Odds and Ends
Jul. 19th, 2011 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralenLast night was a lot of fun, as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
niherlas said it was a night of the gathering of the Tribe. Today has been gathering up all the frayed ends and trying to make them meet: being Here to get the Internet connection going, errands, phone hookups, gathering raspberries, meeting cleaners, packing for the trip down to Oregon tomorrow and getting all the instructions, directions, and addresses that we needed.
Also, the pdf didn't appear last night, and I was anxious about it, but it arrived tonight with a deadline of Friday, so I am now far less stressed. It's scary how professional it looks and polished, especially with the beautiful cover art. Aiiiee!!
The gathering withniherlas's family of J and N and us went really really well. N introduced Jet to the fun that is Moosebutter and their take on the Williams movie themes. Sausages and sugar snap peas for dinner, root beer for drinks, and we played Munchkin after dinner. It was a lot of fun, and we had fun talking about the sheer distance of road trips out West. *laughs* This is after a mother came over from the East Coast thinking that it can't be that far between just four states out here...
It was definitely a meeting of like with like, and that was really soothing for me. I had fun showing some of the knitting I've been involved in lately, and J showed me a pair of beautifully dense socks that she's been working on for a while. I finished off a pair of fingerless gloves for my sister while watching the game and waiting on the .pdf. They were very good about sharing their bandwidth. *laughs*
The funny thing was that when we finally looked up from the conversation and the game, it was nearly 11 pm! Late for both the boys, though they had fun the whole time and while they got a little punch drunk, neither of them had meltdowns of any type. That was really great, and we all hugged each other good-bye happily.
It's been kind of a catch as catch can day, really. I got up kind of late, tried to find some breakfast, and then read a bit and when John really wanted Jet out of the way, Jet and I built some origami and then did a small project Jet really wanted to do, which was to build a sketchbook for him from some of Grandpa George's paper cache. He found some 8 1/5 by 17 inch pieces of paper, and we tore those in half before folding them in half, and made 5 signatures of 4 sheets each.
It might say something that Jet had perfect faith that I was going to be able to sew the signatures together, and it says something about me that I really wanted to look up the stitch pattern on the 'make a moleskin-like notebook' site. *laughs* But I couldn't, as the high speed connection wasn't up yet, though there was utter confusion in the morning when the apartment phone suddenly rang, and John picked it up and an automated voice said that the high-speed internet hookup was scheduled for tomorrow. We weren't going to be here tomorrow, and Isabel got into really amazing form, called the office, and gave them whatfor before they confessed that someone was really going to be here sometime between 1-5, and they'd call about half an hour before they got there.
Which meant that plans for all of us to go back to the old house and finish a few things were put on hold. John and Jet did errands around here in Redmond while Isabel and George went to the house to do what they wanted, and I stayed in the apartment and read, actually reread Pale Horse Coming. It's always good to steal from the best, and the third part of the Oedipus trilogy, Seven Against Thebes had plenty of interesting fodder and it's intriguing to think of that as the rootstock for Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven.
But I think what I love most is how Hunter weaves in the American myth and realities of the South and the wild West all in with apocalyptic Biblical imagery and contrasts it all with Hollywood lies and shadows. On top of that he's put in some of the best action sequences I've ever seen, the best technical gathering of story guns I've ever seen, and some bloodcurdling torture scenes with a hero that just won't quit.
Anyway... while I read, John and Jet did their thing. The Internet got hooked up, and after it was tested and ready, John and Jet dragged me off to help at the house. Instead of doing raspberries, however, I diverted George for a bit, and together we dug up one of the medium-sized rhubarb plants. I was kind of thinking it was sort of small for what I wanted, but by the time we got it up out of the ground and into the tub we had set aside for it, I was very happy with its size. Just big enough to sit in the tub happily and be protected by the sides. Plants a sixth the size had been going for $18 at the farmer's market, so getting this one for free was marvelous!
Now to keep it alive for the two weeks until we get home... *laughs*
From there we went to Top Gun Seafood in Bellevue, which John had eaten at on a previous trip and the Chinese/Japanese neighbors had taken Isabel and George to eat at as well. It was really good. We only had four dishes as we didn't want to deal with leftovers. Everyone there liked walnut honey prawns, so we got that and the Dry Cooked Green Beans which were in the regular vegetable dish section. Jet wanted tofu, so we got the Mapo Tofu; and since we were in the Northwest, we got the fresh, live Dungeness Crab, cooked with ginger and scallions.
It was all magnificent. The mapo tofu was good and spicy! There were the appropriate pickled/dried vegetable things in the green beans that are only in the authentic dish. The crab was so fresh it was probably swimming when we walked in, and the prawns were huge, crisp, and hot and lovely with a much lighter sauce than the usual globs of mayonnaise. I was really impressed, and they had a nice jasmine oolong for the tea.
We ate it all. No leftovers, and then headed back through Trader Joe's (to get my toasted almond butter and a few other things) and then back to the apartment, where Jet and I finished his book with some wrapping paper Isabel had. I then got to write this, talk with Prism for a while, as John read to Jet.
Tomorrow we're off to Portland, and then to points further south in Oregon.
niherlas said it was a night of the gathering of the Tribe. Today has been gathering up all the frayed ends and trying to make them meet: being Here to get the Internet connection going, errands, phone hookups, gathering raspberries, meeting cleaners, packing for the trip down to Oregon tomorrow and getting all the instructions, directions, and addresses that we needed. Also, the pdf didn't appear last night, and I was anxious about it, but it arrived tonight with a deadline of Friday, so I am now far less stressed. It's scary how professional it looks and polished, especially with the beautiful cover art. Aiiiee!!
The gathering with
niherlas's family of J and N and us went really really well. N introduced Jet to the fun that is Moosebutter and their take on the Williams movie themes. Sausages and sugar snap peas for dinner, root beer for drinks, and we played Munchkin after dinner. It was a lot of fun, and we had fun talking about the sheer distance of road trips out West. *laughs* This is after a mother came over from the East Coast thinking that it can't be that far between just four states out here...It was definitely a meeting of like with like, and that was really soothing for me. I had fun showing some of the knitting I've been involved in lately, and J showed me a pair of beautifully dense socks that she's been working on for a while. I finished off a pair of fingerless gloves for my sister while watching the game and waiting on the .pdf. They were very good about sharing their bandwidth. *laughs*
The funny thing was that when we finally looked up from the conversation and the game, it was nearly 11 pm! Late for both the boys, though they had fun the whole time and while they got a little punch drunk, neither of them had meltdowns of any type. That was really great, and we all hugged each other good-bye happily.
It's been kind of a catch as catch can day, really. I got up kind of late, tried to find some breakfast, and then read a bit and when John really wanted Jet out of the way, Jet and I built some origami and then did a small project Jet really wanted to do, which was to build a sketchbook for him from some of Grandpa George's paper cache. He found some 8 1/5 by 17 inch pieces of paper, and we tore those in half before folding them in half, and made 5 signatures of 4 sheets each.
It might say something that Jet had perfect faith that I was going to be able to sew the signatures together, and it says something about me that I really wanted to look up the stitch pattern on the 'make a moleskin-like notebook' site. *laughs* But I couldn't, as the high speed connection wasn't up yet, though there was utter confusion in the morning when the apartment phone suddenly rang, and John picked it up and an automated voice said that the high-speed internet hookup was scheduled for tomorrow. We weren't going to be here tomorrow, and Isabel got into really amazing form, called the office, and gave them whatfor before they confessed that someone was really going to be here sometime between 1-5, and they'd call about half an hour before they got there.
Which meant that plans for all of us to go back to the old house and finish a few things were put on hold. John and Jet did errands around here in Redmond while Isabel and George went to the house to do what they wanted, and I stayed in the apartment and read, actually reread Pale Horse Coming. It's always good to steal from the best, and the third part of the Oedipus trilogy, Seven Against Thebes had plenty of interesting fodder and it's intriguing to think of that as the rootstock for Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven.
But I think what I love most is how Hunter weaves in the American myth and realities of the South and the wild West all in with apocalyptic Biblical imagery and contrasts it all with Hollywood lies and shadows. On top of that he's put in some of the best action sequences I've ever seen, the best technical gathering of story guns I've ever seen, and some bloodcurdling torture scenes with a hero that just won't quit.
Anyway... while I read, John and Jet did their thing. The Internet got hooked up, and after it was tested and ready, John and Jet dragged me off to help at the house. Instead of doing raspberries, however, I diverted George for a bit, and together we dug up one of the medium-sized rhubarb plants. I was kind of thinking it was sort of small for what I wanted, but by the time we got it up out of the ground and into the tub we had set aside for it, I was very happy with its size. Just big enough to sit in the tub happily and be protected by the sides. Plants a sixth the size had been going for $18 at the farmer's market, so getting this one for free was marvelous!
Now to keep it alive for the two weeks until we get home... *laughs*
From there we went to Top Gun Seafood in Bellevue, which John had eaten at on a previous trip and the Chinese/Japanese neighbors had taken Isabel and George to eat at as well. It was really good. We only had four dishes as we didn't want to deal with leftovers. Everyone there liked walnut honey prawns, so we got that and the Dry Cooked Green Beans which were in the regular vegetable dish section. Jet wanted tofu, so we got the Mapo Tofu; and since we were in the Northwest, we got the fresh, live Dungeness Crab, cooked with ginger and scallions.
It was all magnificent. The mapo tofu was good and spicy! There were the appropriate pickled/dried vegetable things in the green beans that are only in the authentic dish. The crab was so fresh it was probably swimming when we walked in, and the prawns were huge, crisp, and hot and lovely with a much lighter sauce than the usual globs of mayonnaise. I was really impressed, and they had a nice jasmine oolong for the tea.
We ate it all. No leftovers, and then headed back through Trader Joe's (to get my toasted almond butter and a few other things) and then back to the apartment, where Jet and I finished his book with some wrapping paper Isabel had. I then got to write this, talk with Prism for a while, as John read to Jet.
Tomorrow we're off to Portland, and then to points further south in Oregon.
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