Ren-nerding and a cuteness.
November 16, 2008
Filed under:Lotso Pics
Been a while, but I always say that don’t I?
Lots goes on, but meh, if it’s that important I’ll email you about it. Mostly, I play with kids and work lots and sometimes I even get to go to the park and fly a kite.
Then, occasionally I get my juice up and get createy. I get leather scraps and a stitcher and some scissors and a lumpish half-formed idea and I make something for my reenactment stuff. Latest, I made boots. And they’re actually kind of cool.
The Scottish Highland Fest in Armadale wanted us back again this year and was giving us timeslots for 3 shows, which was awesome, and then the club folks thought we should do a Dark Ages nod to Scotland and asked if anyone wanted to be King Macbeth. Much like the old Gomer Pyle shows, where the entire unit takes a step back and it looks like he’s just volunteered, I got picked.
I’m totally kidding, I poked my little patty up in the air straightaway and hopped up and down while shouting “Ooo! Ooo! Me! Meeeeeeeee!!” The gave my current Celtic outfit a once-over and were all “Um, you need to clean yourself up a bit, if you’re going to be a king. Maybe have a shower too.”
I’m kidding again. They figured that the leather armour and the new shield I made (yep, from scratch, ‘cept I didn’t cut down the tree for the wood - not that kind of scratch) would make me alright, but there’d need to be a new tunic to be all kingly and not the Celtic White Trash that I was previously. I figured I could knock something together, but with fancy braiding and such it might make me curse a lot and punch stationary things. That’s where my sis-in-law Roni stepped in and, once again, rocked so hard that I would offer to marry her, or at least lift heavy things for her, if I weren’t already married to and lifting heavy things for another.
(Photo courtesy of Leanne Petersohn)
Can’t see ‘em, but I made some leg armour too. Looks pretty slick, but when I drew the Celtic knotwork pattern on the leather I used the only Sharpie I could find, a red one. Then I carved out the design and went to wipe off the Sharpie with a scrubber. The resulting effect is a nice inlaid over-under knotwork, in pink. Took some extensive cleaning and a little bit of explaining to the other warrior types.
(Photo courtesy of Leanne Petersohn)
Here’s my brother-in-law Sam, as “Hamish” the dryly sarcastic and rebellious Highlander, who continually evades the law and anything resembling a good nature. During one of the shows, he and I argue about cattle thievery before fighting a bit and my kicking him squarely in the balls (not really, Ron would never forgive me).
(Photo courtesy of Leanne Petersohn)
I changed outfits between shows and became significantly more comfortable if not more stylish as well. Thems the boots I made this week too.
(Photo courtesy of Jax Telford)
This is yet another epic battle between the Scottish Highlanders and the hated English officers. I forget how it started, but winner got to be first in line at AJ’s Ice Cream truck and I got bubblegum flavoured.
(Photo courtesy of Jax Telford)
Me and “Hamish” disagreeing with the idea that he can use his sword to lop my head off only after I’ve put mine up his bum.
(Photo courtesy of Leanne Petersohn)
Matt (left) is “Captain Doyle”, an English officer and Bill (right) is “Roberts” another officer of a slightly higher rank (I forget). If you look close, you can see that on the white mantle around Matt’s neck there’s some lace, making it look quite fancy and earning him the nickname “Captain Doyl-ee” (and yeah, I gave it to him).
(Photo courtesy of Leanne Petersohn)
More of the Dapper Doc, being dry and sarcastic again. Highlight of the Show was him fighting an officer of the Crown (Bill) who was an old mate of Hamish’s. They swordfight while continually trading insults and threats until Hamish accidentally kills him. It was a beaut. My favourite line was Bill, after smacking away Sam’s weapon and in a perfect Northern English accent “Now Hay-mish, I doon’t went to hert ya!” To which Sam replied by screaming “You’re doin’ a bloody poor job of showin’ it!” and then charged at him angrily. Bill’s response, “I doon’t went ya to hert me aye-ther!” while Hamish pummeled him and took his sword.
Classic.
(Photo courtesy of Leanne Petersohn)
Me and Captain Doyle get into it. We clang and bang for a while and then he tried to headbutt me, only to injure himself. He stumbled away and punch-drunkenly announced, “Never headbutt a Scotsman!” The crowd liked this, so I played up the thickness of my skull for ‘em. Not that this needs played up…
(Photo courtesy of Leanne Petersohn)
One of the final fights of the show, where most of the English officers stumble upon us Jacobites at our camp. We fought well, though I can’t really vouch for that as I was clearly dead on the ground. So maybe Sam fought well. Maybe he ends up dead on the ground with me, I don’t remember, but that kind of thing happens a lot to he and I. I did kill the fella on the ground next to me, I think.
All up though, it was a great day. There were lots of stalls and some athletics and a “Bad Piper” in a leather kilt with a bleached mohawk. Not quite the Estes Park Highlands Fest that I’m used to, but it was still a blast to be a part of the performances.
And Yes, before you ask, I did NOT go commando under the kilt. Knowing I’d end up like I did in the picture above, I didn’t want to give the kids in the front row too much of an early education in anatomy.
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This is just a side bit, of cuteness and stuff that I haven’t had the time to put together from all the different cameras and phones and other image-capturing devices.
(Photo courtesy of me, and BOY am I courteous!)
Jadey loves cuddling fuzzy things and rubbing her face in them. She also likes random hugs. When George is wearing her fuzzy bathrobe, it’s win-win for the Bug.
This one I’d forgotten about, and is part of a series that I’d taken while we were babysitting Corbin. He’s Ron and Sam’s youngest, to refresh your memories, and NO he isn’t doing a Jay Leno impression, hiding softball-sized acorns or stung by mutant killer bees. Its a lymphangeoma, and blah blah medical-sounding crap. He’s beautiful and likes when I steal his nose.
This one is a video I just got in the back yard this evening and captured on my phone. Jadey has watched me blow bubles before, months ago, and worked the lid off the bottle herself. I saw her from across the yard going “pfft! pfft!” on the empty plastic rings, somehow remembering that was sort of what you do.
As you can see, she can’t quite keep from putting it sort of in her mouth, and then nods about the great taste of soap suds. She’s ever-enamoured with seeing herself in video, so once she notices she can see herself in the little display on the phone, she really starts to perform.
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That’s all for now. Take care of yourselves and do something interesting within the next few days. If it’s something that I would’ve done, and enjoyed, then write me and tell me about it. I love stories.
Smooches.