Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Great Western War and this time I HAVE THE HAT

Two of the big October events are now behind us: Crown, and Great Western War. I had a very good time at War, as usual was a Bad Princess and didn't bring my parasol onto the field. By the end of War, Newt was holding his Mongol hat over me for shade.
We stayed in the same area as the Barony of Fettburg, and Raven and Brenna graciously offered us the use of their Barony sunshade. I bitched a lot about where West Royal encampment was, 'cause it was on low ground right next to the horse arena. Meanwhile, Darkclaw and various other groups got the land above us on a plateau with a view of the lake and islands. The only positive thing about our area was we had a dumpster about 100 feet away, which made cleaning up a breeze. 
We used a small propane tank every night to keep warm, which was wonderful. I took several outfits, including underdresses, and didn't wear them. Yet I wore a new outfit every day. 
Gwendwyn the Silent, Corina/Karen, Rachel/Adaran, Don Tiberius and his Lady Sikuna, Newt, Shishio, and Thalen attended me. Baroness Brenna took over water-bearing duties for our group. 
I got to shop, and bought a new thin leather belt and several items from Raymond's Quiet Press, and also told the gentles at Raymond's how much I appreciated their work and their reasonable prices. I went to the Princess' Tea, and hung out with Violante, who is now Crown Princess. I also went to the EQ championship, and hung out with the Royals. I schmoozed with Else Hungrovogt. 
We went to the Royal Reception and passed out and received gifts. We processed into Court (that's the picture above) but we just walked through and didn't stay. We hosted the Oerthans for dinner in the Barony pavilion one night. 
And on the very last night, we went to the Starkhafn leftover food and booze party and spoke with Count Sir Kevin Perigrynne and Countess Patrice, who used to be Baron and Baroness of Golden Rivers back when it was a Barony. And their stories were very illuminating; plus, Kevin was asking me questions that seemed to be aimed at whether Miach was a worthy Chiv candidate and at one point in time they both announced that we had PLQs which is very very nice. Because we try. 
Miach stayed until 3 am, but Newt escorted me back to camp, then he went back to find out more about shield walls from some fighters there. And Miach got some very good advice from Duke Tamuki, one of only two black Dukes in the SCA: Never pick your friends to fill important roles on Court, because they don't think of you as Royalty. Have to say I totally agree with that! 
All that's left now for October is Coronet. The roses are ordered, and plans have been made. 
Next month is mostly easy: little feasts, GRAB, Collegium. All one day and very low stress events that we're looking forward to. December is also easy, with Yule feasts. January is going to be the next big month, with Twelfth Night, Oertha Coronet, and Winter Investiture.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Almost at The Halfway Point

We've been kind of busy, and I haven't been able to chronicle Our Reign as often as I would have liked. 
I'm feeling good now...really good. Physically and spiritually. But that wasn't true a couple weeks ago. A couple weeks ago, I LOST IT. And here's why:
  • My Guard is largely absent from events. The same two or three gentlepeople seem to be doing ALL the work. 
  • My Head of Court is largely absent from events. I was thinking, for some crazy reason, that she'd be organizing our appearances and coordinating with other Heads of Court. 
  • The Principality Seneschal is unable, due to time and finances, to perform the duties of that office in a timely fashion. We nearly didn't have a Coronet site. The Kingdom Seneschal and the Deputy Principality Seneschal nearly had to take over. 
All of the above coalesced to form a perfect storm of paranoia and doubt. 
We talked to the Captain of the Guard over dinner at his home, and he swore to get the Guard into shape.
We duked it out with the Head of Court, but there's no winning that game. So we followed the advice of some Peers, and we're just carrying on smartly and accepting whatever she wishes to do, and honestly - I'd rather just do it and save the hassle. An interesting side note on this is that I now truly no longer care, am not offended or hurt, and actually feel somewhat relieved and more warmly towards our Knight and his Lady than I have for some time. 
I discussed the whole matter with our Artisan Wrangler and her hubby, who has been on several Guards, and they assured me that this is an ongoing issue with the Cynagua Guard that has been happening over the last several reigns. They assured me that we are actually loved and respected by the Populace. 
One thing the HoC DID do was to get the ball rolling with the Garb Wrangler. Since we actually needed garb, we had each had three tunics made by Auntie or E'taine of Silver Desert. In addition, I purchased 3 undertunics (one of which has walked off, somehow..), two apron dresses, two early period gowns, a sideless surcoat, and two tunic/trewes black basic garb outfits for our Samhain costume bases. Currently, the goal is to wrangle two more outfits from our Court and to have some of the Silver Desert peeps embellish a couple tunics. Oh, and also wrangle peeps into making two woolen coats: one Rus for Himself and probably another Ionar style coat for me -- or a Viking, they're very similar. 
Now, this is what our GOAL is. What actually happens may be wildly different. 
In fact, our experience so far is that people will only accomplish a fraction of what they commit to. Except the Artisans. They're freaking awesome. 
I FINALLY received the Harp tokens that were supposed to be given out at Investiture. What I received wasn't what we agreed on, but at this point I'm going with the flow. Himself has yet to receive his Prince's token rings, other than Uther's. I'm seriously debating with myself on taking up jewelry and metal casting, and the only thing keeping me from it is the cost of a kiln. 
We're down to our last available 2 K in fundage, and I'm considering taking out a small loan on my 403(b) plan to get us through January, when we're going to Oertha and we have Twelfth Night to deal with. 

On the upside, we really are having fun. We're giving away a LOT of beautiful work on the part of our Artisans. We're getting excited about archery again, and we're promoting a Cynagua Archery Championship for the first time in years. We've gotten to know some admirable and awesome people: Master Edward le Kevere, Mistress Michaela McCollum, Robear de Percival, E'teen and E'taine, Elizabeth Margarete, Mum, Angus, Eibhear, Farleigh, Treasach, Rachel (I always forget her SCA name), Don Tiberius, Don Coronado, Aradonn, Sir Vincenzo....some of whom have been supportive of us for years, but many of whom were not on my radar at all and have surprised and overwhelmed us with their service and support.
It more than makes up for the people who we thought we could count on that dropped the ball, or never had any intention of carrying the ball, or didn't even realize there was a ball in play. 
Morgan and Siobhann have been very helpful, both as confidants and also in that they have given us a lot of largesse over the years and we've finally been able to give it out. And it's very remarkable largesse: circlets of leather, bracers, jewelry, games, wooden wasters in a variety of styles. Petra has supplied us with jars and jars of jellies, and Stephen of Burgundy has supplied us with excellent cordials. 
Gregory of St Albans has taken on the Chirurgeon position, despite being active duty and overseas frequently. 
The current Prince Heinrich and Princess Inara of The Mists are wonderful, wonderful people and have been a blast to work with. 
Argos West, the household led by Viscount Sir Loclan  and Viscountess Vigdis, was a wonderful asset during the Cyn/Mists War. 
The Incipient Canton of Fitzraufia (Miles and Alfar and their squires and ladies) was also a great boon to us, did us great honor and provided much entertainment that was sorely needed at the War. 

When this is all said and done, Miach will be offered Knighthood, I'm fairly certain of that. And we'll start our own household, and it will probably be much more like Chataeu de Camville than we would ever have thought prior to this reign. There will be rules, and expectations, and standards and protocols. 

We've seen what happens when there aren't clear expectations, and we have thanked the Gods and Ancestors many times since stepping up, that Miach is a Herald and that Miach was the perennial Guard member for so many reigns. We've both come to appreciate the work that we have done. I have realized that I'm actually not a crappy Court member, I'm an average Court member. And while we always knew that Miach was a good Captain, we now know that Miach was so far beyond the norm for a Guard member and a Captain that he was truly excellent. 

Sir Geoffrey Scott and Catherine of Wessex are the Lord and Lady of The Mists as of today's Coronet. We will work well with them, as we enjoy their company already. 

It's almost October, we're going to Crown, we're going to Great Western War, and we have our Coronet - all in a whirlwind month. And then we can ease up for the last two months of the Reign, do some feasting and save some time off and some money up. October is the Big Month. Bring it on.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Princess of Cynagua

The Investiture went great! It's amazing what you miss when you're waiting to process in. I had to run up and listen outside the door while Miach was swearing his Oath. I totally missed Uther's introduction of Miach, which evidently was awesome. I missed Geoffrey of Clan Fergus' poem.
Kitty and Treasioch braided my hair, and people thought it was awesome. Discovered today, while trying to take out the braids, that my hair is getting very thin on top, which is upsetting but really there's nothing I can do about it. I'm taking supplements and drinking protein drinks. If it continues, I may have to just cut it all off, which would make me sad, but I could start over from scratch and try to keep it from breaking. Right now, it's got lots of split ends and broken ends.
The garb was great, and everyone pulled together for Investiture so very well. We DID wear woad!! Juliana painted our faces. I "stained my nails with berry juice" (food coloring) then washed them and buffed them and that was interesting.
Arnold decided he wants to join the SCA, and he came out this morning wanting to shoot archery....
We have so much largesse that we had to put up a storage shelf unit in the family room.
And the REALLY hard part is now over -- No more lines to memorize!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Tuesday

3 more days to Investiture. We ran through the ceremony several times last night, just the two of us, the dogs and Norman the parakeet. I am having a real hard time remembering the funky verbiage. It doesn't flow.
Tonight, it will be baked beans and pork, some protein drink, and sewing pearls on Miach's fabric belt.
Tomorrow, likely meeting the Prince and Princess, and I'll try to find out what their plans are for their Court on Investiture day, so I know whether to tell Morgan and Siobhann to come early or not and ditto for my family. The kids' garb still hasn't arrived. I'm so spoiled by two super-speedy deliveries that I really expected it by Friday or Saturday!
We also have been debriding necrotic tissue out of a bad joint wound that T.Rex Rooster sustained, and then re-dressing the wound, the past two days.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Saturday

Today I went to Patti's and she sewed and adjusted the ionar, while I sewed amber beads onto the my leine. She is going to keep Miach's tunic, and she's taking the mostly-finished ionar to Sorcha to hem and embellish. She needed to put gores into the ionar, but she's pleased with the way that it hangs and thinks that once the embroidery is on it, that will pull it down a bit more.
I was surprised to find that I'd finished putting the beads on with most of the day still left, so when I went home I sewed up the large woven band that Patti had given me from she and Gunther's stash, into a fabric belt for Miach. Meanwhile, Miach was down at Auntie's being fitted, and then she finished his trews and hand-sewed their hems while he waited. She also made him a pair of tight, short Book of Kells soldier trews.
Countdown Day 7 very productive.

Friday, July 5, 2013

One week to go to Investiture

I'm starting to have trouble sleeping.
The Investiture garb project hit a huge snag when Miach's tunic arrived and was too tight. Miach didn't want me to tell our artisan/tailor, he just wanted to have someone local fix it. However, I felt that would be very disrespectful, as I know that our tailor put all her energy and time into this and it was her creation. I wanted her to basically give us her blessing.
What ended up happening was she pulled entirely out of the project. So here we are, one week before Investiture, with the key component of MY garb (an ionar jacket) incomplete and totally un-embellished. She did send us all the embellishments she had made, and a very large quantity of embroidery floss.
I'm still kind of in shock, and emotionally somewhere between mortification that I've hurt her feelings and anger because she abandoned the project. If it was just a regular SCA person, I'd be angry, period. But this is someone I consider one of my best friends, someone who has done so much for us, someone who knows how much this Investiture means to me. And I really feel the project meant a lot to her, too, and she just burned herself out on it, and was very protective of the ownership of the artistry of the garb.
Plus, I'm not sure where this puts our Court for the Big Picture, because she is an integral part of our Court and I truly do not want to stress her out for the next big event: Great Western War and camping for a week, and food! We already had potential for emotional trauma with that event, as most of the former members of our household and our current Ri and Rian are at odds, and we were going to try to meet with both groups on different days/nights but the chance of insulting our Ri and Rian by that was high.
Not to mention that we have family going to Investiture, kids clothing being shipped to us, worry about them being confused or bored by what is a very long day even for SCA geeks, worried about what to feed them during the break between Courts.
I haven't learned my lines.
What if I have a sudden attack of Dumping Syndrome?????

On the positive side, I've lost a lot of weight since the GBP. And my joints mostly don't hurt, except my thumb joint where it joins my hand. I have started walking faster, and I don't become short of breath any longer. I THINK I've stopped snoring, because I no longer wake up choking. Although I sometimes wake up at 6 am needing to go to the bathroom, I no longer wake up every 2 hours needing to go. I can cross my legs - but I mostly don't. My shoulders feel sharp. My wrists look thin, and so does my face. My knees are palpable. My ankles and feet are still fat, and still swell at times. I bought two pairs of sandals that fit, but don't look good because of the fat feet and ankles, but the Crocs are now way too wide and floppy.
I lose about two small handfuls of hair per day, and have been for about 3 weeks. I'm taking Biotin for that, and I also have horsetail and nettle but to be truthful haven't been using the herbs.
I also have discovered that sadly, I can eat all manner of stuff I'm not supposed to without feeling really full: bread, noodles, rice, potatoes, chips, cake, ice cream, etc. The only healthy things I can do that with are yogurt and cottage cheese! But meat? About 5 or 6 bites, and I'm full. I did discover a fairly good protein, 100% whey isolate, at Costco (again). They only stock the Vanilla flavor, but mixed with orange juice it tastes very good. 30 grams of protein a serving. And after only one unfortunate incident, I can eat protein bars without dumping, and those are 20 grams per bar. Plus, we just went through the worst heat wave in decades, with temps in the 110 - 120 range, and I stayed really well-hydrated by drinking at least 40 oz of protein drink during the day. I only got dry mouth once, and it used to be a daily thing in just normal summer temps prior to the surgery. That was my biggest fear, dehydration during the summer.

Monday, June 17, 2013

The Run-through Father's Day Potluck in the Park

It was wonderful. Roz came up and Teresa came over the hill, and we all gathered at Patti's house and plotted and cut out garments and bees. That was Saturday. On Sunday, we had the Investiture practice, but first we smoked meat and cut up fruit and people brought side dishes and we all ate. I have no idea how many people were there -- as many as for a small SCA local event. And everyone ate their fill, and we still came home with about two meals worth of meat, some fruit, and most of a cake (there had been three cakes).
It was great to talk with people and hang out, a real bonding experience for the Court and Artisans. Bjorni and Finna came, Their Highnesses of Cynagua came. It was just lovely, sitting under a giant walnut tree, rehearsing in a shady, relatively remote arbor in Rusch Park.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

The Hats. I Cannot Freaking Believe It.

So, Miach won May Coronet. And I've been meaning to blog it. 
Everything has changed.
Sean/Eoin is taking back the Seneschal position for Mountain's Gate, Gregory of St.Albans took over the Principality Chirurgeonate as of one week ago, at Golden Rivers Championship Tourney. It's been a really whirlwind 2 weeks. I will never forget it, and I hope to survive until Investiture. Which I hope will be fantastic and entertaining.
I found a great garb site, Historic Enterprises, and I'm wearing garb from them in the photo above. I bought four additional pieces after Miach won Coronet, because while we are blessed with a ton of support, there's no way we can get decent clothes for upcoming June Crown and now we kind of HAVE to look pretty good. What's really sad is that I'm going to be shrinking out of all the great stuff that we're working on, and all the great stuff from Historic Enterprises. And by then, I'll probably be too broke to buy more! 
I can't believe I'm sitting here writing this. This blog has gone from housing boom/bust, to SCA/medieval, to chickens, to Gastric Bypass, and now back to SCA/medieval. Because the hats used to scare me so much, and now I have one myself. My dad always said I could be a Princess, but Miach actually made me one. 
Oh, I have to talk about the tournament!
It was truly the best way that Miach could ever have hoped to have won. He took every shot that he felt, that wasn't on the flat. He took shots that he didn't HAVE to take. This was our decision, for the greater good of his SCA trajectory. WE GAVE UP THE NOTION OF WINNING CORONET, AFTER TALKING OVER EVENTS THAT OCCURRED AT BELTAINE. We decided that Coronet was not likely winnable the way that we wanted to win it, and therefore we probably wouldn't win it. And then we did. Because Miach fought honorably, chivalrously, and very very skillfully. His worthy opponent in Finals was Sir Heinrich and he also fought honorably, chivalrously and very very skillfully. We could not have hoped for a better Finals, and right up to the last fight, I did not believe that Miach would win. People told me afterward that they heard the solid clang of the headshot, although very few actually saw it. And just like that, in that second, everything changed. 
Miach cried, many other people cried. Of course, I didn't cry at this, the most meaningful moment so far of my SCA life -- even though I've cried at proposals offered to others from the field, at the emotion of others in Court, at Miach getting his Rose Leaf and his Ash Leaf. I was stunned. Just too stunned and unbelieving. 
So, just as Teresa told me, half our team of Coronet Cooks ended up not being able to cook because they'd won Coronet. I hadn't believed her, but she was prescient. 
I ate too much at feast, and had to burp up a lot on the way home from Quincy. I had to leave that very night, and did not get home until 1:30 am, and had to work that day. And immediately, it all began falling together: I was able to get GWW off due to a co-worker switching to another department and vacating those days on the vacation calendar. We notified family. We bought Arnold a plane ticket. Juliana agreed to be head of court. Miach called Miriam almost from the tourney field to let her know he'd won wearing Mike's coat of plate. Morgan and Siobhann were thrilled.
Oh, there have been problems and snarls and high emotion the last couple weeks, but we're now off and flying and hoping that we can just make it to Investiture, in garb that reflects our new station, with friendships and familial relationships intact. We've ordered bling, we've purchased fabric, we've gathered a most awesome crew of artisans, and court attendants, and wranglers of artisans and court attendants.
We have harpers, and special projects craftspersons. We have historical consultants to our Celtic reign. 
Planning all this and scheduling it out has gone a long way toward taking a lot of the anxiety out of it. The pressure, in one sense, is now off. Miach won Coronet.


Sunday, May 5, 2013

Beltaine

The West had Beltaine at the Pitt Ranch in Arbuckle this weekend. It was very windy, and hot. And it IS a ranch, so that meant flying dung and dried grass, allergies, etc. All in all, the topography of the site was good. Parking was far enough away and close enough both. Because of the WEATHER, I think a lot of people are judging the site harshly. Personally, I'd rather keep this site and toss the sheep ranch site with the rattlesnakes and the "No Dogs" rule. We didn't camp, because there really wasn't any reason to and we need to save our impositions on the neighbors (to feed and lock up our animals) for those times when we really must camp.
It was a relatively unpleasant, hot and windy day followed by a very pleasant, temperate and calm evening.
Court was highly entertaining.

I think I'm getting to the point in my relationship with the SCA community where much of the magic has worn thin. I don't like to sew, my garb always seems lacking and I truly have no desire to spend any amount of time on it, and yet I know that people judge me on that and it gives me less credibility. I'm tired of being a Chirurgeon, even though it isn't difficult. My arthritis prevents me from walking great distances over uneven ground without a lot of pain, sometimes for days, so again I don't have the credibility that the former Principality Chirurgeon had, and currently has as Kingdom Chirurgeon. I admire her a great deal, the fighters are all very familiar with her and trust her because she is always out there, and at events at which I am the CiC I tend to stay at Point. There are things I love, such as brewing and bread-making and fermenting vegetables. There are things I truly WANT to learn, such as harping and tablet-weaving beyond my basic skill set. But it seems to me that a basic part of the SCA is trying to maintain an acceptable appearance, which is too expensive to do unless you do it yourself, and I truly do not like machine sewing and don't have the time to hand sew all our garb unless I spend every spare moment doing that and nothing else.

This has lately become an issue with me because I'm shrinking and I don't know what to do to cover all the stages between old body and new body. Miach's fighting this year has been really good. He came very close to winning a Coronet two or three years ago, and I think he's feeling that he has to try to win it this year because he's not getting any younger. So I'm worrying much more than I usually do about garb. I also worry that I'm not presenting the best in reflection of him, and I know that the Knights are looking at him and he has enough hurdles to cross already without my garb being one of them. One of our friends was recently asked to join the Chivalry, and I truly believe that a large part of that invitation was that his Lady maintains a very nice period encampment and she dresses the both of them in attractive garb.

I'm also grouchy today because the Shire, which I once loved, has become fractured and nearly dysfunctional. Perhaps we need to take a lesson from the people that are currently thorns in our side, but again: I don't have the energy or ability to host events due largely to my arthritis, which I am beginning to acknowledge is much more of a disability than I have been willing to admit prior to this. I used to be able to take a pill twice a day and move fairly comfortably, but due to my surgery, I can't take those pills any longer. And I absolutely do not want to use narcotic pain meds, even if my doc would prescribe them. I've seen first-hand what they do to people over time, and it's not pretty and it's not healthy.

And this is where my head is at currently.

Monday, April 29, 2013

GB: I've got this covered

I've done just about everything now that I could do: several restaurant meals, a trip to Florida, wedding reception, birthdays and ethnic foods.
I've tolerated very small amounts of cakes of all kinds, pasta and rice. But I've taken to heart the warning to put good stuff in my pouch first, and foremost.
The protein drink saga continues, but since I can tolerate slightly more food, I'm hoping that two drinks a day will suffice. Cause really: that's all I can get in.
The directive to not drink for 30 mins before/after meals is just not realistic for me. That's 3 hours. I need those hours to get the liquids in, which is kind of important. I'm not an office worker, who can sip constantly. My drinks are kept in a lunch cooler in a hot car, and they need to stay relatively cool for my whole day. I'm already limited by having to see clients for one or two hours at a time, and trying to eat/drink between visits.
I've learned why you need to take your time: if you eat too quickly, it WILL come back up. It's not horrible, it's kind of like having something stuck in your throat or swallowing air and belching. It's not exactly socially acceptable behavior, though, and it should be avoided, which you can do if you eat slowly and chew thoroughly and STOP when your pouch says to.
And I've seen all kinds of verboten behavior by other people who've had GB. The scariest is alcohol overconsumption, and I don't mean just one drink. I mean entire bottles of wine, or several beers or mixed drinks. I haven't tried coffee again yet, and that's another of those dubious liquids. The only way I can rationalize it is to mix it with protein powder and put it over ice. I'm not sure I could tolerate it. And it's not good for hydration, or for your pouch. OTOH, it does help with constipation. As vices go, the coffee vice isn't near as bad IMHO as the alcohol one, or the return to over-eating carbs one.
In general, be mindful of the size of your new stomach and take it slow, but live a social and active life and don't think you can't enjoy hanging out and eating (in a controlled, slow, savoring fashion).
I thought about posting weights, but I kind of go back to an earlier post about it: I had an operation. If I DON'T lose weight, that's remarkable. The expectation is that I will lose a lot of weight, and so far, I have. I am down 2 pants sizes, and I'm visibly smaller. And my advice on that is shop at thrift stores! And only get 2 pairs of pants at a time. Tops last even longer, but try not to look like you're wearing a tent before you get some new ones.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

About my trip to see Roz

For some reason, I thought I posted this already. But I didn't.
I drove down to Seal Beach near LA to see Roz a week ago, and stayed for 3 days. It was very nice. We watched "Lincoln" and "Big Love" and visited on Easter with Morgan and Siobhann. During my stay, Roz convinced me to try egg white protein mix, and I tolerated that much better. With half a banana, it was delicious. We went out shopping on Saturday to a cute little Japanese store that was like a 99cent store, then to the Japanese market next door, where I found rice bran for pickling!

I talked in detail to Roz about all sorts of yucky stuff, and it was very wonderful to be able to do that and not feel like a whiner or like I was being disgusting. Roz talked to me about some of HER yucky stuff, too, and that was actually pleasant. I think it made us feel like we were both on the same team of "people whose insides are now modified".

I got to know Roz's dog, Flori, who is just adorable and recovering well from her own leg surgery.

A very helpful and healing little mini-vacation, for once NOT SCA-related except in a peripheral way.

Gastric Bypass Part Three

This might be my last gastric bypass post for awhile. I'm due to go back to work on Tuesday, two days from now. I feel pretty good. I still get tired if I'm doing a lot, and have to rest frequently, but I am able to carry on a fairly normal life.
At my surgeon visit this past week, she was pleased with my weight loss of around 16 pounds in 4 weeks. I was moved to the "Phase 3" diet, which is pretty much everything but take it slow, chew really well, and keep it to 4 tablespoons -- and no raw veggies yet. For the past 2 days, I've been eating normal food in very small amounts. I went to Marie Callendar's with my daughter and we split an entree, and I only ate about 1/8th of my half, if that. I became FULL on that amount. Later in the day, I made a chicken enchilada casserole for Mike and another one for our neighbors (she broke her leg). I had 4 tablespoons of it, and it was tasty and good. This morning I had 1/4th of a banger sausage and 1 egg, and at lunch I had 4 tablespoons of hamburger slow-cooked in fresh marinara sauce, with a dollop of ricotta.
I'm still having trouble with the protein shakes. The egg white protein gets too fluffy in my blender, which adds both volume and air and makes it harder to drink in an hour. The unjury blends well into V8 juice, so that's a winner, at least. I can get two shakes down a day, and I'm hoping the mini meals will provide the additional protein.
The pulling sensation in my epigastric region, which was never truly bothersome, has disappeared.
I'm making an effort to keep low carb, but I seem to tolerate butter and yogurt and cheese and I am not avoiding those, in small amounts. I've never avoided them in the past when keeping low carb, as I follow an Atkins-type regimen and have found it to work best and be very tolerable.
I WILL find a tolerable chewable Iron formula, but I'm not going to force myself to gag down Geritol. I may try the children's chewables again, now that my stomach isn't so touchy and my mouth isn't so dry. I also started B12 sublingual tabs at the direction of my surgeon, and those are not at all unpleasant.
My surgeon is satisfied that I am on track and if I continue to lose even 3 pounds a week, I'll be healthier and hopefully my joints will be less painful. If I hit any rough patches, or develop any complications, I'll be sure to update this. But at this point, everything seems to have worked out and it's just a matter of eating much, much less -- which seems normal to me now. I can't believe how much I used to eat, and the sizes of restaurant meals now.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Week 3

I'm only going to do GB posts by the week now, because things don't really change that much!
Still really, really tired of protein drink mixes and find that they don't sit well on my stomach -- especially the vanilla one. The plain Unjury is still well-tolerated, but running out of it and trying to hoard it until my delivery from Unjury on Monday and my MD appt. on Weds next week when I can pick up whatever flavors from the sample pack delivered on Monday that I like, in addition to the plain.
I'll be making a road trip tomorrow to go to Caid and visit with Miriam for 3 days. I emailed her a list of my food choices, and I'm hoping for a miracle of creativity from her.
My thumbs really hurt, especially the left one. My right hip hurts, and causes me to walk funny. These problems are probably because I'm no longer taking my arthritis med, nor my glucosamine/chondroitin.
My b/p is staying in the 130s/70's range with half my usual dose of b/p med, though.
Bowels continue to be a problem, but I don't think there's much more I can do about it. I'm drinking as much liquid as I can get in, what with the need to drink protein as well. I'm not taking narcotics.
After trying a couple times to drink my kombucha, I've had to face facts: it does not sit well on my tummy.
In case you're wondering:
"does not sit well" = makes me feel queasy, but not really nauseated.
"sick"= makes me feel full-blown nausea, and or causes gagging/retching.
Coffee makes me sick. Kombucha doesn't sit well.
As far as appetite goes, I'm finding certain commercials about Friday's Jack Daniels burgers and appetizers very appealing, as well as friend's reports on Facebook on chicken pot pies, bacon, and other savory type foods. Sweets and desserts are not at all appealing.
As far as hunger goes, I don't have it, and I've begun to differentiate between "appetite" and "hunger". I really suspect that even if I could tolerate a Jack Daniels burger, or a pot pie, that I would not be able to eat more than two or three bites, even though my desire for them might still be present. I actually was unable to finish two little meals during the past week, because I was full. I'm sitting here right now, full from my protein drink that it's taken me 2 hours to finish. I'm supposed to eat lunch, but nothing really sounds good to me, because I'm full. The day begins to creep up on me, even when I start at 8am. It's difficult to get everything that's supposed to be going into my mouth in there within any given 24 hour period.
Physically, I'm feeling good. I get an occasional twinge on my right side, that I obsess about due to the fatty liver diagnosis post surgery. If I lay on my back without elevating my head a bit, my tummy feels stretched. And sometimes if I use my stomach muscles to sit up, I get a mildly tweaky sensation. However, all my little puncture wounds have healed, except for the uppermost one. That one has an internal suture that is poking out just a millimeter, but enough to keep it a little irritated. I no longer feel like I NEED a nap every few hours, and I can do the animal husbandry detail without any problems -- other than, I don't like going into the pasture because I'm afraid Oreo the Goat will butt me. He probably weighs 200 lbs, so that's not a trivial fear.
My skin feels dry all the time, which may have a lot to do with the weather but I suspect it also has to do with me just not being able to keep as hydrated as I have in the past. My feet and hands especially. I'm using a lot of shea butter on them.
My clothes have gotten much looser, and from my weekly weigh-in, I'm guessing I've lost about 20 pounds. I'm beginning to worry a little over when I might have to buy jeans and work slacks, but my tops should be OK for quite some time. And my casual wear/T-shirts will work for even longer. I'll need to figure out what to buy for the wedding trip next month; I'm thinking flowing pants and tunic top in dressier fabric, and some kind of cape-thing in case it gets cooler than I can tolerate, and flats.
Still haven't gotten EDD check, but it could be sitting down at the mailbox island right now for all I know.
And will get final word on jury duty this evening and keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be released to enjoy my last week of recuperation before returning to work next week.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Day 12

I'm feeling kind of humbled. Here I thought that I was recovering really well, due to my genius in following advice and finding tolerable protein drink mix.
And now, I really can't stand the protein drink mix. It leaves a horrible aftertaste, and it takes me an hour or more to drink it. I've been trying everything: using the plain Unjury mixed in flavored water (meh), in soy milk (meh, and makes me feel sick). The flavored whey mix from Costco is just so tiresome, and the vanilla makes me sick.
For the first time today, I couldn't finish my breakfast mini meal.
And I feel like I'm constipated, and don't know what I can do about it.
Plus, the instructions for jury duty aren't at all clear. It doesn't confirm that my group must serve; it talks about groups 18 through 22, and I'm group 6. Those groups are supposed to show up at 1:30pm. Doesn't say whether the rest of us report or not. I don't really want to drive to Placerville and try to figure out what's going on, but it looks like I'll have to. Not a happy camper.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Day 10

Danni and I met Brit, her boyfriend Ethan, and her friend Rachel, at this place called Quickly in midtown Sac. It's what they call a Boba Shop. Boba is evidently marble-sized tapioca, which they place into tea and flavor the tea with one of a bajillion flavors, add milk, etc. It is really more milkshake, or slushie, than tea. 
I had plain green Jasmine tea, hot. 
But this counts as "eating out" event #3! And I for sure got my liquids in today. I decided to skip my breakfast mini-meal, because my tummy felt touchy. But I got the protein drink in. And I took my lunch min-meal with me, met Danni at the place she's staying and ate my mini-lunch, and then by the time we arrived at Quickly, the 30 minutes post meal period was up and I had 16 oz of hot tea. I then had an additional 16 oz of hot tea back at Danni's place, where we debated current affairs and listened to stories from her kind-of father-in-law, Jack. Jack is politically diametrically opposed to me, but I really like the guy. He's a hoot. 
My post lunch protein shake took me over 2 hours to drink, mostly because I mixed some almond butter into it and I think that just made it too heavy. Once again, trying to mix up the flavors a bit, and not getting good results.
So I have dinner mini-meal and post dinner protein drink to get through still, but I'm confident that I will. 
I really enjoyed my baby-food veggies and canned chicken dinner last night, and I know the doggies will appreciate the rest of the canned chicken, too, so that's probably going to be a repeat tonight. 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 2, days 8 and 9

So suddenly, my protein drinks have become very tedious. The vanilla just does not taste good, no matter what I do with it. The chocolate is good, but drinking a chocolate drink twice a day forever is boring. 
So I decided yesterday to add some instant coffee to the vanilla. BAD MISTAKE. I ended up in the toilet for about an hour. I didn't think I'd ever get out of there.

But I recovered, and again, got all the protein drinks in for the day and as much fluid as I could sip. I even packed a "dinner" of cottage cheese, salsa and avocado in a little plastic container and slipped it into my purse for the Shire meeting. So, that's twice now that I've eaten out! I bought baby food veggies and fruits, and froze little individual teaspoon size servings of them, since I'm supposed to be having meals that consist of a variety of foods with each meal. This is really hard when your meals are so tiny!

Today has been ho-hum. Mike is going to March Crown in Tres Pinos, and preparing for that took up most of the day. As always, he hit the road about 3 hours behind schedule. I really wish he'd taken our little gypsy van trailer with the built-in bed and sink, but he didn't. So he's going to be setting up a tent and a slat bed when he gets there, which should be around 8 pm. But at least I can relax now. As soon as I feed the animals and put up the chickens, that is! I'm also going to try to keep a fire going in the woodstove. I was told I'd feel cold after the surgery, and man, do I ever. Very odd for me. I love nothing more than climbing into my mattress-pad-heated bed and reading at bedtime, and I've been wrapping up in a blanket in the house during the day. 
Another thing I've noticed is that my sense of smell seems unusually acute. It's not unpleasant. 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 2 day 7

Kind of a setback today, and I'm not sure how to interpret it. I actually increased my meals to 2 tablespoons yesterday, and had no problems that I noted.
I had my usual protein shake and kombucha tea shot this morning, no problems. Waited 1/2 hour and had my scrambled egg portion, with a bit of grated cheese and salsa. Around 11:30, I had some intestinal cramping, not unusual for me prior to the surgery and the typical BM that I've experienced since the surgery, but the cramping soon turned into nausea and a lot of saliva, which I spit out onto tissue. Another wave of cramping hit about 15 minutes later, and more nausea, this time with retching which produced nothing. It was hard to stop the retching, which seemed entirely pointless, as nothing was coming back up. And true to the description of such things by others who've gone this route before me, it was not nearly as unpleasant as vomiting. Afterwards, I felt very cold and very tired, and a bit hesitant to continue with the fluids. Around 3:30, I convinced myself that I had damn well better start hydrating and I tried a scoop of the Unjury unflavored protein in 10 oz. of Mio-flavored water. It was OK, not tasty, and it took me 3 hours to get it all in, but I did.
Now it's time to think about my dinner meal and evening protein drink, and I'm not thinking highly of them.

I think this is more related to my bowels than my diet. The past two nights I've taken the pain med: yesterday to help me sleep so that I could get up early and deal with the EDD/disability nonsense and drive down to Sacto if needed to resolve it. The day before, it was to help me sleep so I could wake up and go to an early car repair appt. Well, I think I need to stop using the pain med. I think it's making me constipated, or at best making my bowels sluggish and causing undue cramping, which is causing agitation to my system and then nausea.
As it turned out, I had a lovely night last night sleeping to the sound of rain outside, and a mellow day today after I figured out the online registration process and confirmed with my surgeon's office that they could add their part online, as well, and they were aware of the change. Human Resources called me back and told me that they've been putting out a green sheet in their packets of paperwork for weeks, making people aware of the new process. My supervisor wasn't aware of it, though, and that's not surprising as Home Health tends to be the ugly stepchild of the healthcare system and no one ever remembers we exist when it comes to things like this.

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Day 6

So, for the past 2 days I've driven for about 2 hours, sat around for several hours trying to support my daughter in her own medical journey and waiting for my car to be made safe and sound. Today, since I woke up at what seems the ungodly hour (now, after 2 weeks off from work) of 7am, I took an Extreme Nap this afternoon and didn't even pay attention to what time I woke up, but I'd say around 9:30pm or so and now I'm not tired of course.
I had a meal out for the first time! Mike and I both took our cars in, and walked to the little cafe by the repair shop we go to, and Mike had a big breakfast and I nabbed some of his scrambled eggs and had some tea. I forgot that I wasn't supposed to drink with my meal, of course, but what's done is done. I've done better today at getting in the liquids and protein and meals, but I'm still not getting all the liquids I should be and I've discovered that it's REALLY hard to do that if you're out and about. And my normal life, and job, requires me to be out and about. The plan now is to carry a cooler and protein drink, small containers of meal items, and liquids in my car. A SMALL cooler, mind. So the car has to be vacuumed, because I'm crazy that way and it won't seem safe and secure until the inside is clean.
Yesterday, I didn't count on spending as much time as I ended up spending with my daughter. I started the day well, had my breakfast and followed it with the protein drink after 1/2 hour wait. It was too soon for lunch, but a 45 minute drive down to her house and then hours with MD and paperwork filing and picking up  my grandkid at school and presto -- suddenly it's dinner time, and I didn't have lunch OR afternoon protein. I did manage to drink a lot of Crystal Lite Lemonade, though, which isn't bad stuff. So I tried to cram all of lunch, dinner, protein x 2 into about 4 hours and went to bed feeling very full and knowing that this was not an ideal situation and I need to be more aware of these things.
And finally, a major snafu has occurred with my EDD paperwork. This evidently happened because the EDD switched to an electronic reporting system less than a week before my claim was filed, and this made the forms my employer gave me in their disability leave packet obsolete and now I have to file electronically AND hope that my surgeon's office can do their part of the documentation online as well. It seems like a streamlined process, and will probably take a lot of the hassle out of filing these claims, but it's really unfortunate for me in the timing of my surgery and of course there was no way that I or my surgeon could possibly have known about this at the time of scheduling. My employer, who is a major employer in our region, didn't even know. I know that eventually I will get the disability I'm owed, but it's going to make the rest of my leave very tight. I'm thankful that I made the decision to pay bills in advance by using my tax refund, but that's only going to carry me until the first week of April. And April is going to be a high-stress month anyway, due to our flying to Florida for Mike's friend's wedding and my return to work.
So, tomorrow I can't just sit home and enjoy what is likely the last rainy weather of winter. I've got to register my disability claim online (which I can only do between 6 am and 6 pm for some reason) and then call my MD office and see if they need me to bring the returned forms back to them or they can just use my claim number to update my claim online, as per the EDD's instructions (which also require that they register, but I'm assuming they'll have to do this soon if they haven't already, anyway).

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Day 4

This is a random thoughts day, since nothing new is going on with my diet and not having any problems so far.

I have tried several sips of kombucha tea today, and so far, no dumping syndrome. Now, I DID find that it instigated a BM, but no pain or cramping or nausea or shakes or sweating. So, I don't think that was Dumping Syndrome. I think that was what kombucha tea has always done for me since I started drinking it. It does have sugar in it, but I'm thinking that if I let it ferment for 2 weeks vs. 1 week, it won't have nearly as much. So far, that seems to be working. I also had a tiny piece of sauerkraut, just to taste it since I was bottling it and another batch of kimchi. I smashed the heck out of that little piece, and ate it, and so far no problems. This is making me feel cautiously optimistic. I know yogurt is tolerated, and now it appears that kombucha and perhaps sauerkraut are. Ferments are very important to me, so I'm glad my system seems to be honoring this connection.
My energy level is much better. I feel my old self, actually. My arthritis has not been bothering me much at all; a bit in the thumbs, when I'm trying to screw off jar lids and such. Now, my right hip won't let me sleep on my right side, which started about 2 weeks prior to surgery. I used to sleep on my right side almost exclusively. Now, it's either my left side or my back. But it only bothers me when I lay on it. I can walk fine.     Mike went over the figures for the Emeritus Feast with Bonnie the Exchequer yesterday, and it appears that we made nearly $500 on the Feast and an additional $500+ on the auction. That's after they deducted the cost of food purchased. We were basically way under budget on Costco items, and way over budget on Nugget produce items, but it all evened out. We know now that we don't need to have quite as many courses, and we can keep it to two or three meat main courses. People couldn't eat everything. Even so, Mike only came back with a couple of duck legs and wings and about 3 servings of his pea/sausage (Conciela ala Apicius) featured menu dish. He says people ate multiple servings of that one. He brought back about a gallon of squash, which had been baked and then sauteed with spices. I pureed it. It will make a great soup. And he brought back about a half-gallon of grapes, and a couple cups of sauteed cucumbers, and about a quart of couscous with pork and apricots. The chickens ate all that. There were 80 people at the Feast, so he did a great job of planning with the advice of Anastasia and Gwendwyn, who have cooked many a feast.
About 2 weeks ago, I made another batch of kimchi and sauerkraut, since my son's wife evidently likes kimchi and my other son likes sauerkraut. Since the last batch I made of kraut was a bit on the soft side at 3 weeks, but perfect at 2 weeks, I decided to bottle up the kraut and kimchi today. Last time, I left the kimchi at room temp on my counter for a few days, so I'm doing that again. The kraut is in the back of the fridge.
Petra, who is evidently the autocrat for Golden Rivers tourney, has decided to do a German-style sideboard luncheon and she is using sauerkraut as a side dish. From postings about it, it would seem she's using commercial kraut, and then jazzing it up with juniper berries and caraway and perhaps bacon. I offered to make the kraut for this event, haven't had a response as yet. I could easily do 2 gallons, it would seem, since that is what I've done the last 2 times, using 4 to 5 heads of cabbage. I'm hoping she takes me up on the offer, rather than using pasteurized commercial kraut.
Filled out forms and wrote check for Egg Handler's Permit. We already have 8 dozen eggs since last Saturday. We need to start selling them! I'm going to make the market totes out of feed bags, too. And who knows? Maybe sell kraut or bread, too.


Friday, March 15, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 2 day 3

So, I made tuna salad by smushing a small can of water-packed tuna, drained, with about 1/4 cup of plain yogurt mixed with 1 teaspoon of regular mayo and a couple squirts of prepared mustard, and seasoned liberally with dill. I let it sit overnight in the fridge, to allow the flavors to mix.
I blended about 1/2 cup of home-made salsa (tomatoes, green and chili peppers, garlic) until it was a red paste. No seeds or pepper skins to get stuck in the pouch!
I also made a pot of bean soup by mixing one can of refried beans with 2 cups of my duck broth, and about 1/4 cup of salsa. I then put this into a large ice cube tray that makes long, cylindrical cubes to go into water bottles (IKEA product) and froze it. It was amazingly easy to get it out of the tray the next day, by running some warm water over the sides and pushing the cylinders of soup out with the handle of a wooden spoon. I bagged those up and put them back in the freezer.
So, I'm set for meals for awhile, at 1 Tablespoon per meal. For breakfast, I've been having a bit of scrambled egg with a bit of cottage cheese and a plop of the salsa. Lunch is bean soup.

Let's face it: the protein drinks, which are 8 oz of almond milk or buttermilk/ice 50/50 mixed with a scoop of vanilla or chocolate protein powder, or about 10 to 12 oz of duck broth mixed with unflavored protein powder, are the REAL meals. The little meals are just dress rehearsals for life. I think I'm doing well with them. I take at least 15 minutes to eat a tablespoon of food, I've never gotten sick or had dumping syndrome or pain of any kind related to my little meals. OR the protein drinks. Or the other liquids. Knock on wood.

I enjoy eating my little meals with Mike. I've been reading some blogs, and there seems to be this theory that you can't eat meals with your family immediately after a gastric bypass, which puzzles me. I ALWAYS eat my little meals while Mike is eating his - whatever it is and however much it is. It doesn't bother me. It makes me feel good. When Patti and Jeff came over, on post-op day 3, and helped Mike stuff dates I was sitting right there with them, sipping my clear liquids while they all shared a pizza and popped occasional dates into their mouths. Again, that made me feel happy and participatory, and no one thought anything about it at all. Why should I banish myself to a solitary corner and sip miserably on my protein drink or spoon my hilariously small meal?? Why should anyone feel guilty that they are eating differently than I am, in my presence?? Don't make things needlessly difficult.

Some things that I think have made it MUCH easier for me than what appears to be the norm:

  • Good quality whey protein powder with 27 grams of protein per serving, from Costco.
  • Good quality whey protein powder, unflavored, with 21 grams of protein per serving. I'm using Unjury, which my surgeon stocks and which I can also order online. 
  • Gummi adult complete multivitamins, again from Costco. 
  • Making my own broth. That was a real winner. Mixed with the unflavored protein powder, it makes a delicious evening sippable comfort food. 
  • Having a wonderful employer who provides excellent health insurance, paid time off to supplement my state disability payments, and supportive co-workers and supervisors. It has been FANTASTIC to have the ability to stay home and recover. Afternoon naps FTW. 
  • Having a wonderful surgeon, who has made Bariatrics her life's work, and offers support classes and even plastic surgery, and life-long follow up on labs, etc. I'm glad she's younger than me. Honestly, reading some of the blogs, I have to ask "Why did you go to a general surgeon for this??" But I've gotten spoiled, and I should be more understanding. I live in California. Things are more progressive here. 
Protein powder is expensive. But it's well worth it, and when you think of it as replacing a meal, it is NOT expensive. Don't screw around with anything that has less than 20 grams of WHEY protein per serving. That's when you start losing your mind, adding up all the little bits of protein you're getting in to try to reach the magic 60 - 80 gms per day. I don't have to do that. I just have to remember to have 3 protein powder enhanced liquids per day. Drinking the rest of my target is getting easier every day. Knowing the approximate volume of my favorite tea cup and my soup mug, and my portable drink container is helpful, too. One hot tea sipped, one container sipped, and my protein drinks in -- 60 ounces liquids. I drink water, too. If my pee is light yellow, I don't worry. No need for charts and graphs.
And I got on the scale for the first time this morning, because I don't feel compelled to jump on/off the scale. I had surgery, for the love of the Gods. I trust that I will lose weight if I follow my surgeon's instructions. Perhaps the scale will become more important in a few weeks, but for right now, I'm just happy to be mobile and relatively pain-free.


Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Day 1

First, a synopsis of Day 6 of Part 1, since I skipped it: pretty much the same as Day 5. The multivitamin water had to be diluted to 1/3 or 1/4 strength to be palatable, so it's better for me than Mio but there's no way I can drink enough for it to be equal to my daily vitamin needs. The chocolate whey protein powder is FANTASTIC.

Now, on to Day 1 of Phase 2 Gastric Bypass diet: Pureed and soft foods! My surgeon says I'm doing well, and was pleased that I've been able to do the 60-80 grams of protein this past week. She said I can start Phase 2, with 1 tablespoon of soft or pureed food as a "meal" 3 x daily. No drinking for 30 mins before or after. The picture above is of a demitasse spoon and a spice dish with a tablespoon of lowfat small curd cottage cheese, which is the first thing I have eaten for a week. It was delicious.
Next week, I can advance to 2 whole tablespoons per meal! And the week after that, 3 tablespoons -- if I can tolerate it. I'm supposed to take as close to 30 minutes to eat as possible, and I came pretty close today, I think. Mike ate a whole foot long deli sandwich in the time it took me to eat my cottage cheese.
I was so happy when my surgeon said I could progress to this phase. In Star Wars The Old Republic MMO, there is a Party Jawa that you can deploy, who circles you in flight being held aloft by some balloons, with the sound of party favors being tweeted and confetti flying around. THAT'S how happy I was about this, and only wish I could deploy the Jawa IRL.
My surgeon also explained that I can't do a lot because I'm not eating enough to be able to sustain a lot of activity, and was pleased with the activity which I have been doing: walking out to the front lot, scattering scratch grain and loosing the chickens, then gathering eggs. I can also drive if I need to now, so long as I'm not taking narcotic med, which I only take at night and will probably stop taking the end of this week.
I can sit at my computer for a long time, and I should probably knock off the afternoon nap, but I really like afternoon naps and am so happy that I have time off to take them for awhile. I am also VERY glad that I do not have to go to work and try to manage any of this, because it is taking up most of my day. As a bonus, my knees don't hurt and my thumb joints have only twinged a few times -- not constantly, as they do when I'm hauling the bag in/out of my car and up/down stairs all day.
I don't have any idea how much weight I've lost. My PCP on Monday said 8 lbs since they last saw me in late February. My weight today was 286, and that's about where it was when I was doing the low-carb diet back before Christmas. So, I'm calling 286 as a starting weight -- the past week has been recovery and healing as a focus.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 1 Day 5

Went to see my PCP today and my blood pressure is still high, so he prescribed a lower-dose prescription of Amlodipine, which we agreed I would crush and add to my protein drink every day. I'll have it rechecked in a month.
While at Costco, one of my favorite places in the world, I decided to get the big bag of chocolate-flavored whey protein powder and some almond milk, and I found a vitamin powder that you mix with 16 oz of water, called EcoDrink Complete Multivitamin. I'll try to drink 3 daily, but it does have 50 to 100% of 32 vitamins and minerals. Unfortunately, not Iron. I tried the Children's chewables, and they just taste awful to me. Too strong and chalky. My gummi vitamins are great, but I fear them getting stuck in my pouch opening, even if I chew them to mush -- although I'll probably resume them when I can advance to the pureed diet.
So, I'll probably survive for another week, even though I hope I'll be able to advance my diet on Wednesday when I see the bariatric surgeon. But the chocolate protein drink does not taste strong at all, the liquid vitamins are tolerable and seem safer than gummi's, and I'm making a duck broth from the meaty carcasses left over from the Feast that Mike did, with some carrots, onions, and garlic thrown in. I'm going to strain all that out, obviously, but it will enrich the broth and I can use my Himalayan salt and some pepper to season it, and it won't be as bad as bullion. I made more than enough for a week or two.
Feeling about like I did on Day 3, and unfortunately also had another day where I'm sure I pushed myself too  hard (walking in Costco is a lot of exercise post-op). Keeping an eye on the color of my urine, which was darker when I was in the hospital on IV fluids, so I'm thinking I'm fairly well-hydrated. Whew. This is hard work! I'm so glad I took a month off from work. Maybe next week, with Mike's help, I can get some compost into the raised beds and plant some turnips, kale, onions and beets.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 1 Day 4

Beginning to get really tired of the liquids! But I can do it. I overdid yesterday: cleaned bed linens and made bed in guest room, cleaned kitchen, cleaned pots/pans/bowls that Mike left from his Feast prep, dusted. And as it turned out, the overnight guests decided that they didn't want to stress me out, so they ended up staying at a motel after the Feast!
I keep waking up at 2 or 3 am with a headache. Last night I took a dose of Lortab and that sure did help. I think that might be what I do from now on, despite my resolve not to take a narcotic pain reliever if I'm not having pain. Cause a headache that wakes you up in the middle of the night IS pain. I'm a bit concerned that my oxygen level might be dropping when I sleep, but it's one of those things that I don't really want to know for sure at this point.
So, today has been pretty much the same. Feeling ok, trying to stay hydrated. I might try Patti's Mio ice pop later. And tomorrow is appointment with my PCP for b/p check.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Gastric Bypass Part 1 Day 3



Three days post-op, and feeling MUCH better. Pretty sure I'm going to survive now. Bowels are working fine, since late yesterday. And it was a big psychological boost to get all my protein and water in yesterday!
Patti brought me daffodils from her yard, which are just beautiful and amazingly cheery. Jeff and Patti came over yesterday evening and stuffed dates, and Jeff ate the Kimchi and pronounced it good.
I was able to chew up my two children's vitamins this morning, but they were not tasty. The calcium chew WAS tasty. I even took a wild chance and mixed my protein with buttermilk this morning, as I'm allowed to mix it with skim milk and buttermilk is skim milk (really, it is). It was not as tasty as when I tried it prior to surgery, but I'm sure the extra calcium and good probiotics in it will be helpful, so I'm going to keep doing it.

Mike is finally out the door, about 2 hours late, as usual. I hope his Feast will go ok, and that he and his crew  can catch up. He has a really hard time doing things ahead of time and preparing well. He's using my surgery as an excuse, but in my opinion, he would be running 2 hours late even if I hadn't had surgery. I think if he uses the ovens at the hall, in addition to the smokers he has, he will be able to get the meat cooked. He also has two very experienced cooks helping him, and hopefully they won't be too hard on him.

My job over the next 8 hours is to clean up the kitchen and make a fresh bed in the guest room for some Feast guests that traveled a long distance to attend and would like to not have to drive back tonight late. Yes, it's a bit early for that, but my plan is to do what I can, then take the doggies into the master bedroom and call it a night -- not going to entertain, and I think that will be understandable.

Day Three has been GOOD.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Gastric Bypass Series Part 1 Days 1 and 2


This is my tummy, which usually isn't quite this round. You can see two of the six small incisions I'm now sporting on my tummy. There are two more above this area, and one on each side. The incisions are very small, and only slightly sore. My tummy is swollen, because a lot went on in there 2 days ago. I had a gastric bypass surgery, and my surgeon also repaired a hiatal hernia and did a biopsy of my liver, which is fatty. She says that the liver problem will likely resolve as I lose weight. I didn't know I had either of those problems when I went in to surgery, but neither surprises me -- excess weight causes both.
My surgery went well otherwise. The staff at my hospital were friendly and supportive. The anesthesiologist put an oxygen mask on me, gave me some medicine in my IV, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in Recovery. As soon as I woke up, I decided to go right back to sleep, because I was feeling nauseated. There was a nurse sitting at a computer right beside me. After several times of waking up/going back to sleep, the nurse happened to notice when I woke up and spoke to me, and I told her I was nauseated, and she gave me medication. That helped, somewhat. Before they transported me to my room, I asked for more medication, because I was fearful the moving and bumping would make me more nauseated. I had gone into surgery at around 10:30am, and I got to my room around 3pm. Vital signs were taken. My RN removed my oxygen, but I was still dozing off/on and an NA put my oxygen back on when she noticed that my oxygen sats dropped into the 80's while I was sleeping. I also had a urinary catheter in place, and IV fluid running into the same IV that they'd placed prior to surgery. They had given me some Ceftin in that IV during surgery and recovery, and now I was getting Tylenol (yes, IV!) and either lactated Ringers or Normal Saline. I also had a Morphine pump with a button that I could push every 6 minutes for a small dose of morpine. I used it a bit for that first night in the hospital. There was pain, but it was mostly in my shoulder area and I think it is from the air they use to poof up your abdomen to do the surgery. It's still there, 2 days later, but not as bothersome. I needed help to get all my tubes and IV lines squared away so that I could walk in the hallway, which I did twice on that first night. I was a little dizzy the first time when I stood up, but it went away quickly, and I didn't walk until it passed. Mike stayed with me until 4:30pm, then he left to make the hour drive back home to feed the animals and lock up the chickens. He came back at 7:30pm and then left again at 9:30pm when we both agreed that the staff was taking good care of me. I pushed my morphine button and went to sleep, woke up briefly around 2am, pushed the button and went back to sleep, woke up when the lab came to get some blood at 5:30am, then dozed off again until 7:30am when my surgeon came in and looked at the incisions and asked how I was doing. She told me that I would likely be going home later that day, and we briefly discussed the hiatal hernia and fatty liver. I dozed off again, and Mike was there. The staff brought in sugar-free sorbet, sugar-free protein drink in fruit flavors, broth and water. My RN wrote on the board in my room that I was to try for 30 mls an hour x 2 hours, then 60mls an hour x 2 hours, then 9 mls an hour x 2 hours, and finally 120mls. I could only comfortably do 60 mls. I can STILL only comfortably do 60 mls today. If I drink more than 2 sips every 10 minutes, it feels very uncomfortable and full and the pain in my shoulders gets worse. They wished that I would pass gas, and I STILL haven't! I do burp frequently. Yesterday was pretty much a blur of drinking, drinking, drinking. I walked again. My daughter Jess came and helped me with the drinking and braided my hair after Mike left to prepare for an event he is cooking for tomorrow. After a couple hours, she went home, and I napped again. I discovered that broth did NOT taste at all good. At about 2pm, the RN came in and said that my surgeon said it was ok for me to go home. I was able to reach Mike by about 4 pm, as he was in the store and his phone didn't work until he got out of the store. Meanwhile, the RN insisted I take a dose of oral Lortab for pain before my trip home, even though I didn't really have that much pain. I was worried it would take up too much room in my new stomach, but she reassured me and it was ok. I took off my hospital gown and put on my jeans and T shirt (jeans were not a good choice, and I'd recommend sweat pants or yoga pants instead). I packed up the hospital stuff: basin, emesis basin, protein drinks and water bottles, Blistex for my lips, little toothpaste tubes. They throw this stuff out, and I figured I could use it for something. When Mike got there at around 5pm, we called for Transport and they put me on a transport chair and whisked me out to the Durango. I didn't get a chance to say good-bye to the staff. It's a busy floor, and they were all off helping other patients.
The drive home was unremarkable. Mike chose the least winding route, which probably helped a lot. I was entirely comfortable. When I got home, I walked a little bit around the house, found a bottle to put my drink in, and mixed up a batch of protein drink. Mike had the kitchen and dining area pretty much filled with stuff for his cooking event, and I figured that was enough excitement for one day and went to bed with my protein drink. Every time I woke up, I went to the bathroom and rinsed my mouth out, then drank two sips of protein drink. At about 2 am, my mouth was really yucky and after I rinsed it I drank 4 sips of water, and my stomach protested immediately. I walked a little, burped, and went back to bed. Mike came in around 7am, and I asked him to fill the vaporizer, as I think that makes it easier to breathe and my mouth doesn't get as yucky. Sure enough, by 9 am I didn't feel nearly as congested and my mouth wasn't so horrible. I got up, checked Facebook briefly and posted that I was alive, made my day's worth of protein drink and another bottle of water, and began sipping. Took a nap between 11:30 and 1pm, then came back to the computer to post this. All in all, I feel like I've been hit by a truck, but it's not necessarily PAIN. The soreness to my belly is entirely tolerable. The worst of it is not being able to drink much. I rinse my mouth a lot, which helps. I think I'll feel much better when I'm able to either pass gas or have a BM. My goal for the rest of the day is to finish my protein drink, check Facebook, and maybe stuff some dates for Mike later if I can tolerate that. Even looking at food is hard, to be truthful. Although yesterday I did have some thoughts about refried beans, which won't happen for weeks. I did try sugar-free Jello in the hospital, and it tasted fine but didn't seem to leave the pouch well, so I'm sticking with protein drink and water for now.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Fermented Tea???


About a month ago, around the same time I was making the kraut and kimchi, I became intrigued with Kombucha Tea. I headed down to the Nugget Market in El Dorado Hills, which is a remarkable supermarket that stocks raw milk and organic foods in addition to conventional food industry stuff. Sure enough, they had raw Kombucha Tea.

At the time, Miach had some GI thing happening and I suspected he needed some good microflora, so I bought 3 bottles of the Kombucha Tea and made him drink one. I also drank one (not bad...) and the third I saved for the live cultures.

In doing some research, it seems that Mother of Vinegar and Kombucha Mother are pretty much the same mix of organisms that form a leathery, rubbery disk that covers the top of your fermenting juice or tea. This blob is called a SCOBY: Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast. The main bacteria is Acetobacter and the yeast is wild yeast from the environment. Now, I have a real admiration for the wild yeast that live in my geographic area. I have a wild yeast sourdough that is absolute gangbusters. It can be in the back of the 'fridge for months, untouched, and yet you can feed it some flour and water and it will snap into action. It raises bread dough almost as quickly as commercial yeast. In traditional San Francisco sourdough, the tartness of the bread is very important. This is NOT that kind of sourdough. This is more the kind of sourdough that people have been making bread out of for thousands of years, and it produces bread that is indistinguishable from bread made with Fleischmann's Yeast or any other commercial yeast. But it's LOCAL yeast! So, I had a lot of hopefulness that I could end up with a very viable and productive Kombucha SCOBY, if I could just get it started out well.

The directions for making your own Kombucha SCOBY were to mix 1 part Kombucha Tea with 3 parts sweetened tea; put it into a large non-reactive (glass, ceramic or food-grade plastic) container with a large surface to volume area (not a wine bottle, but a canister or bucket) and stir it like crazy getting plenty of air into it, then covering it with a thin, medium-weave fabric to keep out bugs but let in air and yeast. I took it a step further, and figuring since Mother of Vinegar and Kombuch mother were virtually the same thing, I dug around in my cabinet and found my bottle of Bragg's Natural Apple Cider Vinegar with The Mother. Sure enough, a SCOBY had formed on the top. I had to pour the whole bottle into a glass pint measuring cup to get the SCOBY out, because it had a narrow neck. I tore off about half of it, and put the rest and the vinegar back into the bottle. I used a large glass storage canister from IKEA as my fermentation vessel, cleaning it with soap and water first. Then I put the 16 oz bottle of commercial raw Kombucha tea from Nugget into the canister, threw the vinegar SCOBY in there, and brewed up a half-gallon of strong black tea, which I cooled to room temperature and added quite a bit of sugar. Probaby 1/2 to 3/4 cup. It tasted sweet. I added that to my canister, covered it with muslin and tied string around the neck of the canister to keep it in place, tucked it into a dark corner of my counter and tried not to bother it for a few days.

Sure enough, presto, after about 2 weeks a SCOBY had formed on the top of it and I had a sweet/sour kombucha tea. I poured this out of the canister, leaving about a cup or 2 with the SCOBY, and refrigerated it. Then I made another half-gallon of tea, this time sweetening it with honey, and did it again. That tea was much less full-bodied when fermented, so the next time I went back to sugar. Most recently, in preparation for an upcoming surgical event that will limit my ability to tolerate sweets, I fermented the tea for 2 full weeks and have a very tart, only slightly sweet tea now that I'm going to attempt to take after the surgery in very small amounts to see if I can tolerate it.

TMI ALERT!!!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU CAN'T TOLERATE TALK OF BODILY FUNCTIONS.
I'm a gassy person. It's really aggravating and occasionally embarassing. Obviously, one tries to be polite and discrete, but there are times when things are just totally beyond one's ability to stop them, and this situation had gotten worse and worse over the past few years. I'd noticed that when I follow a low-carb diet, it takes care of the problem about 75% of the time, which is going to be the subject of a post-surgical blog post, I'm sure. Well, Kombucha Tea seems to take care of the problem, too, but for it to work most effectively I've found that I need to drink it with most meals. If I do that, no intestinal gas. I don't have to drink much; maybe 2 or 3 ounces. A 16 oz bottle can last me 2 days in the car in winter (it isn't fermenting much in a cold car).
YOU CAN START READING AGAIN, GENTLE ONES.

Other claims that I can't verify (yet) that are attributed to Kombucha Tea:


Due to the composition and metabolic by-products of this microcultured, living food -- which I do not want to go into, as it is beyond my pay grade and kind of boring unless you're a biologist -- Kombucha helps balance your acid/base profile, makes assimilation of B vitamins much better, makes GERD symptoms much better, helps you sleep, improves your skin and hair tone, helps you to digest food, regulates your elimination (both kinds)  and energizes you. Many people who have tried it quickly become proponents of it, and I am certainly one of them. I'm not entirely sure what the Kombucha is doing, but whatever it is, I feel much better when I drink it and my inclination now whenever I have a slight dyspepsia or other digestive problem is to swig some Kombucha tea. I recently had to stop my arthritis medication, which is NOT FUN, but on days that I have somehow missed the Kombucha tea, my arthritis is much worse and on days when I drink it the arthritis pain seems to be tolerable. This is a relatively new observation, and it could be dependant on several other factors like barometric pressure and ambient air temperature, so I'm not quite convinced the Kombucha is a good arthritis reliever yet.

The Final Fermented Cabbages

So here we have them, the Kimchi (3 and 3/4 jars) and the Kraut (5 and 4/5 jar, plus one jar of kraut juice). The Kimchi continues to be a delight, with complex flavors. The saltiness has subsided, and the pepper heat is just about perfect for my taste, which is kind of in the low middle range. The Kraut is very tart with a very kraut-y aroma, and it's the consistency that I remember from my childhood although I think it would have been a better consistency had I refrigerated it a week ago. The juniper berries were a wild card for me, as I've never eaten them before, only attempted to make ale with them. They don't taste the way I expected, which was more like a pine tree. They taste peppery.

I'm leaving the Kimchi out at room temp for a day or so, and watching for bubbles. Hopefully, I'll get a few, then I'll refrigerate it. The Kraut is going straight into the fridge, because it's texture is already soft.

As you can see, these are colorful ferments. They're really lovely.

Right after I poured the rest of the kraut juice down the sink (where it will hopefully survive in our septic tank) I realized I should have given it to the chickens. Darn. So I did take out the Kimchi brine for them, and they drank it. The microflora in those liquids is good for chickens, too!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Fermented Cabbages Part Two

Kimchi definitely smells strong, but has a lovely spicey/fishy/veggie taste. I can see why people like this stuff. Kraut on the right, it's pink because it's a mix of red and green cabbage, and you can see the caraway seed and juniper berries if you look close. The brine-filled bags I was using to weigh the kraut down evidently broke, so I switched to a salad plate which fits perfectly into the bucket. The kraut has a definite sour taste now, but is still very crunchy. I'll bottle some of it up for the Emeritus Feast auction next week, and the same with the kimchi - only I'm going to try to get some carbonation going on the kimchi, so I'll leave it at room temp. Miach likes the kimchi, so that's a good sign. Although he did say "it's beginning to smell ripe out there!" when I went out to the back deck to dig around in my fermentation box.

Monday, February 11, 2013

A Tale of Two Fermented Cabbages

About 3 or 4 days ago, I cut up 3 heads of Napa cabbage, and 5 heads of regular cabbage (both green and purple) to make some vegetable ferments. This is what they look like after the intervening time submerged in brine and sitting on our back deck nesting in straw inside a covered box. The weather has gotten down to sub-32F nearly every night and daytime temps have been in the 40's to a bit over 60. No sun hits the back deck, no matter what time of day. 

The Kimchi, made mostly for Miach's knight, Gunther, who had a Korean grandmother, was made like this: quarter and then slice into 2" pieces, sprinkled with salt as I layered it into a bowl, and set aside for a couple hours. I ground up about 10 to 12 dried chili peppers (California mildly spicy, sold in the Mexican spice section in a cellophane bag) and tasted them, and they weren't very spicy. I know Gunther likes spicy. So, I sprinkled VERY CAREFULLY some of the habenero powder that one of our other friends (Dregel and Bronwyn) grew and gave us. I tasted again, and it had a bite to it which wasn't bad. I pulverized in a food processor: 8 cloves of garlic, 3" of ginger, 1/2 yellow onion and about 20 small red radishes. I used regular radish, because I can't find Daikon radish this time of year anywhere. Really, you want this mixture to be mush, and it was. 
I added 2 or 3 tablespoons of rice flour to about a cup of water and cooked it over a low flame until it thickened, then scooped it into a bowl to cool. 
After it cooled, I mixed it with the spice mush and ground peppers, to form a red goo and I added about 1/4 cup of fish sauce. I was amazed to find fish sauce in a couple of stores, and I chose one that only had anchovies and salt as ingredients. I tasted it, too, and it didn't taste bad -- it tasted salty. 
Then, I sliced up another 20 or so radishes and three bunches of green onions including the tops and set that aside. 
I retrieved the cabbage, which had wilted and was very watery, and rinsed it off until it tasted nearly salt-free. (The hot pepper goo has salty fish sauce in it, remember...)
Then I mixed the cabbage with the veggies, and dumped the sauce on them and mixed that very well, and packed it tightly into a 2 gallon food-safe plastic bucket with a lid that snaps down. I weighted the mixture down with 2 gallon size ziplock bags filled with a mixture of water and 3 teaspoons of salt (in case they break or leak...) and I had to adjust the fill of the bags so that they would fit into the bucket and still allow the lid to be loosely snapped on top (to let gas out as the kimchi ferments..). 
Making the kimchi was fun, if a bit labor intensive. The kitchen smelled pretty good from the spice mix, and I know that can change as it ferments, which is probably why Koreans tend to do the fermenting outside. 

The Sauerkraut was downright simple compared to the Kimchi: shred cabbage in food processor using slicing side, and feeding 2 or 3 inch chunks into your access port. Add what seems like a good amount of caraway seed, and about 1/4 cup of dried juniper berries for my 5 heads of cabbage, toss that all together, sprinkle it with about 1/3 cup of salt but again: layer it and sprinkle, etc. Then punch the mixture, toss it, punch it HARD, toss it, and finally pack it down into another food safe plastic bucket tightly and again weigh it down with the ziplock bags covering the entire surface of the mixture, and loosely place the lid. I added about 1/4 cup of whey that I collected from a jar of yogurt that I had made and put in the back of my fridge quite some time ago. It had not spoiled, and still tasted like yogurt, and I'm not dead, so I think it was fine. The whey is supposed to kick-start your kraut, add in good bacteria and acidify it more quickly, which keeps it from spoiling. But really--from what I've researched, you don't need to worry about it spoiling if you keep it submerged in it's own brine and you skim any mold and floating veggies off and throw them away. 

You don't have to add anything but salt and cabbage to the kraut, if you don't want to or if you don't have it. We happen to have stuff from our brewing and cooking hobbies that are traditional ingredients! You can also add other vegetables to the kraut, so long as it is mostly cabbage - cause otherwise you have some other kind of fermented vegetable dish, and not kraut. Which might not be bad, just not kraut. 
Kimchi is different. I think recipes for kimchi approach religious belief, and they vary from season to season and family to family and region to region. You almost can't make it wrong -- but you are never going to make it "right", either, unless you hit on the exact recipe that the person eating it had in the past. It's like my grandmother's egg noodles that no one can duplicate, but the efforts are still tasty and still egg noodles. 

So, here we are with VERY young ferments, and following Sandor Katz's http://www.wildfermentation.com/ advice to taste, taste, taste until you get where you're going with a ferment, I carefully plucked some of each out this morning. Both of the containers smell "gassy" but not bad. There is no mold on the top of either, and the bags appear intact and are continuing to submerge the veggies. It rained and sleeted/hailed during the past few days, and there was some water on the lids because the box the containers were in couldn't be totally weather-proofed (I lined it with a large garbage bag, set it inside another large garbage bag, and put clean straw inside it for insulation before setting the buckets inside, and I covered it with a large plastic storage box lid that didn't fit tightly). There was a large amount of brine in both containers, all the way to just below the brims, but it appeared to be from the vegetables and not from outside. Both lids were still on, and covering the buckets completely, and all bags were still full, so I really think its just the juices of the vegetables being drawn out by the salt. 

The Kimchi smells onion/garlic-y and is in a light orange-red brine. The cabbage and green onion taste similarly and are still mostly crunchy. There is a notable ginger taste, and a very mild spicy bite and warming effect to the palate. No notable fish taste, and only mildly salty. As a person who has never actually tasted any kind of kimchi, I find it pleasant so far, but I suspect a Korean would find it very bland, so I'm thinking about adding a bit more habenero and fish sauce. I won't be able to mix them in, so hopefully they'll disperse through the brine on their own. 

The Kraut smells mildly of caraway, and is still both green and purple pieces in a light purple brine. It is mostly crunchy, with a light salty taste, not acidic at all at this point. 

Although I'm sure that a bit of fermentation is occurring in both, due to the cooler temps that they are being stored in, it isn't really evident yet. I may bottle the kimchi at some point and let it carbonate at room temp for a day or so, then put it back outside, but I think I'm going to give it another week at least. The reason for doing that would be that carbonated kimchi is considered by most to be a better dish, so I'd like to try. The kraut just needs to acidify, and slow fermentation is supposed to be best for it, so we're right on track. Both ferments can be eaten at a few days, or can be stored for months or even years at cool temps, although for kraut at least I've heard that it can eventually turn quite soft and unappetizing. 

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Cooperative Creativity

We had a joint mini-meeting of the Cynaguan Brewer's Guild and the Herbalist's Guild at Investiture. Brewers need herbs.
And that got me to thinking: Cooks need herbs, too. And they need cheese.
We have all these guilds that do things, and we don't often do them together.
Mostly, I think, that's because guild membership ebbs and flows and people don't like to commit to things. But wouldn't it be really fantastic for the cooks to be able to put on their feasts using components made or grown by the other guilds?  I was really tickled to make a couple gorgonzola cheeses for Collegium this past fall; so much so that I set about making a couple basket cheese and a couple MORE gorgonzola, originally for the Perfectly Period Feast but since we're having our Emeritus Feast in our local Shire of Mountain's Gate the cheeses will be at our local Feast instead.
It's so easy to get pulled in several directions in the SCA. It's important to me to learn things, and to get better at them, but there are some things I just can't get excited about on a daily basis. Like making garb - not exciting to me. But attempting to make gruit ale, even when I fail, is immensely interesting. Cheesemaking is interesting. Fermenting food is interesting. Fostering cooperation and promoting fellowship is interesting. It is said that people born under my stars become Jacks-of-all-trades, but Masters of none. That has been true of me, mostly because I become bored and move on to something else. But the art and science of creating food and drink in cooperation with microflora is challenging and fascinating, so there's a possibility that I may have found a niche. If it is possible to promote the humans working cooperatively, too, that would make me feel very good.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

It's really illuminating to return to the ol' blog and see that the last post I made, nearly 18 months ago, contains the exact same feelings on community as I was pondering today.
I need to keep better care of this blog. It's better for my mental health than Facebook and I've never been much of a Twitter(er), although I do enjoy the tweets of others.
So, here we are in January of 2013! My locavore diet has gone out, and back in, and back out since last I visited. I'm now on a waiting list for a gastric bypass, mostly because I would very much like to be around for a few years longer than I can otherwise expect at my current weight.
We now have an old horse and two wether goats. In further anxiety-provoking news, our elderly neighbor across the road cares for them while we go to events.
SCA-wise, we're kind of in a holding pattern. Miach is still fighting. I'm still Principality Chirurgeon. I've begun to think about my own relationship to the SCA vs. my relationship in tandem with Miach. Not because there is any trouble with Miach, but because I'd like to make my own place on my own merits. I've become enchanted with fermenting, and interested in pursuing this as a Period craft. Miach is now our Shire Seneschal, and our Shire is struggling. We lost our friend, Michael Pringle/Mike Johnson, a year ago. His wife, Miriam/Roz, moved to Caid. Geoffrey of Clan Fergus and Oian, and their wives, do not play any longer although Geoffrey speaks of taking it up again at times. Wylowen and Kaitlyn got married, and they still attend some events, but work and finances keep them busy. We had several new folk that came to the Shire during a period of divisiveness and ended up aligned to Chateau de Camville, the household of Sir Richard de Camville, and identify much more strongly with their household than with the Shire. (For which, by the way, I cannot blame them. The Shire floundered badly for the past 3 years, lacking Geoffrey's vision and Oian's steady all-inclusiveness.) With Roz moving to Caid, An Tellach Mor is down to just Miach and I. Morgan and Siobhann re-converted to Christianity, and more recently have expanded their Hold and concentrated on the Barbarian Freehold. They pulled out of An Tellach Mor, and the rest of the An Tellach Mor hearths formed Black Sheep Keep due to the schism. We have remained friendly with all, but ultimately An Tellach Mor is now gone, as An Triobhais Mor and Clannada na Gaedelica before it. At this point, the next household will be founded by us if and when Miach is knighted, and only then if he wins Coronet, and our vision of it is younger. Meanwhile, Gunther and Juliana rarely attend events any longer, and the Squires have varying levels of involvement. Titus moved to the East, and asked Gunther to take over his squires (Edmond and George), and I truly believe that the only reason Gunther and Juliana are still even minimally involved in the SCA is because Gunther feels an obligation to his own, and Titus', squires. Things would not be going any better had Miach become Sir Richard's squire, because Sir Richard and Alloria are now only doing Chataeu functions, which are pretty much private collegiums, and their mundane horse club. If Miach had picked Uther, things might be headed slightly up, but Uther and Kara don't attend events like they used to, either, and have been concentrating on the live steel game of Battle of Nations. So, we went from having some powerful allies to being on our own, more or less, in the space of the past 2 years.
I successfully made some good Gorgonzola cheese, and the Blackberry Mead that I was sure was going to be vinegar 'cause I left it on the lees for months and the airlock went dry a couple times, turned out pretty good. And it's the little things that keep our spirits up!