Sunday was Z's high school graduation. We went to the family/friends party at his house first, for the afternoon. Chatted with a few folks, mostly a couple of SCAdian friends, but also others. Met Meghan, Z's girlfriend. Apparently this relationship is working out a little better (they are able to spend time together _or_ apart, and it's all good). Friendly and intelligent, going to school in the fall to be a PT, I believe.

Then off to the Dutchess baseball stadium with Suzy, Z, a band friend Emily who plays trombone in the band. Traffic was pretty heavy getting there, but everyone ended up where they should be, and we got decent seats for the three of us. Z's stepdad was on a military thing, and it was decided that since the length of the ceremony was unknown that it would be better for his little sisters to not be there. Good call, as we didn't get back to their house until around 10pm. But it was a great time -- excellent speech by the head principal and some pretty good ones by the salutatory and valedictory students.

The students were complimented as a class on their various community outreach and volunteer work (the number of honors, scholarships and awards bears that out well), and apparently are good at planning things as well. There were over 700 students, broken up into two blocks of seating on the field (they had started on two sides of the stadium in the stands and processed down to the field seats to ye olde Pomp & Circumstance). After the initial speeches, students started going up for their diplomas. Inflated balls started appearing amongst the students.... first one, then four or five.... they'd bounce them around to each other until one of the teachers managed to get the ball(s), and then things would settle down for a bit. If it actually got volubly rowdy (only a couple of times), the person calling out the grads' names would pause so that the names wouldn't get lost in the rowdiness. There was also a ball amongst one of the groups of parents.... Anyway, things would settle down, and then another ball or three would appear.

It made for some lighthearted entertainment while the 700+ students processed up to receive their diplomas, and only added maybe 2-3 minutes to the total run time. Some impressive young adults graduated yesterday!

Then we had to get home of course, which we did at around 12:30a.m. Shoulders and neck were yelling at me as I was getting out of the car. Long day!

Today was finally putting up strings for the green beans and peas, hand watering from rain barrel water, potting a few tomatoes that won't fit in the garden, which a neighbor will be taking on -- she was too late to the market to get any this year, so it's all good. Oh, also another load of laundry -- a plenty decent breeze and lots of sunshine for that. Also did some weeding here and there.

The black currants are getting darker, as are the blueberries...

We had some of the strawberry jam that I made last week, on our PB&J sandwiches today -- different, but tasty. Guess I'll do more canning this summer :D

Z should be at training camp by now -- he was flying out sometime earlier today. He's been admonished by several people to write; hopefully that means we'll get at least one letter this summer, LOL. I expect he'll be too tired at least the first week.

Tired myself, and took a nap this afternoon in fact, but a very good few days.

Been busy the past several days. Mostly with the usual stuff, but also stepped up weaving so that I could have a new scarf finished and off the loom, so people could see what sort of thing I was working on, on the loom right now. I warped on 13 yards of Shetland wool, primarily for scarves. Finished the first scarf Friday night and started the 2nd. Saturday morning I cut the first scarf off and tied the ends and added it to the pile of other woven goods for viewing at the ren faire fundraiser for Oakdale Cemetery (Troy, NY). We were doing demo stuff in support of the faire, and a number of Bergenthalers were there, being friends with Sir Geoffrey fitz Galen and his lady Anne de Chevenbois, who got married at the cemetery in Sept. 2005. There's an amazing chapel there, with beautiful woodwork, stained glass, and mosaics.

Picked up Z/Beorn Ironhand Friday morning for the weekend. He got into armor Saturday (2nd time), and got a provisional authorization for the day. He did pretty well, managed to 'kill' one fellow, and learn a lot. L did pretty well too, and of course Sir G did well, and all the Viklanders were great to watch and listen too :) Everyone had a lot of fun. There was talk after the fighting was done for the day about how great it had been not to have to think about winning or competing in any way. They just went out there and played all day and had a marvelous time doing what they love.

mizpagan was there also, as was her sweetie Odbald, selling his ceramic dishes. House MacCarthaigh-MacMinn were doing henna (well, the sisters were - Rob was fighting), Brigit, Anselim, Bjornulfr, Alberic and Pauline, and probably some others I'm not remembering at the moment.

There was a glassmaker there with some beautiful bottle stoppers and beads. I ended up buying 4 beads from her for my future crane bag. Which meant I couldn't get the ring I'd been looking at, but I really couldn't justify buying it after getting the beads. Perhaps I'll see the ring again in the future. The beads were more important.

Sunday we were at the farm and Z and L did various things around the farm, helping out. I sort of helped a tiny bit when Z was tossing bales down to L to stack in the barn -- not lifting, but pushing or rolling bales to get them closer to where Z was tossing them down. We went for a bike ride to one of the roads going up to South Pasture, and then started hiking up the hills. It was a bit much for me, and even Z was having a few issues with brambles -- hillside's gotten a bit overgrown in the past month! And then there was the deer fly... so down the hillside, back to the bikes, and then down the very long hill we'd biked up. That part was definitely fun -- been a while since I've gone fast on a bike -- love it!! Z couldn't believe how I was pulling away from him and L, without even pedaling :D

Monday we went to UMass to renew our library cards and some books, then to Mt. Norwottuck for a short hike before taking him to the handover point in Gt. Barrington.

Unfortunately, even though I was trying to be careful and I didn't use my arms for the uphill biking (no hauling on the bars at all), my rt. shoulder and left mid traps started hurting this afternoon. So I had to cancel seeing a client tomorrow a.m. He was very understanding, which I definitely appreciate.

Somewhere in there I finished weaving the 2nd scarf and started #3. I should be able to finish that this week, I think. Depends on how things feel...

Good week overall, despite the shoulder stuff, and much accomplished. More to do this week!