The Christening Of Miss Kitty

                                               Today was truly a special day...

The beginning of my new life

Surrounded by new acquaintances

Miss Kitty was christen

I attended the 15th anniversary of the RVing Women MidAtlantic Chapter Spring get together at Old Mill Stream Campground.   Fun was the name of the game, we roasted hot dogs, watched fire works, went on hikes and had our black and white dinner on Saturday.

Yes we ate very, very well.  The lady that won first prize for most original outfit  was Beverly in her black and white clown costume.

We also had a social hour on Friday with even more food, the theme was Mexican with make your own tacos.

Since we are on the subject of food, my daughter and I cut out from the group and went to a fabulous little restaurant in downtown Lancaster, PA, called On Orange.  The menu was small and very delicious.  I think I really liked the touch of giving you your check on a saucer with a cookie for each person at the table.  I highly recommend this restaurant.

I forgot to tell you, the get together of RVing Women was held at the Old Mill Stream Campground, Lancaster, PA.   The grounds are very well maintained, very good wi-fi,  cable,  excellent security, good water pressure, the sites are not huge but comfortable distance from the next rig so that you can put out your awnings and slides and still be a comfortable distance,   a very friendly and helpful staff.  I would come back here again with no problem.

On Saturday, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, the Amish Pie wagon comes full of wonderful treats to buy like homemade pies, cookies, bread, jellies and also eggs.   My daughter twisted my arm so badly that I brought oatmeal raisin cookies, snickerdoodles and some wheat bread.  The funny thing is that I only eat bread in a sandwich but it looked so good.

You do realize I have been retired for two days. Two beautiful, wonderful days.

I leave this campground tomorrow and go back to the one I am staying at until the end of the month. 

 Next Monday, I will be hosting our women artist groups in Miss Kitty, I hope to have lots of pictures then.

Meet Miss Kitty

I went to pick up my RV on April 15, my daughter's birthday.  However, things did not go as planned.

Before I begin the story, I wanted to explain why I named the RV Miss Kitty.  My mother's name was Margaret but my father called her Kitty.   In fact, I thought that was her name all my childhood life.  Everyone called her Kitty or Miss Kitty.  My parents were marvelous and I wanted to honor them.  Both of them went to RV shows with me since I was  about 20 and always said that I would get one someday.

When we arrived at Nexus, I was told that the RV was not ready and had not come back from paint.  We were told to go to a hotel and they would pay for it.   The next day, the same thing.   I had rented a car so we went to buy things for the RV but this really got me off schedule.

Me doing my happy dance the first time I saw Miss Kitty and she did not even have all the decals on.

 On Wednesday, a storm was coming so everyone there with RV's was pulled inside the plant, another day lost.  This did give us time to check things out, we had discovered doing the walk through that they had put in a microwave and not a Microwave convection oven, also I did not want to put a TV in bedroom and had to have the doors changed.  Everything worked but it meant that I did not have time to go to the nearby campground to do a full hookup we were at Nexus in their camping space the entire time.  We also discovered that the blowup mattress had a leak.  Unfortunately, the company that made the sofa had sent all the mattresses full size instead of queen so Nexus will have to send us another one.

On Friday as we were ready to pull out to go home, my son-in-law, Bryan discovered that the exhaust pipe on the generator had been broken off.   This must have occurred when the workman was pulling the RV out of the plant to take it back to its spot.  Another delay while they had to fix this.  We finally got on the road much later than I thought.  Karen at Nexus said that she would get the rental car back for me so I could get on the road.  I let my son-in-law drive until we got to the highway but then I took over.  It felt weird at first and then I began to love to drive her.  I found myself passing slow trucks, going through tunnels, driving along concrete barriers with no fear.  We spent the night at a campground that I would never had stayed at but we did not have time to search for a better one and it was very late.

When we got to the campground I am keeping her at until about the end of June, I had to immediately leave and meet the lady that was buying one of my looms, pack and hit the road to go work in Chicago.

These are pictures my daughter took because she, my son, and son-in-law had to finish everything.  The first picture is of the RV nice and grey but we found that the RV picks up colors of its surroundings and in the sun it appears gold.



My daughter took pictures of the floorcloth and pillows in place.  On the wall beside the sofa will be the sculptures that my daughter is making.

  

Also, here is some pictures of my workstation/dinette.  I can stand to cut fabric or felt and there is plenty of storage.

This picture shows workstation set up so I can use my laptop or eat.

 In this picture, I can sit four for dinner or sit my sewing machine, serger or felting machine.

  

Now here it is in travel mode.  There are clips under the table to keep table in place while traveling and my plugs are on the front of the cabinet so I do not have to lean down.

  

The only other picture I have so far is the bathroom sink.  I had asked for a vessel sink because I have always wanted a sink that sit on top of the counter.   Nexus found one which was also part of the delay because it did not come in until Wednesday and they had ordered it three weeks before. 

Well this is Miss Kitty....I hope to be going back to her soon so that I can complete all the decorating plans I have, learn all the operations of her, take some mini trips before I hook up RT, that is my tow car that will be named after my father, and hit the road to start the Adventures of the real Geritol Gypsy.

Am I happy, you darn tooting.

Steampunk, Baby

This weekend, my daughter and I went to the first Gettysburg Steampunk : Film, Art & Music Festival. All I can say was it was FUN. We were told by the promoter that it has already outgrown the space. As soon as I walked in I was hooked. We ran into these two gentlemen.  I thought that I was going to be the oldest person there and as it turned out,  I was the perfect age.  So much of the lectures and workshops overlapped so I did not get to see and do everything which was a pity.  The Festival ran from March 29 to March 31.

I really fell in love with Bartitsu: The Victorian Art of Self-Defense and took two workshops, attended a lecture and a movie about the beginning of the art.  The instructors real name is Mark P. Donnelly but he calls himself Professore di Armes.  This art was developed in England  by Edward William Barton-Wright after he spent time in Japan but we remember it from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the technique used by Sherlock Holmes.  The Bartitsu Club was all the rage in 1899 and only recently has this lost martial art been rediscovered. Mr. Barton-Wright summarised the essential principles of Barititus as: 

1. To disturb the equlibrium of the attacker.
2. To surprise him before he has time to regain his balance and use his strength.
3. If necessary, to subject the joints of any parts of his body, whether neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, back, knee, ankle, etc. to strains that they are anatomically and mechanically unable to resist.

Women were allowed in the Bartitsu Club but was not taught all the disciplines because it was not lady like.  When the club closed, Edith Garrud, opened her own dojo and specialized in teaching women and children the art of self defense.  She taught an elite group of women the technique which the newspaper called Amazons.  These ladies became know as "the Bodyguard."  They were sworn to protect the Suffragate  leaders during their public protest rallies, which was often violently interrupted by the police.  I am happy to say they were very effective.

What  does a gentleman of fine breeding have as he is walking down the street...a cane.  What does a lady carry....a parasol.   I attended the gentlemen's workshop entitled Fight Like Sherlock Holmes-Introductory Bartitsu taught by  Prof. Mark P Donnelly were we tried a few techniques on how to use the cane and feet to disable the attacker.  This is my daughter using a cane against the assailant.   In this workshop, he told us that men are punched and if we attended the ladies workshop entitled Kicking Ass in a Corset - Bartitsu for Ladies we would see that men  grab women.  So on Saturday, we attended that workshop and found that for women, use your shoes, parasol or whatever is handy..the point was to get away.  I have some video but can't figure how to get it on Blogger, I will keep at it.

Some of the costumes.He is a mad scientist

Before we left and after I brought my corset (you wear them on the outside), we attended the Bathing Beauties Costume Contest.  We did not stay to see who won because we had already picked the winner in our heads.


I thought I would end with the corset that I brought for my costume that I am trying to get together in my mind before the next festival.  The one I really, really, really want to go to is in NJ,  Steampunk World's Fair. Last year there was 4,000 attendees.  I even have a name "Mistress Gift",   in German, Gift means to poison.  I thought that I would be a poisoner.  My first costume will be simple, something like thisor  without the gun, remember...I am a poisoner.   I should wear a skirt but I never wear a skirt,  if I did, it would be similar to this.  Time to go to GStreet for fabric and leather.

I was talking to some gentlemen and I agreed with them that the reason that Steampunk is popular with older people is because we grew up with Buck Rogers, Jules Verne and others like them so we are just reliving our childhoods.


(My daughter and son-in-law)

80 Days and Counting

Just got back from my last big company meeting.  It was good seeing  co-workers but I paid no attention to any of the  topics in the  meeting once we  were told that our jobs would not change in 2013.

I also went to my favorite Disney park, Epcot.  It was the Flower and Garden festival which is one of my favorite times to go, my favorite being Christmas season.  In the UK section they had these large cups with tea plants in them.  They have this every year and I think they are neat.  also, my favorite snack place is in France.   They have expanded it and now there is indoor seating.   Had to stop and get a Napoleon which goes by different names depending on which country you are in, no matter to me, they taste good.

A little about what is going on with the RV. I received an email that the flooring came in and it was not up to standard and they sent pictures of an alternative.   To reorder it would put the RV off schedule.   I was not sure from the pictures and told my saleslady to have the other ladies look at the flooring up to the cherry cabinets and if they would put it in their home then she was to go for it.   I was told that all the ladies loved it so I will see my flooring when I pick it up.

I also received the renderings for my workstation/dinette area for approval. I had some concerns that will get worked out then I will approve everything. I won't have much space to get from the driving area to the back when the slide is in but that was a trade off that I was willing to have to get my work space.  What you do not see from the rendering is that a leg drops down when table is fully extended, full storage underneath, all functioning drawers, desktop and table will be laminate, heavy duty drawer glides.
This is desk fully extended 39".  the table will stick out enough for me to eat dinner or use my laptop when it is pushed in.

This is when slide is in.

Otherwise, downsizing is going slowly.   I have been deployed (working)  for 10 days so that will slow things down.   When I get back, I will rent a truck and take the things to my son that he wants.

This is a funny story, One of the ladies in my women artist group, takes care of her aunt that has alzheimers, had to get rid of her aunts cat.   In order to not upset the aunt, she told her that the cat was ill and they had to put him to sleep, the aunt wanted to see the cat so Elaine told her that they had to cremate it.   The aunt wanted the ashes so Elaine had to get ashes from the fireplace of a friend and ordered this urn.The urn filled with fireplace ashes now sits on the aunts bedside table.

My partner in crime and my dearest friends, Collin,  while we were in Florida.  Check out the matching tee shirts and me in my McGoo glasses.  
 I thought they looked cute until I saw me in that picture.