I don't suffer from insanity,

Lessee, aside from the normal work stuff and week night relaxing, what has been going on?

On the costuming front, I've almost completed the pink regency. The bodice is completely hand sewn and looks great. The fit is pretty good, although the neckline I'm kind of "eh" about. I think the next regency will not be drawstring, although I do adore the wrinkled front effect - I'm so much more fond of early Regency and Directoire than late Regency. I've been working on the dress during my lunch breaks at the University. One of the hugest benefits of working with an office full of politically correct, truly considerate psychologists and counselors is that although they may look at my hobby with curiosity, they are constrained by habit and profession not to judge me on it. Heh. Ok, at least not vocally. ^_~

Plus, when one actually considers the hobby of costuming, it does have a certain degree of artistic mystique. Which is really odd to me since I've never really considered myself an artist. Probably because I don't really come up with any of it on my own - I pretty much always use a pattern. However, on a college campus, costuming is art. Whee!

After the pink regency I think it will be time for me to work on something Victorian again. Well, and finish up the silver 1878 Victorian. It still needs trim and an over-skirt. The next Victorian will be later, like 1885-ish, I think. I fell in love with my sister's bustle when I saw her in it at Candlelight in December. She looked fabulous. So I need to make a bustle, and then of course an outfit to go with it! I've still got tons of that silver, plus a darker, charcoal gray of the same material, so I'll probably go with that stuff. I love it anyway!

Another amusing thing on the work front is that as an office we're participating in the Live Healthy Dallas 100 Day Challenge. We have too many people that wanted to participate so our office has two teams. The most fun part about it are the names we came up with for the two teams: Pink Freud and Jung at Heart. Hehe. I love puns!

So, over all, the new job is going quite well. There is a certain harmony in this office that is unlike anything I ever expected (or experienced, for that matter), and I really like it. We have been having horrendous problems with the network and our main shared hard drive, so much so that it's finally been escalated to the Big Powers That Be, which says a lot since it's a government bureaucracy, heh.

I don't have as much free time as I did at the shop, but there are slow moments from time to time. The only melancholy part of course is how much I miss Miriam. Luckily I've been able to call her occasionally (and need to again soon!), so that tie hasn't been completely lost. Most of the others from the shop I can at least "see" on World of Warcraft, and I get some chatting with them there.

Matt's been really busy lately with helping re-start the Gaelic League here in Dallas. I'm pretty excited, because some of my most fun memories are of the Irish Immersion Weekends that we went to, and the cielis those evenings. So. Much. Fun. So much so that we had the Denton Celtic Dancers come to the party after we got married and teach my family how to dance. Heh. So, now we go to Irish Classes on Saturdays, or at least every other Saturday, at this charming book store near the Tipperary Inn in Dallas. Like we have so much spare time on Saturdays! But it's worth it! :D Of course, Matt volunteered to do the website, I think it's because he just loves doing them, heh.

And in that vein, the DFW Costuming Guild site is back up and has events posted. It's almost completely back to where it was, with the exception of the fact that I need to recover my own photos so that I can get them back up there.

For those of you interested, the steam punk lecture is February 9th at 2PM at the Dallas Public Library. I'll get directions up as the day draws closer. It should be a really fun lecture! I'm totally looking forward to it. ^_^

Oh, and GURPS on 4th Saturdays at my older brother Rob's house has resumed. Hooray! So I get to see at least three of my five siblings once a month again. Annie, if you want, you could totally come and hang out. We don't game the whole time! Come to our house and I'll drive if you don't want to drive the whole way.

Ok, that's pretty much it for now! It got a lot longer than I expected, as usual. ^_^

Annie, I found those pictures of Lex at the Irish Festival with the wolfhounds!! I knew he'd pop up in my perceptions again when faire rolled around. I don't know what the photographer's rules are regarding his work but I'm pretty sure he won't mind links...

http://www.pbase.com/paul42/image/56880243

I really like this one:

http://www.pbase.com/paul42/image/56880245

Heh. And you getting kisses:

http://www.pbase.com/paul42/image/56880247






The photographer is Photography On The Run, and is very well known out at the faire.

This weekend was a blast.

Myself, my husband, my sister annawick, and my girlfriend left after work on Friday around 6pm and headed down to San Antonio for the Dawn At The Alamo ceremony. We arrived in San Antonio at 11pm. It was a fun drive, with conversations wide and varied. I can't think of three people I'd rather spend ten hours in a car with than these three. Easily my three most favorite people in the world. We found our hotel, a Travellodge, which was about five (maybe six) blocks away from the Alamo itself.

Matt woke us all up at 4am and we left the lodge at about 4:45am to walk to the Alamo. The walk there was quiet and cheerful, even though we were working with only 4 hours of sleep. It was a beautiful, temparate morning; a little cool, but nice. There were some scattered, light clouds in the sky, which made for a gorgeous dawn. The chapel at the Alamo faces the west, and during the memorial service, we watched the sun rise behind it.

It was a really neat event. Matt took some pictures, and they're in our gallery: Dawn At The Alamo

Looking back, I think we should have stayed the whole day because I think we missed a lot of the day's planned events. However, we wanted to go to Irish Festival, so we left directly after the ceremony.

Irish Festival was fun this year, too, although since we were so tired from the ten hours in the car and the four hours of sleep, we left a little earlier than usual. We watched Jim Flanagan perform, one of mine and Matt's favorites. He's got a great voice, and a very charming and humorous stage presence. We also watched a new band (well, new to us) called The Elders. Pretty good celtic-rock type band. Matt picked up one of their CDs.

annawick and I ran into wyshadara at Irish Festival. It was neat seeing her there. I got to meet Scott, and her puppy. Both super cute. Sorry I ran off so suddenly! That ladybug needed rescuing. ;)

I think next year, since the 6th will fall on a Sunday, we'll go to Irish Fest first thing, then leave the festival at about 4pm to head to San Antonio. That way we can spend pretty much the entire day there enjoying the activities and memorial events.