gurdymonkey | I'm in great shape if the shape is round! (Reply)

Thursday I had two men with very large hands working in my mouth for about forty minutes, Dr. Hinkle having discovered a crack in a molar and decreeing the need for a crown. I'll say one thing, he's generous with the novocain, because he administered it around two o'clock and I bit the inside of my cheek while trying to fork down some scrambled eggs at the Crepevine a little after five. (It was sore for days though.) They're going to call me when the permanent one is ready, but I am assured the hard part is over.

James had the day off and was going to get started fighting early under Staffan's eye so he could authorize that evening. His new rapier gi is finished, we are both pleased with the such that I'm seriously thinking of tapering the sleeves on mine the way I did on his - they'll fit under gauntlets better.

Brogan had not turned up yet, so I ended up fighting him a bit with Staffan's weapons. He favors a very short dagger, which took getting used to, but I think I liked it (and a shorter length blade could be mounted as a tanto if I want to go that route). He has a cross-hilted rapier that feels like a crowbar to me as it's heavier than the loaner sword I usually use. James and I have not managed to fight together at previous practices all that often and I've discovered that while I'm not the most aggressive person in the kiddie pool, I could dominate him. Enough so that I was able to get offensive with that teeny little dagger. (I hope he reads this and tries to get back at me!)

I fought a little bit with Jon, but I was pretty beat and decided to take a huge break while Staffan and Brogan ran James' authorization. I'd been up early, having decided to try to make up my dental appointment time instead of taking it as sick time. I think I even dozed off a bit while I was sitting on the tailgate of my truck. I knew I needed to save some energy for melee practice anyway. I died a lot. Not surprisingly. Took James home with a Denny's stop where he vacuumed up a plate of eggs and bacon and I soothed my chewed up cheek with some ice cream.

Friday I headed up to Woodland after work for Mists Cynagua War. On a whim, I stopped in Cordelia to check out the Boot Barn. I've been driving past it for years, I'm going to the rodeo in a week and while I can wear my old boots, they're old. And plain. I figured if I saw anything really worthwhile I might throw myself on a pair. Fortunately for my budget, most of the things in my price range were either not dressy enough or cut too narrow for me to even get my foot into them, particularly the much touted Ariat line.

Got some dinner and picked up some supplies in Woodland, then headed over to the fairgrounds to pitch my tent for the night. CalFire was using the fairgrounds as a staging area so we were over on the southeast end of the property. That said, there was plenty of room for the number of folks who chose to camp as well as for the weekend's activities.

It was warm. It was warm enough when I went to bed that I lay on top of the covers for this first time this season. And it was warm the following day. I am told it got up to about 91 with humidity around 70%. I am not acclimated to that after a fairly cool
summer along the bay. (For my East Coast readers, Woodland is in California's Central Valley about 15 miles west of Sacramento.)

The rapier scenarios started some time after eleven and I fought sword and dagger in all the boat battles.* I got my Stupid Newbie Trick out of the way fairly early by killing Staffan who was on my side at the time. I pleaded brain fart.

(*For the uninitiated, boat shapes complete with boarding planks were marked out on the ground with colored line and stakes. If your foot touched the rope you were deemed to have gone out of bounds and died, in addition to the risks of trying to board or defend against being boarded.)

After that I just stopped worrying and waded in to die on a regular basis. I don't even know or remember if I killed anyone - there was just too much going on. We had a decent lunch break over which to cool down and get a bite. We then switched
sides of the field with the heavies so they could play in the olive "grove" (if a line of trees along the fence line qualifies as a grove)
and we used their bridge and castle set-ups for some scenarios. The bridge was about 8 - 10' wide though and long enough that if you died you had to run off the bridge to the resurrection point and then run back to support your strung-out line and it was a lot of running for me, so I only fought the first one and decided I was done for the day when I didn't catch my breath as quickly as I normally can after a bit of fighting. So I tried to cool down and handed water around to folks between fights. I doubt I was effective, but I got a good amount of fighting in all things considered. Also met some of the rapier folks from Cynagua who I hadn't before.

Photos are starting to turn up on FB.....

There was a big pot luck and picnic by torchlight for dinner. While the cooks had gone hog wild with the bacon theme and there was a huge local contribution of cupcakes, my favorite dish was the french toast stuffed with fresh blackberries, created by twelve year old Aidan Edwardson. I slept like a stone Saturday night and packed down early Sunday before it got hot again, had a plate of eggs at Denny's and came home to collapse in a heap.