Been Trying to Rest Up...

I went through about a week of nights where I didn't get enough sleep: insomnia one night, the gunfire and fireworks of New Year's Eve, the short nights that precede work days, and the chaotic struggle to complete cooking contest entries in two-and-a-half days (while working). I've been trying to chip away at the sleep deficit I built up. Mostly, its been enough to let me know how tired I really am. Do you know that feeling? When you first start to catch up, you feel more tired than when you were running on autopilot...

We did get out and about a bit these two days. Picked up a last few thrift store finds for the grandkids, since they'll be here next week, and a cookbook that Gina absolutely loved. The obligatory stop at Winco, and one at Walmart. And we hit a used bookstore, where we picked up a book for our daughter that she should like, as well as a couple of paperbacks for ourselves.

I've been feeling the genealogy bug a bit and have been taking advantage of a free trial I signed up for on ancestry.com. I found a whole chunk of Gina's ancestors on her father's side. Picked up a bit on our brother-in-law's dad, about whom he knows almost nothing. More on that will require money for ordering a social security card application (or two, if my hunch is right). So that will probably wait for awhile. Then I discovered a section of ancestors I had on my father's side was totally wrong, though finding the right ones validated a story of family history my father had been told.

We've been taking a renewed interest in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). They are an international non-profit organization of medieval recreationists, for those who don't know. I was involved back in my college days, and we dabbled for a time in the mid-90's, but let it slide away. Lately, the idea of getting back involved sounds like fun. We are looking at medieval Russian personas. The SCA attempts to preserve all of the medieval arts & sciences, as well as medieval combat, chivalry, etc. I think we are going to slowly start getting things together (costumes, trenchers, mugs, etc) and try making it to a couple of events this coming spring/summer. Eventually, I'd like to get involved in the armed (and armored) combat. I do love swordfighting. And directly to the south of An Tir (our kingdom) is the West Kingdom, home to some of the SCA's most famous swordsmen(Duke Paul of Bellatrix, often just called Bellatrix, and Duke Jade of Starfall). I saw Duke Paul fight back in the '80's once...he looked like royalty, and was an awesome fighter. Duke Jade (actually, I think he is King Jade at the moment, or about to be) is supposed to be the best fighter in the whole organization. Anyway...we are looking forward to it.

Not much else I can think of at the moment. Gotta' wrap things up now...