Blah blah blah blahbitty blog

Since I have been going to the SCA wars for a while I have accumulated so much stuff. This is my tent setup last May at the Potrero War in the Barony of Calafia, Kingdom of Caid. I love wars but I have found that setting up my huge tent is not so much fun anymore. I am looking into streamlining the process.
But I am thankful I have a household that helps me. I love them all. They are part of my family.
I have so much fun at war. I will try to do a slide show of some of my pics.

Meanwhile here is a short video of my tent

and a video about Pennsic.

Medieval Warriors in a Campground in Pennsylvania

On a sadder note.
Here is a link to a memorial page for my friend and my Queen Kolfinna. She recently died from Complications of the H1N1 virus. She was 29. I regret I did not get a chance to know her better than I did. I met her at Pennsic war before she became a Queen of Caid. She was already a Knight. The first female Knight in Caid. She was awesome. She also shone. Her smile was a shaft of sunlight. Even in some pictures I saw of her where she was wearing armor including her helmet you can tell she was smiling. She was what my sister Christy calls "a hoot". She was fun to be around and a bit of a party girl. She had that personality that sucked you into having a good time whether you wanted one or not. A testament to her welcoming personality is that while she was ill there were people fighting in her honor across the country. She is irreplaceable. She was one of this Kingdom's treasures. Losing her has left an empty space in so many hearts.

I just came across this blogged article and fell deeply in love. For years have I argued with some of my family and a fair number of friends that Homeopathic meds don't work and herbal meds need to be carefully taken as some could be harmful or interact with the 30 pills the arguee was already shoving down his or her throat. It got to the point I started to break out in hives when someone shat out the words, "but it's natural" Well, so are most poisons.

Someday I should tell you what I think about those murdering scam artists in Tijuana who lure desperate people with Cancer (often easily treated diagnoses) to their clinicas, take them for all they can, then throw them out to die. These caring all natural con men and women don't want the poor dying in their prestigious clinic. I have seen and helped to treat some of their former patients when I worked the oncology unit at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla.

I am not saying that alternative medecine is 100% Bullsh*t or that all the practioniners are all con-men. Some are well meaning but gullible and some actually do great things. I blame the publics lack of awareness of good science for the most part or their intellectual laziness. I think for years people have been urged to let someone else do the thinking and so the public has. Well that shit isn't going to fly any more. Whooping cough aka Pertussis up in countries that have let that immunization slip. Pertussis is the only vaccine-preventable disease that is associated with increasing deaths in the U.S according to the article on the disease in Wikipedea.

The amount of dilutions used by homeopathic practioners makes the so call medicine little more than water. Here is a brief explanaition of how a substance is diluted to "increase it's potency"

Principle of Potentisation:

Homeopathic medicines are diluted in alcohol or milk-sugar(lactose) to make them more palatable and also to reduce the harmful effects. It has been found that the more the medicine is diluted, the more effective and powerful it becomes. So, the process of the dilution is called as potentisation and the medicines are referred to as potencies. The crude homeopathic medicine(eg : Cinchona/Lachesis) is triturated in alcohol to yield the mother tincture. The mother tincture is denoted by the symbol �.

So how are these so called high potency homeopathic remedies going to help when you probably don't even have a molecule of the original substance in your dose?  

I don't have any problem with the use of herbs as medications. Most of our meds are substances found originally in herbs. Unfortunately I am not so sure anyone can regulate the dose on some of these when no one can be sure what amount of the theraputic chemical exists with in the plant. For something like foxgloves this can be very important as they contain powerful cardiac glycosides whose theraputic range (the amount in the blood) is very narrow. One could be saved by a tea made from these flowers or one could die.    

Quackwatch,com is a great site btw. It is run by a retired psychiatrist and he is in my opinion spot on.

Ugh I fell yesterday. I thought everything was ok when I got up. Well it wasn't. I started hurting after a bit and when the time came for the Taekwondo teams to parade through the streets I decided I was not up to it. I rode in an ambulance. Ugh. They looked at my foot and wanted to take me to the hospital. I ended up with a splint and instructions to "lest". Yep I have a chip in my ankle. Damn, so I am out of the tournament. Sigh

 Phil is not happy with the tour. There is no communication on where we are going and no written instructions. But we went with the bus today to Daedunsan park to take a cable car to the top of the mountain. The view was amazing. Then we went to the coast. The beach was beautful and I couldn't go on the sand. I sat on the porch of a little shop and drank iced coffee and some 17 herb drink that was delicious. I drank it last year as well. After I went to pick up my Hanbok. Yes!!!. I bought a beautiful hanbok. I can't wait to wear it.

Tomorrow we will go to Muju. It's beautiful there. I don't look forward to it. Now I am exhausted. Have a good night everyone.

I have to go on a Cruise. I know it's rough and a terrible thing to complain about but I really want to stay home. I leave Friday for New York City so that I can stay in a hotel and FREEZE then board a ship to go to the southeastern Caribbean and bake, or with the humidity there steam. But it's a gift from Phil to his sister. Kind of a glad ya got married, congrats on getting over both the cancers that you had, oh by the way you're my favorite sister type of wedding gift. I am sure as cold as it is in the east she will need the break from the ice and snow. (Watch out where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow). I really want to go on this cruise but I am tired and it's stressing me out. I will also miss my dog and my cats. Also there is a war right after and I really wanted to go. I worry that Phil's sister and I won't have all that much in common. I sometimes get a weird vibe from Phil's family. Mostly I think it's because Phil uses me as an excuse why we can't visit more often. Sheesh we were just there last year. Ok yeah it's been a year but I would rather visit them later in the year when Baltimore it defrosted.

I still might or might not go to war, probably not. I missed Pennsic and I missed Great Western War why not be three for three! My  Household is not going. David can't go without his beard. Oh and there is that little matter of the 70 or so O2 tanks he would need to camp the week. We may have that not going to war after all party. That would be fun. And we could sit in Adelicia and David's back yard around there fire pits. David will have to sit farther back than normal. I will be going to this spring Potrero war as I am in charge of the bathrooms. Yes, I am pottycrat!

I have to pack still. I am wondering what to take. I am going from warm to Cold to tropical to cold again them home to warm. I still have my windows open and I am sitting here at almost midnight, OK it's 2311, in a tee shirt.

I am lucky to have the faithful housecleaner to watch the house while I am gone. She is sure a cute one. Sarah loves her. Well I assume Sarah loves her by the amount of yipping, dancing and butt nipping she does when FHC is around. FHC is also the one who gave me Bucky. She is trying to lure the only one left from the litter to her doorstep so that he or she gets a home too. The cat will come up and wait for food but won't allow any touching. Bucky is not one for much touching either. OK yes when he is in the mood and he is sucking on his blanky and no one is watching but not so much otherwise. Bucky shows his love by always being at my side. He follows me from room to room. I am sure glad FHC will be here to love him when he needs it.

So now to the climax of this tome. Sarah got sprayed by Pepe LePew last night. OMG it was awful. My eyes watered. Phil was sound asleep of course as it was 9 at night. He has been sleeping later and later in the day. He went to bed at 6 pm last night and at 8 tonight. Those of you who read my journal and there are very few who do actually will be amazed. So I did what any regular person would do, I called the emergency groomer. Not really, I actually googled skunk spray and found a home remedy that really a friend had recommended to me before. It was an involved process but everyone came through it all right. I washed to floor (in some area's twice) but the house still smelled this morning. So FHC mopped with bleach and all is right with the world. Of course you smell skunk for any length of time and your nose shuts out the smell after a while. All I can say is I pray never to have to do that again.

Oh by the way if anyone from PA reads this. I will be at Pennsic for sure this year. Save me some camping space with my other home.

first wedding dance.

I found this here. I loled then I lmao, then I posted it.

Phil and I need a new fridge. Phil wants a Sunfrost Refrigerator. They are expensive but they sure are energy efficient.  The biggest problem is the fit. The fridge is wider and deeper than the space we have unfortunately. The model I would really like has extra freezer space but is also too high to fit in our fridge opening in our kitchen. However that model uses 282 kWh per year compared with about 500 for other fridges I have looked at. The most efficient regular fridge I have found specs for rated at 412. The smaller fridge uses about 176 kWh. The inside dimensions of the freezer are comparable to my current model. The fridge is actually larger.  The problem is Sunfrost seems to have a standard depth and width that will not fit in our kitchen. There is an Island in front of the fridge that limits these sizes. I have 5 feet from the wall to the island. I could put the fridge in my craft room but that seems like a pain in the  buttocks to access, even though my craft room is right off the kitchen. I am waffling between liking the idea of the super efficient fridge even if I have to get my cold food in another room and wanting a regular fridge that fits.  I can live without an ice maker. I can live with having to defrost it every once in a while but can I live with having the fridge in the next room?

Mingle² - Online Dating

On account of my saying pain six times and crack once.