Holiday Blur

The holidays are here and I’m having a hard time keeping everything straight. So before I forget, here’s what we did this weekend:
Thursday I went to the gym for the first time in a month. I moaned and groaned my way through my workout, but I felt great after. So much so that I convinced DH that we HAD to go to the midnight showing of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I loved it, no surprise as I am a huge fan of anything Sherlock. Getting up on Friday was difficult, but the movie was worth the exhaustion.

Friday afternoon I picked up my sister, who had just gotten home for winter break, and whisked her over to our place. She needed to do bit of laundry, so DH suggested we watch the beginning of How to Train Your Dragon. We ended up watching the whole movie. It was so cute! The previews did not do it justice. After the movie and laundry, we headed over to hang with P&S for food and fun.

Saturday DH headed off for disk golf, while my sister and I headed over to the parents’ to start on gingerbread house. After she put a Batman cape on my dog and chased her around the kitchen, we got down to some serious interneting. We’ve decided to branch out and make a house that is not in the Gingerbread Architect, the gingerbread bible that we’ve used the last few years. So after much pouring over Google images, while I crocheted, we came up with a plan. A plan we will start on Wednesday.

That evening DH joined my dad, sister and me to go see a production of Amahl and the Night Visitors that Mom was in. She was a shepherdess; I was very proud. After we waited for Mom to change, we all headed over to Hank’s Garage for the duck fat fries (yes, you read that right). It’s a Belgian pub, so you can get poutine, and the best crème brûlée this side of France. DH and I got home and tried to stay up till our houseguests showed up, but it didn’t happen.

Sunday we got up, I crocheted, and listened to the radio until K&V woke up. Then DH and I decorated the tree, while I made K&V watch the first episode of Grimm. Not the most Christmas-y show, but I really enjoy it and I wanted to share. That’s in the Christmas spirit, right? I got one of Victorian Texting Gloves that I was hoping to have done for V before they left, but I just didn’t have time to do them both. Since she has already seen and tried one on, I don’t feel bad showing it to you before Christmas. 

I'm almost done with the second one.

That afternoon, we went over to P&S’s for their Holiday Party. The spread was incredible: sausage, cheese logs, queso, pesto pasta, cookies, sticky toffee pudding, pigs in a blanket, the works. K of S&K baked goodies for Christmas and we had a few. The Snickers cookies were a treat, and the peanut butter fudge was wonderful. We decorated cookies, ate until we hurt, traded gifts, played a game of Killer Bunnies, and ate some more. K&V had to go to work today, so headed back to Dallas. I wish they could have stayed longer, but I’m glad they came.

We are going to the last partner yoga session tonight. I’m sad that it’s ending, but I think it has done us a world of good. I’ve still got a bunch of crocheting left, but I’m starting to feel like I might actually get everything done. Let’s see, Tuesday we’ve another holiday gathering; Wednesday is baking gingerbread; Thursday training at the gym; Friday is probably more gingerbread. That leaves Saturday, Christmas Eve, and Sunday, Christmas.

…Christmas is THIS Sunday?! Eeep! Somehow, I thought I had more than a week left. I may be giving gifts on Twelfth’s Night, because that’s been the plan all along. I swear

Noir and Western

This past weekend was a mix of lounging around watching Darker than Black, productive bursts, and going on Erin’s birthday party adventure.

Darker than Black is a noir anime. It drops you in the middle of a world where there are "Contractors" and a "Hell's Gate" with only bits of explanation. We are almost done and I'm still not sure who the good guys are. It is slightly reminiscent of Cowboy Beebop: the noir softened with silly, the search for a missing loved one, and the “Syndicate.” It might be these are themes that run through noir anime and I’ve only just picked up on the connection between these two. Still, Darker than Black is its own show with mesmerizing characters, a twisting plot but not one that loses you. DH and I have the last four episodes to watch and I can’t wait to see how it ends.

I spun a bit while we were watching. I’ve been out of practice so I worked on some easy wool, and then plied some singles I’d made before we went to Paris.

That's the blue that wouldn't do anything right plied with a multicolored single spun from scrap left over from Spinning 101 and Spinning 201.

I also tried Navajo plying a single I’d made a while ago.

The rest of the scraps from Spinning 101 and 201.

It’s ok, but the yarn starts thick and ends thin. When you Navajo ply (the link is to youtube, skip to 47 seconds in) you ply the yarn on itself in short sections. This maintains color changes, but tends to multiply any inconsistencies rather than smoothing them out as when you ply using two singles. Still, I think the yarn will be pretty if I use it as an accent in a bigger piece. I want to continue to focus on getting an ever more consistent single so I can Navajo ply more often. Unfortunately, my shoulder has been hurting a bit since I last spun. So I’m going to take a bit of a break, and focus on knitting for a while.

Erin’s birthday was great. And I could go into detail, but she's already got a great post with pictures and everything. Check it out here.

Sunday DH and I got up, did a bit of laundry, cleaned a bit of the house and then headed down to my parents' place to look at a table that had been in storage. We decided to take the table off their hands, and Dad and my sister helped us move it into our house. That evening we went to Alamo Drafthouse and saw Cowboys and Aliens with Dad. (Mom is out of town and my sister was packing to go back to school.)

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I’d heard an interview where someone discussed using the western tropes to keep the spirit true while adding in the alien element. I think it worked quite well. A stranger comes into town, causes a ruckus, and then has to save the day. I won’t say any more because you should go see it. 

Dallas!

I’d been to Dallas twice before, but this was the first time I’d actually driven around. It is HUGE! And the sheer number of yarn stores is staggering. We were in town because DH had a work thing and we decided it was a good excuse to visit friends. So I only had time to visit one store, the Sassy Spinster. It is a combination yarn/fiber store, and I think the back is Susan’s studio. Susan is the very nice owner of the store. She made me feel welcome, and was perfectly willing to let me roam the store while I killed time waiting for DH.

Sassy Spinster was quite a bit more girly than some of the stores I’d been too lately, the fake cats on the quilts threw me off a bit. (Is that kitten sleeping, or dead? Oh, it’s not real. Thank goodness.) But don’t let that fool you. This store has a great selection of yarn, not to mention a really impressive range in the fiber department. I ended up with some lama fiber, a little bag of cotton samples, some bamboo and a mix of angora, silk, alpaca and merino. The lama fiber was from a local lama farm. I’ve no idea what I’m going to do with it but it seemed too cool to walk away from.

I wish I’d taken notes because I’m having a hard time remembering all the different fibers. I can tell you there was hemp, and camel, and baby camel mixed with silk, and tussah silk, and bamboo made using the chemical process, and bamboo made using the other process (I don’t remember what that was), and firestar sparkle, and natural brown merino with a bit of lanolin in it and dyed merino without. There was dog hair, people. DOG hair.

There were wheels and looms for sale. I am still contemplating the triangle loom. You end up with triangle bits of cloth and then put them together in a geometry problem sort of way. I am afraid I’d end up with a lot of ponchos.

Friday night we went to the Galleria. We met up with V&K and M&L and had dinner at Five Guys, and then we played at a neat teashop where I bought way too much loose-leaf tea. Then we went to V&K’s house and hung out and played Killer Bunnies. It’s a rather complicated game, but once you have played a hand it makes more sense. And it’s wonderfully silly.

Saturday V went and did early Father’s day things while DH and I and K and his family went to see Spamalot. DH and I had already seen it, but K and some of his family hadn’t. I think there had been some changes since I’d seen it a few years ago, and I’d forgotten how much I loved the “Song That Goes Like This”. That evening V&K, M&L, and DH and I went to the Studio Movie Grill and saw Green Lantern.

Green Lantern was fun, reminded me of Thor. Not disappointing, just not perfect. The antagonist was too sympathetic for me. I want my comic-book movies to be the Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys. Not the Sometimes Good, Looking for Himself Guy vs. the Guy Who Got the Short End of the Stick One Too Many Times and Is Tired of Doing the Right Thing. I don’t mind the hero being less than heroic occasionally while he is finding his way, but I’m really looking for a bad guy, the kind you love to hate.

Studio Movie Grill would have been great, if I didn’t know and love Alamo Drafthouse. The food was very tasty, but the whole experience was more dinner theater, rather than a movie with food. People were talking, not a lot, but way more than at a Tinseltown, and they’d have been kicked out of Alamo. I guess the super overkill intros at Alamo actually work. And the wait staff did not understand dropping off food quickly and being out of the way during important scenes. After the movie we visited M&L’s house and stayed up talking until way too late.

Sunday was breakfast/lunch at Taco Bueno, then heading back to Austin. We had dinner at my parents’; listened to the CD I got my dad for Father’s Day and ate the cake my sister made for him. Then packed up the dog and headed home to crash out.

And I’ll put up pictures of the Sassy Spinster and the fiber and tea next time.