Dr. Mrow

I don't usually post about the fun I've had at war, since a half-score people usually beat me to it, so I'd be left saying the same thing two days late.  But Potrero really was a good war for some reasons I didn't expect, and I wanted to write it down, and some of you have been slacking with your post-war posts enough that I don't feel like it's all been said.

People: some of the highlights this war were low-key conversations that I might not have made time for otherwise... drinking & chilling with Anya after setting up camp, making a firewood kubb set with Zhivana & learning to play, snuggling with Amya at the Spade, lounging in deck chair recliners with Sir Charles while waiting to perform at True's bardic concert (while the ladies of Strongbow brought us drinks and sweetbread!), low-key tic-tac with Eleanora, geeking about D&D with Baroness Meliora at Christian's vigil.  I think I concentrated my social time on fewer people and benefitted from it. *waves to new friendses*

Bardic: For the first time in a while, I got my bardic itch well and truly scratched.  It's gotten harder to find a quality bardic lately, and I've spent less time trying with the Spade offering similar (but not quite the same) things.  In recent wars, music around the Spade fire has been good, but the repertoire can be quite limited.  True's concerts have gotten stale, and are sometimes far too high on cheese for my tastes.  And the others are just too damn hard to find when you don't know the where & when in advance.  So this war, Yonaton (who, from my perspective, has too much cheese and scout songs) went home sick, leaving a lot of space in the bardic concert that was filled with more mature & interesting material, and True included a dance troupe called Twisted Gypsy that did some excellent semi-choreographed dancing.  In between stories, I drank my fill of Inga's mead, and ended up over at CRAC (Caidan Royal Artillery Corps) to trade songs with Sir Charles.

Rapier: was low-key (well, aside from Annabelle's fibula) and a fair amount of fun.  I was definitely on both days, and got to be on Lot's side for once (normally he and I get the job of containing each other).  Mora and Captain Awesome kicked serious ass at Blood of Heroes... the Isles teams played well, but it's hard to compete with a team of seven solid veteran fencers.  We need to keep up the focused practice if we're going to win with half-newbie teams.  Got a chance to try cut & thrust fencing, enjoyed the challenge, and learned why vambraces are recommended (though as of this writing, the goose egg on my wrist is mostly healed)

Friends in one place: It was really great having Isles, Calix, and Spade all camped in a row... wandering back and forth from camp to camp, helping with the vigil and knighting prep, joining in on the Isles potluck, having the bunny as an afternoon social & kubb area, and the Spade for evening carousing.  It really worked well together, and I didn't have to choose which friends to see which night.  Hopefully we can do that again soon...

Okay, for the record, in case anyone was unclear on this, don't spend the day blacksmithing just as you're starting to recover from a miserable cold.  I felt okay-ish for most of the day while wielding a hammer, then got home, sat down, and had trouble getting up. Poo.

Ben & Jerry created "Yes Pecan!" ice cream flavor for Obama.

They then asked people to fill in the blank to the following:

For George W. they created "_________".

Here are some of their favorite responses:

- Grape Depression
- Abu Grape
- Cluster Fudge
- Nut'n Accomplished
- Iraqi Road
- Chock 'n Awe
- WireTapioca
- Impeach Cobbler
- Guantanmallow
- imPeachmint
- Good Riddance You Lousy Motherfucker... Swirl
- Heck of a Job, Brownie!
- Neocon Politan
- RockyRoad to Fascism
- The Reese's-cession
- Cookie D'oh!
- The Housing Crunch
- Nougalar Proliferation
- Death by Chocolate... and Torture
- Credit Crunch
- Country Pumpkin
- Chunky Monkey in Chief
- George Bush Doesn't Care About Dark Chocolate
- WM Delicious
- Chocolate Chimp
- Bloody Sundae
- Caramel Preemptive Stripe
- I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands...with nuts

I'm putting this up for posterity more than anything else, but if there's something here you'd like to know about, please hit me up for a lesson.  Bolded items have handouts and are ready to go; Italic ones are partway there (handout XOR trial run complete)

Leather:

• 101: Basics & Carving- 2h
• 102: Pinking & Filigree- 1h
• 103: Handsewing- 1h
• Leather Drinking Jacks (with sewing)- 2h, some prep
• Hardening Leather- 1h, some prep
• Gorget Making- 3h, extensive prep
• Sword Hangers (survey)- 1h
• Sword Hangers (circa 1600)- 1h
• Gilding leather- 1h, extensive prep
• Dice Cups & Scroll Cases (with sewing)- 2h
• Belts & Design Options- 3h
• Mug frogs w/secret braid- 3h
• Leather masks- 3h

Shoemaking:

• Plaster lasts- 2-4h (with or without Bondo)
• Shoemaking Options- 1h
• Unlasted Shoemaking (with sewing)- 2h
• Lasted shoemaking- 2h

Rapier:

• Practice Philosophy (Better Sparring & Don’t Back Up)- 1-2h with roundtable
• The Italian Goulash School of Defense (with Zhivana)- 2h
• Punking the Other Guy in the Head (roundtable)- 2h
• Roguing, Flanking, and Shutting Rogues Down- 2h
• Todde’s Buckler Fight- 1h
• Rapier Toys (Buckler, Baton & Cloak Making)- 2h with some prep
• Cuffs for hardware store gloves- 2h with some prep

Other Topics:

• Pewter casting with soapstone: 2 & 3-piece molds- 2h
• Tales of pavilion design & construction- 1-2h
• Period gaming
• Banner design & silk painting
• Persona (various levels)

So, I took the CNN Prop 8 exit polls, broken down by age:

18-29: 20% of voters, 61% no
30-64: 64% of voters, 55% yes
65+: 15% of voters, 61% yes

If you assume people's opinion doesn't change as they age*, the oldest voters (folks born before 1944) die off with a half-life of 10 years, while new voters continue to be 61% non-bigot, then the no vote equals the yes vote around 2019.

However, it's clear that people HAVE changed their minds, becoming about 4% more favorable toward gay marriage in the eight years since the last ballot proposition. Extrapolating this 0.5%/year slope, it looks like almost a dead heat in 2012. At that point, the results will have more to do with voter turnout and the Dems performance between now and then.

Pretty much all civil rights causes have taken a couple decades to go from crazy ACLU fodder to common sense. Give it time, folks.

*i.e. I'm assuming the 18-29 group, born between 1990 and 1979, will still be 61% non-bigot in ten years when they're 28-39. I've also assumed a constant new-voter rate, which is slightly pessimistic.

After another attempt to make the bedroom a little less cluttered (or possibly kill me with dust allergies, I'm not sure which), we have a pile of books that need good homes. Comment here to claim them. Also, let us know if one of these is actually a book you've loaned us and we forgot! If they're not claimed in the next week, we'll either goodwill or Bookmooch them...

Christopher Moore: Island of the Sequined Love Nun
Christopher Moore: Lamb (the Gospel according to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal)
Sherry Jeffries: Belly Dancing, the Basics (with CD)
Robert Warden: All the King's Men
Charles de Lint: Moonheart
Brian Jacques: Redwall
Melanie Jackson: Outsiders
Jennifer Robertson: Lady of the Forest
CJ Cherryh: Fortress in the Eye of Time
Gregory Maguire: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Wilbur Smith: River God
Diane Duane: Spock's World
Dan Brown: Angels & Demons
Andre Norton & Jean Rabe: Renaissance Faire
Ann Radcliffe: The Romance of the Forest
Laurell Hamilton: A Stroke of Midnight (on tape)
David Amis, Howard Stevenson: Winning Angels

So... last night I was discussing microhouses with amyleone and hazelhawthorne, and how this required reducing one's possessions down to the absolute essentials. ladymora wandered in at this point and asked if I really thought we could get by with a lot less. One thing led to another, and she's spent most of today purging our bookshelves of things that aren't worth the space to us.

Some of it justifiably ended up in the recycling bin (some due to duquesaconqueso's poor... aim). Some of it got loaded into bookmooch. And some of it ended up on this list, which we thought some of you would want to claim, since they're either out of print or reasonably popular. Give a shout if so:

Harry Potter books 2, 3, and 5
Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, books 1, 2, 3
The Cyborg Handbook (cool collection of articles)
The Making of Dune
Two communications textbooks:
Attitudes & Persuasion: Classic & Contemporary Approaches, Petty & Cacioppo
Interpersonal Communication, Canary & Cody
Visual Basic 5.0, Schneider
Course Reader for Soc 170, Deviant Behavior
Course Reader for German 182, Vampirism in German Literature
Book of the Kindred (White Wolf Vampire RPG)
Dark Tyrants (White Wolf Vampire RPG)

Some Coffee Table Books:
Timeless Ireland: Faces and Places of the Emerald Isle
Hidden Femininity: 20th century lingerie
A Pictorial History of Baseball
The American League: A History (my mom bought this for me 20 years ago, lost it in the attic, and sent it to me this year)

Cookbooks:
Betty Crocker's Bisquick cookbook
Playboy's Host & Bar book
Best Recipes of the Great Food Companies
Hunt's Easy Family Dinners
The Gallery of Regrettable Food

Also, you can see all of our other unwanted books here:
http://www.bookmooch.com/inventory/ladymora

A touching scene from Southern California...

"We're all scared to death and we have nowhere to go," Susan Nuttall, 51, told The Associated Press as she sat in her black Mercedes in a cul-de-sac after fleeing her condominium near the Pepperdine campus. She was wearing a bathrobe and holding her Chihuahua."

I don't normally write up war reports, but GWW was worth remembering. The last couple months at work have been a gargantuan ball o' stress, culminating in my new vacuum chamber at work imploding and showering the lab in glass, five minutes before I was supposed to leave for war. On top of that, my lady and I (well, mostly her) have been desperately burning the other end of the candle to finish a portable bed for war. So we were a little twitchy when we finally got on the road Wednesday afternoon. So without further ado, the highlights:

Wednesday: Made good time to site. A war without traffic between me and it is rare and very welcome. Found a soft, grassy campsite, just the size for Isles, right off the main road, within stumbling distance of the Spade. We even got both pavilions mostly up before the sun set over the lake. Very pretty. Turned into pumpkins early, broke open our tasty meat pies, and caught up a little on sleep.

Thursday: Ah, a lazy day at war. We finished setting up, volunteered a couple shifts, played some board games at gate and the spade, and generally lazed about. Enid brought our leather masks (and frying pan, and eight or nine other things) for the masquerade party... by the time we arrived, the party itself had degenerated into standing around without masks and watching the belly dancers, but I think it's a cool idea... we might have to do it properly sometime.

Friday: Allow me call blessings upon the wise rapiercrats who saw fit to start the melees at 1pm. This was wonderful, and very convenient when Rachel's back locked up and after some running about, we persuaded Mercy to make several camp calls to make it all better. Two thumbs up for Mercy of the Healing Hands... Anyway, the rapier melees were fantastic. There were a dozen last man standing melees through an interesting castle, with little time wasted between scenarios, and simple rules that could be quickly explained so we could get back on the field. It was 2+ hours of pure stabby joy. I spent most of the time roguing, and managed to channel the Hero in a couple melees: once when I killed at least half the other team, and once where it took half of their team to corner & kill me. Finally, in the last two melees, Mora and I volunteered to block a doorway by ourselves (theoretically leaving a dozen teammates to take the other three), and both times we stood side-by-side against superior numbers... until the enemy broke the other doorways and came to stab us in the back. But very cool to stand with my lady against all comers.

Next was the Uberelf tourney, for yet more fight-till-you-drop action. Nytshaed, Blayde, Alex K, and I (with the unfortunate Arye and Lorenz) were drawn into the group of death, with matches of wits, skill, and speed on nearly every touch. Blayde got the better of me in the pivotal buckler vs case round, handed me my ass from there, and went on to win the tourney. I'll say here (LOUDLY) that it may not have been pretty to watch, but his aggressive closes were skilfully done, and less dangerous than they looked. Then I finished with an exhausting 6-6 tie against Don Alexander, proving for the 93rd time that we are too damn well matched.

Friday night was quieter than I expected, with a tasty dinner and walks, talks, and hugs along the lakeshore with Mora and Enid. It seems that even with the Spade hosting, Known World rapier parties are going the way of the dodo. I think we'll have to organize candlesnuffing and a buckler waiter race to spice them up again...

Saturday: We again thoroughly enjoyed sleeping to 11 without missing rapier, and stumbled on down to the field. Melees had a little less flow (Less Talking! More Fighting!) but ended in a nice res battle around two ertwhile haybale ships. I had good fun holding off Blayde and the Tigers, before the melee ended (an hour before court!?), and so had time for some pickups. Black Zack of the Tigers fought me tooth, nail, tail, and spleen for fifteen minutes of exhausting buckler vs. case action. We finished the last point with me diving to me knees to deliver a stomach thrust just barely under two shots to my head. Then I had the pleasure of some very elegant, clean, Italianish single-sword play with Tsura. Cool stuff, want to fight with both of them s'more.

We were camped right next to court, so I wandered back and forth between starting dinner, chatting with & being fed by the neighbors in House Straight Arrow, and mostly missing the main awards at court. Congrats to Don Colwyn & Maestra Arabella... Next was dinner and dancing in the court pavilion. So hard to choose whether to dance with Mora and Eleanora... they're both such graceful flirts :) Also made friends with the musician (what was his name?) and his lady...

Evening at the Spade was excellent... it really felt like a tavern atmosphere. Taught a couple people to play Backgammon & a couple tables variants, wagered drinks on the outcome, had a long chat with Sybil (who's getting her PhD in SCA folklore & history), and lounged by the fire. Was disappointed to find out it was already 2am, and I'd have to go to sleep at some point. Most of Isles had already "gone to bed", by which I mean, made a snuggle and philosophy pile on the floor of our pavilion. Being a public post, I will simply appreciate Enid & Eleanora's soft snuggliness, and leave it at that.

Sunday: Noon is a good time to sleep till. Then there was a migration of ladies to the bodice maker, where I was consulted as a somewhat impartial judge. About then, Phelix wandered by with nachos. Given the junk food deprivation that occurs at war, these were almost as good as the bodice fittings. With the exception of Eleanora. Wow. Somewhere around 3pm we realized we only had an hour to see merchants (which we greatly exceeded), then a race to pack before the sun set. Which we mostly won. And finally, we closed the war with goodbyes, a light dinner with White Star, a few songs, and a shortish drive home. Wheee....

Okay, so this is really just for ladymora, nativeprincess, sidelong, and I to discuss our GWW menu, but I'm too lazy to set up a filter, so if others are curious, read on.

(Actually, this is Mora typing from this point on..)

The plan: a selection of premade foods, mostly pies, plus some versatile basic ingredients for the making of whatever we're in the mood for.

Premade:
Meat Pies (pork, one with pinenuts and parmesan, and one with dates)(ladymora)
Pasties (Nativeprincess) (check Cariadoc's Miscellany for good recipes!)
Fruit Pies (sidelong)
Amish friendship bread in assorted flavors (ladymora)
Yam and Apple Casserole (ladymora)

Basic Ingredients:

We'll have ziplock bags of:

• sliced onions
• sliced mushrooms
• grated zucchini (for frittata).
  
  Also
  Raw sausages, which can either be cooked in their casings and put on rolls, or removed from casing and added to assorted dishes.
  A dozen or more eggs, plus some others hard-boiled
  A Flat of muffins from Costco, which should cover a couple breakfasts & snacks each.
  A jar or two of pickles
  Some summer sausage or salami
  Some combination of dried fruits (dates, figs, raisins)
  Instant oatmeal
  Pasta
  Pasta sauce
  A couple tomatoes
  Grapes
  Apples
  Pears
  Cheese
  Hard Rolls
  
  Some recipes for these ingredients:
  Frittata (eggs, zuchinni, onions, mushrooms, sausage, tomatoes...)
  Pasta with sauce augmented with onions, mushrooms, and sausage
  Scrambled eggs with onions, mushrooms, and/or sausage
  Sausages on rolls with mushrooms and onions
  A few more zuchinni, we could do stuffed zuchinni.
  
  Sidelong had suggested calzones, for which we would need also dough and any other filling ingredients desired. Also she will make coffee happen (coffffeeeeee). For that we need: preground coffee, french press, kettle (we have this), and sugar and creamer. I will bring my soy creamer, we can also bring 1/2&1/2.
  
  So my thought is that we can cook whatever of these we like at almost any time, though we should prolly plan something special for Sidelong's b'day evening. I'd think we want to plan for our bigger meals to be in the late morning/noon, before we fight (ideally like 11am or so so there's time to digest). Then something lighter for dinners?
  
  So discuss. Other recipes, stuff you don't like, other necessary ingredients, etc.

1. Aerospace Engineer
2. Mechanical Engineer
3. Agricultural Engineer
4. Biomedical Engineer
5. Electrical Engineer
6. Astronomer
7. Materials / Metallurgical Engineer
8. Mechanical Engineering Tech
9. Physicist
10. Chemical Engineer
11. Environmental Engineer
12. Geologist
13. Hydrologist / Hydrogeologist
14. Industrial Designer
15. Oceanographer
16. Interior Designer
17. Mathematician
18. Fashion Designer
19. Race Car Mechanic
20. Aircraft Mechanic
21. Automobile Mechanic
22. Diesel Mechanic
23. Motorcycle Mechanic
24. Heavy Equipment Mechanic
25. Heating, Air Conditioning, Refrigeration Tech
26. Engineering Tech
27. Small Engine Mechanic
28. Computer Engineer
29. Explosives Specialist
30. Millwright
31. Industrial Machinery Mechanic
32. Stationary Engineer
33. Elevator Installer and Repairer
34. Civil Engineering Tech
35. Office Machine Repairer
36. Architect
37. Mining Engineer
38. Petroleum Engineer
39. Civil Engineer
40. Meteorologist

Fill one spa with water.
Do not heat.
Sit in spa.

Cold tub is my best friend. And I DIDN'T go to Highland...

"Cowboy the fuck up and eat your bon-bon."

Hey folks,

I've been nominally planning to drive up to Tarnmist (Santa Maria) tomorrow for their rapier tourney, and had figured I could take 3-4 passengers. But so far, no one's asked for a seat, and I'm not wildly inclined to go solo. Anyone want to come along?

On a foolish fallen comrade...

Stout fists, but cloth robe
Midnight, the drunken master
He quaffed his brandy

The cave troll bellowed
Midnight, dashing bravely forth
Fell in shit, face first

With his back exposed
Midnight spared, as the troll falls too
But rises faster

Rising, kicking hard
Missed the troll's rubbery hide
Slipped in shit again

Laughing, the troll strikes
Claws rend Midnight's bare torso
Into two pieces

Comrades fighting on
Blast and slash until it falls
Then loot Midnight's pouch

Here is the moral:
If you're having a bad day
Best to wear armor

Here follow the top 50 visited places in the world, listed by visitors per year. I thought this was pretty cool (well, except for the five Disneys in the top 25)... I've been to bolded places, want to go to italicized places:

1. Times Square, New York City, NY: 35 million visitors every year: Oddly enough, only been for New Years
2. National Mall & Memorial Parks, Washington, D.C. (Washington Monument, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the war memorials): About 25 million
3. Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, Fla.: 16.6 million
4. Trafalgar Square, London, England: 15 million: Bonus points for riding a lion
5. Disneyland Park, Anaheim, Calif.: 14.7 million
6. Niagara Falls, Ontario and New York: 14 million
7. Fisherman’s Wharf/Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, Calif.: 13 million
8. Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, Tokyo, Japan: 12.9 million
9. Notre Dame de Paris, Paris, France: 12 million
10. Disneyland Paris, Marne-La-Vallee, France: 10.6 million
11. The Great Wall of China, Badaling area, China: About 10 million
12. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee/North Carolina: 9.2 million
13. Universal Studios Japan, Osaka, Japan: 8.5 million
14. Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, Paris, France: 8 million ... we never really made it to north Paris
15. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France: 7.5 million: Until my feet hurt
16. Everland (amusement park), Kyonggi-Do, South Korea: 7.5 million
17. The Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China: At least 7 million
18. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France: 6.7 million
19. Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando, Fla: 6 million
20. SeaWorld Florida, Orlando, Fla: 5,740,000: I think i went to this one
21. Pleasure Beach (amusement park), Blackpool, England: 5.7 million
22. Lotte World (amusement park), Seoul, South Korea: 5.5 million
23. Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, Japan: 5.4 million
24. Hong Kong Disneyland, China: 5.2 million
25. Centre Pompidou, Paris, France: 5.1 million
26. Tate Modern, London, England: 4.9 million
27. British Museum, London, England: 4.8 million: I've always found the British a little dull... just a little too MUCH of everything, not as fancy as the Louvre. Give me a day at the Wallace Collection instead
28. Universal Studios Los Angeles, Calif.: 4.7 million: Laertes offered to show us around, but we haven't gotten a round tuit yet
29. National Gallery, London, England: 4.6 million Surpisingly underwhelming compared to the other London galleries
30. Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY: 4.5 million: Kinda like the Louvre/British, but at a more manageable size
31. Grand Canyon, Ariz.: 4.4 million
32. Tivoli Gardens (amusement park), Copenhagen, Denmark: 4.4 million
33. Ocean Park (amusement park), Hong Kong, China: 4.38 million
34. Busch Gardens (amusement park), Tampa Bay, Fla.: 4.36 million... been to the Virginia one though
35. SeaWorld California, San Diego, Calif.: 4.26 million
36. Statue of Liberty, New York, NY: 4.24 million
37. The Vatican and its museums, Rome, Italy: 4.2 million
38. Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia: More than 4 million
39. The Coliseum, Rome, Italy: 4 million: And the gelato shop!
40. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY: 4 million
41. Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Calif.: 4 million
42. Empire State Building, New York, NY: 4 million
43. Natural History Museum, London, England: 3.7 million
44. The London Eye, London, England: 3.5 million
45. Palace of Versailles, France: 3.45 million
46. Yosemite National Park, Calif.: 3.44 million
47. Pyramids of Giza, Egypt: 3 million
48. Pompeii, Italy: 2.5 million
49. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia: 2.5 million
50. Taj Mahal, Agra, India: 2.4 million

I do believe it's sprained. I was warming up for a pickup soccer game today, and tried to turn and shoot. Mind you, with no one within 30 feet of me. I think what happened was that my left foot stepped on my right shoe as I swung the right foot to kick. Then I heard what sounded like a who buncha joints in the top of my foot (where there aren't that many joints) popped at once. So I've been doin the rest-ice-compression-elevation-advil thing, and while it's certainly swelling, it doesn't hurt too badly... but I think fencing tomorrow is right out...

Breaking news... it turns out we're having a simple feast Saturday night at King's Hunt. So I'm advertising in as many places as possible... Cost is $7/$5 for Adults/kids, payable at gate. Folks should RSVP by commenting here. If you've already emailed me, you're already on the list...

Menu, Ingredients & Details from the Feastocrat
Baked Apples: Apple, honey, walnuts, almonds, cinnamon (substitute available; see note 4 below)
Chicken: Chicken, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, butter.
Pot Roast: beef, butter, lemon peel, thyme, salt, black pepper, garlic
Cameline sauce: white bread crumbs, White wine vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, mace.
Pomegranate Sauce: ground almonds, pomegranate juice or diluted pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, ginger, cinnamon, powdered sugar
Sage Sauce: ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, white bread crumbs, fresh flat-leaf parsley, ground sage, saffron, egg yolks, white wine vinegar, salt
Lumbard Mustard sauce: Honey, mustard, red wine
Lemonwhyt: lemon, rice, salt, cinnamon, butter, almonds, currants, raisins, but currants, white wine, peas (substitute available; see note 4 below)
Sweet bread: yeast, eggs, salt, olive oil, honey, cinnamon, sugar, white flour
Sweet Sauce: powdered sugar, milk, honey

Notes:
(1)I was planning on having a list of recipes and ingredients available, so if someone is allergic to nuts, for instance, they can look and see which dishes are safe.
(2)Each dish will be clearly labelled.
(3)There will be no food-touching-food in the kitchen, or crossover of utensils.
(4)I was planning to make a smaller pot of lemonwhyt without the almonds, and a dozen or so small cheese and spinach pasties to substitute for the apple appetizers.
(5)If there are any other allergies, let me know and I will see what I can do to accommodate.

They put enough effort into this one that it's worth posting. I suspect I attracted the prep stereotype by wearing a shirt and pants to work :)

So, in case anyone is curious, Mo's LASIK surgery today appeared to go without a hitch, and she could see across the room immediately afterwards. We won't know how successful it all went until her checkup tomorrow, but she's presently enjoying a prescribed nap, but should be up and about and glasses-free this evening. Yay Mo!