Well, my horoscope threatened a higher level of mental organization today, so perhaps that's why I managed to remember FLYlady.

For those impressed with my productivity, who have picked up my use of timers, etc...this is where I learned to do that, from about 2001-2006.
I left then because I needed to focus on things that FLYlady didn't seem to address. I am glad to remember it now, when all could so easily go to chaos, and yet it is one of the sweetest holiday seasons I can remember. I want to *enjoy* this time.

I don't want it marred by financial mistakes, emotional snapping, wasted time hunting for things, and missed opportunities. So, just sayin' - probably not for everyone, but I like it.

Back to the boxes.

This moving business, at the holidays, with everything else that's going right in my life...well, it's all exhausting, and I'm just not going to manage being a good correspondent for a bit.

Thanksgiving was lowkey, just my extended family, with a few missing who live far away. My aunt is an amazing cook, and has shared her recipes with many of us, particularly me. It was great to eat her dishes having recently reviewed the recipes, so I really understood what I was eating. Now they will be mine, all mine!

Went visiting in Georgia, and had a fabulous time with therandver , thorabell , et al at a fun costume party. Terrific efforts by just about everyone - so much fun to play with costumes that aren't SCA for a change. R and I really like wearing the late 1800's stuff. We'll hold onto these things for a while.

I picked up the last of my belongings from storage, and finally I have all my stuff in one place, and can sort and cull to my satisfaction. I have an awful lot of kitchen boxes. Possibly more than the fabric/yarn boxes. Which rival the book boxes. I'll run a load up this weekend, and look about the place to see how the land lies.

The advice to subscribe to steampunk groups here on LJ was REALLY GOOD. I like steamfashion in particular - many pictures and general crowdsourcing. Good stuff.

I still haven't found my mystery word. It isn't "underbust" and it isn't "bustier"..."bust" is no part of it. I've been reading various online fashion glossaries, all of which purport to be comprehensive, and yet somehow have little overlap. Figures. I'm going to get down an old dictionary at this rate, it's driving me nuts. An important part of the context is that this "boned bodice from historical fashion typically matched the skirt, and was worn over a blouse". Think Rene Russo's first outfit in Thomas Crowne Affair (though my memory isn't clear; I think that was just a fabric change on the blouse). Argh.

I'm in box hell again - picked up another carful from FWB again yesterday, and need to spend many hours culling through and repacking. Now that I have some idea of what my life might be like (or at least, the values/material to work with), I can make some decisions...though I fear I'm going to bombard T with lists of "should I keep this"?

I think I only have two more cars' worth to pull from FWB - though honestly if D decides not to take the citrus with him, and there's gardening tools, etc, too...it could be more. And messier more.

It's time to start cooking for holidays - D sent me home with a box of native persimmons from the empty lot next door, and what T&I think are key limes, though they are the yellowest key limes I've ever seen. The Meyers aren't ready yet - and there aren't enough key limes for a pie, so I think I'll do the preserved lemon treatment on the limes.

I continue to be way behind on blogging - I have so much starred and needing review and sorting. FSD in particular continues to be a problem child - though the Substantial Completion inspection of the Wilson Medical Building went well yesterday, and I'm incredibly pleased with how the sow's ear managed to be repurposed as at least a very nice purse. More detail on that elsewhere, when I manage to catch up.

One of the things that therandver and I have fun with is the serious enabling that goes on between us on our various interests, which are hugely complementary. I've been asked to come up with something steampunkish for D-C next summer, to go with a 'crewmember of one of Her Majesty's Airships', and I'm feeling simultaneously spoiled and challenged, and I want y'all's help.

On the one hand, this is Easy. I almost don't have to sew. I have a walking skirt, and a matching fitted blazer, and a lovely old luggage hatbox, and a collection of hats, and as anyone who knows me in person knows...the hair to manage the Gibson Girl hairstyle to pull that off. I even have multiple choices of shoes.

Furthermore, this could be Productive and Fun. I've been wanting another reproduction corset - I've done a Civil War one, but I want also the Edwardian S-curve one. I have also wanted one of the lingerie tea dresses (look here) for ages, and I've done lace insertion, so I think I can manage that. I also want to make this skirt, just to have.

The issue that is Challenging is this, and I want help from pinkpelican1 , eeyore_sings , and anyone else listening:

I am not punk, in the teased hair and extreme eye shadow sense. I will never be punk. I can't pull it off. I open my mouth, or unwittingly make an expression, and the effect is ruined.

One story I've come up with, that matches the NotPunkness of my personality casting, is "arranged passage on airship without knowing what she was getting into." Which is actually pretty accurate, given the company I plan to be keeping. (Grin. Love you guys.)

I asked some not-so-much SCA friends about this, and the guys recc'd "something warm, but a safety line hooked round a corset would be a good idea" and "goggles and your own telescope". Check. I can do that.

I am thinking I ought to make the corset anyway, soon, so that I can judge if the stuff I have works.

HOWEVER. Here's an alternate story line: "Girl Engineer". (I have a new engineer's hat.) This might be a way to get the 'punk' and some more technology into the idea. I don't have to fool with putting my hair up (won't fit under the hat). I could wear PANTS. You know, full-cut ones, as if I made over a man's to fit me. I can still do the corset, but over a shirt, and more as jerryrigged safety harness gear. (not related quite, but what is a boned bodice worn over clothing called, there's a particular name and darned if it won't come off the tip of my tongue...)

The more I think about this, the more I like it. The first idea is nice, but it's too historical for the notion of steampunk, I think. Hey, I can smudge my face, even. Fun.

(my life coach would say, celebrate! yes, yes, going out to dinner.)

But seriously, I've got a huge to-do list started, and it's barely begun, really. I need to think about:

Updating job search efforts with the new LEED credential, and what I learned from pursuing it. - This means new cover letters, and a new resume version. Also means, "what is it like to practice architecture in AL?" Internet research.
How to move my stuff from at least three locations to one location, over four trips. - I think I won't really understand this until the second stuff moving opportunity, when I get to go up and see for myself what to expect.
What is Decatur like, in particular? I've been there a couple of times before, so I have a clue, but I need to research particulars. - Somewhat on the web, and much more when I get there.
And upcoming events, and Christmas.

Mom reminds me that I owe her some garb. I guess that's what I'm doing next. After the resume update.

EDIT: And some yoga! I have absolutely turned into a slug over the past few weeks, I'm definitely weaker, and my back hurts in that sedentary way that presages a miserable fifth and sixth decade. Four o'clock, I'm getting sweaty.

So it seems arranged that I'll be moving to N. AL "in the New Year"...actual date not yet set, since mom's b'day is the 2nd, and I'm not going to ditch her right on the day if I can help it.  (Just checked - it's a Saturday.  Helpful, that.)

I am valiantly trying to stay on task, listening to my mp3s.  They are helping - my second practice exam score was passing, though of course I'm not satisfied with that, I want to be *more sure* of passing.  But it's a challenge in meditation to keep my attention on my ears and not be mentally packing.  The knitting helps - I'm nearly done with the first holiday item - which will go to its recipient around Feast of St. Nicholas.

I am way way way behind on blog maintenance, need to tidy/pack the garage, etc...whoa, stop.  Back to non-Pod, teapot, needles.

 My perception of my life and what I want to do with it is changing so fast, I can't keep up.  I took a social media webinar today, and the ideas just poured out of the ether onto my page - and I know a lot from the presentation went over my head, I should retake it after my exam.

What I've been up to in the past few years, things I like to think about, values that are important to me...all these things are refolding into new opportunities, and my possible task list hasn't exploded like this in years.  Possibly not ever.  I have so many ideas that are clearly the second draft, or recombination, of first ideas, it's terribly exciting.  ("I've learned something!  It was worth it!")

It makes a difference that:  I've set up and run a business before.  I've set up a household before.  I've moved cities before.  I've figured out local networks before.  Taking the risk scares me, but I keep reminding myself of all the lovely parachutes I have, in all the people who care about me.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I'm rather glad that I have the LEED exam in a week, and get to focus squarely on that, otherwise I'd need help to keep my head from spinning.  Interesting that my seriously-lapsed interest in knitting is Back.  (I've picked up an abandoned pair of socks for listening to study materials, and am eyeing Norah Gaughan designs with fantastically creative geometric construction methods.)

 (thanks to Aillegan for the great term)

So, settling into the real.  Realrealrealrealreal.  I'd keep pinching myself, but this Twelve Dancing Princesses lifestyle is wearing enough that I'm pretty sure I'm awake.  Barely.  Hot tea is good.

The universe seems to be sending me more work stuff to at least think about - oh please let this somehow transmute into actual moneybearing, career-building work, that I can learn things on, etc.  My exam is the 17th, and what I learned from people with the older versions of this credential last night was "oh, if you managed the architect's exam, you'll have no trouble" and "but I did the easy one".  Right.  Studying.

For after the exam, my project list has exploded again.  Company of St. Vitus (barony's dance group) is talking about doing dance demos, which means mom needs late period garb by next month.  After all the identity crisis of deciding on early period in the past year, I find this amusing.  Thanks, Murphy.  

I'm pushing her toward the 1470ish Botticelli dress that Lorenzo's been putting various women in lately - it'll suit her figure, is easy, and the sleeves are well-ventilated.  I hope that 3 yards of a very light herringbone wool, navy, 60" wide, will be enough, but the art says we can make the sleeves out of something else if she likes.  The real design challenge is headdress, because mom has very short hair, and puts her foot down about not having 'the complete outfit'.  (Apple does not fall far from tree.)  Her hair will not hold anything pinned to it.  The art shows veil+wimple-like things, which is fine for winter, and I even have a wimple already, so that's easily done, but we'll see how it works for dancing.  I don't want her to have visibility issues.  We'll try the wimple+veil at next week's practice.

She's been shown how to wear a little turban, which would offer more peripheral vision, but I haven't seen it on anything of that timeplace yet.  Admittedly, the art I'm looking at is pretty high-class, so perhaps that's why.  I haven't gone hunting in my frescos yet.  What do y'all think?

There's also the little matter of the personal token I'd made that suddenly isn't good enough...this is also amusing, in a Murphyish-sugar-coma-sort-of-way...

(warning: disgustingly happy stuff ahead)
 
What it takes to win a Greet:

Half* of 21,000 words of love letters, typed painfully slowly by a dyslexic who had injured his hand. They are full of poetics, intellectual humor that sends *me* to the bookshelf but also whimsy, display a not-so-common-sense practicality, illustrate countless common points of background, interests, and values; and reveal a courageous, wise and deep soul.

And they're not stopping.  *It's my turn to send back next.

Did I mention the two, three-hour phone calls filled with laughter?  And for those of you who didn't make it to Gatalop...well, most of those who did didn't see much of me either.  :D

I have never felt like this.  There isn't any "I'm just going to die if I don't get a reaffirmation that he wants me" codependent stuff.  It's strong and bright and happy and giving.

Back to the exam books.

Trying to remember not to do too much, too fast, and keep plugging on the big projects that really need to work.  Which would be the LEED exam.

Also trying to dial my SCA stuff way down*, since I have serious work to do on the Getting A Job front also - a bunch of new ideas of how to present myself.

Dog is back with us, and is taking care of my exercise regimen...it's a 45-min walk at least once a day...perhaps twice.

Toodledo continues to be a useful to-do list tool.  Er, let's call that TRIAGE.

Oh right...(remembering life coach's admonition to celebrate achievements)...Gatalop was fantastic, complete with disastrous weather as if I'd custom-ordered it.  Tent did well, and I enjoyed seeing so many of my buddies, even if I was more than a trifle *distracted*.  Best A&S moment was geeking about Pompeiian bread-baking pots with Kiara:  She'd brought several ceramic cooking pots, including a frying pan, and Randver and I were imagining how to use them.  I explained to him that Mairie Ceilidh had commissioned a half-scale Pompeiian bread oven from Kiara, and I'd seen it in MC's house, and gotten a report from her about how it's meant to be used, which R thought was very interesting, since he's a cookery person.  I've since chatted with MC again about it, and hope to get a guided tour of her pots with her soon.

*Is it possible to only spend an hour a day on SCA stuff?  Unknown.  May be crack.

 Today I learned something about mildew and cotton vs. wool, and got the mudflaps sewn on the tent.  I'm a little annoyed about this, as the lesson means that today I knowingly sewed on something that will need to be replaced fairly soon, but oh well.  I'll experiment with non-bleach alternatives to stave off that date.

This does mean that the graphic design lark I'd had for some of the mudflaps - because a certain instigator dared me to have naked ladies on my mudflaps - won't go, as I don't think the painting technique I would use on cotton canvas will work on this wool twill.  Which is also a pity, as that's the graphic design problem I've gotten the farthest along on, and thought I'd make some progress transferring them on-site.  (I'd adapted hair-pulling Celts stolen from an Irish stone.)  I'll use the designs on something else, doubtless, but the pun dies a tragic death.

(No, I will not embroider the wool mudflaps, just to have the embroidery in the mud.  I'm not that nuts.)

Did some more cooking (I'm galette woman these days), and tested some of the camping equipment, and picked up the finish fabric for the floor, which gets sewn tomorrow.  I have a pile started, but real packing happens tomorrow.  Doesn't look like it'll be especially cold.

I'm thinking about a Tent Emergency Kit, which ought to have plastic sheeting, a bunch of twine for securing sheeting as interior rain fly, some patches and thread/needles, those clamps (clamps are always handy)...

I'm fairly convinced that it wouldn't be interesting to say every day - "still studying".  I am.  Making progress - I'm about at the point where I'm writing out the entire system from memory, getting the points for the items about 80% correct.  Next is being able to attribute the technical standards for each, and the benchmark levels...ugh.  It'll be nice to have this to draw upon, but it sucks getting there.  Much like learning the building code.  And the Disability standards.

Why does studying require so much eating?  Putting on my shoes and going for a walk.

 The number of people who write me from the general universe who think I can give them fantastic advice, and I really can't.  Furthermore, they're better set up than I am, they just don't know that yet.  So they don't need me, they just need me to tell them they don't need me.

Since I get to do this professionally a fair bit too, I suspect it's a larger phenomenon.  People like hand holders.  The question is, do I want to be one?

(Who am I kidding?  Of course I want to be one.  :D  The trick is balancing the extravert's need for socializing with Onward Progress.  And choosing the direction of the Onward Progress.)

UPDATE:  So I responded to Julia on GMA (read that here) and apparently I helped her today, though not in any technical way...

"Oh, what wonderful words to hear at the end of the day. Thank you for  your beautiful, beautiful, wise & comforting email.
As it happens, i am going to go to Vavstuga tomorrow afternoon to see the Glimakra Julia loom, and (I hope) to try weaving on it a little.
Today has been a discouraging one for me -- difficult interpersonal stuff, anger -- and your email hits just the right note to let me let go of all that!
Navajo weaving also appeals... I have a very old, very beautiful Navajo rug that came from my grandparents.
"All you're going to lose is money and time, but you'll gain memories and wisdom, and that's all we get at the end of our days."  THAT, dear Greet, is one of the best things I've heard in a long time!!
Thanks -- Julia"

AWWWW.  (feeling I contributed something really good to the world today)

Headed back out with mp3 player to work on tent.  Progress here.

Nobody has stopped on the street to ask what I'm doing.  I'm rather disappointed by this.  Maybe they're getting used to the odd doings.

 I've got a shortlist of things I want to cook, now that the weather has turned cool, and before the holidays make my inner child Demanding.  My standard practice is to pull a large armload of books off the shelf, adjurn to my bed, and look up the same recipe in at least five, notebook in lap.  It's interesting how cookbooks change over the years.

My copy of Joy of Cooking is my grandmother Myra's second of three (I think).  It was published in 1975 (my birth year, why I chose it, when given the choice).  Mom has Myra's first, published in 1946, and also her Betty Crocker, published in 1950.  My Betty Crocker is from 1992, when I went to college.  And I grew up with a Betty Crocker from the early 70's, because mom had that as well as the early 70's Joy.  (She left it behind - I mean to replace this someday; the number of times we both hunt for a recipe only to sigh, "it must have been in Betty.")  My other bible is Bittman's How To Cook Everything, purchased when I married in 1998.

There are big differences.  Microwave ovens.  Dip-level-pour flour.  Of course changes in fats, sugars, and just what sort of recipes are trendy.

One of the foods I want to make this fall is a variant of English muffins.  My mother made these all the time when I was little, and once she made them with sweet potatoes, and they were FANTASTIC.  (Sister Bess was anemic, and mom was using every trick she could find to get iron to stick in her little girl.)  Of course she doesn't remember what she did, and I want to recreate them.

English muffins are not in 1975 Joy.  They are in 1946 Joy, and they are in 1998 Bittman.  They are more or less the same, though it's odd to see that Bittman, in the health-conscious nineties, has twice as much salt in his 12-muffin recipe as Irma does.
(I'm abridging slightly - typing recipes is not my favorite thing.)

1c hot water
1c scalded milk
1T sugar
1t salt
3T butter

Mix and allow to cool until lukewarm.  Add:
1 cake (an envelope will do now, I've worked this out elsewhere) yeast dissolved in 2T lukewarm water

Stir in 4c bread flour.  Permit sponge to rise in a warm place (80-85d) for about 1.5 hours, until it falls back in the bowl.  Fill muffin rings (!) half-full with the batter.  Permit it to rise again until it rises to the top of the ring.  Lift the muffins with a pancake turner from the board onto a fairly hot well-buttered griddle.  Permit the muffins to cook slowly until they are done (for about 15 minutes a side).  Test them with a straw (I am fairly sure she doesn't mean plastic drinking).  Split the muffins...etc.

I think I remember muffin rings clogging utensil drawers, too.  The sweet potato would be all of the sugar - what remains to be seen is how much liquid is right.  I think I'll have to do this at least twice - once as written (oh, how horrible), to see what the consistency is, and then try to match it with the potato version.  My first guess is going to be to sub for all of the water, and half of the milk, which will be interesting, scalding soy milk.

 Seth Godin gets it, as usual:

Am *so* glad to finally get to one of the Oldenfeld events, when they have been so incredibly welcoming and friendly and generous to me while I've been here. GMA report here.  I'd brought my tent to put it up, but was so lazy about packing the car and getting to site, that I just didn't have the heart to push for something of my own when there was something to help with.  I'll get the tent up soon at home, which is where it needs to be anyway.

Well, after the squee post yesterday I needed something grounding, and the universe delivered.  I had a networking date last night,  which I think he would have liked to consider more, and I was oh so Intentionally Oblivious.  But apparently I'm learning something, because there was a time when I would have been so flattered to be asked/noticed, that I wouldn't have been capable of writing the following:

Notes to Men Who Would Like To Impress Smart Women.

If you worry out loud to me, to the point of apologizing hopefully, about the quality of the restaurant, and then wolf down your food, such that we are out of there in 45 minutes, I will think that you are trolling for reassurance.  This is not a impressive thing.  Also, you have not given me time to notice what quality the food was, much less enjoy it.  I will also think you don't know what to do with quality food when you meet it on the street, and if we were to encounter it together, I would point out the pigs overhead and slip round the other door to enjoy my meal in peace.

If you ask me what I am doing in X topic, do not finish my sentences for me.  Especially not wrongly.  Though I think if you were really interested in what I had to say, you might be able to wait for me to finish chewing my bite.

Then, when I have begun the topic, do not proceed to put on your Professor Know-It-All hat and lecture me about the thing I'm studying.  Particularly as if I have not read anything at all yet.  Not only is this insulting, but you look (again) desperate for reassurance.

When you have pulled some questionably correct/interesting facts out of your ass in order to impress me, and I reprove you by stating something at the level of my interest, unfortunately showing you with your pants down, it'd be nice if you had a sense of humor.  Or the decency to apologize.  Or perhaps some humility.  Even a weak compliment?  Completely changing the subject is not my 'reset' switch; I will not forget.

Ugh.  Awful.  Though now it's starting to become funny in my mind, which is also unfortunate, since I'll see this guy at the event on Saturday. If I have any alcohol in me at all, I'm going to be hard pressed not to laugh at him.

 Um, is it supposed to be this good?  I mean, I'm worrying.  It's that good.

This isn't real.  (oh, but please let it be)

And my productivity is SHOT.  I'm not even getting any proper daydreaming done.  Staring at the space between molecules, that's what I'm doing.

Perhaps chocolate spread will help string my brain cells back together.  I'm almost afraid to drive.

I'm starting to smell what balance might be.  Not there by a long shot (must have job), but things are settling down in my head.

Have been listening to Forster's "A Room With A View", in audio, free download from Librivox.  Each chapter, several times in a row, because this book is dense with lessons I really wish I had been ready for earlier, like twelve years ago, when I found the movie in Italy, and read Forster's "Where Angels Fear To Tread" for class.  Ah well.

Revit tutorials are going well - I've completed one small office building exercise and have moved on to a larger one.  This textbook is making more sense than the last one.

LEED study is also going well - I've developed a habit of copying over my flashcards before bed, one section a night.  I think I have just about all the categories and their respective points learned; next are the thresholds for the categories, and the standards referenced.  Then I'll be ready for practice tests, I think.

I've been paper journaling more, which is also helping with the newness of dating and what I think of myself vis a vis all these other people.  Making myself get out colored pencils and do illustrated journals, which somehow helps.  Right brain stuff, I guess.  Would like to also get out the watercolors for same, but am inexplicably nervous about it.

I'm nearly done with a little freelance job, which is nice, but my old software is not nearly so clever as Revit.  Guess that's validation that this way is the new best way forward.

I made 40 tent ties today, and have cut out ears, which still need sewing into place (after dance practice tonight).  I'll wait to cut the mudflaps until it's pitched and stretched.  I hope to get that done on Thursday with some help.  The poles have their red base coat, as well as the treacherous table that dumped a piece on my foot (it won't do that again).  I hope to spend time with a paintbrush decorating at Gatalop, but if that doesn't work well, I've still got a bedcover with embroidery-in-progress.

Christmas music is going well - there's at least two pieces conducive to harp covered so far, and as I'm not struggling with anything on the recorder, I'm going to turn back to that and see if I can get the harp useful for Yule.  Too bad the same can't be said for my voice - I've finally gotten a basic range back from the ravages of the cough, but when we do a lot of really high stuff (the Fs in "Dadme albricias, hijos d'Eva" were pesky this week), I get a recurrance of goo for the next day or so.  It's all good, though - since we've acquired another strong soprano in a college student, I've started dropping down into the alto parts, which are frequently more challenging, being not the melody.