January

Dickens Fair got me through the holidays.
I saw Freyjaw there.
Fred & Jeannie and even Chris from FLARE were there.

I think I spent more time with the printers than with Lodema Pottery (the people my gate pass was under)
but it all worked out OK.

I finally got the hang of getting the shims in to keep the type from coming loose.
We had adventures with a bad batch of ink that would set up on the press in about 2hrs flat.
We also printed 1500 shopping bags for Cuthberts Tea Shoppe (twice normal)

This was a year of building relationships with other Dickens Fair folk.
I had held off for years from doing fair for fear of "fair politics".
I saw some ugliness at Northern Ren Fair in the late 70s and been scared off since.
So far, so good, here though.

This year they are using sawdust in place of plastic snow on the floor.
This meant that when I took the tarps off of Lodemas,
I ended up with sawdust all over me unless *I* was the one to have put them up the night before.
I was not trying to be temperamental, I just didnt want to get my outfit dirty 1th thing in the morning.

The costume dept in the back area loved it when Id come in
"Im here for a 'brush off'", "OK, get lost!"

The usual "Christmas Crud" came through with a vengeance.
Between my flu shot in Oct and my early departure from Thanksgiving, I seem to have been spared.

I also often popped down to "Holtzer & Combs Haberdashery" to use their mirror for finishing touches & to see if I had any more saw dust on me.
Unfortunately, Lynes crew including Jeanie & Fred were struggling with the croup for the last 3 weekends.
I got some great reactions "Hey Fred! I need to borrow your wife for a few!"
I needed Jeanie to measure me for some future upgrades to the outfit, I got a great reaction anyway.

Ive been invited to do "Old Sacramento" this summer but Im not sure if time allows.
This came about in an interesting way.
I believe I am the only "scot" whos is a "working man".
All others in kilts are either military or royal household.
I figured out how many shopping bags a day Cuthberts was using and spaced out thgeir deliveries so that I could make multiple deliveries a day.
This led to cast on the street calling out "Make way for the deliveryman" and that got noticed.
I hadnt set out to be this noticable, but it worked out.
Now if only I could get the accent right....

The outfit has been upgraded since then.
When I started out, I decided that it would be versatile enough to take me from 1800 to present in both casual and "black tie".
Im finally there.
For Dickens, my waistcoat is a bit formal for a working man.
Im going to have Jeanie repair one of Grandads old vests.
In the mean time, the company holiday party was on Jan 10.
I kid you not! "Cultural festival attire if possible"
The Indians were all decked out and many from China.
And there was me.
Black Argyle jacket, red pocket square, black vest, dress white shirt, red bow tie,
my kilt (the REAL one NOT the Utilikilt!) Kilt hose, red flashes, fur sporran and dress shoes.
Topping this off, was the fact that I came in on that morning fully shaved and a marine short crew cut.
They didnt recognize me and there were several funny moments.

At this point, my "Highland Formal" is "Black tie" the highland equivalent of a tuxedo.
To pull off "White tie" I need to upgrade the jacket to either the "Prince Charlie" jacket,
which I dont care for, or the "Regulation Doublet" which is what people in highland dress wear to Buckingham Palace.
I far prefer the look of the latter and if its good enough for the palace, its good enough for me.
Besides, the Prince Charlie jacket was invented by "lowlanders" who basically shortened a tuxedo.

I spend Christmas in bed and slept my way through the whole mess.
I handed Dad the gifts I bought for everyone and had him deliver them to the family gathering.
I did the right thing and didnt have to put up with the whole hassle.

One more funny thing from Dickens Fair, final weekend:
I was "On-call" for work. I had my laptop set up in the back room at Lodemas.
I got an alert and rushed over from the printers.
I had NO idea how to cope, and neither did my "second".
As we were IMing, about what to do, Lodema came back to tell me I had people looking for me in the front.
I came out, to find my team lead from work, my older neice and her roomate.
It was funny watching my team lead explain to my second that I had handed him the keyboard.

In the mean time I got a chance to chat older neice (who was not there Thanksgiving) and explain whats going on with me.
With luck she will find a way to explain things to the rest of the family.
Perhaps they will dig the wax out of their ears and listen to her.

Ill try and post more later.
I commented to a few at Dickens that its the only thing thats keeping my from jumping off a roof.
They told me thats true of about half the people working Dickens.