Again I sit awake at night. Knowing that I need to be up early in the morning. Knowing that tomorrow will change everything (again). We've had three and a half years to adjust but it seems like it wasn't enough time. This time I know things I didn't know back then but I still feel the same as I did that night. Nervous, afraid, scared... But also happiness, joy and contentment. Its a rush of emotions that seems to overwhelm my senses and keep me awake. Again I look forward to watching our child grow up and learn. To here him/her shout "Go Daddy" from the sidelines while I'm fighting. To fall asleep on the couch with our new child in my arms.

Many things have changed since last time. Friends and loved ones come and gone. But we still feel the love and warmth of our friends and family. No matter how far they may be.

So here I am again, the night before the birth of another child. But this time I feel better equipped to handle it all.

So its been a few months since my last update.  Where to start...

Baby:  These past 8 months have flown by.  Sherry is scheduled for a c-section on November 24th.  Yes, two days before Thanksgiving....  I'm planning on bringing her some Thanksgiving food as her Step-mom is hosting at her place close to the hospital.  The other thing is that she will not be allowed to have visitors.  I'm the only one who can go and see her.  So I'm setting it up so that we can webcam with her from the hospital room on her new laptop.  If anyone wants to do that with her, just let me know and I'll send you the info.

Steven:  Is growing like a weed and is learning at the same rate.  He is excited about the idea of being a big brother.  I'm sure that will fade as soon as we come home with a little squeeling baby that will sleep across from his room in a few months....  I'm needing to watch what I say around him more and more as he loves repeating me.  He's aso starting to get into playing video games (mostly me playing video games he likes).  He loves to cuddle with dad while playing his Cars Racing game on my PS3.  Much fun and love...  :)

SCA:  Sherry and I are going to step back from the SCA for a bit.  With the baby coming and our finanicial situation at the moment we need to take a break for a bit.  We'll still be around and maybe poke our heads in at a few local events and practices here and there but no Pennsic or Gulf Wars for the short term. 

Redskins:  Why should I feel so dissapointed.  I'm use to the losing and bad publicity, but this year is tremendously bad.  Talk of the organization suing ticketholders who can't make payment due to the downturn, banning signs from the stadium, ect...  We need a GM who can tell Snyder to stay the hell out of football and just run the business.  Hopefully this offseason will see the departure of mister lazy eye (Cerrato) and the implementation of a real GM.  We'll see.

Car:  The car is coming to the end of its useful life.  The thing has lasted nearly 9 years and 150k miles.  The problem now is that things are slowly starting to go bad with the car.  Were hitting that point of more maintenence + no payment  = more than payment.  So we are planning on using tax money/bonus/extra money to help payoff some bills and hopefully around March we can get me a new car.  The Corrola has held up wonderfully but I abused that car with the 100 miles a day I put on it to go to work.  We'll see what happens.

I better run.  I've got some house cleaning to do before Sherry's flameless candle party thing today. 

Had a pretty damn good event.  Sherry and I are in some serious pain today.  

She worked the event as Merchant coordinator and ran/walked around more than she should for being 6 months pregnant.  I fought in the 5 man team tourney and fought hard I did.   Big ups to Callista for being the babysitter for Steven during the event!  It was awesome to actually get to do stuff without having to worry much about our kid.  We had a scroll go out in morning court for Willow.  They tagged her with a Court Baroness. 

( Scroll picture behind the cut.... )

Sherry did the illumination and I did the calligraphy and finishing work (inking and white work on the B).  The work was from The Hours of Catherine of Cleves Sufferage 129 Saint Vincent.   I think this was my best callig job yet.   The scroll is amazing and I'm so proud of Sherry for pulling it off. 

As for the fighting, I fought hard.  I took a break for about 4 or 5 fights but actually fought in about 10 to 12 fights.  Our team came in tied for 1st but because the other team had more wins we got 2nd.  Not bad for a field of 8 to 10 teams.  :)

My pictures of the event can be found on my photobucket here

So now comes the post of how our vacation to Pennsic War was. 

( Read more here...... )

So today Sherry went down to Fredricksburg with her family to have a girls afternoon out.  I got to watch Steven and work on things around here.  So while he napped I finished up the fitting and pegging on Steven's new chair and the 2nd scribal desk.  Amazing what a new set of 14tpi scroll saw blades will do when cutting oak lumber  Splinters be gone!!!! 

Remaining projects to finish in 1 month....

Finish fitting and pegging 3rd Scribal Desk
Sand and stain 1st, 2nd and 3rd scribal desks and Steven's chair
Seal all scribal desks, Steven's Chair, Sherry's chair and all tent poles for the Pavilion
Setup the Pavilion for a test run
Fix right side paldron on my armor (Been duck taped for several weeks now and need to fix the straps holding the lames)
Fix right upper shield edge on my tournament sheild (Raggnar Ribcracker managed to bend it in during practice last week)
Try to locate some rattan to remake 2nd sword (debating tearing my polearm apart to salvage rattan).
Pull out slat bed and assemble to check for any issues
Put together my armor repair kit for field/camp repairs
SEWING!!!!!!!!!  LOTS OF SEWING!
Start packing bins
Fnish documentation on Woodworking projects.
Finalize new heraldric tabard design for Post Baronial Birthday (Old tabard is shredded beyond repair)


I'm sure I'm missing a ton of stuff but that is what I can think of right now.  Mind is pretty frazzled with all the stuff we need to get ready for this trip.  I'm looking forward to shopping, classes, fighting, hanging/partying with our friends and of course spending time with my family.  

Pennsic prep projects!

( Pictures and comments behind the cut.... )

Check this out. 

( Pictures and stuff behind the cut..... )

So I was feeling great yesterday after fighter practice.  Had a great night of fighting and learned a good bit.  The new 30 inch sword seemed to work well (I just need to get use to not having that extra 6 inches at the end).  So I come home, take an advil for the soreness I was sure I'd have and went to bed.  Woke up one hour later with stomach issues....  Figures.  So I took the day to work from home today as I woke up with some lingering issues.  I've also had a nice but of sinus crap going on as well.  Ugh I want to feel better....  Please hurry it up.  :)

So with practice last night I tried a few new things.  One I took my helm padding out and added another 1/4 inch of padding to make up for the old double quilted black hood I would wear under it.  I never minded wearing that in the winter but during the summer it was killer.  So I fought last night for the first time without that hood and I have to say it makes one hell of a difference.  If this is anything like what I'm gonna feel with my new helm once we get it done I'm gonna love it!!! 

I also rehung my suspenders for my legs.  Last week I tried them out for the first time and had a hell of a time throwing a flat snap over the edge of a sheild.  After I pulled my body armor off and took the suspenders off I realized why.  I had them too tight and they were not letting my shoulders pop up properly for the shot.  So with a quick adjustment, last night I was throwing the shots alot better (again just need to get use to not having that extra 6 inches of sword.... ). 

Well IE appears to be sucking right now so I better go fix it....  Stupid microsoft product....

Well this weekend turned out to be great.  I spent all weekend working around the house and just enjoying the company of my wife and son.  Saturday I spent the first 1 and a half hours tearing out the old bar in the bedroom downstairs.  The bar was a piece of total crap.  Basically the guy build a wall, put in a crappy unfinished long cabinet (screwed into the wall with 2 screws), put a crappy countertop on it and then took two sheets of 3/4 inch plywood and put the bar top on (held onto the wall by only two wood screws)....  About the only thing that was held in properly was the wall which was anchored into the outside wall with two screws but nailed into the concrete floor properly.   Needless to say it all came out fast.  

We then took a ton of stuff to the dump.  The bar, wall, cabinet, old fileing cabinet and old rusty locker plus a bunch of other junk from the basement.  We then reloaded the minivan with the antique chairs and metal bar stools and took them down to Sherry's step mom's house.  She is putting a bunch of her stuff on craigslist so we're going to do the same and just stage them out of her garage which helps a ton!  

So today I replaced the lights in the room downstairs.  I tore out the flood lights at the bookcase and put up a regular round light and I took out the bar strip light and put in another regular round light.  Everything was going great until I started to replace the switches in the wall.  I was screwing the new switches in when the box popped through the drywall....  Come to find out the guy who put the switch box in decided to use a drywall box (basically its held in by anchoring to the drywall with tabs behind the box).  Usually these are fine but these are kinda strange metal boxes that I've never used before so I wasn't sure I could fix it.  I started to take a look in the box and then noticed that the box was right next to a stud with no anchoring screw into the stud.   <FACEPALM>  Why on earth would you put a box next to a stud and not anchor the damn thing into the stud....  All it takes is one screw.  THATS ALL!!!!  So I pulled the box out as far as I could, drilled out the hole a little to allow the screw to enter at the proper angle and screwed that puppy down.  All fixed and looks great now.  I just have a question out right now with an electrican friend about the way one of the switches was wired.... 

We went to a birthday party for one of Steven's little girl friends today.  She turned two and the party was pretty good.  Steven was loving the food.  Strawberries, Grapes and birthday cake!  Needless to say he crashed hard after we left.  Good times!  :)

Oh other big news!  This week was my last week of Physical Therapy for my back.  When I went in I told them about last weekend when we were cleaning the basement out and I had a flare up.  I started doing my stretches and exercises and the next morning I was fine.  They loved hearing that and then told me I was pretty much done.  So with that being finished, tomorrow I will get back into armor for the first time in 4 months.  I look forward to actually trying some of the slow work I've been doing at a faster pace. 

Well I better run got to give the little man a bath and get ready for some TV time tonight.

So for those of you who are fans of Avatar the Last Airbender (only the greatest cartoon i've seen in the last few years), they are making a live action adaptation of the show.  M. Night Shyamalan is directing it so I'm pretty apprehensive plus a few casting choices seemed a little off (Sokka and Katara primarily). 

I've been watching the site http://www.mnightfans.com/avatar/cast.php for updates and other forum post on the filming and casting.  So this evening I run across a site called Cinema Blend and they have just posted images from the set along with the first pictures of Noah Ringer (Aang).  I must say seeing this kid and Dev Patel (Zuko) in character gives me some chills.  I think they nailed these two dead on.  Not to mention the fact that Noah Ringer is a 12 year old Martial Arts Expert.  Check it out here http://www.cinemablend.com/new/First-Images-From-M-Night-Shyamalan-s-Airbender-13251.html. 

Oh yeah and the teaser trailer will be shown before the next Transformers movie in a month or so.  Praying to god they get this right.....