Pennsic Wednesday 2006-08-16
Last night the slider of the zipper on my sleeping bag broke - metal fatigue. The zipper had been cranky for the past several nights, tending to split open below the zipper slide where it's supposed to be zipped closed. The slider was open too wide to make the zipper mesh properly, but squeezing the slider back together with pliers helped. Until last night. This sleeping bag is at least 20 years old. I bought it when I was performing at the New York RennFest with elissaann. It's a shame to have the zipper fail when the rest of the bag still has a lot of life left in it. (I guess there must be zipper-repair kits out there someplace....)
Today's classes:
09:00Fiber Arts: EmbroideryLaidwork and Couching: the Stitch that Made History [cancelled]
09:00ClothingGaranimal Garb
10:00
nothing interesting!
11:00Scribal ArtsHow to Make Oak Gall Ink
12:00BeadworkPeriod Machine-washable Beadwork Embroidery
14:00Culture: MongolianMongol Influences on the Early Renaissance
15:00
everything of interest was 2 hours long 8-(
16:00
Pennsic choir rehearsal
The machine-washable bead-embroidery class did happen today, although the instructor was late (the camp shuttles didn't run as frequently as usual - probably a driver taking a lunch break) and we were worried. The class is normally limited to 15, but she stretched that because many people who missed out yesterday came again. She had plenty of supplies this time. The size of the class was unwieldy, but the material didn't require the whole 2 hours allotted on the schedule, so even with starting late there was time to give enough attention to everyone who needed it. anniemal didn't come back for the beading class today. She took Beginning Wire Weaving instead. She had to choose between that and a conflicting 4-hour sequence of Beginning and Intermediate Reticella (16th-century needle lace). I took a wire-weaving class last year. This one had better supplies than the one I took, although no one warned the instructor how popular the subject would be. (It took me 3 tries to get into the class last year, and my class was over its limit - maybe that's why our supplies were lacking.)
I saw the dreaded David at the Oak-Gall Ink class. I wouldn't have recognized him if he hadn't spoken. I did notice him - he's got an odd gait, an unkempt appearance, and garb that seems to have a message but doesn't manage to convey it - but I didn't realize who he was. (I hadn't seen him (to my knowledge) in 2 years.) anniemal said she's seen him earlier this week, but I don't think I have. He seems to be one of those people who is compelled to make comments in all situations. His comments in this class were about ink-making minutiae that were not suited to the level of the class. Some of them were off base, and the instructor was clearly annoyed, but tolerant. (Clear to everyone but David anyway.)
The Mongol Influences class was interesting material, but the presenter was dull. He didn't have handouts either, but he took email addresses to provide them later.
Conflicting classes of interest to me:
09:00Clothing: EuropeanBut Not in Spain - 13thC Christian Clothing
09:00Herbs & GardensMedieval Medicine: Herbs
11:00Literature & PoetryElizabethan Fairies
12:00HistoryThe Wives of Henry VIII
13:00Jewelry: ManufactureBeginning Wire Weaving
14:00Scribal ArtsIllumination: Simple to Complex
14:00 History The Creation of the Biblical Canon
14:00Fiber Arts: EmbroideryThe Llangorse Crannog Embroidery
14:00Culture: JapaneseThe Japanese Cult of Death
Wolgemut gave a concert this evening after the choir rehearsal. I saw David again there. They have interaction with the audience, and David again tossed out a comment. It was severely lame, and Mischa brushed it aside. There was another comment later from David's direction that was funny, but I wasn't sure whether it came from him.
We may have had a heart attack at our camp. Hardly anyone was around when I got back from the Wolgemut concert. Our land agent had gone off to the hospital by ambulance with her partner, with a couple more family members following in a car. We got an SMS text message that she would be OK. She's staying at the hospital overnight for observation, and the others got back close to midnight. I haven't heard any details yet.
Breakfast was ziti left over from last night's dinner. I was delighted to discover that the OJ left from Baitcon 2005 (3 jugs came to Pennsic last year and this one went back home) was still OK to drink. (So Tropicana OJ has a good shelf life in a cool, dark place.) Today's dinner was chilli. We haven't had any vegetables with dinner the last two evenings.
My big 12v battery has dropped close to 11v, and my inverter is shutting off to prevent damaging the battery. This is inconvenient, but I still have a spare charged battery for my iBook, and there's a spare charged battery for the Dell laptop. I don't think anniemal has used her iBook all week. We have plenty of charged NiMH AA cells for flashlights and my digital camera. (We have a couple of 12v AA/AAA rechargers, but we should be fine without them for 4 days.) My cell phone has run down, so I'm not able to recharge it. I'm wondering whether we've used the 12v battery more this year that last, or whether I failed to charge it fully before we left home.
Tonight was Midnight Madness, when most of the vendors are open late, and many of them have special pricing. anniemal and I wandered around, but we didn't buy anything. I don't really seem to be into the shopping - yet.