while, noshing on hors d'ouvres as the wedding party did the usual pictures; blessedly, they got a friend to do the pictures instead of a pro, so they didn't take over the day as much as they sometimes do. (And said friend brought along a photo printer;
tpau was flabbergasted to get her pictures in the middle of dinner, instead of sometime the following year.) The main topic of conversation during the milling period was the wedding cake from Montillio's, which was pretty to begin with, and had the world's cutest pocket dragons as the cake toppers.The SCA basically had three tables at the reception, lining one side of the room. We wound up seated with
keshwyn and mindways, along with one wing of the dance practice crowd: tpau, learnedax, laurion, asdr83, shprintzah and Aaron (the lone valiant holdout against the onslaught of LJ). Noting that this was the first time that all my apprentices were in the same place at the same time since Aaron and I agreed to it, we took the opportunity for a group photo. (Pardon the excessive blueness -- something didn't compensate right. More excessively blue shots can be found at Becky's Wedding Gallery.)Dancing was central to the reception, as one would expect from
ladysprite. She and umbran started off with a very pretty waltz, which left myself and msmemory swearing once again that we need to learn how to do that. (The music was a Heather Alexander tune that filkertom apparently trimmed for length; I couldn't figure out where the cut was.) Most of the rest was classic wiggle-dance of the 80's, so I was able to cut loose on the dance floor and really enjoy myself -- after the dance fiascoes at Worldcon, it felt really good to get out on the floor. In one of those "only in the SCA" moments, all of the guys on the dance floor wound up challenging each other to let their hair loose -- between myself, umbran, new_man, learnedax and mindways, we had a lot of long hair swinging around on the dance floor. My only complaint about the dancing was that the DJ was *so* old school that he didn't have any TMBG, but that was a minor point: overall, this was the best dancing I've had at a wedding.The end of the evening was a nice touch: the DJ got all the remaining people (somewhere around half the crowd) to circle the dance floor while the bride and groom had their last dance, following which they went around for handshakes and hugs in a sort of inverse receiving line. In general, the reception was refreshingly free of Stupid Party Games -- how much of that was due to the DJ's good taste and how much to the bride laying down the law, I'm not sure.
Tuesday: Accademia did the other Italian dance that
ladysprite had prepared before leaving on her honeymoon. Overall, that went okay, but we got thoroughly hung up by the fourth verse, unable to make the text fit the music. Phelan and I stumbled our way through the Italian to confirm the translation (these things are always slower without our resident translator), and it seems impeccable, but we're missing something -- we simply couldn't make it work with either the verse or the ritornello. We may have to come back to this one, because the dance is otherwise rather nice.Wednesday: Work is picking up, so skipped dance practice. That's a little hazardous, since I need the social outlet, but it seemed the necessary thing to do at the time. In general, I'm in a mild crunch right now.
Friday: Weekly date at John Harvard's. Their new spiced ale turns out to be rather decent, and goes surprisingly well with the cinnamon-sugar rim they serve it with. We also took the opportunity to wander through Best Buy, so I could show
msmemory the laptop form factor that's been obsessing me lately. (This time the Vaio equivalent of the Dell I've been mulling.)Saturday: The Return of Cook's Guild. Quite a good turnout, especially considering that several interested people weren't there this time. (It's pretty clear that the exact crowd will vary a fair amount from month to month.) I think there's a lot of pent-up demand showing here, which is great. This was really a business meeting rather than the usual practicum; we spent most of the time tossing out ideas for things we might do over the course of the year, which looks like it will be a full and fun schedule. And we got a first look at Liam's incredibly amusing new tunic, which
hawkegirl was finishing up.Sunday: Sports-centric. I am ruefully amused that the Pats have now gone a record-breaking 21 straight wins (this last one through the 5-0 Jets, which was no walk in the park), but no one is paying the slightest attention to them, due to the Sox. I must admit that, fond though I am of the Red Sox, I've come around to the opinion that football is a much more interesting game to watch.
Coming up: Dear lord, I hope I can get some rest and relaxation. I am *so* toasty-fried around the edges -- tired, snappish and cranky, which really isn't me. We're getting a vacation (finally -- it's been about 20 months since our last real vacation) next month, and it's coming none too soon.
Tuesday: Low Company returns, at Duncharloch. Hopefully some people will show up -- I'm teaching Games Within the Tables.
Weekend: Crown Tourney, in Way The Heck North. (Okay, okay -- it's closer than Ruantallan. It's still five hours north of here, which counts in my book.) I need to herd the usual cats (and support My Lady The Overly Committed), but otherwise it's a responsibility-light weekend for me.
Sunday: Drive home from Vermont; annual Halloween date; Pats game; and possibly game 7 of the World Series at Fenway, which means The World's Biggest Riot downtown afterwards. (I mean, can you imagine it? Win or lose, you're talking about the conclusion of the Series, at Fenway, with everyone in Boston wearing *masks*. I don't want to be within five miles.) Gonna be a complicated day.
And then, back to the beginning of the month, and the usual cycle of chaos resumes...
