Friday afternoon my cell phone rang. It was viastellarum.antville.org. She had been planning to attend the ballgame with three of her friends fom work. One of them had to canc at the minute. Did I wanna go instead? (See, I told you we were still getting along :-)

I was way way over on the other side of town, as dirty as a Frenchman, and the game started in two hours. However, due to judicious use of the toll roads, knowledge of the city, and some luck, I got back, got cleaned up, met up with the girls, and got to Minute Maid Park well before the first pitch. It was a miracle that will probably never happen again.

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These pics have been sitting on my hard drive waaay too long. I've known this couple for years, though I forgotten their real names. (At a renfest, we tend to only know character names.) At Scarborough Faire, they perform as mud faeries, sculpting various life forms - mermaids, pirates, legendary creatures, wizards, and so on.

Amazingly, they remain mute the entire time, as this particular flavor of faerie does not speak, and they communicate with with the patron of the faire totally with gestures, facial expressions, and a strange melange of chirps, trills, and other assorted noises. They work for tips, and the crowd mostly stands around quietly and watches them work for minutes on end, then tossing a bill or two in the jars.

Note to you folks: If you're going to take some pictures of their work you are a compleat chintzy Shylock of a moron dork if you don't give them some money!

Here are a few that I took this last season. I've some more of the season before that I will try and dig up and add later.

Amira (aka Nikki Namik) sculpts a three-headed snake

A mud faerie (Bryan Toranzo) sculpts a gryphon

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But after a moment, he recalled himself, and went back to sleep.

But I'm not fooled, and feed him with a long spoon.

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