Greetings and salutations my good friends!

It has been some time since I last updated this quirky thing called a blog.  A lot has happened since my last post.  So here is my story...

Last season, around September, I put in an order for 2 crowns to be custom made by hand for my Queen and I.  These crowns failed to be completed by the creator by the set deadline which happened to have been October 1st.  Here it is April, nearly time for the season to pick back up and I have heard nothing whether they will be done or not by May 1st.

Pictures were supposed to be sent to keep me updated on progress, all I have received is a rough drawing of how the creator of them invisioned them looking after completion.  All is well there though.  I know this person quite well and I believe my diplomacy shall kick in once we have a wonderful conversation.

Speaking of my queen, Queen Jenessa, her and I have split up.  We were not married in the first place but I was to the point where I was about to buy the engagement ring for her.  It was a very rough break up but after her telling me recently that we were done for good, I decided I have shed enough tears and it was time to move on to bigger and better things.  Alas, I shall miss having such a beautiful Queen at my side but another shall take her place I pray.  Mind you, not until I am truly married this time though.

My group's numbers seem to be changing by the day.  They go up some days and then others we lose members.  Such is life though, no one can control everything.  Even though we would like to.  My group is stronger than ever and shall be putting on some fantastic shows this season.  We even plan to attend a few faires around the area that we are not part of just to enjoy the festivities as a group without the pressure of having to do a show ever other hour.

I officially opened the Royal Institution of Comstocke which is a school for Medieval combat and history.  We are only focusing on the combat area of it for now.  We have a couple of members that are going to college for Medieval history who plan to get their teachers degree so that will be a great asset to our school.

We have added some amazing fighters to our roster for this year.  We train every week at least 3 days a week, some more than that.  Those of you that will be at the faires that we are at shall get the priviledge to see them in action.

Though I have no queen to speak of anymore, I still have my lovely "sister" Harmony along with my newly added "sister" Avery to stroll along with me at the faires.  They mean a great deal to me and I couldn't do this without them.

After May 2008, we plan on buying an industrial sewing machine along with a bolt of canvas and we shall begin creating our own pavilions and canvas walls for our encampment.  The plan and goal for next year Iowa Renaissance Festival is to have enough removable canvas walls to enclose our entire mundane encampment behind our current "royal pavilion".  But!  on top of that, we plan to have my new Royale Pavilion which shall be 10' wide by 20-30' long, completed and ready to set up for the 2009 Iowa Renaissance Festival.

Princess Avery is going to be the one performing this great task of creating our new encampment.  This new encampment will help us with our living history aspect of our organization tremendously.

Speaking of sewing, my mother, Marla along with the aid of Princess Avery have agreed to be our group's seamstresses.  They do fantastic work and are quite efficient at doing what they do best.  This year Harmony has a new dress, Avery is making her own and it will be done by the 1st of May, along with my new royal coat that will be done in time for the Iowa Renaissance Festival.  Those of you who are going to be at that faire, I ask that you give me your opinion of my new coat that I designed myself :D

There are many more updates and wonderful things I wish to write but for now I will leave it as is.  That way I have more to write another day.

Like always and forever, Through the field of roses, only the strong survive the thorns.

To the END!

My armor is just completed, suited to a King of course.  Hand tooled leather armor crafted by none other than Jerel Krueger of Hammer and Thread!  As you can see in some of my pics it looks rather dashing on me if I do say so myself.  It looks especially good when my Queen is standing next to me.  As we speak, crowns are being casted for the Queen and I and they should be done by the beginning of the 2008 season.  We are most excited.

A lot of members of our group have upgraded their garb once again.  It works so nicely when people obey what their King says.  Even myself am in the process of upgrading garb, for the 5th year in a row...oh well, as long as I look good, I could care less.  I know I may sound arrogant and I thoroughly apologize for that.  My arrogance comes simply from excitement.  It also doesn't help that my group is a bunch of people that bow down to me...haven't figured that one out yet.

Now I know I am rather young and I know that people look at me as though I am too young but I believe as a character, I could make a great King.  The last thing I ever want to do is step on my friend's toes, especially those who have been so supportive of my group and I.  I can't thank them enough.  Here is how I am looking at it, I am young, yes.  But that just means that I have years and years to take my group to a new level that most never hit.  Unlike a lot of groups that wait until they are in their middle aged lives to start up, my group started up when I was 16.  I have grown a lot since then too.  Those of you that knew me back then saw me as a head strong over confident little warrior.  Since then, I have grown into quite the young man.  I still have a lot to learn though and I am still quite eager but can you blame me?  I have achieved so much with my group in such a little time.

I plan on officially marrying my Queen within the next year or 2.  I plan to have 2 weddings, one in a church and one at a faire.  At my faire wedding, I am hoping to be "officially" ordained King and all that good stuff.  Of course I will keep you all posted on that because that is a huge deal.

I am trying to start a faire in Pella, Iowa and am looking for vendors, acts, musicians, and the sort for this.  There is already a Shakespeare Festival in Pella and I am looking to combine those...we will see what happens there.

 I think I have ranted long enough so to those of you who read this, thanks for listening to me.

To the END!!

King Michael of Comstocke