kareina

 

 

However, by the time we were in Umeå, and hour and a half later, the temps were above freezing, and the action of the windshield wipers had taken away all of the slush so I could see out the window again.

 

I didn’t have yoga blocks when living with David, so we cut a couple of pieces of thick wood that, while no where near as thick as a normal yoga block, was better than nothing. This morning I did a strength and flexibility hip stretching video that suggested holding a yoga block between the knees and squeezing hard. I cannot recommend doing this with a solid block of wood instead of a yoga block.

 

So I decided to take some of the adhesive foam Keldor has and add padding to the sides of the blocks, which made them as thick as a yoga block.

 

 

 

But that texture wouldn’t be pleasant to touch, so I took some of the scrap leather from the couch that came with the couch and cover the blocks. This adds some stability to the foam, but I could see that they wouldn’t stand well on end, so I cut even more foam for the ends, and that seems to help, though now they are longer than a traditional yoga block.

 

 

I managed to get that project well started before Aeirin arrived, and then made some good progress sewing on it while we talked and before armouring up. My first time in armour in weeks!

 

We took Aeirin’s armour home after Coronet two weeks ago, as she was travelling by train, and while it is possible to take the armour that way, it isn’t pleasant. We had planed to do a fighter practice last weekend weekend she came to pick it up, but she came down with a cold, so we rescheduled to today.

 

I learned that yes, my armour would have been ok to fight in the tournament, while it has plenty of problems that need upgrading for comfort, there are no broken bits that would have failed inspection.

 

I learned that when I feel stressed and afraid the my opponent might hit me I forget everything I know about stance and footwork, and lean away from them.

 

I learned that I really need more time in armour for conditioning training. I was the first of us to give up, with the (true) excuse that I was super hungry, but I was also just plain out of energy.

 

Now I am (over) fed and should go pack my armour, which is scattered all over the entry area, and not nicely in its box.

 

Hours later… I have attended Nordmark’s annual meeting over zoom, updated my food logs, and just as I was about to leave the computer, Keldor said, “let’s look at flights to Strawberry Raid”, and then bought us tickets, with a week before the event there, where we will (hopefully, if the timing still works for her), visit Tania and Mike. So now I have updated the calendar with all of the flights, and updated my financial records for the bookings, an now I really will go pack that armour and get ready for bed…

 I was so out of energy yesterday I took yesterday and today off of work. Boy did that decision pay off. I took a 1.5 hour nap after breakfast, and then did lots of tasks that seriously help my metal health:

 - tided away all of the clutter that has been accumulating 

 - washed the bedsheets 

 - washed both of the cat water fountains

 - started cleaning and inventorying the store room in the basement where we keep the home improvement supplies. Got the paints completely inventoried and found the missing silver paint, so now I have completed the test painting to compare the gold and silver over the chocolate brown paint.

I am feeling so much better!
 

Poor Keldor though, got his thumb too close to the sanding machine today and took a pretty serious chunk out of his thumbnail. Ow.

 

 

The Archaeology department meeting was also interesting, and I have volunteered to help out with at least one of the long overdue reports on archaeological excavation (as in the people who didn't the excavations are retired, but the uni is still legally obliged to submit the report, since they were responsible for the dig). It sounds like a fun way to get some real archaeology experience.

 

I got the bill from the carpenter today for the work he's done to create the attic toilet room, and I am please to note that the cost is low enough that after paying it I still have more in house savings than existed in that account in October. Not that it is cheap mind you, just that I have been able to throw a fair bit into savings lately.

 

After paying the bills I had enough time to make more Garden mousse and also some blueberry mousse with the other half package of tofu, and packed it in the ice chest for food to eat tomorrow, and made some popcorn and was packing it for tomorrow as well when Keldor got home from work. He rested a bit while I cleaned the kitchen.

 

Then we loaded the car and took out compost and emptied the cat sand.

 

I was doing my yoga for the day when Þórólfr arrived, and we left as soon as I finished.
 
Regular edits:

 

Worked from home, which meant I was here when the contractor finished the door on the loo in the attic:

 

 

Now we need to decorate it! When talking with him he pointed out that if we also close off the front of what will become a closet next to the loo, where the plumbing pipes run through what will be floor, after the project is done, then we could heat that space and the loo itself, and have the plumbers back to install the toilet even before we finish the full bedroom. I think this is a plan.

 

Working from home also gave me the chance to do a quick bit of experiment in the kitchen, which resulted in [[Garden mousse]], which is really yummy. 100% recommend.

 

 

One notification let to another, I heard Charlotte come up the stairs, go into the bathroom and turn on the shower, so I kept reading, one notification let to another, and soon I saw a FB post in the Fantasy books group looking for recommendations for "any good Historical Non-fiction or Historical fiction that would appeal to fantasy fans?" to which I started writing a reply:

 

 

I was nearly done writing that when Keldor walked into the room, still wet from the shower, and I was very confused! It turns out that when he woke, a bit before 08:00 I was sleeping deeply and didn't stir when he got up, so he pushed his pillow up against my back. 

 

Since I had done the last of the spackeling in the soon to be upstairs loo yesterday, Keldor went up after breakfast and sanded it all smooth. An hour or three later I went up and swept up the dust and debris from the project so far, and we painted a coat of wet room sealer over the walls and roof. It is supposed to cure at least 7 hours, so we can't put up the Fiberglas wallpaper till after 20:00 tonight, which isn't going to happen that late, as tomorrow is a work day, so it will have to wait.

 

Yesterday I helped Charlotte cut out a hood, and today taught her the Ösenstitch, and then [[Charlotte's purple hood#The Ösenstitch done with the same fabric and yarn as she will use|made a video she can look at later]].

 

After we took Charlotte to catch her bus towards home I baked a [[Quick Breads#Oat bread>oat quick bread]], which was tasty still warm with a little extra butter, and I think I will enjoy it cold tomorrow as well.

 

Even though Keldor stayed home today with a sore ankel, and Charlotte was also here, working from home went well. I spent much of the day in “preparation” for Monday’s meeting, where I will learn how to use Shape Shifter to map data to our database has now come to more than half done with what will be a much more useful user manual than the AI wrote for my colleague.

 

While I worked the contractor made good progress on the future closet next to the new loo in the attic:

 

While I worked, the contractor was busy in the attic, putting in insulation, and starting the walls. Getting this far before lunch:
 

This evening I was busy. Keldor has a gift in progress that needs runes, so I spent a little time browsing the Rune Database to see how certain words are used on rune stones, using the search function for a single letter in the relevant word, then using shift-F7 to check the results for the words I wanted. Because those results are shown in several languages, including Old Norse, Swedish, and English, I could search for either English or Swedish spellings, and then see how the the word was spelled on the stone. Then, for some of them, we can cross-reference för the rune stone number on Runkartan, where they have transcribed the runes themselves, using the Futhark rune font. and see which runes were used. Once I did all that, I took a photo of the object into CorelDraw, added a curve where I wanted the runes to sit, then used the “fit text to curve” option to make the runes follow the path, and then sent him the photo of the result, to use as an example when he does the actual carving.

 

Since Charlotte wasn’t feeling well last weekend and didn’t get to come up for the bardic, she opted to come up this weekend instead, so we have company again, and so I should put down the computer and get ready for training tonight.

 

I began my work day with good energy, and started accomplishing things straight away, but after about an hour became super sleepy, so I took a short nap, and tried working again, soft of managed a few things, and was still so sleepy I gave up and went back to bed, setting an alarm for 20 minutes. Then Keldor called after I had been asleep for 10, so after that call I tried getting up and working, but never really accomplished much with the day.

 

In the evening we had our first Reengarda styrelsemöte (meeting of the shire officers) for the year, during which we made the formal decision of which of us are authorised to access the bank account, so we can turn in that paperwork to the bank. While we were waiting for meeting time we played a game of Qwirkle on the living room carpet in front of the computer, and I got a truly impressive amount of Qwirkles, giving me a 57 point victory. If I thought the new location made a difference, I would want to play sitting on the carpet more often!

 

After that meeting it was time for our zoom training meeting, and then I took a shower and went straight to sleep, as I was still tired.

 

At this point Mickel Räf arrived, and when he learned I was tuning the moraharpa he offered to help, which assistance I cheerfully accepted. Then he tried playing it, and did a good enough job that I had no problem recognising the tune he played, though he commented that it would take time and practice to be able to play it smoothly Then Albreda tried it, and also got recognisable tunes straight away.

 

Then Keldor showed off his musical instrument collection, and Mickel showed him how one plays his Bunne bygelgitarr, the odd square four-stringed guitar with a movable lever to get the three chords that it will play (A, D and G).

 

Soon thereafter Gerdis arrived and she and Mickel took out their violins, which they played off and on all evening, sometimes just playing music, sometimes playing along with something the rest of us were singing. Once I even played my dulcimer (Ridom) and they played along.



Albreda borrowed a violin briefly, and then picked up some crocheting, while Daniel worked on his chain mail art, Cinder and I did sewing, and Keldor worked on armour.