What a fun weekend! Amira and I made a peer/apprentice weekend of it and headed off to Kirksville in the dark of Saturday morning. We arrived with plenty of time to make it to akitrom 's guitar/lute class. What a fabulous class! I came to understand some things about music theory that simply haven't been able to sink into my thick skull for years. I think he may have cracked through. I think I get it! At least I get the basics. Baby steps...  In any event, it was a terrific class!

I also took Jehanne's period pigments class. It was hands-on and lots of fun. Especially fun was taking over the men's restroom, directly across from our classroom, so we could clean our palettes after each color. Well, it was fun, until I walked in on HRM. Sigh. Lucky for me, He's a very kind man. The class itself was terrific.

Court brought the happy news of Calontir's newest Calon Cross: our beloved ermenrich. There was much rejoicing!!!

And the ball was a blast. Kasha lead the pit, and she had Amira take lead on a few of the tunes. It all went extremely smoothly, and it was a delight to be there. I got to play lots of bass, and I was happy as a clam.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but, honestly, Disney is brilliant. It's the best of vacations. Clean, pleasant, beautiful, happy.

I've been really fortunate in travels, and I've seen wonderful places and incredible museums filled with amazing artifacts. On every European vacation, I've never managed to completely block work thoughts from my mind. Or the thoughts that I should have read a few more history books or art books or biographies to really, truly understand the place I was visiting.

At Disney, my mind is completely at peace. Yeah, a little bit like the people pods in The Matrix, but completely at peace. And happy and shiny.

We rented a convertible for the first two days, and we were blessed with suitable weather. We used the car to drive around a bit, get to our hotel, and get to Mass. To be honest, it's easy as pie to get to hotels and theme parks, but it's impossible to get to Mass without renting a car. Sigh. We flew to Orlando on Friday. Saturday, we spent at Universal Studios Isles of Adventure. I was determined to ride a roller coaster. I used to love them, but the last decade has changed me physically, and now I seem to have no tolerance for them. I was prepared with motion-sickness medicine this time. We made a beeline for the Hulk--a monster of a roller coaster. Probably the toughest of them all of any of the parks we visited. It was quite intense, and it lasted 11 Hail Marys long. I made it off the ride, even walked around a bit, before losing everything that had passed my lips during the previous 14 hours, including the medicine. Whew! Off to a great start.

We saw the construction of the new Harry Potter section of the park. From the outside, Hogwarts looks fantastic. I suspect it will be mostly shops and restaurants. But it's lovely to look at. I enjoyed the beauty of this park, with its mythos themes. And I enjoyed the Dr. Seuss section, too. The Seuss trees look an awful lot like the funky trees in medieval manuscripts. We had a fun dinner at Bubba Gumps. The only rain all week occurred while we were safely at dinner. The weather the rest of the time couldn't have been better 70s in Florida; 80s in the Bahamas.

Sunday after Mass we returned the rental car and took the special bus to the Disney property. The hotel David wanted was booked, so we ended up at their lowest-end place (mostly because I kept bugging David about spending too much money; stupid Bolivian orphans who haunt my dreams). I won't make him do that again. It was a fine place, but the sheets were scratchy and the place was filled with large tour groups of teenagers from South America. Their transportation service made it super easy to go to any park at any time we wanted, though, so really no complaints.

We spent the rest of Sunday at Magic Kingdom. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean several times, and the Peter Pan ride, and I made poor D ride It's a Small World twice. It's just so freaking adorable. We had no lines to contend with, so we had a very easy time of it, and mostly walked right up to rides. Winnie the Pooh was fun, because we got to ride in giant honey pots. Haunted Mansion is fun. Blah, blah. I was like a kid. There was a new show, called Philharmagic. The Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey was the main character, and it was a terrific 3-D show with really good music. I enjoyed it a lot. And what's not to love about the fireworks show "Dreams," which opens with a human-sized Tinkerbell riding a zip line over our heads. Love it! I enjoyed the day more than I can say. The beautiful fantasy of the castle was the perfect backdrop to a perfect day.

The parks are kept spotless. So much cleaner than Universal, and no comparison to typical tourist places. The workers are all friendly. It's as if it's contagious. People don't want to make a mess or be mean. I wish this would spread to all areas of my world.

Monday was spent at Epcot. Never get tired of it. Unfortunately, The Land was closed for maintenance; that's one of our favorite spots. But the rest was wonderful. We had dinner at the Rose and Crown, their English pub. Food was fabulous, our waitress was great fun, and they had Srongbow on tap. Epcot is a favorite because it's all the wonderful European places we'd love to go to, but clean and safe. I know it's a stupidly American attitude, but it was terrific to point out the restrooms in the Middle Eastern section and to realize they were completely clean AND we wouldn't have to tip the attendant to get a scrap of toilet paper to use. Not that I'm not profoundly grateful for the trip to Egypt a couple of years ago, but honestly I was happy as a clam at Epcot walking through the fantasy Morocco, knowing that it's better by far than the actual. Sad, but true. President Obama has been added to the Hall of Presidents show already, and it was really nicely done. We arrived in time to listen to the Voices of Liberty singers before the show; great acapella group.

Tuesday we went to Disney Studios (the renamed MGM studios). We had a blast at the various shows. And David made reservations for dinner at the superb Brown Derby. Food was fantastic, and we even got to sit in one of the cool horseshoe-shaped booths. Just like in the old movies. Again, no lines at the park. We got to walk right on to most of the rides and shows.

Wednesday we spent much of the day at Animal Kingdom. The safari ride was a great start to the day. I really thought it would be a waste of time. St. Louis has such a great zoo, why would I spend my time looking at animals there? But, as in all things, Disney does it better. The ride was really cool, and we were right there with the animals, or at least it felt like it. And the setting was beautiful. The bird show held a poignant moment, when David realized the bald eagle they paraded across the stage, looking quite regal, was in fact blind. He was a magnificent creature. David got super wet on the Kali Rapids, which I skipped; I had a great time enjoying the people and the beautiful setting.

Wednesday afternoon we went back to Epcot to take in more sites there. We had dinner at Morocco, where I enjoyed the live music. The belly dancing was of the cabaret type, so not that fun, but the live music was good. We stuck around for the IllumiNations show. We had a terrific viewing spot for it.

Thursday morning, we were driven to Cape Canaveral, to board the Disney Wonder. I was filled with trepidation about the cruise. I was afraid of getting seasick and ruining our vacation. I'm happy to report that I didn't have a lick of trouble. The ship was the best part of a fantastic trip. The design is based on the golden age Cunard-style of cruise liner. Only I suspect it's better. :) Every minute on the ship, I felt as if I were on a movie set from the 1920s or 1930s. I was just happy as a clam. The ship has separate adults-only sections, which were fantastic. Four restaurants, so we never repeated a restaurant. A different high-caliber musical theater show every night. A Pirates IN the Caribbean party, which was pretty cute. A piano bar with Tribute to the Crooners night, and deep leather seats next to the portholes, with moonlight steaming across the sea. Heaven! One of my favorite parts of the ship was the plethora of deck lounge chairs--big wooden ones, like in the old movies, with big cushions. I read a lot (a 1929 murder mystery set on a cruise ship). One of the couples who shared our table at dinner told us that this was their eighth Disney cruise. Amazing! Another couple said it was their fourth. I certainly understand the repeat business. The odd thing about these couples is that they all had kids, but they all kept their kids at home. I didn't expect that.

We made a stop at Nassau. We went to shore, but only for a little while. Then we got right back on the ship. Next day, we stopped at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. Yep, it's exactly what you'd expect from Disney. It was lovely. It has a private beach for grownups only, which was very tranquil and beautiful. We lounged there for a while after taking a long walk around the island.

I got just enough sun. I ate really incredible meals (gourmet mac and cheese with lobster meat!). I relaxed and relaxed and didn't think about work at all. It was a week in paradise.

Last night I went to the season opener for the Arch Rivals Roller Girls. The bout was a local one, between the M-80s and the Stunt Devils. It's hard not to be a Stunt Devil fan, since their color is purple, but I was hooked by the M-80s because of one of their lead blockers last season, our beloved Overland Offender (number 63114), who delighted me and D so very much; we were true to our childhood territory and automatically became fans. Alas, she has retired. And their leading jammer was on the sidelines (not sure why).

It was a massacre. 140 to 88. Brutal loss.

The weird thing about the evening was the company I kept. I ran into an SCA person almost as soon as I walked in the door, and she thought I was part of a group meeting up. Nope. Didn't know about it. (Sad and weird.) Nope, I was there with one of the directors from my work (not my boss, but the equivalent of my boss, but from the art department) AND her significant other, the president of my company. Yep, I took the president of my company to a roller derby bout. Yep...

I was pretty nervous about it, and I was sort of on my toes the entire time, but it all seemed to go really well. He had a really terrific time, and he even plans to make it to future events, I think. Whew! I figured it would go either really well or really bad. Glad with the end results. Now we'll see what tomorrow brings in the office.

Best ever? Yes.

My nerves were completely under control. Had 27(?) musicians in the pit. All competent and most happy. Some new faces in the pit--new friends who I was very glad to meet, including one who I hope will take over the leadership reigns next year. Most musicians stayed until the bitter end.
akitrom had my back several times during the ball; I knew I could rely on him, no matter how tough the situation. Apprentice Emelye flew in from Lincoln to be by my side. She was marvelous. We got to hang out today before her flight. We played music (because we just didn't get enough in last night) and talked music theory and had good Mexican food and margaritas at a good local restaurant today before her flight.

I couldn't have asked for a better time. Really, really happy!

Home safe and sound from the Missouri Beekeepers Conference in Jeff City. What a wonderful time we had! Friday afternoon held some terrific lectures. The banquet last night was a little odd (most of the people at our table weren't beekeepers, but in the apiary insurance business--very weird), but the food was fantastic. All the recipes used honey. Salad dressings, cole slaw, carrots, beef brisket, bbq chicken, baked beans, catfish, and some lovely desserts. Much fun. Today's lectures were fantastic, too. Sessions included queen rearing, nosema ceranae, CCD updates, overwintering techniques, breeding for hygienic traits, and insurance liability issues. It was also announced that bees are now covered under some crazy farm bill, and we can insure our hives against loss and the US government will foot half the bill. Insane.

I'm not sure that I learned giant amounts of stuff that was new, but I had lots reinforced, and lots restated in a way that, with a year of experience, make much more sense. The speakers were great. The main fellow is a scientist from University of Minn. in St. Paul, where a very well-known bee lab is located. He was a hoot. We also had several state speakers. And the new Missouri Honey Queen was introduced. This year, the candidates were so strong, the committee decided we needed a Honey Princess, too. Huh. I don't know about the rest of the hives in the state, but I feel pretty secure that in our hives, our girls believe There Can Be Only One...

There were several merchants in attendance. David found a copy of the book The Joys of Beekeeping. He bought a copy last year as a Christmas present (I think) for Duncan, and it was stupidly expensive. I think in the neighborhood of $40. At the conference, he found a very clean copy for $6. Crazy. He also picked up a set of hive stands made from angle iron. We'll see if it helps keep pests out.

We met lots of really terrific people from all over the state. Some with hundreds of hives and some newbees. I was pleasantly surprised at just how nice they all were.

My head is filled with bees, and I'm exhausted but happy.

I'm so glad it's the weekend--and a REAL weekend, with time away from the office and everything! I stand a very good chance that work really, truly will become manageable again in short order. I may already be there. Point in fact: last week was under 50 hours and no office time this weekend. Yep, I think I'm there! Woohoo!!!

I left the office around 1 yesterday (I hit my 40 hr on Thursday), and David and I drove to Kirksville. On the way, we had lunch in Hermann at one of my top three favorite wineries, Oak Glenn. I felt like I had sunk into some sort of magical decompression chamber. David and I got to talk, really talk. The view transports me to Europe every time. And the colors were lovely.

It was so lovely, I had trouble dragging myself away. Unfortunately, it made us a little too late to join people for dinner in Kirksville like we had planned, but I needed this down time desperately. We were in plenty of time to snag great seats at the Kirksville Arts Center to see ermenrich  and Kasha in The Importance of Being Ernest, which Ermenrich directed. Honestly, that show does not get old. It's one of my favorite plays. Witty fun! And Kasha was a fantastic Cecily. I laughed out loud throughout the show. It was such a good time, I could feel the stress of work ooze off of me. David was a heroic driver and got us home, so we could wake up at home this morning.

Right now, we've got nine frames of honey defrosting in the kitchen. We'll extract honey in an hour or so. Sticky goodness! (We froze the frames in our chest freezer to kill any stray hive beetle or wax moth or other unwanted visitor. Standard procedure.) Soon the kitchen will be covered in honey, wax, and propolis. Yay!

Went to a terrific meeting tonight at the Three Rivers Beekeepers. No relation to the Barony. Crazy naming coincidence...

Learned lots from some of the older beekeepers. I spoke last week as part of a newbee panel at the EMBA meeting in St. Louis. I spoke about my experience so far as a beekeeper. Mostly I smiled a lot, said how much I enjoyed it, how sad I was when I lost a hive earlier this summer, and how much I was learning from the club. Blah blah... I like bees.

I guess it made a good impression on some of the experienced beekeepers. I've tried in the past to get some advice, and they've been helpful. But tonight, ... tonight they sat me down and talked through all sorts of bee issues with me. It was fantastic!

I also learned all about nosema, a nasty bee problem. I don't think we have it, but it's good to know about it. And I got to explain what it was to some brand new beekeepers sitting next to me. Bee dysentery. Ick. The people sitting next to me moved into their house this summer and "inherited" two existing hives in their backyard. Now they're trying to learn about bees. Nothing like trial by fire! They're brave.

Our first hive is no more. It has failed, and all the bees are gone. Wax moths took over, and the colony wasn't strong enough to push them out.

Wax moths, like vampires, hate sunlight. We dismantled the hive and placed it in direct sunlight on our patio. No more moths. But the damage has been done.



It's really horrible. Nothing remains of the beautiful, thriving hive. I'm not sure why it collapsed. David has some theories that sound quite possible. And we knew it was struggling a bit earlier in the year. It just needed much more help than we gave it, I guess.

But the entire bee yard hasn't failed, just the one hive.

We had visitors last Saturday, and we gave them a tour of our two healthy hives.


We are a little concerned about our green hive, which has some wax moths, too. The workers are making a strong stand, and they should be able to keep them under control. In this photo, the workers are attacking the moth larvae.

Last Friday, Emelye and Murdoch drove in from Lincoln to celebrate Emelye’s 40th birthday.

I’d like to think I know something about great ways to turn 40. Thanks to JDR, I was laurelled on my 40th. So to me, turning 40 was a spectacular celebration, one very affirming of friendship, wisdom, and happiness.

Anyway, I was really delighted that Emelye was willing to share her birthday celebration with us. Her pick? We needed to celebrate by going down the Big Damn Slide at the City Museum. She picked the best of weekend s for her birthday; St. Louis was unseasonably lovely. Perfect temperatures for running around like kids.

It has been years and years since I’ve been to the City Museum, and it has expanded a lot. The outside rooftop park was a delight! I’ve never been on an old Ferris wheel  on top of a downtown building before, for starters. And the slides—wow, the slides! The giant preying mantis was creepy for sure. And climbing up to the airplanes suspended above the building was exhilarating. The schoolbus hanging over the edge of the building was fairly full of teenagers looking for a dark spot, so wasn’t as scary as it could have been.

We started out the night with a fortifying dinner at Lemongrass. We were joined by Emelye’s dear friend from college, Matt; he’s a lot of fun! After dinner, we had really delicious gelato at a new place nearby the restaurant. I had hoped that Kasha and Ermenrich could meet up with us, but they were doing their SCA duty by helping out with a demo on campus at Kirksville first. They didn’t arrive in time for dinner with us, but they arrived in time to walk around the outside for 45 minutes, trying to find us. (Although I gave them cell phone numbers for Emelye and Murdoch, the phones were tucked safely away in the coat check. Ooops!!!) Their patience paid off, and they spotted us crawling around and called to us. Yay! The party got larger! And let’s face it, with both Murdoch and ermenrich , the entertainment value of the floor show shoots way up. J

The BDSlide is a 10-storey corkscrew slide that starts on the rooftop and ends on the first floor, dumping people out inside the cave complex. It was a blast! (The BDSlide is exactly 3 Hail Marys in duration.) And after 11 pm, the museum turns out (most of) the lights, and we’re left to fend for ourselves with flashlights. What a hoot! We played hard the whole time, and closed the place down at 1 am. (Not bad, considering it had been another 65-hr work week for me, and our usual wakeup time is 5:30.) It was the sheer adreneline rush that saved me.  And the joy of being with such fun people!

Saturday, we slept in, then went to the Lomeir sculpture park. Confession time: I’d never been before. I always meant to, but never quite got around to it. It was a lovely day, so it was very pleasant to walk around, making up names for the various pieces of art. (Nuclear Holocaust was a favorite. Oh, wait—they all looked like that, well, except for the bubble poodle and the construction sites.) I have to confess that as art, it was a bit of a let down after the City Museum. The Museum had more art, and we got to climb on it. At the Sculpture Park, we didn’t get to slide down any of it, although many pieces looked like we could have.

We came back home for snack time and Guitar Hero. How does it get better than for a music laurel and her apprentices to spend quality time together on GH? Actually, we proved the point that musicians tend to suck at GH. pkelfin  pointed out that it’s more like dancing than it is playing instruments.

Rested, we headed to Miss Saigon’s for dinner. We had a very large party: Elsbeth and Friedrich and kids joined us, and mmmm rats! The super cool art history teacher whose name I can’t remember right now. We had a table of 12, and I don’t know that we could have found more pleasant company. It was a lovely time!

After dinner we headed down to 55 and Lindburgh to go to a roller derby bout. My first! Emelye and Murdoch have been fans of the Lincoln team (No Coast Derby Girls), but I’ve certainly never been to a game before. I was filled with misconceptions.

It was the most fun I’ve had in ages! I don’t know if it was the merry mood, the good company, the plethora of people-watching options, the clever skater names/numbers.  I was soooo far out of my normal element that I think it just pushed me over into the brink of sheer joy, in a wonky sort of way.

It was the championship bout between two local teams (St. Louis has four teams—who knew?):  The M-80s and the Stunt Devils. I saw on their website that the M-80s have a player called the Overland Offender. Her number is 63114 (the Overland, MO, zip code). Brilliant! David and I are both from Overland, so how could we not cheer for her team?

The place was packed! Who knew? It was so packed, that, arriving late as we did, there were no chairs left. It was so crowded that there seemed to be more people standing than sitting. Barely any space to stand in the back.  We arrived during a bout of men’s derby; frankly, they were kind of lame. I was beginning to think it had been a mistake to go. But then as the women’s bout was fixin’ to start, Emelye plopped down on the floor in front of the chairs (very close to the skate zone). We all joined her on the floor, and we had a spectacular time! The bout was very close the entire way through, which added to the fun. In the end, our team lost, but only by a few points. Also by the end, I was completely hooked. Here it is—a sport I care about. A sport I can sit through the entire game and be sad when it’s over. I’m already working on memorizing the names and numbers of favorite players. So this is what it’s like to be a sports fan…

But I’m not alone. David had a fantastic time, too. And I think pkelfin  and ermenrich  are hooked, too.

It was such a spectacularly fun weekend! What’s scary about birthdays? Absolutely nothing, if you know how to do it right!

This evening I should have been doing a million little things to get ready for Lilies. Instead I spent three hours out at the motherhouse for the Precious Blood order. We met in the chapel and said evening prayer for Sr. Elaine.

In the SCA, I'm a big fan of Books of Hours. As a Catholic, I think it's very cool that we still have that connection to the prayers from the books of hours (or the Ordinary, only I don't think it's very ordinary...). The books don't look as stunning as they did for the rich people in the Middle Ages, but the prayers still work. :)

We filled the chapel. The nuns took up only about a quarter or less--definitely shrinking in number. We took turns saying verses and even chanting some of the prayers. It was pretty awesome. Then someone played a DVD of Sr. Elaine performing a liturgical dance. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of liturgical dance, but maybe it's because I don't really understand it. This video was obviously very moving, since she had just died, and such a terrible death. But in the dance, she was clearly an angel (complete with white robe with angel-wing sleeves) dancing in front of the altar of the chapel. It was a touching sight, and was very comforting. No doubt, she'll be on a higher level of Heaven than I'll achieve, but I'll see her again someday. And how happy she must be, dancing in front of the true altar. She must be radiant!

After the service, the nuns invited everyone over to their dining hall for refreshments. I visited with a few of my old teachers. Two of my nieces were there, which surprised me. It shouldn't have; it was a wonderful school, and all who went there were touched by it. There were four other girls from my class there. Lots of memories. Whenever I'm there in that space, I feel good. A deep-down sense of peace and goodness.

Today I got the news that a beloved teacher from high school died. Sister Elaine was my science teacher at St. Mary's Academy. She was extremely patient with me, and all of us. She was the gentlest soul there, which is really saying something when you're looking at a motherhouse of 200 nuns.

She used to try to teach us to walk softly--putting our toes down before our heels; she'd tell us to pretend we were stepping on marshmallows. in response, we tramped about like a herd of demobisons in plaid skirts. She always had a gentle smile. Deep down, we knew she was a dearly loved daughter of God, and we were better for being in her classes.

Back in high school, when I was trying to discern my path and was seriously considering entering the Precious Blood order, I asked her why the numbers of women entering religious life was dropping. She told me that her theory was that people were afraid. They saw the divorce rates, and became afraid--it's one thing to have a failed relationship with another human, but who wants to risk a failed relationship with Jesus? Certainly a perspective I had never considered. Not sure if it's grounded in reality, but it was spoken from her heart.

She was killed Friday night, around midnight, in front of Assumption Church, across the street from the convent. The sisters were just returning from their annual fund-raiser at the St. Louis Cardinal baseball game. It's a very big deal to the sisters, who get to go to the game on a chartered bus. She was struck and killed by a car as she was getting off the bus and crossing the street. A tragedy.

This weekend was busy but not terribly productive in the usual manner. Instead, we had a tremendous amount of time with friends. Frankly, it felt more productive, or at least more grounding, than most productive weekends.

On Saturday, after helping clean up the site we used for the Marshal event, David and I came home exhausted and a little sunburned. (Why do we remember to apply sunscreen at events, when we flit from shadefly to shadefly, but don't remember to do so for work days in the field?) We had a long list of jobs to do at home and in our garden. We managed to feed our two new bee hives; we've had so much rain recently, that I'm concerned about their ability to feed themselves. Beyond that, we couldn't motivate ourselves to do any other tasks. Instead, we watched a mediocre documentary on the evils of suburbia.

Don't get me wrong, they were preaching to the choir with us in the audience, but it was so poorly supported that we had a better time ripping apart their arguments than sitting back for the ride. Ah well. At least we can scratch that one off of the list.

Sunday was Pentecost. Fr. John had requested (in his letter in last week's bulletin) that we wear red. Interesting! I've never seen a priest make a request like that before. And a surprising number actually remembered after a week. They also had name tags for us to wear--also a first. As a consequence, we learned the names of people who sit near us nearly every week (for the past five years). How pathetic that I never reach out to introduce myself under normal circumstances. And it's all about location. A woman a couple of rows behind me specifically pointed to me and said she had to see my name tag because she sees me all the time but doesn't know my name. And I don't remember seeing her before--because she's always a couple of rows BEHIND me. Crazy. Maybe it's time to break out of the mold and try sitting in different places in church. . .  Naaah....

After Mass, I had brunch with my divorce support group. It feels good to sit around a table with them. Now many of them have stories of grandbabies. We've come a long way.

After brunch was a well-named "yappy hour" with friends from my recent retreat. It was a family cookout, so lots of children running around, enjoying the beautiful day and the company of so many other children. I brought the last of the batch of beer I had made for David's retreat. I can imagine lots more yappy hours in our future.

Tonight will bring a happy hour with friends  who go back to 1979. That's a long time ago...

In the meantime, my to-do list grows. I MUST start and complete a scroll by Lilies. I have the text, and I think I found the inspiration last night.  Sometimes those are the hardest steps.

Interesting topic on the Calon list for a change. (It's been almost too brutal to read lately.)

Thank you to elasait , who listed me on her list of people who inspire her. ( "*Conna, who always makes me see the good in things even if I don't wanna.") Wow--that's very cool. I don't think of myself as being as optimistic as I'd like, but I know she's a straight shooter and I can trust what she says, so that makes me feel very good.

She's definitely on my list of people who inspire me, and I'm proud to wear her yellow belt. And I was so very pleased this past weekend, when she got to play "grandma" and tell some stories about some of the earlier days of Calontir and what it means to be Calontiri.

Tops on my list of people who inspire me in the SCA are the vanload of people who shepherded me to events for my first handful of years: Fernando, Lyriel, Erich, Elasait, and Olga. I treasure those memories of storytelling, advice given with honey, and inspiration by the bucketful. Very sweet memories.

I'm inspired by so many peers in our kingdom, I couldn't even begin to make a list. I'm especially inspired by my dear husband, who has brewed for over 20 years and given very generously, mostly to people who don't know his name; he continues to be very content staying in the shadows. I want to be more like that. I'm inspired by some who may not carry the title "peer," but who are every bit my peer and beyond.

Out of the SCA, I'm inspired by my friend Anna, in Bolivia (aka Sister Anna Martina of the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus; Anna, for short). Her alma mater (Tufts University) just gave her an alumni award for volunteerism, which I think is pretty funny. They paid to fly her to Boston so she could accept the award. I suspect she's much rather have had the cash, to give to her orphanage.  She's back in school to get her psychology/counseling degree from an accredited Bolivian university (her USA credits don't count), so that she can be the official counselor at the orphanage where she lives. Many of the girls in the orphanage have been victims of incest, and most of the counselors are male, so the girls don't want to talk to them. Anna's trying to fix that situation.

She's also trying to fix a roof that's in such disrepair, it doesn't leak--it rains in on the girls. It's the ceiling in one of the large dorm rooms. Every night they pray that the ceiling doesn't collapse on them during the night. I've never been a mother, but in my wildest dreams I can't imagine that's the sort of prayer I would ever have to say with children in my care. So no vacation for us this year (other than Lilies), so we can help her get a new roof. The goal is $10,000, and we're halfway there.

I'm inspired by those who go into medical professions. Their time is not their own, and they work so hard for others. I'm inspired by those who want to make the world a better place.

I'm home from helping the next group of women from my parish discern their roles for the next parish retreat. It seems like such a simple thing, but in truth was a night filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm really amazed.

This also means that my work since last October is finally wrapping up. Time to pass the torch and move along. Lots of emotion.

It feels very strange. I don't know yet where I'll end up next. I guess part of that will be discerned for me next week, when my group meets for one last time "officially," for our evening of Pentecost. (I just realized it'll be very close to the actual feast of Pentecost; that's just a lucky coincidence.)

Being a part of CRHP has been a huge time commitment, and now that it's wrapping up, I feel a little at odds. I'll miss it terribly, but it'll be good to "go back to normal." I say that, but I don't think there's any going back completely. I suspect I'll make some big changes in my life, but what?

Nope. I'm not making this up. St. Charles County is forming a club for beekeepers. Their first public meeting was tonight. I heard there was going to be a gathering, so I went to check it out.

Turns out the name of the club is the Three Rivers Beekeepers. When the fellow in charge was explaining how they came up with the name, I truly expected him to say "...and by the generosity of Their Majesties, through the aid of the Baron and Baroness of Three Rivers..." but it never came up. :)

So it's a bit of an odd group, but shockingly large. Nearly 100 people showed up. Some just interested in the idea of beekeeping but who don't yet have hives. Some who have been keeping hives for 30 years. Some with one hive, some with over 100. Quite a lot of diversity.

I met a woman who has a hive in my neighborhood, about a mile away. She lives right on Main Street. She keeps her hive on a second-story back porch. Yep, on a balcony. Fascinating.

Right before the meeting began, I switched chairs to sit near someone I knew. As I moved into the new row, I got the creeps by someone I walked by. At the end of the meeting we all stood and briefly introduced ourselves. The guy who creeped me out? Same name as my former husband. I'm just sayin'...

I like the idea of this club, so we'll see if its future is as good as I'd like. It's got its share of bizarre characters (like the guy who wants to tell David he's using the wrong sort of mead yeast...yeah...). But it could be a great resource.

And how can I pass up the name?

This past weekend I was part of a team that presented (gee--that doesn't seem like the right word to use) a retreat called Christ Renews His Parish at my parish of St. Charles Borromeo. It was exhausting and exhilarating. It was Glorious.

I met some wonderful women this weekend. I played guitar in public for the first time (and no one threw tomatoes). I comforted a woman going through a divorce, and remembered my own inconsolable grief from so long ago. I gave a witness talk on scripture. I was unafraid. So many firsts for me!

My team spent five months preparing for this one weekend, and it's (mostly) all over now. I should probably be feeling very sad that it's all over. Instead I feel an amazing peace about the whole thing. Some of the team are expressing their sadness that we won't be meeting weekly as a team anymore. I agree that I can't yet fathom a week without getting together with all of them. I'm pretty certain that we'll find ways to get together. Maybe not every week. But we won't lose each other. There's still lots of journey ahead.

And how oh how could I have picked a little mood thingy (the cat at the bottom of the post) that doesn't have "joyful" as an option? Crazy...

Last Saturday David and I did a quick hive check to make sure the queens in our two new hives were doing well. First one looked great. The workers had eaten through the candy plug in the end of the queen cage to release the queen. We even saw her. Lots of wax foundation and honey and pollen stores were going in. All hunky-dory.

We did the same to the second cage. Everything looked good there, too. One error I made when I first installed was to leave too much room in between some of the frames, so there was some excess wax that we had to clean up. When scraping away excess wax, it's not good to leave it on the ground around the hives--that attracts wax moths and other bad bee monsters that we don't want around our hives. So it's important to gather it all up and not leave it on the ground by the hives.

I'm gathering up all the wax bits and the empty plastic queen cages to get rid of, and I see one of the cages has a few worker bees clinging to the outside. They refuse to leave. I try to brush them off with my (gloved) hand. No go. I finally pull out the big gun: the bee brush. That gets rid of them, but it was a fight. As David is helping me gather up equipment for the walk back to the house, he notices a bee still inside the cage. BUT WAIT--it's not just a worker bee. It's the queen herself! The plug was mostly gone, but a thin layer of candy plug was still in place, and the queen still inside. Yikes!!! I almost threw the queen away. This would have been really, really bad. David saved the day.

Yesterday, David and I ran home over lunch to check the new hives. I had messed up on installation, and left too much space between the queen cage and the next frame, and the bees had been busy as, well, bees, and filled in the space with a big chunk of beautiful comb that we had to rip out.

Sometimes I feel like Godzilla walking through Tokyo. I make huge gashes in the wax foundation, spilling honey and pollen all over the place. The bees always have a lot of cleanup needed after I've come to visit.

Anyway, we've now got all the frames in their proper place, and we've removed the plastic cover from the candy plug on the queen cage. The bees will eat through the candy, thus releasing the queen into the hive body. This slow release ensures that they're used to her and will treat her like a queen--they've accepted her. If released too quickly, there's a risk that they'll attack her.

Yesterday was a lovely day here, and the bees were very busy. Lots of activity, which is a great sign. Unfortunately, we ran out of fuel in our smoker, so we didn't have time to look around as we wanted. We also need to check our original hive, to make sure all's well there. With a little luck, we may be ready to add some supers to the original hive--this is what we can steal from for a honey harvest.

On Saturday, I installed two new hives in our backyard. David was on a men's retreat at our church all weekend, so I installed without him. (When the bees arrive, you can't just stick them in the basement until you feel like getting around to putting them in the hive.) I'm very happy to say that Duncan the Brave had my back, just in case. Let's face it, this is not the sort of thing I want to do by myself. Who would dial 911 if I did something very clumsy or stupid? And he brought along young Eleanor, who certainly knows how to dial 911, just in case we both did something very clumsy or stupid...  She also did a swell job of picking out my bee packages at the bee club apiary.

This past weekend, I was the head cook for David's retreat. I left work early Friday to shop for about $500 in food and get it organized in the school's kitchen. After dinner out, we got home around 9 pm. Saturday morning we were up at church, getting ready for the retreat by 6:30. With lots of help from my friends, I served a continental breakfast, soup and hot roast beef lunch, chicken alfredo lasagna dinner. Home by 9 pm  then back at it the next day at 6 am for an egg casserole and cinnamon roll breakfast, turkey sandwich lunch, and fancy pork loin dinner. Whew! The highlight for me was providing a batch of beer specially for the retreat goers. A friend made up a special label for it and everything. It was pretty special.

Anyway, it was a super-busy weekend, and I had to run out for two hours in the middle of all this to install the bees. I'm sorry it had to be such a rushed experience, but maybe that helped me be calm about it. Installing a package of bees seems like the scariest possible job, but really it's not nearly as bad as it seems. We start out with a small box of bees, and we have to shake it out into a larger hive box.

What does it feel like, to shake out 3,000 bees from one box to another? Absolutely thrilling!

Here's some video showing installation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek7dDtZ0lK8&feature=related

It's not quite how I did it, but the shaking out part is certainly the same. Except I was wearing my veil! And I don't have any wax already built up, so the queen is suspended on a string from a nail in the top of a frame (yep, tied in place with my bare hands--that was exciting).

It was slightly rainy, so not very good weather for bees, but they weren't overly cranky, and none of us were stung.

Tomorrow, David and I will go in to check on them, make sure the workers aren't rejecting the queens, and remove the covering from the candy plug on the queens' cages. The workers will then eat the candy and release the queen into the hive. We're supposed to have wonderful weather tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the bees are doing.