I was headed home this evening from work and mentally making a list in my head of all the things we need to pack for our trip tomorrow to Crown Tournament. We're taking the 16x16 pavilion which means there will be a fun puzzle of putting 7 foot poles into the 6 foot bed of the Puddin's truck. I was even telling Kathy as we were leaving the office that Rich generally likes to wait to do all that stuff in the morning as we're scrambling to leave and I much prefer to make a ridiculously long list of all things we might possibly need and then edit that list for hours until I've made a large pile of stuff in the living room. I pulled into the driveway and was stunned to see all the 7 foot pavilion poles already in the truck! I came bursting into the house and all but knocked the Puddin' over with my enthusiasm for his planning ahead. And in return my list is very short and involves things like

• lunch
• clothes
• mallet

and about two other things. So I think we've found a middle ground in our preparations for medieval field trips.

Speaking of medieval stuff ... While making my small pile of things to take tomorrow I ran across one of my early attempts at a hat to go with one of my outfits. It never got hemmed and somehow shrank significantly in the wash so it barely fits on my head. In all my futzing around with it, I found I bear a striking resemblance to ...

Theodoric Genie of York, medieval barber

You can also read the transcripts of the old Theodoric of York SNL skits, just for old times sake.