Saturday I met and old friend at Woodbury Commons where I bought 4 pairs of shoes. Aerosole and Skechers both had buy one get one � off, so how could I not! I got a pair of cute white and pink sneakers and black flip flops with while flowers on the cloth thong for London in Skechers and I got a pair of very very confy black t-strap sandals and a pair of very cool brown suede shoes in Aerosole. Good shopping all around. Then I went to Burberry and I thought I was gonna pass out from the excitement of being surrounded by all that plaid. I wrote down prices to I can compare in London and see where the better deal is. Then I went to Coach, well b/c it was there. I felt like a traitor as I took out my Burberry wallet to pay for my new coach leather clutch and leather palm pilot case. I got BOTH for just under $40. AMAZING. They were on a clearance shelf and then they were an additional 20% off. Couldn�t resist. I love leather. Did I need to buy them? NO. Did I have the money to buy them? NO. But like Andrea and I discussed on Sunday, we are both impulse shoppers and I was swept up in the moment.

Sunday I went to the Renaissance Festival in Tuxedo with Andrea and we had a great time. It was fun going with her. She looked awesome in the bodice she tried on.

Some thoughts about the fair:

Over all is still a let down to me from how great it was in the past. I saw some old familiar faces that are still there. It's weird to see some of the people I started with there now writing and directing stuff there. Heck, Chris D who started the same year as me is now Artistic Director! Good for him, and them. The only names left that I know are: Chris DeTroy (artistic director), Ann Alford (Queen and writes most of the shows and some of the fights), Dan O�Driscoll (fights and Crimson Pirate), Jeff DeRocker (joust), Don and Kelly Kilcoyne, Alen O�Hara (Sir Guy), Karen Kamornick O�Hara (yes! They got married on May 15th), Kelly McKinnon (wench and Beatrice in Much Ado an in a hideous costume), The Timony brothers (who now do the mud show), Robin Flannigan (fight captain and Crimson Pirate), Jared Hoffert (Crimson Pirate), Lionel Ruland (Crimson Pirate). Also the black female guard is still a guard which is just all sorts of wrong to me. OO, and the guards, what a let down. They are all skinny little ugly things. Remember the good ol days when it was like a pre-requisite for them to be big (by that I mean over 5�5 and 120 lbs) and HOT. Dman, I def miss those men in black tights.

The only way I would ever do the fair again is if 1 � they brought back the original concept of the wenches from when I was one. 6 girls who are just lower class laundresses/wenches with numerous sets during the day working closely together. I don�t like seeing Maid Marion or a lady in waiting singing with the Wenches. It�s just wrong. They should all be peasants, dressed like peasants. AND 2 � if I was dating someone in the fair. King Phillip of Spain was friggin hysterical as was this guy who �guest starred� with the wenches at the 5pm set. There were 2 really incredible and awesome fights at the first chess match. I had fried mac and cheese which was really cool. They are clumps of mac and cheese fried like little chicken nuggets. Interesting but total robbery at $4 for 5 nuggets. OMG Hot pickle boy was there but I only saw him in passing and didn�t get to talk to him like last year. But yay for seeing hot pickle boy. Of course I bought a pickle cause how do you go to the fair and not get a pickle. What did we see (this is basically for D and Broomer since they will really be the only 2 who read my journals who know anything about the faire and our past):

1/2 of morning address (I was talking to Karen).

The Crimson Pirates (which basically is all the people I still know there in one group. Dan, Robin, Don, Kelly, Lionel, Alen, Karen, Ann, Kelly and Ann � although some are not in the sets as they are other characters in the faire. They do outside events and guest performances at other Ren Fests. Their website ).

The first chess match.

The Mudd show (which is now the Timmony brothers and some other guy. It was okay. I saw the �infomercial� show and it was boring and all they did was throw the mud around a lot. I liked when there used to be a story and audience participation. I miss �Grendel Grendel � Woo Woo�).

The Wyrd Sisters (which was entertaining. 3 girls who sing parodies of the festival and the characters and such to popular song and show tunes).

Trial and Punishment (which to me was okay. But only 3 trials were made and 2 out of the 3 the accuser didn�t have punishment planned which is just always stupid to me. If you are going to make a case, you should have a punishment prepared and be able to follow thru).

The �bawdy� 5pm wench set. BORING. First of all, there was like 8 or 9 of them up there and you could hardly hear them. There was like NO harmony. They only did 4 songs b/c the songs were like 5-10 min long each. They weren�t really bawdy or fun songs at all. One of the �wenches� couldn�t even get out her verse when it was her turn. Then she had the same problem a second time. I was like you suck. They just didn�t seem like a group to me. They seemed like what they were, 8 girls who had a set to sing some songs at certain time who just showed up when it was time and didn�t have any connection to each other. Very aggrevating).

The Rogue Show (which is based on the man show which was a cool idea except it seemed to me and Andrea that everything was just one big inside joke and very boring for us in the audience. And it�s only opening weekend. Imagine how crappy that is going to be by closing. They had to keep looking at a script to remember what was next and what they were doing. AND there were no girls on trampolines! I saw the trampolines in the back, but they didn�t use them. Dman them!).

Then we left and it took forrreeeevvveeeeeeeeerrr to get home.