This weekend was rather pleasant. I drove out to Pierre with Baroness Josceline, Iohanna, and Alissende, none of whom I knew particularly well. I was a little concerned that it would be a strained car trip - 9 hours each way is an awfully long trip with near strangers - but it was perfectly comfortable and pleasant and we chatted and learned from each other and generally got along quite well. I would happily travel again with them!

The event itself also went well. My understanding of what His Majesty wanted for the tourney changed a couple times between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, but in the end he was able to set me straight and things went off without a hitch. Yes, I did track the tourney tree on my tablet, with a paper "back-up" that was given to the victor. Yes, the PDF of the tree is already posted to the impending MOT website (which should be officially published sometime in the next few days) and to the Kingdom Chronicler for publication in the November Northwatch.

The tourney was clean and fun. The combatants were at times noticeably intense, but also remembered to play and keep the crowd appraised of when and why blows were called or not called. There were moments of laughter (Hroder yelled out something like "Avocado!" to startle his opponent at one point), amusement (Vlad limboed under a marshall stick just before one of his bouts.. in full armor.. and it was held rather low!), and chivalry (in the finals, Hroder chose as his preferred weapons style sword and shield saying something to the effect of "if I can't beat you at this, I don't deserve to sit the thrones"; sword and shield is Lars' preferred weapons style and he acknowledged Hroder's courage by forfeiting his "extra" victory (Lars came through the "victor's" bracket and had not lost a bout; Hroder has lost one bout - to Lars in the second to last round - and therefore by strict double-elim rules would have needed to defeat Lars twice in a row to claim the throne)).

There are some with concerns about the outcome of the tourney, but I have to admit that every interaction I've had personally with the new Heirs has been pleasant and polite and not in the least striking of arrogance. Young and new-ish to the Kingdom they may be, but I don't have any sense of dread or foreboding like it seems so many others do. Sometimes I think people just need to have something to get their panties in a twist over. *shrug*

I was productive enough in the car on the trip out to balance the utter lack of production on the trip back. I got another couple repeats of Birch finished and am far enough on the grant proposal to feel comfortable. I also finally got to watch the DVD of Declining by Degrees in the hotel Friday night after dinner. I'm only about a quarter of the way through the companion book, but at least now I can pass the DVD on to others to watch.

This week I intend to work more on Birch and do some research into some tablet weaving things I've been kicking around. I want to re-learn double-turn/double-face, so I'm looking for a suitable practice pattern to work on. I have Plans(tm), or at least Ideas(tm), for what I want to do eventually, but this is just to get restarted again.

Which reminds me I need to go add the link to the tablet weaving loom I want to my WishList...