How I Wonder

So this Turkey Day break has been full of making things. Mostly food, actually. :) For Thanksgiving dinner, I made red bean paste buns...not very, uh, "traditional" but whatever, I spotted a can of "aduki beans" in the store for the first time on Tuesday and knew I had to try making them. This week in cooking, therefore:

Tuesday night: bean paste.
Wednesday night: dough.
Thursday: red bean paste buns.
Friday: quiche (spinach, bacon, and turkey)
Saturday: pumpkin pie
Sunday: pumpkin potato onion cheese soup.

Yay, food. :)

In other making-stuff news, I've been sewing. Since Halloween, I finished another wrap shirt, made a skirt and matching socks from a turtleneck (from a tutorial on craftster.org), reconstructed the heck out of the ugly pink sweater (also based loosely on a tutorial from craftster.org), made a couple of sleeves, started a light purple top from scratch that is taking a lot longer than originally planned since I'm improvising on the fly :P and....started the replacement duvet cover. Eep. Oh, and I started sewing scraps together to make a rag rug. It's kinda ugly as hell but I don't care. :D

Things I've learned in the process:

-My pattern for sleeves does not include seam allowance. Oops.
-Ruffles are surprisingly easy and somewhat meditative to make, even though I'm not really a ruffly kinda girl.
-Wal-mart has a "remnants" pile for sale that is *so* not remnant-y; I bought a good bit of yardage from under there that really wasn't small at all! (Also, they play O Tannebaum a LOT.)
-Fabric glue is my friend.
-Sewing on a bigger zig-zag stitch is way easier to seam rip when I fuck it up. :)

Pictures...are on Facebook, sorry.

(Oh, and the impostor on said Fbook is really and truly gone now. Yay!)

Still in the works:
-CCAC hoodie (I keep scaring myself off of this one. I did prove to myself that I can, in fact, sew sleeves onto a top properly, today, but I'm still nervous about screwing with my really beloved shirts. The purple top? One of the cheap-ass remnants, so that's not so bad.)
-Brown satiny skirt from a button-down shirt...want to finish this by the holiday party, but we'll see.
-The aforementioned duvet cover needs to be finished
-Deciding what to do with the too-tight sleeves I made for the purple top...cut and make into short sleeves? Leave open and dangly? I dunno!

There are dragons hiding back here! ;)

Busy but fun weekend thus far.

On Friday, Becky had her art show opening for her beadwork. There were a lot of people there, which was awesome; I hope she was able to sell some of it. The gallery's small but it had some neat other things to look at...including stone beads for sale (managed to refrain from getting anything...this time...) Sujan was there, and recruited Ronnie and Fumi to come over and help Brian move the bathtub. He wasn't ready for helpers yet, though, so they came back (and recruited Paul) for a bit.

A little while later, we left to go over there again, though, trailing Susan and Sujan. Brian still wasn't ready for help so we sat around until he was; then the men moved the very heavy bathtub while Sujan took pictures and I...did nothing useful at all. :D

Ronnie convinced Brian to come take a break, so we all went out to dinner at the Drydock, where we met up with Laurie and Theresa (who'd already been there for quite a while).

Yesterday night, Ronnie and I went to Mark's house for a barbeque (and people were going to go to the park for fireworks, afterwards). We stuck around for longer, then escaped to go play Munchkin with Sujan and Brian, and keep an eye on firework-anxious doggies. I wanted to get closer to the show, though, so headed out for the park not long after we started the game. I like fireworks better when they're directly overhead, and the big sparkly ones were great that way. (Um. I realize all fireworks are in some sense big and sparkly; I mean the ones that look like they're raining down, sort of...they're usually gold...)

Came back and finished the Munchkin game while the dogs tried to get under the table (except for a totally fearless Jin).

Now I'm watching the Wimbledon men's final! I'm torn between wanting Federer to make history and beat Sampras' record, because he really is just That Awesome, and wanting Roddick to get it together enough for once here :P

HSFS starts today.

After our last sessions today, Ronnie and I went SHOPPING. There was a Gem Faire happening in the convention center, so we wandered through that (SHINY! SO MUCH SHINY IT MADE MY BRAIN OVERLOAD ON SHINY) and each got something; he got an amethyst crystal with several points, and I got a pendant that's a slice of...um...I forget exactly how to explain it, but it's also an amethyst. :)

We took the light rail to the Saturday Market, which is like a smaller, less crappy version of Crap Fair, that runs every weekend. There were lots of doggies around. Then we headed a bit further west to go to Powell's Books, which...wow. Wow. To say there were a lot of books there is a tremendous understatement. I guess it is called "City of Books" for a reason. :) I got a few things...including a bookbag that says "Powell's Books" on it and also has a SQUIRREL on the logo :D

We're going to hit up a gaming store a few blocks away really soon, and we'll probably have dinner near the mall so I can go get a puppy/snake fix before we leave (that's been the biggest thing keeping me from dwelling on The Nightmare That Is My Lack Of Job For Three Months).

hellosarah, I bred a couple silver eggs...get on AIM tonight or tomorrow night or hell, even Monday sometime and we'll do the drop.

Yes, it's time yet again for another Big Damn Weekend Entry. This one will get edited to add pictures at some point, probably later this evening or tomorrow.

Friday: while getting ready for said camping trip, Miriam from last year's HSFS came by to visit, and amidst all the running around, we got to catch up and I even roped her into, um, helping a bit. :)

Also...Batman!!!!!
( the disappearing pencil trick )
( Camping! )

Had a great day today despite waking up in the morning with amazing lower back pain. Ronnie helped me stretch it mostly out even though I was being a crabby bitch about it, so we managed to get the laundry done.

One of Susan's favorite singer/songwriters had a concert in Durango tonight, so she got a whole bunch of people (her, Hugh, Tucker, Chris, Amber, Mark, Paul and me) together to go over there. We went to Sushitarian first, YAY!!!! and I had lots and lots of sushi for the first time in months. Paul kept asking me what unagi was even after I'd told him a couple of times :-P

The concert itself was really amazing. Sally Shuffield opened; she likes lyrics drawn from history, but the one song that really stuck with me is a new one called "Knights in Shining Armor"--the chorus goes something like "Dragons and dungeons and warlocks and wizards" and when she started in on it for the first time, Susan turned around and started laughing at me :) (And then so did Hugh and Paul and Chris, though Chris for different reasons--we were talking about dragonslaying at dinner, and not the gaming aspect.)

The second singer was Carrie Elkin, and she was AMAZING. She did a Dar Williams cover, and her lyrics were more poetry than songwriting, almost. She also had a freaking awesome voice and I'll probably get a CD of hers when I feel less like I just spent a lot of money on dinner and a concert :)

Danny Schmidt was the headliner (Susan's main reason for going); he fricking rocked the guitar and his lyrics were powerful and political in a good way. He has free MP3s to sample on his site, so I'm less driven to buy a CD from him right away.

Yesterday evening I went over to Paul's house to watch Cinema Paradiso with Hugh & Susan. Zeno was exceptionally cuddly, spending most of the movie on the (forbidden) couch with Susan, but probably ten-fifteen minutes on my lap on the (equally forbidden) chair. Paul didn't seem to mind, though he was a little jealous when she wouldn't come snuggle him. Hugh & Susan had gotten the director's cut of Cinema Paradiso, which was not the 123 minutes listed on the Netflix envelope. The director's cut is, instead, 173 minutes long. Yikes. Anyway, it was a pretty good movie; it was rather sad and left me wondering what kind of person manipulates someone else like that...

Today, we (+ Susan) took the usual pack of doggies to (doggies forbidden!) Crow Canyon to walk. Darwin has not been let off his leash since the last incident at Hawkins Preserve, so he whined and pulled as all the other dogs ran around gleefully in the snow. It was really, really tiring to walk in the snow...pretty weather, but that was quite exhausting. After our walk there, we (- Susan) took Darwin and Zeno to the tennis courts since Darwin didn't get to run that much. They were pretty good with each other, and I got some good pictures of them both with our new camera.

We were supposed to game tonight but there was a bit of miscommunication so we ended up going with Susan, Becky, and Alicia to the Pow Wow Comedy Jam at the casino. That was the first time we'd ever been in the casino before, despite having lived here for nearly two whole years. The guys were pretty funny; the first two, JR Redwater and Jim...something...had better jokes than the latter two, and Jim was definitely my favorite out of the four.

Long weekend. Some good things, some rather disappointing things, lots of pictures! :)

( your standard long-ass weekend/trip entry, only with 100% more dinosaur content )

The dog situation was resolved yesterday, when Mouse was spotted running along the road and Susan went to retrieve her. We were all very VERY relieved.

High School Field School starts tomorrow. I am...not panicking, but there's this nervous little vomiting butterfly flittering around that will probably go away after things actually get underway.

HSFS is a three-week program that students from all across the country attend. They spend a great deal of time in the field excavating and in the lab doing analysis, but they also get to take trips around the area--we're going camping in Utah, not Chaco, the weekend of HP7--and learn from elders and hang out and hook up (er, we hope not, but...) and all that good teenage-camp type stuff. :)

Also, I am watching Live Earth on Bravo and David Gray is playing one of my favorite songs in the world. And Duran Duran was on earlier and they played "Ordinary World", which was awesome.

Also also, I'm pleased that Venus Williams won her 4th Wimbledon but annoyed at myself for failing to turn the TV on in time to see it :-P

No April Fool's Day trick post from me. I keep wanting to post an "I'm pregnant!" thing on this date every year, but Ronnie has said in the past that that's not funny :-P

Yesterday, we made our monthly trip to Durango for dinner and a movie (not necessarily in that order). We saw TMNT; I never paid it any heed when I was growing up, so for me it was entertaining but not like a revisitation of my childhood or something. I did appreciate the humor; unlike Shrek or many other animated, kid-targeted fare these days, there wasn't a lot of potty humor or sexual innuendo that would be aimed at the adults in the audience. (Not that I'm averse to those things, but there was no pandering, basically, and I liked that.) And I really wanted to pet Splinter, like, the whole time. :-P

After the movie, we wandered around Durango for a bit. I got my mom a birthday present and tried on a pair of KEEN sandals (driftwood) that I'm planning to order for my one-year-anniversary-at-Crow-Canyon present to myself. :) (Well. I might delay that one a little if I manage to win this auction. *wants a new dress for renfaire this year...*) And then, for the first time since September, I had sushi! It was more expensive than Sushi.come, back in A2, unfortunately, but I was happy. :D

Oh, and then we came home and watched The Illusionist. It was good; really well acted and the tricks illusions were pretty. I think I liked The Prestige better, though, 'cause that movie's way more insane ;)

ETA: Didn't win the auction. Bought the shoes. :D

On Tuesday, our program season begins! It'll be my second season at Crow Canyon, and I'm definitely looking forward to having lots of kids around and being able to get out and do things again. :)

Yesterday, Ronnie and I went to see The Vagina Monologues in Mancos, because my boss was in it :) I'd never seen it before; terrible, I know, especially when UofM had it every year on Valentine's Day. *embarrassed face* But anyway, I really liked it; there were a lot of older women in both the cast and the audience, of which the latter surprised me. I guess Mancos might be a bit more progressive of a tiny town than Cortez. *shrugs* My boss was part of the...er...chorus, I suppose, and she was very funny :)

Oh, and after we got home, we watched Three Kings, which was as excellent as I remembered, and I was pleased that I remembered when to look away when gross things happened (except for the first couple of unexpected shots). Also, it's kind of funny that we watched that movie right after we got home from the Vagina Monologues...kinda like balancing out the estrogen and testosterone ;)

technosage, I haven't forgotten about Heroes meta, honest!! I'm working on it as part of my "write something every night" plan. I kinda keep intending to work on it during my free time at work, but then I end up having to...work. Hmm.