St. George and the Dragon is the traditional event of Oakheart, the shire in Springfield, Missouri. I was in the midst of house hunting so I spent Friday in Columbia and just figured I’d get a hotel room in Springfield instead of camping.

Unfortunately, I forgot that Southwest Missouri State might have graduation at some point and I had a heck of a time finding a hotel room. Nevertheless, I got to St. George well ahead of Their Majesties.

I had had a major pain in the back, and I decided not to push things and fight that day. I also don’t particularly care for any of the forms of bushkazi, which was the primary entertainment. Again, I spent some of the day marshaling, but I wasn’t the only one not really into fighting and there were a ton of marshals so I spent the day mostly hanging out. Unfortunately, I didn’t hang out with Katrine enough and she got bored and I got chastised.

The day was very lazy and laid back. After the fighting we did court, which went well, although I did have to maneuver around a new obstacle, His Highness on his throne. Always they increase the difficulty factor. After court they did an auction and I bid on a couple of items, but was cruelly overbid.

The feast was very tasty, but somewhat uncomfortable, given the seating arrangement and the fact that it was outside. It was good, though, and that makes up for a lot. The only real problem was the person who was announcing the courses, he set off my creep meter, sang horribly, and interrupted the dancing that was going on between removes.

Next was a torchlight tourney, which I helped marshal. Aaron beat Kilian to become Shire Champion and after that was the sitting around and singing, which went on until around 2.

At that point, I wasn’t tired nor had I drunk much so I just decided to get on the road. I was headed back to Wichita so I drove towards that way looking for a convenient hotel. I didn’t find one so I slept in my car for a little, proceeded on until I got tired again, napped again, and finally made it back to Wichita around 9am. At that point, I went to bed for serious sleep.

Greetings all, it’s been a while since I last posted so I have lots to catch up on.

First of all, I am typing this from my very own house. I’ve had it for about three weeks and been working like mad to get it arranged. It’s big and comfortable and I really lucked out in getting it for the price that I did. So, if you’re ever in Columbia, contact me for crash space.

It is very odd for me after basically three years of sliding by and being a vagabond to now have such powerful roots. A house, a bed, a couch, a TV, lots of other furniture, these are things I haven’t had to deal with in quite some time. The good news is that I’m finally getting to arrange some stuff that hasn’t been touched in years.

I’m finding all sorts of treasures, such as my scrolls which I have had framed and get to go pick up today.

While I was at Ealdormerian Coronation, Spring Fling was held in Lonely Tower. Because Their Majesties were interviewing baronial candidates for Mag Mor, they couldn’t come up to Coronation with me. I suggested that They hold the interviews in Ealdormere, and those candidates who showed up would have proved their commitment, but surprisingly, They didn’t agree with me.

Even so, I got to go to a “Spring” event, this one Spring Spears in Calanais Nuadh. This happens to be the group where Bhrngari, my ex-wife lives, which means I was excited to go and see her. She and I get along much better now that we are separated. She’s great in many ways, and now I get to see them without focusing on the little stuff that isn’t so great, which unfortunately I often did. She’s also a very good cook, and she got rave reviews about the food she prepared for the inn.

Anyway, I stayed over at Katrine and Eric’s the night before the event and Katrine and I daytripped the event. Eric wanted a weekend off because of a party. Like I’d do something like that. Huh. 😉

Calanais is a group known for archery and thrown weapons, with few fighters. In fact, Troy Halfallen, who hasn’t lived in Calanais for some time, drove 3 hours to run the fighting. I was exhausted from the trip to Ealdormere so I decided to help marshal. Stupid me forgot that marshaling is more exhausting than fighting. I ended up much more tired than I would have.

Nonetheless I had a great time. Troy and his wife ran the list and the heralding, and Master Waldryk (www.waldryk.com) and I handled the actual marshalling. The fighting was usually very fun to watch, with the one exception of one fighter. Also, an old gaming buddy of mine who recently started back into the SCA is really starting to fight well, and that was great to see. The bout between The Dongal and Donato was especially fun to watch. They were fighting with matched huge maces, and His Majesty suggested the victory be to five kills. This turned out to be one of the best bouts I’ve ever watched, and it was also extremely funny. They pounded the hell out of each other for our entertainment.

I must admit, though, I was very disappointed in the quality of insults and cursing. One of the tournaments was supposed to be where you had fun calling out an opponent, insulting and cursing and bragging about one’s own prowess. This had the potential for lots of fun and silliness. In the end, Waldryk and I were the only ones doing anything with that. We were very disappointed. Surely Calontiri can insult better than that :).

The highlight of the day was feast for me. Not so much the food, though the first two removes were tasty. The third one had three kinds of salmon. Uck. Anyway, Dongal and I got to talking about fighting and he started talking about what he tries to do when he fights. A lot of people don’t realize quite how much he thinks about what he does, but he’s a very smart fighter. I am looking forward to learning everything I can from him.

Overall, it was another fun day in my life in the SCA. I didn’t get to spend as much time with Bhrngari as I wanted, though she did bring me jerky (wooohooo), nor was her new boyfriend able to make it and I want to meet him. However, the day was a lot of fun. It’s a great thing that at every event is someone who I really like but don’t get to see very often, like Waldryk and Troy.

Time to catch up on SCA stuff. A couple of weeks ago, my mom and I went to Ealdormerian Coronation. Mom needed a break from her newspaper (www.kansastraveler.com) after the Spring Issue was published and I wanted to go see Ed and Gen’s coronation. Since we also have relatives in Toronto and Guelph, it also gave us a chance to meet up with them.

The trip up was good, we did in fact meet with relatives as we stayed in Toronto for two days. The only sour note was the Best Western in Toronto, which was hilariously bad in their service, insisting we could get internet access in our room even though we couldn’t, not being particularly nice to us, and topping it off with the maid service not noticing that the previous tenant in our room had left an adult magazine in it.

The internet access, by the way, was terrible in both of the Canadian hotels we stayed at, I’ve certainly never had that much problem at any hotel in the states. Not sure if that’s a small sample size issue or a commentary on the internet in Canada.

Anyway, the event was held at a campsite in Kingston, Ontario. The weather the week before had been great, so naturally it was a cold wet day for Coronation itself. This meant the fighting was indoors. I would have vastly preferred to have fought outdoors nonetheless, as the air inside the hall was very thick and hot, but I don’t know as it would have mattered. I fought very poorly I thought, winning some bouts but not moving as much as I am used too.

Oh well, no big deal, I still had a great time fighting. Hereward even armored himself up specifically so we could fight, and we had 10 or so bouts, it was great. I also fought in the two tournaments and even though I fought poorer than I hoped, I held my own, well, except when Sir Evander just made an awesome feint that I totally fell for :).

Coronation itself was interesting, especially given the chance to see some interkingdom differences. I did notice that their Queen’s Champion Axe has the same head as ours and found out later that they were created at the same time. Their Champion’s Axe, however, is 5 feet long and the Champion can stand it on the floor. Bah, I say, given how heavy our Axe is and how we have to hold it.

Mom spent the day wandering around taking pictures. She also took a class on calligraphy, something she’d done years ago before either of us had heard of the SCA. She has some good pictures of me fighting, which is nice, since Ashendari never takes any pictures of me (just kidding). She had a great time, something I was kind of concerned about given that I was there seeing all these people that I don’t get to see very often and this is my activity, not hers.

Speaking of which, it was great to see everyone. Ed, Gen, Medb, Hereward, Adrielle, Mahault, Petrie, Gwerydd, Gaerred, Nicolaa, and a whole bunch of others I’m not recalling at this time. I bleed purple and I love Calontir, but I treasure my Ealdormerian friends greatly and I am so glad I’ve had the opportunity to spend time there.

Ed and Gen honored us at feast by asking Mom and I to sit at head table, something I had never done before. Mom has now gone to two events and must now think that she gets to sit at head table every other time :). It was a wonderful honor and I greatly appreciated it. I was struck, however, by what head table implies for royalty. Head table is not an unmixed blessing, as the separation means that you have fewer people to converse with, and for someone who likes to talk as much as I do, that’s something. It’s fascinating to me how something that everyone sees as such a major thing is in fact another sacrifice that the king and queen have to make. Being Champion has showed me time and time again how many little things that sitting royalty, responsible caring sitting royalty, gives up to make their subjects happy. I knew that this happened prior to being Champion but I have been surprised at the scope.

After the feast, which was tasty but was very long, we got a chance to do some singing. I don’t think Mom had ever seen me sing before, and it was nice. Bardic circles, of course, another example of interkingdom differences between Calontir and Ealdormere. I love to sing, but I’m so used to everyone joining in, which is not always the case in Ealdormere.

At feast Gaerred sang Sons of the Dragon, which of course I love and had to join in with. There were a couple of other people standing and helping and afterwards one lady complimented me on my voice. I had my usual uncomfortableness at compliments that was exacerbated when she introduced herself as Mistress Marion of Heatherdale, otherwise known as Heather Dale, an incredible singer with several great CDs and the owner of Amphisbaena Music (www.amphismusic.com). It was very uncomfortable but also very cool that someone like her said that.

At the Bardic Circle, I sang a few times, making sure to sing my version of Cursing the Normans for Edward, who has a Norman persona. I also did probably the best version of The Wanderer I have done thus far, which I was really pleased about.

We both had a great time and I’m contemplating the next time I’ll be able to visit up there. Not sure when that will be, obviously with school starting in August I’ll have to be more responsible and cannot just on a whim head on out to Canada, but I’ll definitely make sure I show up periodically.

Then we had to go home. The drive home was actually very interesting as we ran into snow from London to Lansing. Heavy snow in parts. Also interesting was the border guard with a sense of humor, which doesn’t always happen.

Just thought I’d say that. I purchased a 2005 Toyota Sienna LE AWD on October 18. They come with Bridgestone 380 Run Flat tires. Since they run about 50-60 miles when they go flat, the car doesn’t come with a spare nor a place to put one.

These tires have a bit of a problem, though, they wear out very quickly. So, quickly, in fact, that Bridgestone Customer Support says that they have no mileage warranty. None. They do say that if the tire doesn’t get to what they reasonably expect, they’ll likely replace it. That level, by the way, is 20,000 miles and if you get to 30,000, like I have, they say you’ve done well.

In other words, they expect the consumer to pay $1,200 every 20,000-30,000 miles. On an average, then, they expect the consumer to pay about $5,000 every 100,000 miles. Boys and girls that is .20 cents a mile. That does not seem acceptable to me nor to Toyota, who is looking into this. These tires were new in 2004 on their cars and it seems likely that I’m fairly high on the leader board on mileage. I’m not the only one who has complained about the short life span, especially since Bridgestone does not seem to have warned Toyota enough that Toyota salesmen know about the issue.

Which makes sense, given the cavalier attitude of Bridgestone when I talked to them yesterday. Too bad, guess you have to get more of our product. Huh.

I’m currently making entries from the Flat Branch Saloon, a brewpub in Columbia that has wireless. It’s a good place.

Happily though, I may not have to worry about it much longer. I have put in a bid on a house here in Columbia and I believe it has been accepted. Of course, it won’t be a done deal until I get the keys, but I’m excited and much more confident that by the end of May, I’ll have my own place.

I love to drive. I’ve averaged over 1000 miles a week since 1 January, 2004. It’s been great and I’ve gotten to see and do a lot of wonderful things. Being a vagabond has been fun and cool and neat.

Being a vagabond is also exhausting. I will treasure having a home and so many small little things that come with it.

Since years ago the earth enshrouded
My lord in its darkness and I left there grieving
In search of a hall, a sharer of treasure
To find one – wherever – far or near, who knew maybe of mine
Or who was willing to further a friendless man

I’m tired of lashing sleet and snow allied with hail. I want and I need my hall. And now I see the silver lining that has been in the stormclouds of this Wanderer’s soul.

Still catching up, I’ll cover the Fyrd Retreat and some personal stuff today.

First, the Fyrd Retreat. It is almost impossible to explain the impact and importance of a Fyrd Retreat. No other kingdom has anything like it, that I’ve seen. This is not to say that retreats by other groups aren’t important and in many cases very similar, but I suspect that participants in those retreats also have issues describing what they mean.

In the SCA, the Fyrd is unique. I believe it to be the only AoA level polling order. I do know that the Scarlet Banner and Stag’s Blood of Ealdormere and the Outlands, though their creators were influenced by the Fyrd pale in comparison. This is not a reflection of the quality of people and fighters in those orders, merely that the orders themselves have not evolved in the same way as the Fyrd have.

There is a brotherhood to the Fyrd that other AoA and most GoA level fighting orders lack. When I was Ealdormere talking about the Fryd Retreat a couple of summers ago, there were only two people who I felt understood the depth of feeling, Hereward and Adrielle. This isn’t surprising since we created an award specifically for Hereward that Adrielle has also received that says that were they to live in Calontir, we would consider them part of the Fyrd.

So, HRM Katrine, Eric, and I left Celidh to proceed down to the Fyrd Retreat, a four hour or so drive. We got there just before ten, but there was much left to be done. Usually a Fyrd Retreat has hanging out on Friday night, fighting and lounging on Saturday day, a good potluck type meal, and then the important part, the discussion of what’s important about the Fyrd and partying that happens on Saturday night. We got there in time to take part in some of that discussion. We each asked what was the single word which describes the Fyrd, my word was responsibility. It has always been a major thought in my mind that as a Fyrdman I have a greater responsibility, as my actions reflect not only upon myself but upon over 400 brothers and sisters. This is a responsibility I have borne since 15 February, 2002, and once I will bear the rest of my life. This can only be a good thing for me as a person.

Iggy also suggested we tell everyone our most important memory that we’ve had since the previous year’s Retreat. Mine, of course, was the rainy evening at Estrella when Katrine asked me to be her Champion, one of the greatest moments I have ever and will ever have.

The rest of the evening devolved in the silliness and fun of 40 drunken brothers and sisters. It was great. I can’t explain it more than that.

We interrupt your normally scheduled post with a comment.

There’s nothing quite so right as the crack of the bat on a home run, listened on a car radio, driving on a lonely highway at night. The quality of the sound of that crack is so pure and right I often know before the announcer says anything that it’s a homer.

Greetings all, I have lots of posts to make so you should see a bunch between now and Monday, but we start with Celidh. This is a small event in Fort Leavenworth that I had never been to before.

I had heard that you could crash on site so after a day of looking at stuff in Columbia I got to Leavenworth about 10pm. I hadn’t really thought about it, but this probably wasn’t the wisest thing in the world, and the security guards were a little questioning but one of them came over and said there were already a bunch of us there and that this was normal so I made it through the checkpoint without a problem after that. I have a huge problem being nervous at such checkpoints after my first two experiences going up to Canada, but no real problem this time.

Anyway, to get to Hunt Lodge, where the event is at, you drive around Fort Leavenworth, past the Buffalo Soldier Memorial, which I’d really like to stop and look at closer some time, and also you drive through a US Army cemetary, which in the night is amazing. You see white headstones gleaming from the car lights as far on either side of you as you can see. It’s awe-inspiring.

Finally get to the event site and there’s hardly anyone there. Apparently, the crash thing is for Saturday night. Oh well, there are a few people there, and I sat around and helped assemble the feast tokens until finally crashing in my car. There being no showers, I woke up the next morning and put on garb. Since the day was supposed to consist basically of a morning court and then Katrine, Eric, and I running off to the Fyrd Retreat, I decided to just wear the Champion’s Tunic all day.

Of course, best laid plans and all that, we actually didn’t leave until 4pm, but that’s getting way ahead of the story.

The morning was spent greeting people, especially Vatavians. Katrine had actually given me the day off, had I wanted to go to the Fyrd Retreat. Caillin, who just got fyrded at Gulf, but who normally is one of Tristram’s retinue, did indeed go to the Retreat. However, this was also to be the Investiture for their new Excellencies Vatavia, Thomas and Cerridwyn. Given that Vatavia’s my home, I wasn’t going to miss that.

Anyway, there were a lot of my friends from Vatavia there and it was good to see them. Maeve had a bit of a panic attack because the event staff posted that court was at 10am, when Their Majesties had told all of the Vatavians that it would be at 11am, so that’s when all the Vatavian preparations were scheduled to be ready. However, it was just a mistake by the event staff and court was indeed scheduled for 11, which made everyone happy.

His Majesty rolled in around 9:30, and suddenly I became realy really busy. People kept asking me to do this or make sure this is in court and so on. Cerridwyn wanted her whole named pronounced in court. Don’t blame her. The problem is that her name is Welsh and goes back like 8 ancesters, so it’s incredibly long. We had her write it out phonetically for Eric to say in court. He got it all right, except, humorously enough, the Cerridwyn part.

Got stuff organized and at about 11, Her Majesty showed up. I’m surprised she had the energy to do court, she’s an accountant and she’d been working 100 hour weeks for the past month during tax season. She had originally decided to take the 16th off and recover, but the need for the Investiture meant that she had to be there. She’s a trooper though.

Court started fairly soon and it went fine. After a few Dun Ard awards, Wulfric was called up. Wulf’s a good friend of mine who had been the Vicar of Vatavia for the last eight months or so, and he brought up the Baronial coronets which he had had in trust. Once those had been given back, Tristram gave Wulfric a King’s Favor. Since Tristram’s an armorer, he gave Wulfric an awesome great helm. After that, Thomas and Cerridwyn were invested.

The rest of the day was spent in socialing and waiting on Her Majesty. Had fun watching the fighting and talking to a bunch of people. While it was fun though, Eric and I were itching to get to the Fyrd Retreat. Celidh was fun and the people of Dun Ard did a great job, but a Fyrd Retreat is something special. And it is another entry.

There were several choices for their Majesties to attend this past weekend, and they chose Melon Wars. This event was near Burlington, Iowa and it was in the Shire of Flynthyll, at least it was by the end of the day. The Shire was incipient until court, when their Majesties made it official.

But we’re getting ahead of the story. It was held at a really cool site for a small event. Nice grass to fight on, a small kitchen, permanent restroom, cabin, and shower facilities. Wouldn’t work for 150-200 people, but very nice up to 100, which was about what we had.

Went up Friday night and got there in time to do a little drinking and having fun by the fire, but not much. Got up around 8 the next morning, primarily because I couldn’t sleep very well. Their Majesties and retinue were given the upstairs of the cabin, which was comfortable but we all snore.

This next paragraph, by the way, goes to Medb, Liam, Nazrynn and all the other people from the north.

It was a beautiful day, a few clouds to keep the sun from being too harsh, a nice breeze to get under the helm, and it was about 75 degrees. It was wonderful. How’s the weather up there, anyway? 🙂

I fought really well for some reason. Maybe the weather, I don’t know, but I did better in the 6ft spear tourney than I have ever done in any tourney before. I did well in the 9ft tourney as well. In the Warlord tourney I drew a bye in the first round, which really sucks. A Warlord tourney is one where the winner of the first round is captain of a team including the person he beat in the first round. The winner of the second round has a team that has four people (in a full tourney) and so on. Ultimately, there are two captains, each with half of the people on his team. If you get a bye, you don’t have the person you might have beat in the first round so I had to fight 1 on 2 in the second round. I was on fire enough to actually win that fight. The list was structured so pretty much everyone was even with 3 man teams in the second round, and my team won, no thanks to me in the second round.

In the last bout of the 6ft spear tourney I stretched my knee a little more than I should have and it was sore going into the Warlord tourney. In that second round fight I was legged and went down awkwardly, twisting my knee further in the process. I probably could have continued fighting, but I was smart enough to want a shower, ibuprofen, ice, and beer. It made the rest of the day go pretty well. The knee is still sore, but I’ll be able to fight at fighter practice and maybe fight this weekend. I’ve been fighting at every event and at least one and sometimes two fighter practices a week and my knees and ankles are getting irritable. I may take this week off though I won’t get fighter practice next week because I’ll be on the road to a special semi-secret place. We’ll see.

Anyway, court was fun. As mentioned, the Shire was made official. There were a lot of Shire members and His Majesty was impressed. Her Majesty’s shire was made official at Coronation with 46 members. Tristram asked how many were in Flynthyll and was told 53. He looked at Katrine with a smug look so I stepped forward with the axe and told Her Majesty that I would be happy to remove 7 of them :). She thought about that for a moment, but sadly would not allow me my fun. The Champion’s Axe, by the way, screams to be used for chopping off people’s heads. It’s in the way it is balanced. Really.

So several members of the new shire were given awards. The most humorous went to Odysseus Titanius Maximus. Max is the one person in that shire who travels a lot, so everyone knows him. The first award of the day went to someone else, and Max shouted out “Busted” when he was called up. Their Majesties and retinue took great pleasure in reminding Max of that when he got called up himself.

After court was a very nice feast, except for the one fishy bit. Ick :). Then there was a torchlight greatsword tourney which was combined with a best bodice competition. Just to remind you, this was Melon Wars. The bodice competition had to do with the best display of melons. So one kid, Olai, taped cantaloupes to his armor so that he could participate in both the great sword tourney and the bodice competition. Surprisingly enough, though everyone he faced in the great sword tourney aimed for them, his melons survived. They were in fact real melons, as Her Majesty asked me to confirm.

All in all, a fun, somewhat silly little event. Good weather, good friends, good fighting, good food, good beer, and a good time.