Jul. 21st, 2008
Y'dig Sixteen Tons, and Whaddya get...
Jul. 21st, 2008 02:49 pmSaturday: Moved something like 20 cubic meters of dirt around, which was about half the pile that Omaha had ordered for Kouryou-chan's school. That was about all I did, but it was enough. Four hours of laboring under the hot sun, groaning with the effort. And this was after we'd weeded the bed. I found out how good a pitchfork is for digging up clay-- pretty good! When we got home, around 4:30, we were both exhausted and I could barely move. We still managed to shower and clean up, which was essential since Omaha was complaining about her allergies bugging her.
Didn't do much cooking this weekend. Sad, that.
Didn't do much cooking this weekend. Sad, that.
Sunday, Part 1: Tedious Muni Theatre
Jul. 21st, 2008 03:30 pmOmaha had snagged as part of a fundraiser tickets to a local very tiny (less than a hundred seats) municipal theater event being put on at a local winery. I've been to the E. B. Foote winery before and sampled their products, and found them to be pretty good.
That's can't be said of the municipal theater group. I don't mean to dismiss the group itself, they're all well-meaning locals obviously having a lot of fun, and so were members of the audience, but the play itself was mostly tedium.
The play was entitled 'Coriander,' and was a rather spirited and silly attempt to mash together a Greek play, some rather ordinary but well-considered ideas about free will, and our local politics about the replacement of one of the two freeways that plunge through our fair city.
The play did a very good job of lampooning our local politicians, for whom, as one put it, 'process in the product.' Reaching a decision is not the objective of our city council: justifying their existence by pulling ever-thinner reasons to keep meeting out of thin air seems to be. Our political correctness was on full display, when the council reached a consenus that "men, women, those who haven't quite decided or who are still somewhere in between, aggrieved apes and any other higher-order mammmals who can communicate their needs," may come before the council. This being a joke Greek play, there is a scene in a temple and one of the council members squeaks, "Are there gods here yet? Do I have to think pure thoughts now?" The writer was a punster of the first order, eliciting groans and laughs from the audience, but he belabored his thoughtful points badly.
The actors were pretty good, but the guy who played Hades, er, "Shades," was a bit off.
"Yes, oh blunt instrument of the people's confused will?"
The writer managed to work in the name of the winery into his play. Which was mostly the point: there were wine tastings before, at the intermission, and after the play, showing off six of their wines. The best was their Cabernet, sweet and refreshing and their Perfect a Trois, thick and delicious. The Merlot by itself was a bit metallic, and the Syrah suffered from being, well, boring. I might pick up a little of the Perfect a Trois, just to enjoy, but it's more of an Autumn wine.
Given the weather around here, it might be time to pick it up now. Not a tragic way to spend the afternoon, but I'd like a less obvious excuse to enjoy good wines.
That's can't be said of the municipal theater group. I don't mean to dismiss the group itself, they're all well-meaning locals obviously having a lot of fun, and so were members of the audience, but the play itself was mostly tedium.
The play was entitled 'Coriander,' and was a rather spirited and silly attempt to mash together a Greek play, some rather ordinary but well-considered ideas about free will, and our local politics about the replacement of one of the two freeways that plunge through our fair city.
The play did a very good job of lampooning our local politicians, for whom, as one put it, 'process in the product.' Reaching a decision is not the objective of our city council: justifying their existence by pulling ever-thinner reasons to keep meeting out of thin air seems to be. Our political correctness was on full display, when the council reached a consenus that "men, women, those who haven't quite decided or who are still somewhere in between, aggrieved apes and any other higher-order mammmals who can communicate their needs," may come before the council. This being a joke Greek play, there is a scene in a temple and one of the council members squeaks, "Are there gods here yet? Do I have to think pure thoughts now?" The writer was a punster of the first order, eliciting groans and laughs from the audience, but he belabored his thoughtful points badly.
The actors were pretty good, but the guy who played Hades, er, "Shades," was a bit off.
"Yes, oh blunt instrument of the people's confused will?"
The writer managed to work in the name of the winery into his play. Which was mostly the point: there were wine tastings before, at the intermission, and after the play, showing off six of their wines. The best was their Cabernet, sweet and refreshing and their Perfect a Trois, thick and delicious. The Merlot by itself was a bit metallic, and the Syrah suffered from being, well, boring. I might pick up a little of the Perfect a Trois, just to enjoy, but it's more of an Autumn wine.
Given the weather around here, it might be time to pick it up now. Not a tragic way to spend the afternoon, but I'd like a less obvious excuse to enjoy good wines.
The return of the Album Cover Meme!
Jul. 21st, 2008 08:01 pmI was reading Respectful Insolence the other day and came across one of the classic anti-anti-vaccination pieces Orac has done and saw the phrase "stealth monkey virus." It stuck in my head so resoundingly that I had to apply the album cover meme to it:
Much to my disappointment, now that I see it, I realize that the phrase was "severe monkey virus," which would also make a cool band name, too.
Much to my disappointment, now that I see it, I realize that the phrase was "severe monkey virus," which would also make a cool band name, too.
Sunday, Part 2: Rockin' Celtic Music
Jul. 21st, 2008 08:08 pmSo, after boring municipal theater, Omaha and I followed it up with a trip up to see Tricky Pixie in concert, along with about half of Seattle's pagan community. I knew a lot of people there, including Fritz and his lovely wife, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
loba, solarbird, technoshaman, jenk, cindygerb, lisakit, and at least a dozen more whose names I'm not recalling at the moment.
Tricky Pixie totally rocked. It was everything I'd have any right to hope for from Alec's continuing evolution, Sooj is as amazing as Yamaraashi-chan makes her out to be (and much better in person than she records), the audience alternated between rapture and revelry, and the studio that held the performance gave us all plenty of dance floor. And believe me, we needed every inch of it. From Sooj's "Horny Cat" song do the March of Cambreadth and on down the line, the band gave and the audience gave back.
Omaha even came out and danced, although she paid for it later. She'd really strained her back weeding and raking the dirt I moved yesterday, so dancing wasn't a good idea but she did it anyway.
The girls, needless to say, were thrilled by the whole thing. And while I always knew that Seattle was full of gorgeous pagan women, it was so nice to see so many of them in one warm, energized room. The men... not so much. Sorry, guys. Except for Alec, of course. Whoof.
We didn't get home until 11:00, at which point the girls just passed out in their beds with barely enough energy to brush. Much fun had by all.
(There's a local insurance company, Pemco, that's been running a series of ads describing themselves as "like Seattle, a little bit different." (List of profiles here) I see they haven't gotten to the "Poly Bi Pagan Switch Threesome" profile yet.)
loba, solarbird, technoshaman, jenk, cindygerb, lisakit, and at least a dozen more whose names I'm not recalling at the moment.Tricky Pixie totally rocked. It was everything I'd have any right to hope for from Alec's continuing evolution, Sooj is as amazing as Yamaraashi-chan makes her out to be (and much better in person than she records), the audience alternated between rapture and revelry, and the studio that held the performance gave us all plenty of dance floor. And believe me, we needed every inch of it. From Sooj's "Horny Cat" song do the March of Cambreadth and on down the line, the band gave and the audience gave back.
Omaha even came out and danced, although she paid for it later. She'd really strained her back weeding and raking the dirt I moved yesterday, so dancing wasn't a good idea but she did it anyway.
The girls, needless to say, were thrilled by the whole thing. And while I always knew that Seattle was full of gorgeous pagan women, it was so nice to see so many of them in one warm, energized room. The men... not so much. Sorry, guys. Except for Alec, of course. Whoof.
We didn't get home until 11:00, at which point the girls just passed out in their beds with barely enough energy to brush. Much fun had by all.
(There's a local insurance company, Pemco, that's been running a series of ads describing themselves as "like Seattle, a little bit different." (List of profiles here) I see they haven't gotten to the "Poly Bi Pagan Switch Threesome" profile yet.)
Camping, the last day
Jul. 21st, 2008 09:34 pmI made pancakes in the morning. It was a beautiful morning, a little cool, but otherwise gorgeous and bright. Omaha worked fire magic and soon had the fire going. I mashed eggs and milk into a bag of white powder we'd brought with us from home. I used a lot of butter; some of the pancakes were almost deep-fat-fried, but the fire was very hot and getting the pancakes to not burn was a bit of an exercise. None did, and everyone ate well.
We packed up. The girls were remarkably helpful and we were all packed by 12:30. The biggest challenge was repacking the clamshell; there seemed to be more bedding heading home than there had been heading out.
Leaping Small Fry We stopped at the Quilcene Salmon Hatchery, where the girls had a lot of fun feeding the baby fish and getting free sunglasses with eco-friendly slogans on them. As we watched, the fry were already leaping up at the aerating fresh water pouring in from the sluice above the storage runs. It was quite amazing to watch them leap like that, and hard to get pictures, but I think this one worked well.
We drove up to the ranger station where we repeated our tale of woe about the car being broken into an the county cops not being too receptive to our complaint. I mean, I guess they were doing the best they could, but we weren't exactly in cell-phone range.
We also complained about the state of the trails leading past US Forestry land into US Parks land. She shrugged and said something we'd heard twice before from Forestry and Parks Services people: "With this administration, what can you do?" I mean, when even federal officials are dissing the administration, the end can't come quickly enough.
We stopped for lunch at a little cafe' in Quilcene, then started down highway 104 to the ferry terminal. As we were driving, I spotted something moving out of the corner of my eye: a mouse was peeking his head up between the glass and the hood of the car! We pulled over at one of those county-run "visitor's centers," lifted the hood and discovered that the sucker had built an entire nest in the rain guard covering the windshield wiper motors. With a broom borrowed from the visitors center we dug the nest out. We didn't see him as we drove away, so we'd hoped he'd hopped out. This trip's surrealism meter ticked up a notch.
Kingston Ferry Dock The ferry ride home was uneventful. We got home around 6:30, and everyone dove for the showers. Omaha and I put fresh bedsheets on. Tomorrow would be a day to clean the camping gear.
The last donut was still there. Kouryou-chan insisted it wasn't too stale to eat. It appropriately ended up in the trash, where it belonged. Dinah was there too, and very happy to see us.
We packed up. The girls were remarkably helpful and we were all packed by 12:30. The biggest challenge was repacking the clamshell; there seemed to be more bedding heading home than there had been heading out.
Leaping Small Fry
We drove up to the ranger station where we repeated our tale of woe about the car being broken into an the county cops not being too receptive to our complaint. I mean, I guess they were doing the best they could, but we weren't exactly in cell-phone range.
We also complained about the state of the trails leading past US Forestry land into US Parks land. She shrugged and said something we'd heard twice before from Forestry and Parks Services people: "With this administration, what can you do?" I mean, when even federal officials are dissing the administration, the end can't come quickly enough.
We stopped for lunch at a little cafe' in Quilcene, then started down highway 104 to the ferry terminal. As we were driving, I spotted something moving out of the corner of my eye: a mouse was peeking his head up between the glass and the hood of the car! We pulled over at one of those county-run "visitor's centers," lifted the hood and discovered that the sucker had built an entire nest in the rain guard covering the windshield wiper motors. With a broom borrowed from the visitors center we dug the nest out. We didn't see him as we drove away, so we'd hoped he'd hopped out. This trip's surrealism meter ticked up a notch.
Kingston Ferry Dock
The last donut was still there. Kouryou-chan insisted it wasn't too stale to eat. It appropriately ended up in the trash, where it belonged. Dinah was there too, and very happy to see us.
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