Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I managed to feel halfway decent or better for more of Pennsic than I'd been able to the previous few years, which is good ... I don't know whether my dietary experiment had anything to do with that or not; it may have just been luck or I might be doing better in general this summer than the last few. (I usually don't bring new-world ingredients to War, just for the practice cooking without them, though I do eat things made with them occasionally when other people offer me food or I buy something up at the food court. This year I did bring chili peppers and potatoes, as well as tomato juice; I also kept a supply of chocolate on hand and had a bite or two most days. So maybe it was the nightshades and the chocolate, or maybe it was other effects entirely, I don't know.)

Alas, my post-Pennsic slump is still affecting me. I did manage to push myself enough to get my stuff off the truck and get the truck to Virginia a day or so earlier than I need to most years (Coryn was headed straight home this year instead of needing to make other stops, so she wanted an early start getting her wares unloaded). And though I had to postpone it a day, I got to the doctor this week. I even made it to the clinic a second time, on foot, to have blood drawn and pick up prescriptions, and managed to walk to the grocery store as well. But it seems I've got a 'one day active, next day barely out of bed' pattern going. Argh.

Come to think of it, this too is probably better than most recent years (and Perrine is home already, according to plan, instead of staying in Virginia an extra week or two as I recover enough to deal with getting her). But it's frustrating anyhow, and physically uncomfortable.

Today there was a recorder club meeting. I'd have liked to have gone to that, but was a little too wiped yesterday yo try to arrange transportation, and slept until 14:00 today so I wouldn't have been in any shape to go to it anyhow. This evening is the Storvik Post-Pennsic Dessert Revel, which I'd be trying to drag myself to if I had my own car (I'll enjoy it if I muster the energy to get there) but I don't know whether anyone I know is headed thataway from -- or via -- Baltimore. If anybody planning to go from my area and not already there or en route is reading this, give me a shout, okay? (The site opened at 17:00 but I know not everybody arrives at the beginning.)

My right wrist still hurts very badly, which makes me quite nervous. The Homespun Ceilidh Band has two gigs next weekend -- Friday evening at the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt and Saturday afternoon at the Town Green Park in old Bowie -- and I'm worried about whether it'll be better by then. It's been four weeks already and it still hurts. I was able to play bass guitar, but strumming is a very different motion. "Playing through the pain" is one thing; aggravating the existing injury so that it gets worse and takes even longer to heal is another. I'll have to spend some time this week working out just what I can and cannot do on the guitar while wearing an Ace bandage, and what changes in my motions are required. I really want to be able to give full-enthusiasm performances, but if I have to settle for lower-energy/lower-volume and just concentrate on getting all the right notes at the right times, I guess that's better than subtracting my guitar from the mix entirely. I hope I don't wind up having to lock the wrist and arm and try to do the entire right-hand part with only my fingers. That would feel terribly limiting.

And I still need to figure out how I'm getting to those two gigs. Wheeee.

I've seen no sign of my housemate since I got back. I'd better reread the email he sent while I was at Pennsic to see whether he'd said he was going to Brazil now, or whether he's just managed to pop in while I've been asleep or out.

Finally (for now), I'd like to track down the SCA brewer who made the "Wolgebrau" and gave it to Wolgemut. I had a bottle and found it tasty, but I've no idea what type of beer it was supposed to be. If it's a type I hadn't run into before (as I suspect, since there were enough unfamiliar elements to the flavour) then I want to add it to my list of types I've tried and may like. And if it turns out to have been a lager, I really need to know that, since I've never encountered a lager I could stand (unless Wolgebrau is the first). I'm guessing that it's an ale simply because I liked it and every other beer I've been able to bear has been an ale, but if I'm wrong, that'll be an important datum.