Gala!

I'm heading home to get changed and to wait for the driver who's taking me to Sofia. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and praying that the program goes well. Fingers crossed! Pictures tomorrow, hopefully.

Quiet Sunday

Made it through the Board Meeting, now there's just the 20th Anniversary Gala tomorrow. I'm planning to take a day or two off this week so I can get ready for our stuff to arrive from the US. It's supposed to be in Thessaloniki tomorrow and here a week later. The shipper says it's the fastest arrival from the US they've ever heard of!

I'm hoping that I can actually find some of my embroidery materials in the packing and have enough time to take a break this week and sew. We'll see...

New Book!

I took a Board member out to see Blagoevgrad today and she wanted to go to a bookstore for souvenirs. Well, I never say no to a bookstore and look what I found!

I suspect scribes will really like the content of this one!

Two floors - count 'em!

So, bet you thought I left forever! Nope. It has just been hectic. The builders are working like mad to get the house weather-tight before the winter arrives and I think they'll have succeeded in another ten days or so. The second floor is up and they're pouring the final attic level earthquake wrap/reinforcement tomorrow. The roof will go on early next week as the windows will also go in. The footers for the fence are being poured tomorrow too, so that's another step forward. I'm trying not to think too much about the next potential problem. You see, the (large) shipment of household goods from the US was expedited, so it arrives in Thessaloniki in 9 days. Add 10 more days for customs and shipping to the village and that's a very tight schedule for my poor builders. I'm sure they will rise to the occasion but it's still nerve-wracking.

On the SCA side, we're preparing for our first visit by royalty in December for the Feast of Saint Nicholas. The collegians are more than a little nervous, since none of them has been to an event other than our local ones and they don't really know what to expect. It will be very "interesting", I'm sure. I think the most-anticipated part of the event is the feast and people are working on testing various recipes. I think we'll all be sick of them by the time it's all over!

We had a good recruiting event this week and I think all the participants enjoyed making their own cordials. Next up is a workday for prep for St. Nicholas Day.

Contrasts

I had to run home to the village over lunch and the amazing contrasts between different parts of my life became so obvious. On the way home, I stopped at the local technology hypermarket for a new wireless router. It took about five minutes and I had a choice of dozens of models. After turning off the E79 (the main north-south highway in Bulgaria) onto my secondary road in my Landrover, I had to stop or pause for:

One large flock of sheep on the road
One slightly smaller herd of milk goats
Two donkey carts driven by little old men
Random loose chickens and ducks on the street
A large (two-horse) cart with a large dairy cow tied to the back
A flock of geese

And a group of young men were weighing and bagging their wheat harvest on the village square!

Keep in mind I was going home to meet the installers for my new high speed internet. I live in the land of contrast!

Progress, but slowly

It's been well over 100 F every day for the last week and it has slowed the builders a bit. The new floors are now all poured and the second floor should go up in short order. I love the idea of a fully solid house made of stone and brick. Despite having grown up in wood framed homes, this just seems more permanent.

The puppy (Hobgoblin, better known as Hobs), is still settling in. Little does he know that he starts doggie boot camp with a trainer on Monday! He's too big to ever let him be unruly.

I'm in the middle of first-year-student orientation at work and it makes my life very hectic. I'm still getting in a little time on the embroidery on Constanza's rust wool dress for the autumn, so that's my total A&S output right now. I need to step it up soon, since we're hosting an event here in December!

Miss me?

It's been just over three weeks since my last post and it has been frighteningly hectic. I have to give many thanks to my excellent boys for flying out and helping to pack. I would never have finished without you! And also many thanks to Constanza for being willing to listen to me whinge whnever I needed it. You are all the best. Now I just have to chivy the builders on so there's enough of the main house finished for me to live in when mom arrives in eleven days.....