I'm Just Your Average Renaissance Man

This past Sunday Marv and I zipped out to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. Neither of us had ever been there and I know that I was fired up to partake of mock-Elizabethan goodness. We were to meet up the Brian, a friend of Stevie's from college, and his wife, Cheryl, along with some friends of theirs. They were to all be in costume too. And indeed they were.



Steve, Cheryl, Mike, Amy, Cheryl, and Brian

We met them by the Mud Show. Coming in media res of the performance, I'm not totally sure what it entails other than a guy eating a ball of mud at the end. We then proceeded to the nearest purveyor of strong drink. With libation in hand, we set out.



There were a lot of women with lots of cleavage:



At the second watering hole (which had this awesome sign that said "Party like it's 1599"), Marv and I were given a, um..."marketing survey" by a woman of loose morals pictured here:



I went for the mead. Although it wasn't the best I've ever had, it went down smoothly and did the trick. We wandered around the faire and saw Moonie walk a tightrope (he also juggled flaming hoolies):



Marv and I tried on cloaks:





We also set about some prandial delights:





There were some knights being all chivalrous while mounted...



...and unmounted.



Brian and Cheryl were serenaded by a strolling lute player:



I'd never met Brian & Cheryl's friends before and they were all really nice, hoopy froods. I thought it odd that they were keen on finding a stand that sold lemonade. "We need lemonade," was their refrain. When I saw Steve's wineskin, it became clearer: it was filled with vodka. Marv got along with them well too. He, Brian, and I slipped easily into a discussion about Dungeons & Dragons. Brian is campaigning in Faerun, currently while Pete's Oriental Adventure is on summer hiatus. Then Mike joined us and soon the topic of discussion became the television show, Firefly. Now, all of them had seen it while I hadn't. With glee, they talked about various episodes, plot points, and character. I just stood there and nodded politely. I suppose I had better watch it so I can go see Serenity when it comes out.

With every sip of his drink, Brian's desire to check out very sharp and potentially lethal weapons increased. We stopped in at every shop selling swords, daggers, dirks, flails, maces, and the like. Personally, I thought the axes were really fucking cool. It's always fun to see and hold the various weapons that my D&D characters wield. As you see above, Marv and I tried on cloaks and I ended up buying one. I couldn't help it! It looks awesome and the saleswoman had great cleavage.

Steve, Brian, and I took time to throw knives and axes. Of 20 throws, I hit the target twice and with knives both times. I discovered that you need fucking Popeye arms to throw axes. And these were just little girlie ones and not manly throwing axes. Man, I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with one of those. Steve, however, was dead-on with them. He had a nice grouping of 5 in the target zone. Unreal.

Little did we know, Sauron was there:



And Marv tried to retreive his Precious...