The party general

This weekend is going to be packed for me.

I was tempted to have someone over to hang out with me Friday night, as Jared will be at the Four-Color Supers game for the evening, but as much as I would like that, on further reflection I think I need to spend that time cleaning. I want the house to be spotless for Saturday, and right now it is a certifiable wreck. I am going to do the whole place top to bottom, even other people's dishes if I have to, because I am going to need that whole kitchen to be ready to go on Saturday, when the cooking starts.

I am now trying to marshal my kitchen help, as I am certain I will need a staff for everything I'm planning. In the morning there will be an epic shopping trip, and then I will lay out all the ingredients and tools I will need so when my slaves-- I mean, helpers --arrive, we can just dive right in. Though I've written up the shopping list, I still haven't put together my plan of attack for how the cooking's going to get done. I want to have a plan on how to proceed, as there's a lot to do and I want to finish early to give myself time to clean up the cookware, wash up, and get dressed after all that work. One thing I'm anticipating is needing a lot of fridge space to store my finished canapes until it's showtime, which may prove difficult given how packed the fridge is. I will have to ask the roommates if there's anything in there that can be moved out, at least until the next day. I am confident that if I go into this with a battle plan in mind, it will all fall out the way I want it to. I shall be the general, and party planning shall be my war.

Sunday I am double-booked, but determined to make it work. I have agreed to help lightgamer, morethings5, and ninja_report move from their current place in Waltham to a new place in Watertown. As I am a Waltham local, it looks like I will be on the loading end, carrying out the boxes so that they may be transported and unloaded by the remote team. Sounds very much like a covert military operation when I put it like that. But Jared and I also have day passes to the International Steampunk City, so I am hoping that either before or after helping with the move, we will go over to that and see what's going on there.

"What a thing that I have seen tonight!"

I know the rhyme scheme's all over the place, I'll have to fix that. But here's the first draft-- Justinian has just met Theodora for the first time, and now is musing, awed, over the experienced.

JUSTINIAN

What a thing that I have seen tonight!

Full of fire is my mind,

That hours on has my body gone,

Yet kept captive all my thoughts behind.

This maid— what maid? What's this I feel,

Of eyes that flash, and wits as sharp as legion steel?

To look, to speak, to spend a moment there,

Her spirit, keen as winter, laid me bare.

Is this Justinian? Is he yet his own

To find his cunning so ensnared?

Can dissembling actress hide a witch

And boldly to bewitch a prince she dared?

Nay. I, Justin still; my wits, a whole; myself, yet mine.

It is some wonder of her hath caught mine eyne.

The heathen Turks that tremble at the Emperor’s name

Equal not her tongue, a sword that pierces claim,

And where others led like asses, she holds no fear of me,

An unbound mare, who shakes her mane defiantly.

I will go back to where that lightning struck,

And if I am rent again, it is a blessed luck,

For many’s the miracle that is once, and away,

But few so rare I may see every day.