Ary and I were planning to go to the Ren faire today, but apparently all the rain we have been having lately (why did it have to be all weekend, for heaven's sake, we didn't need that much rain all at once!) has flooded out the site and it is canceled today. I really hope nothing was badly damaged, and also hope this is not a trend. Darnit, I need my Ren Faire time! Been waiting for it all year.

*sigh* Well anyway, yesterday was pretty productive. Got the flower beds fixed up and planted alyssium, marigolds, sunflowers, lavender, and catnip, and also planted some spearmint along the back of the house (which doesn't get much sunlight. Also planted our pumpkins in the garden. Already have the tomatoes sprouting in pots, but for some reason the strawberries we planted at the same time have not taken. Bummer. Saved some of the lavender and catnip to be planted inside, which we will probably do later today.

We did have a minor adventure after lunch yesterday. I think I have mentioned before that I will sometimes hear scrabbling in the ceiling, esp in our bedroom near the window, often accompanied by bird screeching. There are a couple shingles that appear to be loose right about there, and given how badly this house is constructed, that is probably a nice little entryway into the attic for critters. Well, we had been hearing noises like that off and on all day, and were beginning to think it was a rat. *shudder* But while I was upstairs getting ready to leave on errands, Ary was downstairs and began to hear the noises again. He followed them until they were heard just behind a disused heating vent. So he opens up the vent and out comes...a starling! The first thing I knew about it was when he called to me and I heard *flutterflutterflutterflutter*, and I came out of our bedroom and a bird flew in my face! I regret to say I was not much help at that point; I screamed and ducked every time the bird flew in my direction, which probably freaked him out even worse. Anyway, he flew into the window (of course) and we managed to trap him behind the curtain until Ary was able to reach in and catch him in his bathrobe. Then we carefully carried him downstairs and outside and let him loose and he flew far, far away. Silly starling. Lillie saw him in the bedroom and looked *very* interested, but she did not get to spend any quality time with Mr Starling, poor thing.

After that we went out to do mundane things, like getting our hair cut. I seem to have trouble communicating with hairdressers lately. I keep telling them no layers, all one length, and they ask "Do you want it to frame your face?" and I say, uh, yeah, and they end up cutting the sides about an inch shorter than the back (which I don't discover until I pull it into a ponytail) and I'm thinking, bloody hell! What part of "all one length" do they not understand. *sigh* I want Grace back! She always knows what I want. Alas, even when I am in VA, we can rarely get together due to conflicting schedules.

Later that evening BIL2 dropped by with his girlfriend and visited for a bit, then we went with them to see April and Chip and visited a bit more before taking the BIL and GF to dinner at a very nice Mexican place, where I had my first Margarita in quite a long time, certainly since I got all those Margarita flavoured spa products.

Today, since we weren't able to go to the faire, I have at least done something for my faire costumery. Dunno if I ever mentioned, but when I took my wedding dress to a local dry cleaner they managed to lose the green and white beads off of the shoulder ties and sleeves. I have since found a new place to take my costumes, thanks to April, and in the meantime I decided to get some more beads for my dress. Got an assortment of gold-coloured ones (some of the few sets that had holes big enough to allow the ribbon to go through), and spent most of the morning undoing the knots and putting the beads on. I tell you, if I hadn't just clipped my fingernails anyway, I would have none left. I had to take one of my double pointed knitting needles to gradually work the darn things loose. Anyway, it is now done and it looks pretty spiffy if I do say so meself. I also got some beads to make little wristlets for my fans, but the beading cord I got was a clear elastic cord and was so slippy that I could not get a knot to stay in it. I dug up a thing of stretchy silver fabric cord to try instead, but it turned out to be too large for the beads I had. *sigh* So back to Joann's I will be going to see if I can find something more user friendly.

In other crafty news I have knitted up the instep on my slipper again and went on to the next step. It is actually starting to look like a slipper, though I am amazed I have it all on one needle.

Edit: Well, Ary has been on the roof, and discovered the place where the shingles are loose does make a very nice attic entryway for any critter who can get up there. Found the remains of a nest, but nothing current looking, so he took some old window screen and stapled it over the spot. I stood below watching (and fetching more staples at one point) and praying don'tfalldon'tfalldon'tfall!

To close, here is a link to Ary's entry where he posts piccies of the Dragon Festival from last weekend. Hopefully we will soon have some from Tenn Ren as well.