Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

This guy is lucky he picked the Church of Jedi to pick on.

Imagine if he had rushed into an SCA armored combat practice, shouting "DRAGON!!!!"

The video link in the story is currently broken, as the guy would have been after taking a swing.

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

Lewis and Eleanor took a bunch of great pics at Tournament of Chivalry.

Check the rest out here.

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Anyone needing to email Thjora for the next 2-3 days is due for a delay. Our DSL modem died spontaneously last night and the new one will not arrive until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest.

By the same token, my internet communication will be limited to at work or via my dumbass blackberry.

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

I'm looking at the Acorn calendar and starting to put a tentative travel schedule together for the summer.

Sapphire is next, Assessment is on there. Aside from that, I'm open to suggestions. I'm considering the Pas du Foret Mysterious-spelling in NC, which would in theory let me get down to see Girard without him having to drive like crazy.

Stierbach is also a possibility, or Highland River, though that's always a killer drive.

Please discuss, lobby, whatever. Consult the Household SCA Calendar as you need to.

You don't have to be household to comment here. Pitch your event. Tell us why it will be cooler than the swimming hole in August!

I'll even allow commenting on LJ for the lazy.

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

A lovely weekend trip to Tournament of Chivalry. After much tooth gnashing last week, the number of knights in attendance proved to be more than adequate.

Friday night Roland was gracious enough to help me finish off Girard's squire belt, whose buckle end I was perhaps a bit overambitious in designing. But it came out fine, with help of several of Roland's fancy hammers.

Girard didn't have any last minute change of heart, so just before the fighting began he gave his fealty to me as my squire. Welcome to him and his lady! And special thanks to Evja, who came just for the ceremony on what turned out to be the last weekend before her husband Tom ships out to Iraq for another six months.

Girard's Pics here.
And my few pics here.

Thoughts on the tourney

If I recall from Genvieve, the Mistress of the Lists correctly, there were 86 fighters in the list. About 15 knights. My impression of the unbelts as a whole is that the top end was relatively well represented, the bottom end was there in force, and the mid range was oddly absent. Clearly, gas prices affected attendance, as the number of people who had traveled from below the Virginia state line could be counted on one hand.

Allowing the unbelts to choose between tourney fights, sparring passes and instructional time made for a more collegial atmosphere between the participants. I am undecided about whether this was a good thing. Certainly this was a less intense Tournament of Chivalry than any previous.
The "three passes" option also slowed down the line of those waiting to fight.

Great weapon skill is very lacking among our unbelted fighters.

Several people told me there were some good pics of me taken. I can't wait.

Later
After the tourney we had a lovely party at Jen & Alan's, which thankfully I didn't have to cook for.
Countess Alexis made a surprise appearance, everyone had a good time, and I decided I needed a nap around 9:30. That turned in to a solid twelve hours of sleep.

Then a yucky drive home in the rain, and an afternoon of enforced laziness on the sofa, since all our projects are outdoor ones just now.

Much to my surprise, I'm not particularly sore today, and I only have one bruise: perfectly off target on the inside of my right wrist.

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

See all my decent pictures at this link.

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

If it wasn't born, does it have to be 18 to authorize?

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Keeping the ten day deadline for a Superhero themed birthday party in mind, I ask my friends and readers:

Where DOES one buy a pair of hunter green dance or runner's tights with a 34" inseam and a 38" waist?

All I can find are white, grey or black.

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

Ah, the odd juxtaposition of street art and medieval heraldry.


From the Wooster Collective.

I also love the flying saucer.

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

Word was announced at Gulf Wars, before the combined Chivalry of the Known World, that come April 19th, TRMs Northshield intend to elevate our friend Lady Roisin to the Chivalry. To take place at this event in Minneapolis if you can make it.
That's Roisin on the left in the picture above. Questers for Venus may recall her as Minerva at the coronation of Val and Arielle.
Congrats to my good friend and soon to be sister!

Technorati Tags: Heavy Fighting, Pennsic, SCA

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

Perhaps one of these would be better in the Great Pumpkin II?

Cool Tool: Aladdin Lamps

If Thjora likes them, I might get one for our tent. Or considering last night's power outage, for around the house!

Technorati Tags: Pennsic, SCA, Survival, tools

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

I'm sure you all check the calendar regularly, but here are a few more details of what's coming up in the near near future. This weekend we're day tripping to Caer Mear's 30th Celebration. Girard and Guienevra are coming too, so we may actually get a chance to fight with each other a bit.

Kit and I are also day tripping to Defending the Gate on the 22nd, and once again the proto-squire and his lady will be there, probably staying over at our place that night or the night before or both.

My next planned event after that is Tournament of Chivalry, where, among other things, Girard the proto-squire will become Girard the squire.

Hmmm, I should probably start on the belt sometime soon.

Technorati Tags: Heavy Fighting, Heavy Weapons, SCA

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

Fourth Sunday came off nicely, with 20 or so people at the house. Though there was some confusion about who was going to cook, it all worked out. Thanks to Kailo for stepping in and managing the beef cooking.

And there was fighting.


Sean and Philip in the back yard. Also Aethelwolf and Philip fighting at this link.

Dwarf came down with Sean, and as you can see from the pictures, Jonathan from UVa also armored up. As you can't see from the pictures, I also got in gear. Hooray for not having any trouble with my ankle.

At the end of the day, since we had a lefty at practice, Philip, Sean and I worked on understanding and defeating the Oscar the Grouch offhand fighter defense. Too bad there are no pictures of that!

Those of you appearing in these pictures--I don't plan to leave these up forever, so if you want them, download them and save them yourself.

White Rabbit

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This Sunday is the fourth Sunday of the month, and Isenfir and Caer Glenniog get together at our place on the Western March of Caer Mear for projects, practice, socializing and food.

We start around 1, run until we're out of gas, and this week we expect to see some out of town visitors who will make a fight practice more interesting and fun.

Consider coming!

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

Oh, I've been slack. And it shows in several ways, not just in slow event reports.

Ymir was a pleasant enough trip, leaving straight from work and, aside from dinner at the worst Panera in the world (in Lynchburg) we arrived at the 4H camp without incident, even finding ourselves assigned to the very same cabin we had at Val & Arielle's coronation.

Friday night was a late one because of Theron's vigil, but it was fun. Quite a turn out of knights, including several from the Mid. Cold cold cold on the causeway though! I had to go back and add layers after just a few minutes out there.

Freakishly good weather on Saturday had us all warm and some of us sunburned. Alas, the weather was better than my 3 and 2 fighting, with me winning only fights there shouldn't have been any question about, and losing to both Sirs Guy and Badouin. I'm severely out of practice and need to start fixing that.

Home again early enough to blow off household chores and spend the afternoon with my sweetie, and some napping.

This past Tuesday I stepped wrong on the stairs coming down off the Lawn at UVa and turned my left ankle, which is not the one I injured at Crusades. I iced it on my desk at work, and took Wednesday off to let it rest. I can walk on it now without pain, and it barely swelled at all, so I think it will be fine. Though I do have some interesting colors on the sides of my foot.

Tomorrow is Blue Man Group with Kymber, Helmut, Lewis and Eleanor. Great fun there, we get to learn how to be megastars!

And I hear the pell calling my name. I need to keep clear in my mind the two moments where I hit Guy and Badouin cleanly but light–moments that would have turned my 3-2 record into at least 5-2, a very different day.

Technorati Tags: Armor & Weapons, Heavy Fighting, Heavy Weapons, SCA

Originally published at House de la Flamme. Please leave any comments there.

3 and 5? Ah well, we had a good start to our run at Ice Castles this weekend. Philip, Adelric (formerly Hagan) and I formed the "Blowing the Dust Off" team, and roared out of the gate at Ice Castles to a 3-0 start.

Alas, we ended the day 3 and 5. The order of the day brought us to the toughest teams later, and Adelric's ankle made him less and less mobile as we went on. Still, several of those losing fights were near things. Of course, several of them were decisive losses.

The tourney was cramped, also well attended, which was frankly a pleasant surprise. Things could have run more smoothly, and it would have been smart of me to look closely at the schedule for the day and realize we did not need to be there by 11 in order to get into the main tourney--they ran a novice list ahead of it!

So much for sleeping in.

After the tourney the Chivalry held the field and I got some good fights from the unbelts. Much to my relief, my hand appears to be 99% returned to its pre-injury state. Hooray for that.

My ankle was oddly stiff the next day, but nothing to worry about, and my shoulder didn't bother me at all! Though I am sore sore sore from the first day of fighting in 3 months. No surprise there, I should be.

More practice needed! To the pell! To the gym! Well, maybe tomorrow.