2002-03-09 - 11:11 a.m.

Hello my name is Roland, and I'm a hobby-a-holic....

My wife has yet again sold me down the river by letting some friends with a vocal music group know I have a reasonable voice and can sing tenor which they lacked. Mind you, I have no formal training singing, but all those years in church growing up have got to be worth something..... Practice was Thursday night. (Hmmm, 3 nights of fighter practice and 1 night of singing not leave any time for snuggling, housework, etc....this make problem for Ug) Practice was freeform. Just diving in and trying to see how it went. They had sheet music for some of it, which is moderately helpful. I can read music, but don't really know how to apply it to vocals, since my experience is more with the clarinet when I was a kid many moons ago. I focused more on finger placements for a note than the sound it made. Then there was the score that had the right words for the first stanza, but different words than were being sung for the rest of the 3.... Needless to say, this tossed me for a loop when I had to figure it out in the middle of singing it. Well, technology to the rescue. I found some freeware that allowed me to enter the music into the computer and put in the correct lyrics. (Laura should be happy to know I have the tenor part of her Agincourt entered in.) And the program will also play out the music to help me get the part down. muwahahaha.

Friday night was my scenic tour of northern VA. Had to drop off some MoL supplies with Ragnarr for Gulf Wars. Of course the printer at work had to have an anneurism right as I was trying to print out the fighter lists before I left making me late.... Then it was off to give Mel some tool advice as she wants to finish her toe-striping while her handyman roommate is away. Then off to Kevin's to help him make up cuisses for his Eldred knees in time for Gulf Wars. He hands me the pattern our knight had worked up for him and his attempts at turning it into ABS.... I'm lost with what T was trying to accomplish. Since I was here and now, I spent some time twiddling the pattern to what looked like would work, cut out the sole bend leather and drilled the holes for attaching it the knees. Then we both had a learning experience soaking wax into the leather to make cuirboulli. Seemed to work best as a 2 person job with one manning the heat gun and the other shaving wax on a grater so it melted faster. Took about 3/4 pounds of wax per cuisse before it had soaked through completely. Since it was midnight at this point, I left Kevin to reheating it and forming to shape and attaching to the knees and straping up. He should have fun today trying to get this done on top of picking up the house and packing for the war.....

And today I actually have to myself. Time to work on the gorget more....

�

previous - next