Yeah, I know I never got around to Thanksgiving. Well, suffice to say there was sari shopping and we found a chaat place local to my in-laws and then we didn’t do a lot because folks got sick.

Anyhoo.

Magna Faire went swimmingly. We saw all the hipsters in Villa Rica on the way up (who knew Krystal was such a hip place?), then stayed up far too late Friday night and were all sort of weird the next day (by we, I mean Robbing Peter, Lea, and Serefina). I mean, I assume we were all weird. I was a jerk and kept wandering off from the table I was supposed to be watching, only realizing that I did this much later (like, yesterday around 9am).

I entered my book. I entered it in both contests, in fact. And then I sat way off to the side until the judges were done with it (which took an hour and a half), because the urge to eavesdrop was fierce and painful. And then Adella and I judged our Fine Arts category, and then there were some dance and poetry performances (which ended in Lea being Dance Champion and Lorenzo being Poet Laureate) and then Adella and I ate a lot of cookies at the apprentice’s meeting. And all along I really wanted to take a nap, so I attempted it but suddenly a bottom bunk became available, so I moved all my stuff.

Just before court, I got my scores, and they weren’t half bad! The judges caught all the stuff I explained I needed improvement on, and gave me a lot of things I can work on for the future, both from a project standpoint and also from the documentation side of things. I have learned as well that I need to work on making a more flashy thing next time, as to acquire more largesse (nobody told me about the largesse!).

I am really excited for the next go-round. I have been researching books and have located some more extant examples that I think I can make work. I also sourced some leather that’s a good $25 cheaper than the stuff Talas sells (not the same quality, I imagine, but still good and just fine for learning; it’s still goat hide, and therefore acceptable).

So. In summary, for Midwinter, we’ve got (1) a book, round 2 (2) chaupar and (3) there is no three, but three for Kingdom A&S will be block-printing, if I can swing it.

I have a lot to do before February.

[And then last night I got the wild idea to make pulao, into which I put figs in place of golden raisins, and not only was it easy but it was also really delicious, and I have lots left over. Pulao!]