Yours 'til Niagara Falls

Endymion Wassail Concert

I had a wonderful time tonight at a concert which featured holiday music. Endymion is an ensemble of five women.  They played Celtic and English traditional music using their own arrangements.  It was the most pleasant musical event I've been to for as long as I can remember.

In other holiday news... I keep plugging along putting up decorations.  I'd estimate that I'm 2/3's done.  It's been kind of a treat because I'm using ornaments I haven't seen since we moved to this house five or so years ago. I'd forgotten many of them.

Getting Around to it

I've heard other people lament that they have trouble finishing projects.  Oddly, my projects come to a screeching halt when it comes to putting on the buttons.  Generally a 10 - 15 minute job.  I can't even remember when I finished this Elizabeth Zimmerman February JAcket from her masterpiece Knitters Almanac.  Last night I finally put on some lovely mother of pearl buttons.  I vaguely remember buying the buttons an an estate sale a fairly long time age.  They are pristine and look great on the sweater.

This picture is so blurry it might be Bigfoot, but it is not.  It is a pair of cashmere-lined mittens.  I modified the Betz White pattern from Warm Fuzzies.  Essentially what I do is make two complete pairs of mitts and use one pair as lining.  It's not as fiddly as you might think.  The cashmere is so soft it makes your eyes roll back in your head when you put them on.  The patterned part is from a thrift store sweater.  That modest size medium sweater yielded two large matryoshka dolls and a pair of mittens.  Not shabby for a $2.98 purchase.

Elmwood Festival of the Arts

I made the journey to Buffalo for the 10th Anniversary of the Elmwood Festival of the Arts earlier today.  The website for it was tinged with apathy, I thought.  I say that because the opening line was "We are as excited as we have ever been".  Hmmm...

Being the Summer of 2009, the sky was threatening to open up, and it did acouple of times with cold sprinkles.  The festival was really well organized and had a decent variety of handmade items.  Not many folks were buying things, though.  Wonderful Linda of Raveloe Fibers had a beautiful booth selling her wares. 

A am an Easily Annoyed Person. Today I was annoyed by people who bring dogs to street festivals.  Here are some updates from the big book of facts - dogs don't like street festivals. In addition, not too many people like to be inflicted with the rope burns which result when a dog's leash winds around thier leg.   No one likes to get the "oh, you must be a dog-hater" glare after they have stumbled over a terrier on an eight foot long leash. 

The other thing that annoyed me was getting elbowed in the head (twice!) by some dope who was walking and talking on his cell phone.  When I turned to see who had assaulted my poor noggin, I was rewarded with him giving me an annoyed look for getting in the way of his elbow.

I did not allow myself to be annoyed by all of the strollers, although some of the occupants had their permanent teeth coming in.

Fatima Shrine and Hanging on the Line

Yesterday my mother, aunt and cousin went to mass at Fatima Shrine.  It seemed like a good idea in the planning stages, but it ended up being a rough experience.

The Shrine commemorates the appearance of the Blessed Mother to three Portuguese peasant children in 1917. During a series of visits, the Blessed Mother revealed  three secrets to the children and implored the faithful to pray the rosary every day.

Anyhoo, the Shrine has gotten mighty shabby since the last time I went.  It's under construction to improve it, but in the meantime it's a very uncomfortable place.  It was hovering around 90 degrees in the church and we were tempted to leave, but we made it through the mass.  We then proceed to the gift shop where the lady in charge told us that she was closing.  I kind of begged my way in because my aunt really wanted to stock up on green scapulars to hand out to people in need.  I can't figure out why the store couldn't stay open a little later, especially considering that half a dozen people who were leaving mass were turned away from the store.  If only I were in charge of the world!

 I rounded out my weekend with a lot of deep cleaning.  I rolled up all of the area rugs because I'm tired of being held hostage to Little Frida's unreliable bladder.  This old quilt needed to be washed.  As I took it out of the washing machine I remembered that I had considered line drying some of my laundry this summer.  I love the smell and and the texture of line-dried fabric, so it's a resolution I think I can keep.

Chinese Acrobats

   

 I just got home from an amazing performance by the Chinese National Acrobats.  It was about 90 minutes of tumbling, juggling and contortionist.  Along with watching 14 people spin around on one bicycle, I really enjoyed the man who tossed and spun a huge urn. 

*rant alert* There were tons of kids in the audience.  They were enthralled and you didn't hear a peep from them.  Lucky, lucky me.  I had some goofballs in the row directly behind me waddle in twenty minutes late, loudly grumbling how hard it is to find a spot to park.  The perfume-soaked hag behind me leaned over to us and demanded that we give a full description of the acts they had missed.  I managed to hiss "You haven't missed much - I'm sure they saved the best for last."  Then a couple with the group decided it was their job to provide a running commentary on everything they were watching on the stage.  After a bit I turned around and said in a pleading voice, "Please, please stop talking."  After rolling their eyes they did finally stop the chit-chat.  Honest-to-God, I really don't think I'm overly demanding to expect a little audience etiquette.  Am I?

The Kite Runner

 Last night I had the privilege of attending a Distinguished Speaker lecture at he University at Buffalo.  The guest was Khaled Hosseini, the author of the Kite Runner. He is a powerful speaker and had a lot of insights into the situation in Afghanistan.  The Alumni Arena  is a large venue and it was about two-thirds full.  Dr. Hosseini mentioned that he had never spoken to such a large group.  The University had handed out 5,000 copies of the Kite Runner to the student body, so a good number of students attended.

My biggest surprise of the evening was when the author told us that the book took a year to write, most of it composed in the early morning as Dr. Hosseini was a practicing physician at the time.  After he completed the manuscript he needed an agent.  He sent it to thirty agents.  It was rejected by twenty-nine.   

As an aside, at one point during the lecture, I looked over to the rows of spectators below me which were, for the most part high school and university students.  About three-quarters of these young people were busy texting through the whole lecture.  They all had those elaborate phones with the keyboards.  The screens were bright enough to be a distraction in the darkened arena.  I don't even know what to think.  Speaking to people in my age cohort, we have come to the realization that this behavior is not considered to be rude.  I'm not sure I will be able to adjust to this. 

Inventing Niagara

  Tonight my husband and I attended a Meet the Author event sponsored by the local National Public Radio affiliate, WBFO.  I really enjoyed the hour-long chat with the author, Ginger Stroud. I've been to a few tapings of radio shows and I've always found it fascinating.  I've even seen the live performance of my favorite radio program, Prarie Home Companion a couple of times.  Anyhoo... after tonight's lecture I bought the book and just skimming through it, I know I will enjoy reading it.  I really like having books signed by the author. 

Another thing I'm enjoying lately is Netflix.  Saturday night (a particularly dismal night tv schedule-wise) I treated myself to the movie Miss Potter.  I really love all things Beatrix Potter and hope to go to England's Lake District some day.  The movie was good, but there are at least twenty actresses I would have preferred over Renee Zelwiger in the title role.  For some reason, I find her hard to watch.