another busy week slipped by

I wound up working most of the week from home--the ability to access my work computer from my home computer is quite nice, but there are a couple of down sides. My work computer at work has three monitors. If I access it from home I can only see it on one monitor, even though my home computer has two. If I create a graph using the GCdkit extension for R on my work computer and paste the result into CorelDraw so as to compare the data with other, pre-existing graphs it comes in at one size, but if I use the same program to create the same graph while using my home computer and paste it into CorelDraw it shows up in a much smaller size, meaning that an additional step of re-sizing either the new graph or the pre-existing graphs is needed. Sometimes there is a bit of a lag time in the connection. Add to that the fact that there is sometimes value in actually seeing my colleagues in person, and I actually went into the office on Friday. Will need to go in tomorrow, too, since Tuesday morning early I will be heading down to Boliden for work for the rest of the week, and need to bring the work computer with me that trip, and it is still in my office.

Despite managing to fall on Monday and cutting my knee in the process I still managed to either run for 20 min, or walk for 50 most days this week, and have been enjoying it. I was lucky in that my minor injury turned out to be just skin damage--no pain at all from using the knee, only if I accidentally touch it to anything (yoga needed some modification!). It turns out that I also managed to bruise my right hip when I fell and rolled, so I didn't sleep on my right side for the first few days last week.

When not working or getting exercise the rest of the week was mostly devoted to finally finishing a UFO--the dress I cut out before moving to Sweden was finally close enough to see the end of the project, so I decided that I wanted to wear it at the SCA event this weekend. This meant insetting two skirt gores, attaching the embroidery for the neckline and cutting the neck opening, sewing up the sides, sewing in loops for running the lacing through, and attaching the lacing. I only just managed to finish it all before the event, by working on it for one to many hours each day this week. Fortunately for me, lord_kjar was willing to help out by making the lacing strings.

Of course to do this he had to make the lucet first. While we have mostly seen them made of wood we (correctly) decided that we didn't have time to do that on this occasion, so instead he took a wire that was once part of a whisk and bent it to a lucet shape. It worked very well, and now I have lacing cord that matches the dress.

The event this weekend was fun. It was actually a full weekend of fencing classes, but neither of us fence, so instead we went out for only the evening feast and revel. We arrived at the site at 16:00, and the only person there was the guy doing feast prep--everyone else was still at the other hall doing fencing. So we set up the tables for feast and moved stuff around to get a good dancing space, and the hall was pretty much ready by the time the others returned around 17:00. The food was ready pretty much straight away, and served early enough that I actually got to eat something. I enjoy it when that happens.

The King was up for the event, and he invited lord_kjar and I to join him at high table, along with the guy who won the tournament that afternoon (ok, the guy who came in second, since the actual winner couldn't stay for the feast). The current crown is a delightful guy who is always smiling and cheerful, so I really enjoyed the chance to visit with him. We had just over 20 people at the feast, tables arranged in a small U, so it was cozy and easy to visit with everyone. Not too long after feast was served our local Count stood up to do the toast to the Crown, and then his wife, who is a Countess (they didn't reign together), stood up to do a toast to the Prince and Princess (not present) and then they looked at me as the next person in rank to do the next toast. Sadly, even though I know in theory that this is a Kingdom which does toasts in a certain order based on the rank of the people present, I didn't remember what toast should be next, and they hadn't reminded me before hand, so I had to ask (The Kingdom of Drachenwald, and the fourth-ranked person is to toast the Principality of Nordmark, but that one is drunk with the glass held in the left hand). I need to remember this next time--since I was second Princess of Oertha and stepped down in January of 1986 I am usually the highest ranked Viscounty at events--Dranchewald, so only those who have sat a Kingdom throne are ahead of me, and we don't have many of them here in the north.

The King is staying all week, so some tourist adventures have been arranged for him. Today seven of us joined him on a private tour of Rödbergsfortet. This is one of the many forts built around the city of Boden starting in 1901. They carved into the granitic rock of the hills around the city to create defenses against potential attacks from Russia via land across Finland. One of the major reasons for this was to protect the rail line which took iron ore from the mines at Kiruna to the coast for shipping elsewhere. Apparently the circle of fortresses caused the city of Boden to be closed to foreigners as a military secret. It remained off limits to visitors until 1997, when these fortresses were closed. How times have changed--before 1997 I wouldn't have been permitted to enter the town, but these days the main northern office for the Immigration board is based there--that is where I had to go to turn in my visa paperwork.

They are talking about doing other adventures with him while he is here, but I won't be able to go play on the others, because I will be out of town for work. Sigh, the calender looked so open when I agreed to that trip, but now there are distractions that I would have welcomed, had I only been home to join them.