Sir Ankara's puppy helping himself to a drink at Wars of the Roses, 2006



Happy Friday... Woot!



Lucia is doing a bit better with her toxic level. There is even talk of her going home just in time for the holiday weekend!



Had our meeting for the reign tonight. I'm feeling a little itchy, like there is something important that I need to get done, but can't remember what it is. Hopefully I will think of it in the morning when I'm more awake.



Got another bag letter today. It was for the (Secreting Southern Cliffs), big surprise! Anyone who's not in on the joke, I sent in the manuscript spelling Secret with an "e" on the end of it... The actual title is The Secret Of The Southern Cliffs...



The editor was actually pretty ok. She was more concerned that it would be difficult to market than the unfortunate spelling mistake. Well, that's the most feedback I've gotten from a bag letter so far, so I'm actually happy.



I am posting it on my website under "story time". Maybe it should just live there for anyone who likes Twilight Zone type stories to enjoy for free. I like free. Heck, one of my favorite authors, Kelley Armstrong, has tons of free short stories she has written on her web site and we LOVE her for it!



Speaking of "Story Time" I have also posted "The Heritage of Oskgar". It was the wording I did for his knighting scroll. It's a good sample of our Haus lineage, so I thought some might like to read it. In Oskgar's line you go from Feral to Balfar. Substitute Lucan for Balfar and then you have our lineage. You'll see what I mean once you read it.



I solved my chicken wing problem with Karl and Silver Spoons. I'm going to send the manuscript to Lucan and he and Karl will go through the editing process without me.



Lisa, my partner at work, warns me that there is a problem in that boys and girls do not think alike. She's right, but when I think about having a possible conversation with Karl about the content, such as... Did you mean to say this here, or shouldn't her leg be over there and well... EEEK! Just can't do it. I have trust in them. Let them hash it out and when it's done, I'll look it over one final time and ship it out to Ellora's Cave. I told you I was a big chicken wing!



This weekend should be pretty exciting! We are going to Northern Region War camp in upstate New York. I can't wait to see the boys get their Pennsic game faces on! I am going to put post-it notes everywhere, so that I won't forget my camera again!



After the event we are heading to Lake George for a few hours on Sunday. That should be fun! I used to spend summer vacations up there as a kid. (I lived in up state NY until I was about twenty.)



Actually, some of those childhood bits are fairly crappy memories. But, after I went there with Lucan and Cat, it started a whole new set of memories that were 1,000 times better.



I may not have been born into a good situation, but I have certainly made up for it. Life really started to be worth living once I made my own family... that being Lucan, Cat, my sister and Haus VDK. I am very blessed!



I had a thought at work today... I know, rare, but sometimes it happens.

We had a team meeting this morning and my supervisor gave a little certificate to one of my team members for doing something that got her complimented from a customer.



Yes, this is also something very rare. Customers arn't complimenting creatures. At any rate, it made me think of a situation at work last week. We had a customer that refused to speak to anyone other then a supervisor. (I shall refer to her as The Doctor, because if you called her anything else she would get really pissed.)



Apparently Verizon, ( not my company by the way, I work for Comcast), lost her fax number into the void. I can certainly understand why she was flipping out. All her patients, other doctors, her letterhead, business cards, medical directories, everything, had this number. She was terrified that personal patient information might fall into the wrong hands.



As I said, Verizon, misplaced her number, but she wanted to switch over to us and needed our help. This whole issue started at about 3:30 in the afternoon an carried on until way after six. My supervisor stayed on the phone with her the whole time! And let me tell you, The Doctor was not the type of person you wanted to be on the other end of the phone with for more then three minutes, much less for nearly three hours! Unpleasant does not begin to describe how she was treating my supervisor.



So, I thought to myself, here the woman is giving out a certificates to her staff... Well, where the hell is her recognition for being under fire for three hours? Did I mention that when she was done, The Doctor was actually smiling and pleased with the turnout?



Now, I am as far on the opposite side of the suck-up street as you can possibly get. I mean, my usual rule of thumb is stay under the wire and not to draw the boss's attention. But I was compelled! It's probably my 20 years of training in the SCA. One does not ignore hard work!



Ok, but what to do? I couldn't leave the office to get her a present and she was comming any minute to give my partner her Focus, (review).



So ok... now this is WAAAAY korny, even by my standards...



I took some of our color copy paper, folded it over twice so that it was vaguely card shape and drew a stick figure girl with curly-queue hair. Then I wrote in a green sharpie, "Just a note , cause I had to say, you treated The Doctor in a special way!" Then I signed it in regular pen and said "good job"!



Now, it was kind of goofy and not really a story worth telling, except for this...



I set it on the desk where I knew she would be setting up for my partner's Focus. She found it right away... She was so touched she cried! I guess she never has the luxury of recognition like the Reps on the front line. Even when she spends three hours on the phone with an angry Doctor shouting at her in a thick German accent! She said that not only was she going to keep the silly little thing, but that she was going to treasure it!



Well, it just goes to show, people are people, even if they are the big bad boss.



Wow, extra long blog tonight, sorry!



I would like to thank Brennan, Fygan and Michel for joining us Lucan and I in the con call and Cat and Di Sebastian for iM 'ing each other during it and getting us pertinent info. You guys rock!



I would also like to wish Meredith, Brennan's wife, a Zen hug and hope she feels better soon. She took a tumble, bumped her head and hurt her back. Get well soon sweetheart! XXOOO



Good night everyone!

Yana