Chitter Chatter Summer Edition (2021)

[Ryrin]

 

Are you enjoying summer?

 

We are buying a house. It’s supposed to close by Tuesday! Fingers crossed.

 

It’s an older house with hardwood floors, a fireplace, and new flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms. The best thing about it is that it has a built in pool! Oh, there is a lemon tree and other fruit trees plus grape vines.

 

I’m trying to move while I have lateral & medial tears in my meniscus. I have a good friend that is helping me.

 

[LilyElizabeth]

That's so exciting!

 

Please take it as easy as you can. I wouldn't want your injuries to get worse. 

[Ryrin]

Thanks, Lily! I am. 

[LadyWordsmith]

Your new house sounds wonderful! Take care of yourself, so you can enjoy it once you get all moved in! ?

So far we are also enjoying summer. We built a shed in the back yard, which pulls some things out of the garage. We have gotten the paint to paint the back fence, and we have gotten a back-yard trampoline (still in the box until the fence is painted), to give us some at-home enjoyable exercise. 

Now that we are ALL vaccinated (including the 15 year old!) we are going to an SCA event at the end of the month, where I can finally deliver the two commissions I finished March of '2020' (one of them will be entered in the Arts and Sciences Competition there before the recipient takes possession. ? ) . Activities have reopened as long as we are outdoors, masked, not sharing food, etc.... (in limited numbers until July) so we are slowly reacclimating ourselves to hanging out with folks (And the weather because the heat roared in late and hard. It was 106 two days ago with the humidity!). 

Yesterday locally we had a weaving class and I 'finally' learned how to warp a small loom for card weaving! Proud of myself. As much as I love the beautiful of fiber arts, I generally am awful at things that involve three-dimensional movement. I'm better at flat art (like painting. ? ). 

 

[Wren of the Brown]

Boop!

[Ryrin]

17 hours ago, Wren of the Brown said:

Boop!

Wren!!! ❤️
 

 

How are you! Tell us what’s happening in your life!

 

 

[Ryrin]

On 6/13/2021 at 12:37 PM, LadyWordsmith said:

Your new house sounds wonderful! Take care of yourself, so you can enjoy it once you get all moved in! ?

So far we are also enjoying summer. We built a shed in the back yard, which pulls some things out of the garage. We have gotten the paint to paint the back fence, and we have gotten a back-yard trampoline (still in the box until the fence is painted), to give us some at-home enjoyable exercise. 

Now that we are ALL vaccinated (including the 15 year old!) we are going to an SCA event at the end of the month, where I can finally deliver the two commissions I finished March of '2020' (one of them will be entered in the Arts and Sciences Competition there before the recipient takes possession. ? ) . Activities have reopened as long as we are outdoors, masked, not sharing food, etc.... (in limited numbers until July) so we are slowly reacclimating ourselves to hanging out with folks (And the weather because the heat roared in late and hard. It was 106 two days ago with the humidity!). 

Yesterday locally we had a weaving class and I 'finally' learned how to warp a small loom for card weaving! Proud of myself. As much as I love the beautiful of fiber arts, I generally am awful at things that involve three-dimensional movement. I'm better at flat art (like painting. ? ). 

 

I’d love to learn weaving with an inkle loom!!

[Ryrin]

I’m outta the rental!

[LilyElizabeth]

Yay!

[LadyWordsmith]

Fantastic! Have fun settling in and making the new place yours. ?

[Wren of the Brown]

12 hours ago, Ryrin said:

Wren!!! ❤️
 

 

How are you! Tell us what’s happening in your life!

 

 

 

Oof. Where do I start?

 

I've been staying at an LGBT farm in Colorado and am going to Ohio for the summer. I'm off-and-on in grad school as I can find time and resources, but it's not a priority. Gonna take a firefighting course in Ohio, and I start working in a bakery next week!

 

How's you?

[LadyWordsmith]

So about a month ago, the city animal shelter put out a desperate call for adoptions and fosters (They are nearly double their intake limit and the numbers have not dropped for months even with plenty of animals going 'out' too.....) so my son and I (my husband was stuck at a work thing) drove over to the chaos and picked out two new babies to add to the family (yeah, this brings us to six cats, but that's my max so. ? ).  

[LilyElizabeth]

Congratulations! They are beautiful!

[LadyWordsmith]

Thank you! They are fun little boys. ? The dark brown tabby is Fawkes, and the light orange and white is Griffin. 

[LilyElizabeth]

I have the urge to adopt another kitten, but my cats are 17 years old, and deserve peace, not being harassed by a kitten. 

[LadyWordsmith]

That's understandable. ? If they would not enjoy having younger cats around it is probably best. My eldest girls were incredibly patient when we brought home new kittens, but they were rare among cats that way. (They also didn't put up with crap. Kittens learned immediately that messing with old queens is a dumb idea). 

[LadyWordsmith]

Well, just checking in. How's everyone doing?

Back at work gearing up for the school year (our students come back August 30th). Spent three days out of town last week up at our actual school office (where about 60% of our teachers actually go in sometimes) for professional development and various team meetings. It's honestly pretty fun. ? Since all the meetings are directly applicable to what we do with our students and not stuff that could have been an email. We also did fun things like tie-dye 10th anniversary school t-shirts (last year was Year 10, but we couldn't get together for tie-dye last year, so we did it this year. ? ). 

My son wishes summer was longer. He's a HS Junior this year! (I'm planning his 16th Birthday and wondering where my little kindergartener went). 

Kittens feel totally settled in, much to the sometimes chill and sometimes begrudging feelings of my adult cats. 

Relaxing mostly by painting and catching up on new anime and books while I wait eagerly for Wheel of Time in November (and Lackey's The Last Herald-Mage trilogy has been optioned for a TV show too! My teenage book-to-tv dreams may all become reality yet. We just need to compete the trifecta with someone doing an awesome version of Dragonriders of Pern). 

[LilyElizabeth]

Hi Lady!

 

That sounds like a lot of fun! It's good to get together with your co-workers, especially when you don't see them often. I'm glad your kitties are settling in. 

 

I'm on PTO this week, and enjoying my time off. I'm getting a jump on the new semester and relaxing. I'm also spending time with the family. I'm only on day two but it's going well. 

 

How is everyone else doing?

[Ryrin]

Well, we are all settled in. A few boxes are left and some organizing g to do. 
 

My sister and brother in law came to visit. We had so much fun! We went to Big Sur, Sequoia National Park, and Bass Lake. My sister is coming again on 9/9!

 

I’ve been spending time in my pool, with my doggies, and reading.

[Ryrin]

On 7/1/2021 at 5:17 AM, Wren of the Brown said:

 

Oof. Where do I start?

 

I've been staying at an LGBT farm in Colorado and am going to Ohio for the summer. I'm off-and-on in grad school as I can find time and resources, but it's not a priority. Gonna take a firefighting course in Ohio, and I start working in a bakery next week!

 

How's you?

Wow! I didn’t know there was such a thing but the farm sounds wonderful! What did you do in Ohio? My nephew lives there.

 

Grad school will always be there. 

Firefighting school? Why? My youngest son became a Fire Lt. at age 23.

 

Tell us about the bakery? How did that come about?

[Ryrin]

13 hours ago, LadyWordsmith said:

Well, just checking in. How's everyone doing?

Back at work gearing up for the school year (our students come back August 30th). Spent three days out of town last week up at our actual school office (where about 60% of our teachers actually go in sometimes) for professional development and various team meetings. It's honestly pretty fun. ? Since all the meetings are directly applicable to what we do with our students and not stuff that could have been an email. We also did fun things like tie-dye 10th anniversary school t-shirts (last year was Year 10, but we couldn't get together for tie-dye last year, so we did it this year. ? ). 

My son wishes summer was longer. He's a HS Junior this year! (I'm planning his 16th Birthday and wondering where my little kindergartener went). 

Kittens feel totally settled in, much to the sometimes chill and sometimes begrudging feelings of my adult cats. 

Relaxing mostly by painting and catching up on new anime and books while I wait eagerly for Wheel of Time in November (and Lackey's The Last Herald-Mage trilogy has been optioned for a TV show too! My teenage book-to-tv dreams may all become reality yet. We just need to compete the trifecta with someone doing an awesome version of Dragonriders of Pern). 

Kitties are so cute!

[Ryrin]

I know the Kin comes later in the books but I wonder how they will be portrayed???

[LadyWordsmith]

7 hours ago, Ryrin said:

I know the Kin comes later in the books but I wonder how they will be portrayed???

  

I'm wondering the same thing about a lot of things, but I am really loving these visuals. When I was first reading them in the '90s (when I was in high school and early college) about all I had in my head from the descriptions were very... Well, European fantasy looking designs. They've run with the setting and made it more 'other' in various ways and it's very cool. 

I am enjoying the costume choices that involve functional pants on basically every woman, even if she's also wearing an over-skirt of some kind. 

Also that cage they have Logain in in that one screen-shot..! (And his expression, wow). 

I hope they do something awesome with the Kin. Then maybe we can do some Kin Cosplay and be recognizable. ? 

I have a gorgeous Amyrlin Stole out of silk yarn that my sister-in-law crocheted for me years ago. Have dreamed of making the right dress to go with it. The only thing I currently have is purple Early Tudor, and it's regal enough, but not really right to the place. I'm going to have to see what they have Siuan and Egwene (eventually) in! 

Ryrin - Pool, dogs, and reading sounds awesome. I'm glad you're getting to enjoy time with your sister too!

Lily - PTO is awesome! I'm glad you're getting to relax some and get ahead too. 

[Wren of the Brown]

On 8/18/2021 at 2:17 PM, Ryrin said:

Wow! I didn’t know there was such a thing but the farm sounds wonderful! What did you do in Ohio? My nephew lives there.

 

Grad school will always be there. 

Firefighting school? Why? My youngest son became a Fire Lt. at age 23.

 

Tell us about the bakery? How did that come about?

 

Well, a lot of things fell through the cracks. -_-;;

I tried to enroll in the volunteer firefighting certification course but the college didn't have the necessary equipment for me to test gear competency. You (or your host department) had to provide your own. Since I'm not attached to a department, I didn't have the equipment. -_-;;

The bakery also fell through and that was a miscommunication from the temp agency. I was under the impression the job would have been held for me as soon as I got to Ohio. That was not the case. -_-;;

 

I found a temporary gig that lasted for a few weeks, and I just enrolled at the community college. The college and I are also seriously talking about hiring me as an English professor as well as working as a tutor in their writing center. ?

I came to Ohio for lots of reasons. Colorado is super expensive now and I can't keep up with the changing demands. I'm also loosing family, and I wanted to be closer to them for the remaining time that we have. That was a difficult decision to make but ultimately, I feel closer to home than I have in decades.

[Ryrin]

3 hours ago, Wren of the Brown said:

 

Well, a lot of things fell through the cracks. -_-;;

I tried to enroll in the volunteer firefighting certification course but the college didn't have the necessary equipment for me to test gear competency. You (or your host department) had to provide your own. Since I'm not attached to a department, I didn't have the equipment. -_-;;

The bakery also fell through and that was a miscommunication from the temp agency. I was under the impression the job would have been held for me as soon as I got to Ohio. That was not the case. -_-;;

 

I found a temporary gig that lasted for a few weeks, and I just enrolled at the community college. The college and I are also seriously talking about hiring me as an English professor as well as working as a tutor in their writing center. ?

I came to Ohio for lots of reasons. Colorado is super expensive now and I can't keep up with the changing demands. I'm also loosing family, and I wanted to be closer to them for the remaining time that we have. That was a difficult decision to make but ultimately, I feel closer to home than I have in decades.

 
Well, sometimes disappointments lead to better things, yes?