Biography

This is from Darkwood Armory's shop, last week.

Boring pic, but I'm excited! Caleb is coming up on Friday to crash with us prior to Holiday Faire, and he thinks he'll have the new helm with him.

Take a look, so that next time you come to visit, you'll know you are at the right house. The changes are massive.

And there's more, much more to do today and tomorrow. I woke up tired!

Gardeners, please save me every non-hosta plant you don't want. I want them.

Once again, it's time to arrange my favorite way to spend Thanksgiving: By hosting a bunch of our close and new friends for Way Too Much Food.

Traditional activities: I smoke a turkey and go on a last minute mad scramble for some esoteric food ingredient I thought would be easy to find, Thjora does some amazing pies, Adam brings wild caught pacific salmon (at least I hope this is a tradition now!), Helga oversees the purple mashed potatoes, and we completely avoid football. New in the mix this year: four player Wii marathons! Bring your controllers.

If you've ever been before, or been invited before, you're invited again. If you're someone we talk to but haven't invited before, you're invited.

Thjora doesn't like me calling this the "Little Lost Lambs" Thanksgiving, and it really has mutated from that into something else. But if you read this blog and are in the approximate area and have nowhere else to go for Thanksgiving, well, drop me a line. Odds are, you're welcome. Kids are welcome, just keep in mind that our house is slightly non-kid safe. Dinner could be record breaking if all invitees come.

This year, we will certainly be showing off our new garage, probably the newly-paneled rec room, and maybe my new helmet!. Unlike last year, we have no plan to tear out the kitchen on Friday. We still plan to, just not soon.

Other merriment will take place over the weekend, possibly including the often-planned, never realized bonfire, fight practice and maybe a wine tasting. So even if you must have overcooked green beans at grandma's house, come on over the bridge to our place for the rest of the weekend!

Please RSVP to both me and Thjora. The spare rooms are sort of first come first serve, but my in-laws get dibs. They rarely stay over though.

UVa is a conservative school. Ask Anastasia, who was a TA here. These are, to a great extent, the children of privilege, power and pedigree.

Walking (say it with me) the mile from my car to my office this morning, I passed 3 different moving Free Ride to Vote for Obama vans. Every sidewalk was chalked up with reminder after reminder to vote today for Obama. Posters were up on every kiosk. A pro-Obama student with a signboard was in front of every major building, ready to help anyone get to the polls.

On that mile long walk, the entire evidence of the McCain GOTV effort was one white chalk "N" added in front of a single instance of the word "OBAMA" chalked on a walkway.

Update: With a little bit of luck, Tom Perriello will have UVa students, staff and faculty to thank for his seat as the VA 5th District congressman! He's currently down by a few hundred votes--0.36%, so there will be a recount. I'm unclear about whether the absentee and provisional ballots have been cast yet, either. I imagine that absentee will break for Perriello. Could be wrong about that.

The amazing Caleb is making me a new flat top. Since the face will be water jet cut, almost anything is possible. I'm considering the possibly outré option of using my badge shape for the breaths. Two options below. Your opinions please?

The large badge would probably be on both sides. In either case, there will be breaths on both sides.

These are approximate, of course. The new helm will have more nose room, for example. And not be photoshopped, for another.

I completely ignored Skorri's copyright on these pics. I hope he doesn't sue.

This is the approximate shape, which may be hard to see in the 'shop jobs above.

Here's a link to an 11+ Mb time lapse quicktime movie of Saturday's fun.
Those at work: there is a soundtrack. Turn your speakers down. Not recommended for you six poor bastards stuck on dial up due to lobbying efforts by the telecom industry that hamstring our nation's ability to compete in high tech development.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to help!

As we did last year, we are once again hosting a big work and fun party at our place over Labor Day weekend. This year our plan is to tear off the front porch roof, then the front porch. Daring types are welcome to help us remove the false chimney that sat atop the fireplace Vlad and company took out last year.

Thjora is convinced there won't be enough work, so this is definitely the year to attend, because there will be as much food and beer and wine as last year, so the work to fun ratio may be much much higher.

Drop us a line if you'd like to come, even if you don't plan to work. But the faster the work goes, the more likely a fight practice (of all flavors) will break out on Sunday!

Last year was pretty epic, with a house full of people over night, and Val attacking our broken concrete like it had done him wrong. First come, first serve for private rooms, but everyone gets blueberry pancakes!

Girard joined the household at Tournament of Chivalry in the spring of 2008, after discussing and training with Corby since Pennsic 2007. He resides in Windmaster's Hill and fights sword and shield and polearm primarily.