My Blog

Crown Tournament

Belle — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:31:27 GMT

It's amazing how fast some things can change! One minute you are watching your husband fight in a tournament, then you are standing next to the throne to watch the finals, then everyone in the kingdom is hugging you! I have to say the best part for me was the hugging, it's like the receiving line at a wedding, but lots less organized. It's like a receiving blob.

OHH NOOOO MR. BILL!

Belle — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:56:29 GMT

So this happened forever ago while we were in New Orleans, but it has come up a couple of times in talking to our friends recently. One of my friends got us tickets to see Walter Williams (creator of Mr. Bill) at Oswald's Speakeasy (owned by Harry Anderson, the judge from night court). It was an awesome show, then a few nights later, while I was at a bellydance seminar, Anton ran into Walter and ended up going bar hoping with him and his freinds all night. http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2006-02-07/cover_story.php

No Gulf Wars

Belle — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:31:38 GMT

We can't make Gulf Wars this year due to a lack of vaccation from the honeymoon, and Anthony's spring break is the wrong week. I am more than a little bummed since it is my favorite war and I haven't missed one in years. That and it's our anniversary!

Wedding and there after

Belle — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:27:28 GMT

So we are married!

backed up blogs

Belle — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:17:18 GMT

So I have been very busy doing stuff and haven't posted any of it. It has been a crazy summer. I am in the process of adding a bunch more pictures for all y'all to see. Things like Anton's birthday, Molly's going away party, several float trips, Fringe Fest, and many other fun activites.

Handfasting

Belle — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:24:30 GMT

On the one one year anniversary of the day we met, our sca personnas were wed. Master Conrad brought my dowry, which you see in the wooden box in the picture. I got to shop for him all week it was lots of fun. We were handfasted to eachother by Anton's friend Sir Keif. The ceremony was beautiful, and it was great to have several of our friends there to witness. Those of you who were not there were missed and thought of. Earlier in the week Anton won the Spear Tournament and his household Rhoadd won the Five Man Melee Tournament. I danced and drummed and waterbeared for most of the war. We also both did a fair amount of sleeping.

What a Weekend!

Belle — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 00:06:50 GMT

Well what a strange turn of events. I guess I should start at the begining. Anthony found a cool shop in the French Quarter called the Pharoh's cave. We ended up buying a really cool green Hookah pipe and a couple of belly dance CDs and talking to the guy some about starting up a drum circle again (there hasn't been one since the storms). Anthony picked up a card for me for a local dancer that is teaching belly dance lessons. I called Amae her about her monday night class, and asked if there were any advanced classes in town. She told me that sadly there were very few dancers that had come back. From her troupe of eight, it is just her and another girl. She invited me to come to the class and brush up on basics. She told me that they were planning on going to Artemis's workshop in two weeks. I got a bit excited when she mentioned Artemis because I had such a great time taking classes from her in DC. I went to the monday night class and had a great time. Amae is an amazing dancer with an insane schedule. She works five days a week and dances five nights a week. She has four restaurant/bar gigs and teaches on top of that. She said most places are desperate for dancers and has invited me to come dance with her on the 22nd, and that she could probably get me into the rotation if the club owner likes me. Anyway, so this weekend I went to the workshop with Artemis in Lafayette (2.5 hours west of New Orleans). I ended up getting there on Fri. night at about 8:30 and who should I run into but Zenia. For those who don't know she is an SCA friend of mine and Layla's. We were very worried about her and Munlik right after Katrina. Munlick was with her and they were the special guests of the people hosting the event. I'm still not exactly sure how this all happened but I ended up at dinner with the hosts of the event and Artemis at a really cool greek restaurant. It started with me asking if Munlik and Zenia were going out to dinner and would they mind me tagging along since they were the only people I knew. They told me they were going out with some people and to hop in their truck. I didn't realize who the people were until we were already there. Anyway I said hello to Artemis and she actually remembered me and seemed genuinely happy to see me. I heard all about how things are going for Mulik and Zenia and told them about Anthony. They are still living out of their FEMA trailer and are in the process of rebuilding their house. Both of their houses were destroyed. They had moved into their new house and were trying to sell the old one when the storm hit. They were able to save some of their belongings but like many others most of it was washed into the Gulf of Mexico. During dinner I mentioned that I needed to get a hotel room when we got back. Sydney, who was organizing the seminar asked me to stay with her in her huge suite. I tried to say no, but as I discovered it is very difficult to refuse southern women when they are offering you something. The next morning when I woke up breakfast was being set on the table. Zenia and Munlick and about 10 other people showed up and I was told to eat something. So I did. Lunch seemed to go the same way. Sydneys mom and aunt had made chicken salad sandwiches and were already planning dinner, which I was also expected to eat. I of course felt like a horrible mooch, and kept trying to wiggle my way out of it, but it seemed that I had been accepted into to the group and was therefore now acounted for, and expected. Anthony told me when I got home that it would have been rude of me to actually down right say no, and that's just the way things work down here. The show Saturday night was looming over my head. When I signed up for the workshop there was one solo performance open, so I thought I would give it a shot. I ended up buying another damn cabaret outfit on e-bay, cause well... it was cheap and cute, and it got here two days before the show. So I was about to perform in front of a bunch of people that I had just met that were all very talented, in a costume I had never worn before, without my girls there to back me up. Talk about nervous. I decided the safest bet was to do the new cabaret piece, cause I could do it by myself and could still remember most of it without thinking too hard. I about peed my pants I was so nervous as I was walking back stage. They started to anounce me and who should walk up and give me a hug but Artemis. She must have seen the look on my face, she told me I would be great and that she was glad that I was dancing. Well that kind of surprosed me enough to get me up on the stage. I don't think I missed any of the important parts of the dance a didn't lose any of my costume so I figure it went pretty well. I was really amazed when people I didn't know came up to me after the show and told me they liked my dance. It was quite the ego boost, I had to go and ice my head. Zenia did a dance that made everyone cry, it was an interpretation of the storm. Munlik was playing the Zerna for her while she came on stage with many scarves in her hands and tucked into her belt. She began to spin like the storm and the music became faster and wilder. She flung the scarves in every direction and dropped to the stage as the drums and zerna stopped dead. As the soft notes began to play, she gathered the scarves one by one, shaking them off and placing them back around her neck and tucking them into her belt. She wiped her face with one and scraped the mud off another. She began to dance again, happily and made her way off the stage. The hafla after the show was fantastic! All the drummers and musicians stayed and played until the end of the night at 11. The drive home was long, but I decided I needed to get home to my sweetie.

GIS Work

Belle — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:49:51 GMT

It seems like more and more people are discovering what GIS is capable of and that means lots of work. It pretty much goes like this, someone walks over with a confused look on their face and asks if I make maps or am I GIS, I say yes and they sit down and start telling me what they are looking for. I pull up some imagery or some vector files. I fine tune it to what they are looking for and then print it out. They take it back and show there supervisor. Then about an hour later, the original requestor and their supervisor come over and sometimes a couple more people, and ask for about six more maps that are somewhat similar to the first one. For the most part I can just shift the view or drop in a couple more layers and print them out within a half hour or so. This seems to make everyone happy and they hang up their maps where everyone can see them. Then people ask, "Hey where did you get that?" then they too are sent to me with a confused look on their face, and the cycle starts again.

FEMA was not prepared for Katrina because of it's loss of funding to "Homeland Security".

Belle — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 20:30:02 GMT

FEMA was not prepared for Katrina because of it's loss of funding to "Homeland Security". This is a huge part of why Katrina was so badly responded to my FEMA. Most of the agency's preparedness budget and focus are related to terrorism, not disasters.The most interesting fact that I found from this article was this "Three out of every four dollars the agency provides in local preparedness and first-responder grants go to terrorism-related activities, even though a recent Government Accountability Office report quotes local officials as saying what they really need is money to prepare for natural disasters and accidents." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fema5sep05,0,2650635,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

In New Orleans

Belle — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 23:54:29 GMT

So most of you know that I am in New Orleans, for those that don't, the call finally came and they have sent me down here for three months. Anthony is coming down to join me this weekend. I found us an apartment across Rampart from the French Quarter. For those of you who want to look at it on-line the web site, http://www.historicgarlands.com/archive/index.php

Engaged!

Belle — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 23:34:30 GMT

This is my ring, isn't it gorgeous! Anthony asked me to marry him! And of course I said yes. I called my mom to tell her and she already knew. He apparently asked my father's permission at Christmas when we were in Michigan. He couldn't be more wonderful!

Anthony is finally here!

Belle — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 21:02:57 GMT

Well Anthony is moved, and we are back from Christmas. The appartment already looks fantastic. It really looks like an SCA home now, awards and swords and other regalia. We are getting used to sleeping next to eachother, which is tough after six months of haveing a bed to myself. It is really nice to wake up to a kiss instead of a phone call. The last two weeks have been so busy it was actually nice to go to work today and have things get back to normal. He is cooking me dinner! It will be ready when I get home. I can't tell you how nice that is!

And then there was one, Isabella Sr. is dead

Belle — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 00:42:18 GMT

There used to be two of us now there is just me. This morning Isabella Willsey, my grandmother passed away. I miss her, her smile, her love, her knowledge. A piece of me died today with her. This was supposed to be her last Christmas, we were going to bring her home for one day, to see her house and her family one last time. She hasn't been home in a year, and now we will have to have Christmas with a ghost.

Dance

Belle — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:31:40 GMT

I took a private lesson last night with Artemis, she is fairly well know in the dance community around here. It was tons of fun, I've pretty much decided that I want to do some more turkish stuff. She had such cute little moves, I looked like a giant standing next to her. Anyway hopefully I'll bring back some Taqusim, that is what we are doing next Wed. She was very big on the whole music with a melody thing verses just drums. She said that drums only give you two choices to pull from for ideas when you improv, the beat and the rhythm, but with a melody you can you that to pull moves out of your memory banks. I'm taking her advanced class and her Taqusim class on Mon. and a drum solo class on Wed. so nice to learn from fresh blood. Oh and she just got back from Turkey, and brought a bunch of CDs back with her so I bought one. It's ok, standard Turkish stuff. Sounds a lot like the tents at Gulf Wars when all the musicians are there.

Planning my return

Belle — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:10:30 GMT

Ok for anyone who's interested I'm currently planning on coming home on the 21st of Oct, unless something drastic happens that's when I'll be home. This is the same weekend as Siham's Dalia Workshop, so hopefully if we are planning on dancing at it it's something I can learn in one evening or something I already know how to do. By the way don't even think about white wings. I just can't be the good girl!

Allegany Mountains

Belle — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 19:38:06 GMT

I went to an SCA event last weekend in West Virgina, and the drive through the mountains was beautiful. I managed to lock my keys in the car right off the bat when I got there. Luckily one of the organizers of the event was a lock smith and saved my stupid ass. Then I met some really cool court Baronesses and hung out with them and gossiped for the rest of the day. The next morning I took pictures of the mountains as the sun came up.

I'm in Washington DC

Belle — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 21:29:14 GMT

So I guess I have been remiss in writing blogs of late. I am actually in Gaithersburg MD but not many people know where that is. I am helping set up the system and make maps for the Katrina and Rita disasters at my for URS. I will be here for at least a month, maybe more. My wonderful sweetheard is coming to visit me in just over a week, then we will go do something fun around here like the Smithsonian and a tour on the Potomic or some other exciting activity. When I get back there will be Gen's wedding and of course Crystal Ball. Hopefully I can drag Anthony to both and hope that seeing me having so much fun will inspire him to participate and enjoy himself. If not there will be enough alcohol at these things to distract him. On an SCA note I found an event close enough to go to this weekend. Thinking about going.

Surprise!

Belle — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 00:36:07 GMT

I went to Texas last weekend to give Anthony a bit of a shock. The look on his face was priceless as he poked me to see if I was real. We had a great weekend together and I got a chance to hang out with his SCA friends a little more. The event went well and it was lots of fun. Anthony won the tournament and has another sword to hang on the wall, until he returns it at next year's event. Soon he'll need a sword rack for all of them. This one is particularly nice in my opinion however, since it is decorated with all manner of Scottish symbols, which are appropriate since it was a Highland Games event.

New hole

Belle — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 20:04:50 GMT

I have a new hole in my belly button. It didn't really hurt, much less than my ears did when I was twelve anyway.

Jabberwocky

Belle — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 17:43:04 GMT

(picture by T. Foxley) JABBERWOCKY Lewis Carroll (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872) `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought -- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

What a busy weekend!

Belle — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 17:26:24 GMT

Ok so I had been trying somewhat in vain to get my appartment in some semblence of a clean state because Duncan and Donna were coming in Fri. night to stay with me for the Kingdom Arts and Sciences event. Which was really cool of them since Donna is allergic to my little Tellie. Friday afternoon and evening was spent getting my entry ready, I was trying to make something to hang my filters from that looked kind of period. I was entering spiced wine, so I sewed the filters out of muslin and Glendor was helping me by making me this really cool iron thing out a piece of 1/4 inch bar he had in his basement. He said "you think this would work if I cut it like this... and bent it like this?" I was like "you can do that?" he said "Sure, I just wish you had told me a week ago I could have made the whole stand and it would have looked really nice." It's good to have talented friends. Then we got a phone call that Layla's van had broken down at SKW so I went to pick her up while Glendor was hammering and grinding in the basement. Did I mention he's really good with metal? Anyway by the time I got home from rescueing Layla from the 110 degree heat Glendor had made me this awesome hook and bar that spanned the candle holders I was using to hold the contraption up. I looked great, I finished the filters by sewing them onto the metal rings and hanging it with cord from the candle holder contraption. By the time all this was done it was about 10:30 and I was expecting my guests around midnight so Shannon and I went back to my place to try to beat it into submission, with a brief stop at our friendly neighborhood Taco Bell. We cleaned at lighning speed, and then she watched the filtering process and learned the most basic parts of wine making. (I think I may have suckered in another brewer, muwahaha) Donna and Duncan got there at about 12:45 and we chatted a bit while I finished getting my entry ready for the next day. We got up at 7:30 which was pretty ridiculous after getting to sleep at 2:00 am. The event was great, I had a lot of really possitive reactions to my entry and ended up getting a really good score. I was told that I can't enter at an intermediate level anymore, and since it's always the same guys that judge me they would know. After the event we went to a restaurant in Weston for dinner, the food was great. Then we went next door to the pub to listen to the "Irish" music, he was not great. In fact he was kind of a prick and couldn't seem to play a song all the way through without talking to the audience. It was the worst tweleve minute version of Finnegan's Wake I've ever heard. We all drank our beers as fast as we could and got our checks to head over to the post revel. It was down a several gravel roads in the middlest of nowhere, but we drank and sang and generally had fun. I drove Donna and myself home at about 2:00, putting me in bed at about 3:00am. I almost didn't get us home without falling asleep at the wheel. The next day Donna and Duncan took off around 9:30 to get started on loading the minivan with stuff to take back to St. Louis. I started getting all my belly dance crap together to go dance at the benefit concert. I took half of my stuff because we never really did decide exactly what we were going to wear. We just all brought a bunch of stuff and threw it on when we got to Layla's. We went over the dances a couple of times and decided to brave the heat. There was a heat index of a 115 and they were telling people not to leave the air conditioning if they could help it, and we were getting ready to go dance in it. Luckily there was lots of really cold water to drink. The heat was annoying but not unbearable, and the dancing went pretty good for the first set. It kind of got sticky from there, the guy who was in charge of the music for the first set wasn't the same guy as for the second set. There was a lot of running back and forth to the sound booth and lots of playing the wrong music. In the end I'm sure I was dancing with a huge frown on my face cause I was still so ticked about the music getting screwed up after very explicit instructions. After the first fifteen seconds of the dance we all gave up on choreography and did improv. I'm not at all fond of improv honestly, I would just as soon do choreograohy all the time. I think watching improv is about as intersting as watching paint dry unless the dancer is really amazing. I even get bored by most profesional dancers that do improv. Anyway so my point is it could have gone a bit better, but it was still half decent. Of course there were supposed to be 2,500 people and about 70 showed up. Not very surprising since none of us heard or saw it advertised anywhere, and people were not supposed to be out in the heat. A TV crew did actually show up eventually, and we got to meet Dennis Moore, because he was there to show his support. He seemed more than a little put off by the low turn out as well. Anyway it all ended in a trip to Sonic for an ice cream treat thanks to Shannon. Then dinner at Sol Aztecca, fajitas yummmm. Overall it was a pretty good weekend.

New Pictures

Belle — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 16:44:16 GMT

Ok I have now developed my pictures from Lilies up until this weekend. Wow have I been busy, and boy do I take bad pictures. Apparently the film got too hot at some point becuase all of my really cool shots were grainy. That's what I get for trying to use a real camera instead of digital. My digital camera is kind of old though and it doesn't work at night at all. Tawas was great but I missed Anthony the whole time and had to call him at all hours of the day and night to get my fix. While we were on the phone I passed him around to talk to my friends and relatives. The sunsets were goreous, the water was warm, and the weather was nice. Of course some more wind would have been nice for sailing. Keith's wedding was a blast! I had a great time hanging out with my some of my oldest friends. Everyone from my freshman year at Truman still hang out. I even rebuilt a burnt bridges with an old friend that I lost. Sara and I are going to hang out sometime this week. Jeff and Neal have show together on Sat. that should be pretty cool, Jeff's art and Neal's music (as part of I).

Off to Michigan

Belle — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 13:05:08 GMT

I'm leaving this afternoon for my cousin Sarah's wedding and camping in Tawas Michigan. This should be a bunch of fun. The whole family is going camping this year because the wedding is kind of the kick off event. It was good planning on Sarah's part. How funny that she is the youngest of us and the first to get married. Guess we figure we have all the time in the world since Willseys live forever. I am coming home on Wed. which will suck as I'm used to camping for a week. I'll just get settled in and have to come home and work. I just hope they have something fo rme to do when I get back to work.

Physical Exam Day

Belle — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 19:24:41 GMT

In order to complete my HAZWOPER OSHA 40hr training (thats hazardous materials and how to set up a decon. and stuff like that) I had to have a baseline physical exam toady. They took a chest X-ray and an EKG and six vials of blood and did a hearing test and a vision test and made me pee in a cup, and the worst part... they weighed me, and much to my dismay I found out that I have gained at least 7 pounds since I started working here in April. The good news is I'm perfectly normal and healthy (good thing there wasn't any psychological testing!). I found a really cool bike path (see picture) behind my office yesturday, so maybe I can start working off some of those extra pounds that I added to my stomach and thighs. Hopefully I'll get to keep some of what I added to my bra, but it will probably be the first to go. Now I just have to get a bike. It's only 12.5 miles around the loop so I can easily do it at lunch. Speaking of lunch...

July 4th weekend

Belle — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 13:59:32 GMT

Well I didn't think it was possible to like him anymore than I already did, but as the weekend ended I found myself missing him more than ever. We went to the botanical gardens shortly after I picked him up at the airport, it was beautiful, most everything was in bloom. After that we went to see the fireworks downtown. We took the Metro Link, which was pretty full, but ceratinly not the worst I've seen it. We had some beers with my dad while listening to the Black Eyed Peas, and met up with one of my oldest friends Jessica. The fireworks were amazing as usual. Sun. was my dad's birthday and we hung out with my parents friends, who are strange by most people's definition. My parents are somewhat talented ballroom dancers and so are most of their friends. They taught Anthony some of the basic dances which he picked up right away, despite telling me over and over that he didn't know what he was doing. He helped my dad grill, even though we have inferior grilling technology, shocking to my southern boyfriend. I splurged on a kick ass hotel room and surprised him on Sunday night. The fireplace and Jacuzzi were amazing, and the bed itself was bigger than some hotel rooms I've stayed in. We had fun walking around the halls looking at the medieval and early military decorations.