The holiday weekend in review
Nov. 27th, 2011 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catherineldfIt began with working (day job) from home on Wednesday and having car issues. A lot of this weekend revolved around car issues, just saying. Wednesday's involved an oil change that became a new battery, new air filter, etc., etc. But it got dealt with and then we sat around and watched Burn Notice and Revenge, both of which I adore. Thursday was epic amounts of laundry and a modicum of organizing and bread baking and Cornish Game Hen (our turkey substitute) and cooking and such. And reading Gail Carriger's Heartless, which is fun mind candy. Jana worked on MCBA's 2011 WInter Book, which is going to be awesome, and the cats reveled in huge amounts of human time (yay!).
Friday, I spent the day attempting to produce a podcast reading from A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace and Other Stories for the Cocktail Hour Podcast and watching Audacity eat it. Over and over again. Huge amounts of fun in a "kill me now" sort of way. We'll be recording me off Skype on Tuesday night instead, but I'll have to revisit the podcasting software issues next year. There was also a brief foray to Northern Sun Merchandising for awesome left products (a calendar and a cat quilt, in this case), Ingebretsen's for munchies, the Post Office and the Mayday Cafe.
Saturday, it was off to the hinterlands to recycle electronics, including our old TV. Then there was some clothes shopping and lunch which landed us at the Galleria, of all places. We had a remarkably pleasant trip through both Gabbert's and Williams and Sonoma, and whilst chatting with the salefolk at the latter, learned about this interesting little company in Duluth: Epicurean. They're local and green and make stuff I need to play with the artisanal bread and pizza recipes in the book I just bought. From there, it was errands, then Dock 6 Pottery for present shopping. Then we went looking for a new used bookstore I had noticed down by 50th st. and 40th Ave. in Minneapolis. We found it. The owner is kicking it seriously old school, meaning that the place doesn't have a name or a theme or an organizational principal or even lights in half of it and not much in the way of heat. Books are not arranged in any particular order beyond whim. This is what used bookstore shopping used to look like back in the day. We rooted around a lot and I scored a copy of The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, which was very cool. I decided it was time to forgive her for The Wanderer and she knew EVERYBODY during her time period so I expect I'll be a happy history geek real soon now.
Then we started to drive to Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's, and our troubles began. The rhythmical metal clunking from my front wheel was new and proved, when we limped home, to be a giant pointy bolt buried in the treads of my nearly new tire. The hiss of air upon removal made it clear that it had gone all the way through. Since it was almost dusk, we took Jana's truck and went book shopping anyway since that's how we roll. She acquired more Erin Hart mysteries, I picked up Wilhelmina Baird, Suzette Haden Elgin and a couple of fantasy authors I'd never heard of, but whose books looked interesting.
This morning, we got the car to what seemed level and went to remove the flat and put on the donut. All was going well until the jack collapsed with Jana's hand between the wheel and well. She yelled, I freaked, my car hit the concrete hard. Fortunately the squishy tire absorbed the shock on her hand so she only got minimal bruising, not breaking as we feared. My car got some new dents but was successfully towed and checked out. And the Suzette Haden Elgin Twitterchat went well (archives are here). While I was at it, I revived 2 unfinished novel projects which I will now commence to poke at. All in all, glad to have the days off but wish it had been less stressful and more productive.
Friday, I spent the day attempting to produce a podcast reading from A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace and Other Stories for the Cocktail Hour Podcast and watching Audacity eat it. Over and over again. Huge amounts of fun in a "kill me now" sort of way. We'll be recording me off Skype on Tuesday night instead, but I'll have to revisit the podcasting software issues next year. There was also a brief foray to Northern Sun Merchandising for awesome left products (a calendar and a cat quilt, in this case), Ingebretsen's for munchies, the Post Office and the Mayday Cafe.
Saturday, it was off to the hinterlands to recycle electronics, including our old TV. Then there was some clothes shopping and lunch which landed us at the Galleria, of all places. We had a remarkably pleasant trip through both Gabbert's and Williams and Sonoma, and whilst chatting with the salefolk at the latter, learned about this interesting little company in Duluth: Epicurean. They're local and green and make stuff I need to play with the artisanal bread and pizza recipes in the book I just bought. From there, it was errands, then Dock 6 Pottery for present shopping. Then we went looking for a new used bookstore I had noticed down by 50th st. and 40th Ave. in Minneapolis. We found it. The owner is kicking it seriously old school, meaning that the place doesn't have a name or a theme or an organizational principal or even lights in half of it and not much in the way of heat. Books are not arranged in any particular order beyond whim. This is what used bookstore shopping used to look like back in the day. We rooted around a lot and I scored a copy of The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, which was very cool. I decided it was time to forgive her for The Wanderer and she knew EVERYBODY during her time period so I expect I'll be a happy history geek real soon now.
Then we started to drive to Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's, and our troubles began. The rhythmical metal clunking from my front wheel was new and proved, when we limped home, to be a giant pointy bolt buried in the treads of my nearly new tire. The hiss of air upon removal made it clear that it had gone all the way through. Since it was almost dusk, we took Jana's truck and went book shopping anyway since that's how we roll. She acquired more Erin Hart mysteries, I picked up Wilhelmina Baird, Suzette Haden Elgin and a couple of fantasy authors I'd never heard of, but whose books looked interesting.
This morning, we got the car to what seemed level and went to remove the flat and put on the donut. All was going well until the jack collapsed with Jana's hand between the wheel and well. She yelled, I freaked, my car hit the concrete hard. Fortunately the squishy tire absorbed the shock on her hand so she only got minimal bruising, not breaking as we feared. My car got some new dents but was successfully towed and checked out. And the Suzette Haden Elgin Twitterchat went well (archives are here). While I was at it, I revived 2 unfinished novel projects which I will now commence to poke at. All in all, glad to have the days off but wish it had been less stressful and more productive.