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Getting Ourselves Ready for “The Home.” Bring On The Revolutions.

Published on May 15, 2008 in Empty Nesters, Entertainment and Ireland. 3 Comments

e will soon be the proud owners of a Mach One spinning wheel.
After a week of complaining about sore ankles (!) Nancy has made enough revolutionary moves that she is committing to becoming an owner. The ankle soreness was from over-spinning or super-circulating the Mach One.

We have a dog or two that loves to eat wooden knitting needles. I’m concerned that they will show their dismay at being alone in the house they will decide to gnaw on the Spinning Wheel of Death if it is handy.

When I suggested this would be a problem, Nancy said she would use the other bedroom as long as she had a TV to watch. This means she would be in one part of the house spinning and I would be in another part computing.

My suggestion was that we clean (read de-clutter) the small room where the desk top computer is and she could sit and spin…

(Hi Tommy)

…while I compute. We would be accompanied by four dogs no doubt. Did I mention this room is about 10′ x 10′? But it’s not like either one of use would be moving, except for her feet and my fingers.

I think it would be good preparation for living in “The Home.”

Probably not much of a chance of this happening since de-cluttering isn’t in her genes. I think I could convince her to move it from one room to another.

Now if we only knew a good place to get Irish wool. The Irish knitter in my blogroll gets her wool from Nepal. Go figure.

I’m hoping I will get a nice cardigan and some wool booties to wear at “The Home.”

Either that or it will be CSI: Our House.

Again.

Oh Those Beautiful Viking Fashionistas

Published on April 21, 2008 in Education, Entertainment and Ireland. 0 Comments

Boomspeak.com added the perfect image to my post on their site about reenactors. The second one: the one where the Vikings are all beautiful and have fluffy pure white collars. I want to be one of those Viking reenactors.

Reenactors Need to Pick Their Battles Carefully.

Published on April 9, 2008 in Entertainment and Ireland. 4 Comments

Time for the big boys playing soldier to get active. The weather has turned nice, the ground will be drying out and all-in-all it’s a great time to be in the woods with explosives.
Reenactors tend to focus on the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Horses and gunpowder are the order of the day. Campfires and sleeping in tents are the order of the night. Mouthharps and fifes and drums. Fun stuff.
Redcoats and the Militiamen, the Damn Yankees and the Johnny Rebs, fought on American soil. When enough time has passed will WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq battles be reenacted?
I guess the peace generation hasn’t convinced anybody that wars are not games. Both sides lose - major losses.
If I was going to be a reenactor, I would have to go with being a Viking

Leif Ericson, Son of Eric the Red! ARGH. Brother and spouse and father of the Thors. Thorvaldr, Thorsteinn, Thorgunna, and Thorkell. Thors all over the place.
Vikings ate well. Lamb, veal, and potatoes. Their bellies were naturally round. Not like the Civil War reenactors who get their roundness from Budweiser.
Revolutionary and Civil War reenactors run around the woods and meadows, some on horseback.
Vikings built ships and screwed around on the ocean - or other large bodies of water, like fjords.
Vikings like to be clean, they bathed once a week, on Saturday. laugardagur/
laurdag/lørdag/lördag is Saturday in Vikingland. It means, “wash my back wench.”

After the Viking Warriors pillaged their way through a village, the villagers were often better off. The Vikes were shipbuilders and architects. If Charlatan Heston was alive then, he wouldn’t have been Moses, he would have been Thor. All Vikings were required to carry weapons. “Pry this axe from my cold dead fingers.”

Yeah, if I’m a reenactor, I’m a Viking. Except I would be Minnesota in July.

UPDATE: I was inspired by, but I couldn’t remember where I saw this picture, until today. Thanks, sorry for the tardy link.