Success

Well, I really did listen to Eye of the Tiger (twice!) and it must have worked because I am now the Arts and Sciences Champion of the Barony of Three Mountains. Yay!

That really wasn't the big victory of today for me, though. My victory was in the amazing feedback I got, and, even more than that, pushing myself and doing three really fun research projects. I'm so happy with how my gown turned out, I'm so happy with how my bread turned out, and I'm so happy with how well my teeth cleaners worked. I am happy happy happy!

I got some pictures which at some point I must post.

Oh, also, I am so satisfied to be able to do the kind of stuff I'm interested in (experimental archeology) and have other people get excited about it. The lead up to today taught me so much about 13th century England, and to be able to share my squee-ing with people and have them get into it too was amazing.

GETTIN' PUMPED

If Better Half weren't still asleep I'd be blasting Eye of the Tiger right now.

I am ready for today! Everything is packed, my documentation is all printed, my bread baked, my clothing done, teeth cleaning tested. I am currently enjoying a nutritious breakfast of very fatty yogurt and hoping that this will somehow make up for having been too anxious to sleep in yesterday or today. I have plenty of sleep, I was just hoping I would have been able to be a little lazier in the mornings that I didn't have to go to work. Why am I so nervous? It's very odd. I don't even know what I'm anxious about -- I think it's basically just excitement.

Well, wish me luck! I still need to throw together a mask, then it's off to 3M's A&S Championship! Whee!

Another quick note on the bread project

My experiment with bolting the flour for the wastel loaf failed. I couldn't find a fabric in my house with the right weave -- everything was too tightly woven and wouldn't let any flour through. So I had to turn to a modern implement, a very fine metal mesh. I'm a little disappointed, honestly, but I'm hoping the end result is similar enough that I haven't totally lost the intent of the project.

Getting more excited about my big A&S project

Better Half pointed out the other day that, for fun, I write 10 page papers.

I'm working on this bread project and I'm getting more and more into it. I found some great references that give me a really good idea of how big each loaf would be, and I found a reference to the specific percentages of various grains in the horsebread. So I did a little math (I'm assuming for the sake of my sanity that the water you add to make the dough all magically dissipates in baking, so weight of flour in ~= weight of finished loaf) and I now have all written down what weight of each type of flour I need. Oh, and since I haven't found pea flour, but I have peas and my mom has a grain grinder, well, you can see where this is going.

I also am working on some tooth care advice from Gilbertus Anglicus's Compendium Medicinae -- rub teeth with linen cloth, chew herbs, rinse with wine and mint mouthwash. I had what I consider a brilliant insight last night, too: they totally make mouth rinse for little kids that stains grime so you can see how dirty your teeth are. So if I rinse before using my medieval cleaning regimen, and then again after each stage (I'll probably do this on separate days so I have the same amount of crud going into it each time), and take pictures of my mouth, I can totally show how well (or not) each worked! This is awesome!

AND THEN I realized something profound and really obvious: I approach history as a scientist. My way of interacting with the world is scientific inquiry, and so that is what I do for SCA projects.

And you know what? I think it's rad.