the rest of the weekend
After parkour on Saturday, I dropped by the Orpheum to see if I could
grab a ticket to see Gogol Bordello on Wednesday. It's sold out, but
the guy said that I could try the HoB box office as soon as it opened
on the day of the show. Since I work 2 blocks from it, I'll give that
a shot. Doors are at 7pm, I'll stop by on my way to work tomorrow to
see when the box office will open. cris went to a concert
there last week, and we met up for dinner before he went, at
Thaitation. I had mostly lost my voice at that point, but a bowl of
soup helped me feel a bit better. My cold has morphed again this week,
now my nose is a faucet. *sigh* It didn't slow me down *too* much at
parkour, just a bit of chest congestion making it hard to catch my
breath, but sleeping has been hit or miss lately. I wasn't too happy
to read an article in Nat. Geo. about a rare disease called fatal
insomnia, but at least it's genetic and so far as I know none of
my relatives have it. :) I did learn that I occasionally get the
version of insomnia that doesn't lead to being all that sleepy the
next day (I'll have to re-read the article for more details) and that
certain tricks for getting to sleep just aren't going to work on
me.
Anyway, after the Orpheum, I dropped into Macy's to try again to get a nice blouse (cris's parents
invited us out to dinner in SF and I'd like to have a bit of choice in
what I wear). I ended up buying a second blouse from the label that
did my favourite polka dotted blouse, this one nicely pleated through
the body with a soft tie at the neck. I also, wonder of wonders, found
a pair of jeans! They were in the petite's department, very dark blue,
straight leg, sit just below the waist, and didn't gap very much at
the back. They're from Style
& Co., so not uber trendy, but the length is exactly right and
they look good. Finding them was annoying, weeding out all the
capri length and fade washed options and the four different styles.
The purchase was inspired by both a jacket sitting in
my closet that doesn't look great with black jeans, and ordering a low
brown boot, the Etna I posted a while ago, and also by putting a bid
on ebay for yet another tall pair of boots, the Marissa. I ended up
winning the auction (no other bids), but the order got cancelled due
to my size being out of stock. Ah well. I'm amused that I
seem to have great clothes shopping luck whenever I go
straight from parkour. :)
Since I was close by, I dropped into Winmill Fabrics and since they
had the Saloon Girl pattern in my size, I ended up buying the fabric
and most of the notions for it on the spot. I need to do an online
order for the lace and beaded fringe, though, and verify that I have
enough boning in my stash. The guy behind the counter asked me if I
was in design school as another clerk was ringing me up (slowly, might
have been her first day), and when I said no, he asked if I just liked
to sew. Yup. :) I'd dug out the Big Sky Riding skirt pattern the night
before and printed out the yardage chart as well, so I dropped into
Sew Lo to see what they had hiding in their stacks of cheap bolts.
Found hopefully the perfect cotton for it in a colour that will go
with the brown tops I plan to wear it with, but failed to find 20
buttons, so adding that to the internet order.
I'd been snacking on and off all day, enjoying riding around in the
gorgeous weather, but was running low on calories. I had to backtrack
a little to go to Formaggio Kitchen, where I found a bottle of Farnum
Hill Cider and grabbed a cheese and spinach croissant. cris popped in after his 70 mile ride and quickly out again to
procure duck for dinner. I just had room in my bike panniers to stop
at the liquor store for a bottle of Hendrick's, and treated myself to
the first cucumber basil cocktail of the season that evening. We were
going to watch Sherlock Holmes as a PS3 download, but it was taking
hours to finish, so I watched most of Letters from Iwo Jima with cris (after a tasty dinner with cider), but also puttered around
during the bloody scenes in the middle.
I made sweet potato pancakes for breakfast on Sunday, I need to keep
the ingredients stocked more often. The recipe makes a lot, they've
been toasted in the toaster oven and reappeared as snacks and
breakfasts. :) Then I spent the rest of the time before the guys came
over for DND statting out my new character, a Dwarven Fighter 1 /
Cleric (of Kord) 2 wielding a great axe. Playing him was a tonne of
fun, Enlarge Person + Power Attack brings the carnage. :) I think I
have a handle on the clerical magic, but it helps that he's using it
mostly to buff himself and heal others. Need to think about his future
level progression since he survived the session. Lots of debate over
where we're going next, plus some moral questions (my character's
reaction was a bit uncomfortable for me, but it was clear how he'd
react). Anyway. Watched Sherlock Holmes after the guys left, and was
entertained, if not left feeling quite like I'd watched a Holmes
story.
My cold is being annoying again, we actually finished the boxes of
tissues on Sunday night and had to resort to travel packs. When I
picked up a three pack of boxes last night, they really didn't want to
come home with me. They bounced out onto the road once on the ride
home, and almost came free as I was getting my bike into the house,
and then took a dive when cris was separating the three
boxes to put them out. I made a decent green chicken curry for dinner
last night, not as spicy as I feared it would be due to my tastebuds
being deadened by my cold. I've been able to keep up with my
shoulder/arm exercises and I can see the definition coming back
finally, just in time for warmer weather (and the trip to SF). I'm
also itching to get out hiking again, but this weekend is packed, and
then we're in SF. At least we've got a bike trip outlined for Memorial
Day (I got new bike capris with my REI refund, the Sheebeast brand
seems to be designed for women shaped women).
Work is slowly getting back to normal, I've only got one major bug
left on my list, the minor ones are waiting for others to get me
stuff. Hopefully I can cross it off today or tomorrow (it's an
optimisation thing, very fiddly), but I just realised I have no idea
what to work on next. :) Probably will take a couple of one of my
colleague's bugs as she's a bit swamped.
Read an interesting article
this morning about a roboticist who teleoperates his robotic double
and gets to the point where he'll feel it when people touch the robot.
From they way they talk about how the mental connection is made, I'm
wondering if it'll link in to twin studies. He also has a great
reaction when asked why he wears all black (pg. 2). :)