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    Tuesday, November 25, 2008

    helping out at LosCon 35 - Costume Repair Station

    So, a couple of days ago, I started toying with the idea that since I'm already going to be at LosCon for the evening programming (to see my friends in the Lux Theater group perform), perhaps I could just hang out for the day at LosCon and even help out at the Costume Repair Station (CRS). And then when I checked the website's list of departments, I saw that a friend of mine is heading up the CRS, so I spontaneously decided to email her and find out if she needed help or not.

    And of course, she does. =)
    (Seriously, though, did I really expect her to say, "No, I don't need addtional help. I've got plenty of volunteers lined up"? LOL! I should know better =).

    Anyways, since I didn't really have any scheduled plans for the Friday (during the day), I've now decided to go ahead and help out at the CRS! Go me!

    And to think I've actually never yet been to LosCon (and now I'm going to be volunteering at it).
    =)

    Should be interesting!

    - - - -

    Details (for anyone interested in checking it out):

    LosCon35: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the LosCon"
    (THE LOS ANGELES REGIONAL SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION)
    http://www.loscon.org/35/

    Where: LAX Marriot Hotel,
    5855 W. Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045

    When: November 28-30, 2008

    $50 for the entire weekend;
    $25 for either Friday or Saturday; $20 forSunday;
    $10 for either Friday or Saturday night after 6pm.

    Fun things to see:
    -Friday night, after the ice cream social: Lux Theater presents anevening of musical theater
    -Saturday night, 8pm: Masquerade

    From the website:
    LVX Roman Theater
    LVX Presents: The XXXVth Annval Togie Awards!
    It’s “Comedy Tonight!” and so much more as we celebrate the best and brightest entertainment from the “Via Valde Niveus”. Experience this all-out musical spectacular with elaborate tributes and specialty numbers from today’s hottest shows and revivals of old favorites. Wear your best togas on the vestis rutilus and join us to see which astra of the theatrum will take home the coveted Togie statua!

    Monday, November 24, 2008

    Life without a Microwave

    So, for those of you who don't already know, back on November 2nd, my microwave died on me. Actually...it kinda went all haywire and started microwaving on its own, without any prompting from me or my roommate, the touch pad/buttons went dead and so did the screen.

    Finally, my roommate and I just unplugged the dang thing since we couldn't get it to shut off otherwise.

    Now here's the thing - we moved into this place and it already had a microwave. So seeing this microwave isn't ours and therefore not our responsibility to replace, I emailed the landlord that very night saying that the microwave is malfunctioning and we need him to check it out and possibly replace it.

    Over a week goes by with no response.

    Nada

    So on the 11th, I email the landlord asking if he got my previous email, and he *finally* responded (same day) with "What appears to be the problem with it?". OK. Fine. I'll explain in detail. (And so I did in my next email). After I sent that email, I got this in response: "Looks like an electronic problem. I will come-by to check it out and see if I need to replace it."

    Ok. Sure. Whatever. (Its totally broken, so he'll need to replace it - once he actually looks at it he'll see this fact real quick).


    So Jill & I waited to hear from him as to when he was going to show up (and hopefully give us a few minutes warning)...yet nothing came.



    Therefore, on the 20th of this month, I emailed the landlord again basically inquiring if he could give us an approximate time frame as for when he'd come by to check out the microwave.

    Didn't get a response.

    HOWEVER, on Saturday (11/22) afternoon, he suddenly showed up to check out the microwave. Without letting us know he was arriving, no less. And he barely knocked before letting himself in and calling out "hello?". So annoying! I was in the back of the condo busy with laundry, so it is hard to hear someone knocking or ringing the doorbell, but still. A phone call or email giving us the heads up BEFORE he came over would have been appreciated! (And I still find it unnerving that he just lets himself in).

    After he enters, I go back to my laundry and let him look at the microwave. He soon realizes its unplugged and plugs it back in...only he can't get it to come back 'online' and calls me over confused about it. I reexplain about how the microwave went berserk, and reiterate that the touch pad and screen went blank on us. So yes, it is broken. At this point, I leave him alone with the microwave to 'futz' around some more, and go back to my laundry. A little while later, I realize I haven't heard any noise from the front of the condo for a while, so I come around the corner and discover that at some point he left without saying a word. So I have NO idea if he's planning on buying a replacement microwave and coming back or what.

    Sheesh.

    In the meantime, its been interesting to figure out how to do things I'm normally used to cooking/reheating in the microwave. I've managed to reheat a few things fairly successfully using the stove and or the oven, but it certainly is different! =) (And of course takes longer, dirties more pans/pots/dishes, etc.)

    I'll be glad when I finally get a microwave again. But at least I do know that I can actually cook (or reheat) without a microwave. It's just annoying to not have one (especially when you get home late from work and want to quickly fix something for dinner).

    Oh well. Hopefully life will get back to 'normal' soon.
    =)

    White Christmas playing at the historic LA Theater!


    On Sunday December 7th at 2:00pm the Los Angeles Theater (a historic theater in downtown LA) will be showing "White Christmas" (1954). How fun is that? =)


    I am SO going! (And I'm going with some other costumers too).


    Now, if I can somehow manage to pull together a 1950s outfit in time, that will just be the icing on the cake. =)


    FYI - for others interested in coming along, tickets ($10/adult) can be purchased at the LA Conservancy website.



    Los Angeles Theater

    615 South Broadway, Downtown L.A.

    Tuesday, November 11, 2008

    Group Pic from Moorpark

    Oak Street Residents



    Here's a fun group pic taken on Saturday. (Not all of us made it into the photo, but at least a good number of us are present for this shot).



    The picture is from Curtis Neil's camera. (He also tweaked it to be Sepia toned).


    Isn't it just fun?!?
    =)

    an update on my injured arm...sorta

    Well, unfortunately, I do not have much of an update at this point. But I thought I'd post *something*.
    =)

    My arm still hurts (of course!), and I'm still waiting for a call back from the Doctor's office to see when they can fit me in to see him. So...I'm currently in a holding pattern, taking pain meds (advil) every few hours, keeping my arm in a sling, icing my elbow (occasionally), and attempting to get some actual work done.

    Thats pretty much it for now.

    the New Civil War Boots have Arrived!

    Finally, my long awaited new Civil War boots have arrived! Yes!!!






    Here's a another of picture of them.




    On the bright side - now that the Season is over for Civil War reenacting (a few months break at least), I have a bit of time to break them in before I really need to use them.

    =)

    Monday, November 10, 2008

    Link to Interview (Ventura County Star)

    Here's a link to a video interview I gave to the Ventura County Star (Newspaper) on Sunday, November 9th at my Moorpark Civil War event.

    http://gallery.venturacountystar.com/video.cfm?VideoID=652

    I re-injured my arm...again

    I will leave to another/future post my update on the entire weekend of my Civil War event at Moorpark (which I just got back from late last night), and will just give you the details of why I'm re-injured...again.

    It does seem like I get injured at pretty much each event. Why? I don't know. Just do.

    This time, I was not rushing anywhere or anything, but walking from the van (where I just dropped off items to be packed into it) to the tent to get another load of personal items to go into the van. And as I passed the ice chests sitting off to the right of my direct path to the tent, I felt my right ankle hit a metal rod (rod was at a diagonal angle) and as my momentum forward was suddenly halted, the rod hit the back of my left angle a split second later...and I was pitched forward onto my knees and of course, my extended arms. At which point my injury prone left arm (from my hurting it in 2007 - I had badly sprained the ligaments around the elbow) decided to dislocate as I hit the ground. Obviously, I was in a lot of pain. I don't cry a lot when I in pain...except for yesterday. Yesterday was painful enough that tears (sobs really) were definitely flowing. Lana had to calm down my breathing since I was getting close to hyperventilating. (Lana was one of the first to reach me and hold me up). They quickly got an ice pack on my arm, got me advil and water, and made a makeshift sling (out of an apron) for my arm (thanks Jen R), but I knew something was wrong cause I couldn't bend my arm back into the 'neutral' bent positing like I could last time I injured my arm. So we just sat there while I tried not to move and to calm down a bit. Eventually, when I indicated that I wanted to attempt to get up off the chilly ground...as I was now shivering from the cold and shock...two of the guys hovering nearby (Jeff and a gentleman from nearby who's name I can't recall right now) helped me slowly to my feet. And while they were carefully raising me (like from under my armpits), my left arm shifted and I felt my elbow pop back into place...and I could move my arm back to the 'neutral' bent position again. Wonderful! And that's when I really knew that I had indeed dislocated my elbow (and not just suspected it).

    Obviously, I was still in a lot of pain, and no way to drive the van home. (Plus, my glasses broke/got bent in my fall - to the point they are currently unwearable). So Jenn Mulvey (who rides with me in the van to events) got to drive us back to Garden Grove to drop off the van. After we made it back, my brother Kyle and my mom helped me get my personal items into my vehicle, and then mom drove me home (Kyle following). They both helped me get my stuff up into my place (since being only one handed I couldn't handle the crates or my small wooden trunk), and then Kyle drove them back. (Thank You!!!)

    I got to shower, take more advil (and vicadin from my old prescription...had a couple of pills left), ice my elbow down, and go to bed. And I slept for like 9 hours.

    Good Thing I already took today off so I could 'recover' from my weekend. I normally work very hard (a lot of intense physical labor at these events...constantly). I'm busy from when I arrive to set up till when I'm driving away (except for a few hours I get to sleep at night). And in between set-up/tear down...I'm busy standing or walking (and moving cast iron pots and hauling buckets of water, etc.). So even without dislocating my elbow yesterday, I'm quite tired. My original plan for today was to 'rest' and put things away from the weekend, do laundry...which I will still try to do, but now I'm also going to try to see my Orthopedic doctor to have him check out my arm (since I re-injured the same arm from before - its now more prone to injury since I first injured it in 2007). Only thing is I called and there's like 5 people ahead of me in the 'waiting to see the doctor w/o an appointment for today' list. So we'll see if they call me in today. Would be nice since I'd like to see him soon since I just injured the arm and I live close to the doctor's office and I have today off. If I have to go tomorrow (or later), I'll have to take more time off of work and drive further (if I'm coming from the office). Oh well. Whatever happens.

    And now I'd better stop writing and get myself something to eat...and some laundry started (and rest again).

    Oh, and to all of my HCA members/friends (and any other reenactors) who helped me yesterday on site that I haven't already mentioned. Thank You! I really appreciated your help.
    =)

    Wednesday, November 05, 2008

    musings on writing mock-period recipes

    Ok, since I was asked to contribute a recipe (or receipt, as they were still known in print during the 1860s) to the Oak Street Weekly, I've had a hard time focusing on what to write....until this afternoon! (When I should be working on real work stuff, of course!)

    What *I'd* ideally like to submit is a mock-period recipe. Basically write up my own recipe but in the style (and prose) of the originals. And that's where I was having my hang up. I couldn't figure out what to write or where to start. But suddenly, as I was looking at an original Custard Pudding (sauce) recipe from 1845 (which I want to try out one of these days!), I finally got the inspiration I needed to write up one of my own recipes. Yes!

    I settled on writing up my chicken stew recipe. I'm about half way through. Got the basics done, and now I just need to add in the bit about the vegetables, and then I'm done! Whew! (Of course I'll still need to submit it to the Editor of the Oak Street Weekly so that it actually gets printed! =)


    (And yes, I'll post my final mock-period recipe later...although there's a chance that the final print version of the Oak Street Weekly may start appearing online at our group's website. http://www.historicalcitizens.org I hope so! =)

    Adventures in Ordering Reproduction Mid-19th Century Shoes

    So, back in July (end of the month), I ordered from a Civil War supply company that I've ordered from plenty of times and had good service from in the past.

    I had finally decided to order a good pair of reproduction Civil War (women's) boots, and went with the Brown boots to do something different (and since their online catalog said they offered both brown and black). Well, I placed my order online, after verifying that the sizes ran true and not small/large, and everything seemed jake.

    However, a day or so later, I got a call from the company saying that they didn't stock the brown boots cause no one ever ordered them...so they had to be special ordered! Ugh! I had purposely placed my order at the end of July so that there would be time to get the shipment before my (then) next Civil War Event...Huntington Beach. (I wanted time to break in the shoes before the event, after all). So since there was nothing I could do about it, I had to write off getting new shoes in time for my event (oh well!), and just move on. (Which I did).

    My event comes and goes, and then September rolls around and I realize that I haven't heard from the company regarding a status update on my order. That's odd, I think. So I send them an email through their website requesting a status update on my order. Never got a response. Zip.

    Fortunately - I have not been charged at this point. So its not like I've paid yet for an item that I haven't gotten. But it IS a bit annoying by now that I've not heard back from them.

    So I wait a bit longer and October rolls around. At this point I finally call them asking if they lost my order . They said no, but they expect to get the boots in from the manufacturer in their next shipment...which they estimate will be the following week. They will send me an email with the tracking number once the order ships, etc. I say ok, and let it go with that.

    Only thing - still nothing by the end of October! So I call again. This time, the gal who answers the phone and checks on my order says the shipment from the manufacturer (with my boots) is arrving on the 3rd or 4th of November. So I should be receiving a notice of my impending shipment sometime the 2nd week of November.

    Ugh!

    And guess what? I *finally* got my notice that my order placed 4 months ago has FINALLY shipped! What drama! At least I'm getting my order...at last. Too bad it is going to arrive AFTER my big Civil War event that is this weekend. The estimated delivery day is the Monday following my event. Oh well. I could have used the new boots. (Although wearing unbroken in boots to an event might not have been that pleasant either). I guess that just means I now have plenty of time to break in the new boots for next year's events (and our first Civil War event probably won't be till February).
    =)