State of the Russ Report, Dec. 2005

(for interested family, etc.)
Generally speaking, 2005 whipped our butts financially (took us from almost debt-free to oh-dear-Lord), but we are otherwise doing great.

1. We're well, and haven't quite gotten a bun into the oven yet. Working on it.


2. Christmas is coming up, obviously, and we're stoked about getting to DC for a few days.


3. Still holding more debt than we'd like, especially after watching our budget get sideswiped by the roof-repair/foundation-repair/cars-got-vandalized madness this summer. It's still at manageable levels and should go off the board entirely by May or so providing we don't let ourselves get casual about it.


4. About two-thirds of the way finished with the classroom portion of my teachers' certification, which hopefully will result in me jumping ship from Bank of America by summertime.


5. We need to get a half-dozen windows for the house, and then, (crosses fingers), the big must-be-done house repairs/upgrades will be finished.


6. Yard/landscaping is almost finished, with the addition of a Red Maple and Pecan, and having transplanted three Crepe Myrtles from various "bad places" to right along the front sidewalk. All told, if "the Creepies" survive our brain-surgery-with-chainsaw, the front yard should have quite a bit of shade all through the morning and the early portion of the afternoon. The soaker hoses will also help the back yard quite a bit. Once the bad part of winter is past (which may mean late January here), all we'll have remaining to put in are:
   


• 6 blueberry bushes (for under the back eaves where the AC unit drips)


• 10 blackberry bushes (for NE side of inside fence corner)


• 6 new grapevines for back fence (to duke it out with trumpetvines)


• Bunny's roses


7. I theoretically am supposed to pass my Silver Glove exam this year (sobs). Barre work has helped loosen up my hips for it, but let's just say that I'm having a sordid affair with Despair...


8. We continue to create our own little cult by having folks move into houses on the street as they come open, thus creating something very much like actually knowing your neighbors... because we do, unlike the usual "Um, hi..." and even more common "Who the hell are you?"


9. Unmitigated Geekery Projects in pipeline:
   


• Hand armor for the salle (Should protect from injury without diluting pain from getting hit. Spendy, I may have to hit people up for it like we did the boxing gloves, depending on how much leather and artificial felt it takes.)


• Resew quilted leg armor.


• Assist Csaba with article publication


• Make Csaba a suit of lamellar


• Construct leather-scale armor


• Conduct destructive testing as described earlier


• Begin working on semi-definitive medmilhist timeline (including all of Europe, unlike this piece of shit, which claims to represent all of Europe, "Europe" apparently being defined as the 1988 EU member states...)


• Haft up remaining unhafted weapons


• General leatherwork (vest, mocs, bags, etcetera)

That's about it for now... The Bunny has her own version, of course, and things will get really interesting once the Lemur and Cupcake show up, but that may still be a while.