Fate?
I've blogged before about how I was planning on going to Sioux Falls Christmas weekend, but couldn't because of car trouble. I got sick that weekend, so I was really glad I didn't go - it would have been really hard driving back feeling so sick. Then it took me a couple of weeks to feel better and finally get the car issue resolved. I had a couple of other things planned for last weekend, but I decided to go to Sioux Falls because I had promised to go as soon as possible and because my brother was also going. So it ended up that we were all together for Christmas, so that was even better. Now it turns out if I had tried to go this weekend, it would have been impossible because of the snow. Thus reaffirming my basic philosophy of life - things turn out the way they're supposed to in the end.
I love snow, but I had driving in it. My new car is the same model as my old one, but it's a couple of years newer, so it has smaller, more sporty tires. Which is great most of the time, but they don't have good traction in the snow. Now, we didn't get as much snow as they got on the east coast, but it was still a pretty good snowfall. Being hearty Minnesotans, my group of friends from law school decided to still have our bi-monthly movie night. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the movie on time because traffic was moving so slowly. My friends were seeing "A Very Long Engagement". I decided to just go to a later, shorter movie and still meet them for dinner afterwards. I saw this:
It was ok. Because of my job, child sexual abuse isn't really something entertaining to me. Still, that doesn't preclude me from enjoying a movie with that theme. Like "Mystic River", which I loved. I thought Kevin Bacon did a great job of acting and was very believable as a child molester trying to become "normal", but gripped with strong urges. I guess because the movie approaches him neither as a sympathetic character or a demon, it was a little cool and hard to connect with. I also didn't really buy the coincidence in the key scene, which maybe isn't a coincidence, but nevertheless, I just didn't buy it. So, it's worth seeing, but I didn't love it.
I really enjoyed dinner with my friends at Campiello. I had the hangar steak, which was excellent. We ended up sitting and talking for quite a while, so it was about 1:00 a.m. by the time I was driving home. It was so weird how deserted St. Paul was. Minneapolis was pretty busy, but by the time I got to St. Paul, the streets were empty - which actually was pretty nice because I could pick up the pace and drive at a good clip. Snelling Avenue is a pretty major street in St. Paul and the only other cars I saw on it for the 3-4 miles I had to drive home were 2 police cars.
I didn't get much sleep that night because after I had a glass of wine with dinner I started really yawning, so I switched to coffee. The waitstaff kept refilling my cup and I kept just drinking it and I really had trouble falling asleep, despite the fact it was after 2:00 a.m. I got up at 6:00 to move both of the cars, so I was pretty wide awake after that too.
Saturday was a very busy day. I started out the day with a class at Archivers - "Paper Crafting for Valentine's Day". Here are the projects we made:
At the top left is a mini-photo album. That was my favorite project. Top right is a card. We lined the envelope with patterned paper. The froggie is stamped and the flower is a brad. Bottom left is a tag with a heart eyelet at the top. The pattern is stamped with paint. I don't really like the paint stamping look, but it's really hot right now. Bottom right is a card. The hearts are acrylic embellishments and we made the vellum envelope from a template. She also showed us a number of other project ideas. It was a really fun class!
After class, I met my friend Claire for lunch and then we saw this movie:
I liked it. I didn't know anything about Bobby Darin before I saw this movie. I was familiar with the music, of course, and "Beyond the Sea" is one of my favorite songs, but that's about it. I didn't realize how popular he was back in the day. I didn't know he had done movies too, including being nominated for an Academy Award. I do think Kevin Spacey is too old to play Bobby Darin, but they sort of address that in the movie. Nevertheless, when he first meets and courts Sandra Dee, it's creepy because she is such a baby and he's a middle-aged man. I had no idea Kevin Spacey was such a good singer - I really enjoyed his singing in the film. Unfortunately, this movie has a very similar structure as "De-Lovely", the biopic of Cole Porter. I liked it the first time, but I felt like "been there, done that, it's not fresh" this time. They probably were making the movies at the same time, so it's too bad that it happened that way.
After the movie I went back to Archivers to pick up the stuff from class I wanted to buy, but didn't have time to shop because I had to meet Claire. I bought the tools to make those little photo books. I always get doubles of my pictures and give them to the people I was with. I think it'll be really nice to put them together into a mini album before I give them to my friends or family. I wanted to buy this really cute stamp that they showed on another card, but I couldn't find it. I'm hoping they'll order more in since they're giving this class several times a week up until Valentine's Day. I then went to Michael's to see if they had the stamp, which they didn't, and to pick up some yarn for Alexis' poncho. She wanted a pink furry poncho. Michael's was having a pretty good sale on a lot of their novelty type yarns, but the one I liked best was not on sale:
I've never seen or heard of this yarn before, but it's really soft, so that's what I'm going to use. That'll probably be the next project I cast on. I was working on my Joan Jett doll last night. I went over to my friend's house for some lovely Bean Soup and Rosemary Bread. After we ate, we watched a DVD and knit. I got surprisingly little done - I guess I was too caught up in one of my favorite movies, "Love, Actually".
I'll finish off this monster post with a couple of puppy pictures:
This is Fiona saying, "Come on, let's go inside." You can see the snow on her face - she loves to eat the snow.
That's Finbar on the lookout - he heard something and was very attentive to listening. As you can see, they've worn one path in the backyard and are not straying from it, which leaves a nice pretty blanket of snow around the rest of the yard. We'll see how long that lasts.
Now I'm off to shovel some more. I shoveled a path yesterday, but I think I'd better shovel out the rest of the sidewalks and steps. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
I love snow, but I had driving in it. My new car is the same model as my old one, but it's a couple of years newer, so it has smaller, more sporty tires. Which is great most of the time, but they don't have good traction in the snow. Now, we didn't get as much snow as they got on the east coast, but it was still a pretty good snowfall. Being hearty Minnesotans, my group of friends from law school decided to still have our bi-monthly movie night. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the movie on time because traffic was moving so slowly. My friends were seeing "A Very Long Engagement". I decided to just go to a later, shorter movie and still meet them for dinner afterwards. I saw this:
It was ok. Because of my job, child sexual abuse isn't really something entertaining to me. Still, that doesn't preclude me from enjoying a movie with that theme. Like "Mystic River", which I loved. I thought Kevin Bacon did a great job of acting and was very believable as a child molester trying to become "normal", but gripped with strong urges. I guess because the movie approaches him neither as a sympathetic character or a demon, it was a little cool and hard to connect with. I also didn't really buy the coincidence in the key scene, which maybe isn't a coincidence, but nevertheless, I just didn't buy it. So, it's worth seeing, but I didn't love it.
I really enjoyed dinner with my friends at Campiello. I had the hangar steak, which was excellent. We ended up sitting and talking for quite a while, so it was about 1:00 a.m. by the time I was driving home. It was so weird how deserted St. Paul was. Minneapolis was pretty busy, but by the time I got to St. Paul, the streets were empty - which actually was pretty nice because I could pick up the pace and drive at a good clip. Snelling Avenue is a pretty major street in St. Paul and the only other cars I saw on it for the 3-4 miles I had to drive home were 2 police cars.
I didn't get much sleep that night because after I had a glass of wine with dinner I started really yawning, so I switched to coffee. The waitstaff kept refilling my cup and I kept just drinking it and I really had trouble falling asleep, despite the fact it was after 2:00 a.m. I got up at 6:00 to move both of the cars, so I was pretty wide awake after that too.
Saturday was a very busy day. I started out the day with a class at Archivers - "Paper Crafting for Valentine's Day". Here are the projects we made:
At the top left is a mini-photo album. That was my favorite project. Top right is a card. We lined the envelope with patterned paper. The froggie is stamped and the flower is a brad. Bottom left is a tag with a heart eyelet at the top. The pattern is stamped with paint. I don't really like the paint stamping look, but it's really hot right now. Bottom right is a card. The hearts are acrylic embellishments and we made the vellum envelope from a template. She also showed us a number of other project ideas. It was a really fun class!
After class, I met my friend Claire for lunch and then we saw this movie:
I liked it. I didn't know anything about Bobby Darin before I saw this movie. I was familiar with the music, of course, and "Beyond the Sea" is one of my favorite songs, but that's about it. I didn't realize how popular he was back in the day. I didn't know he had done movies too, including being nominated for an Academy Award. I do think Kevin Spacey is too old to play Bobby Darin, but they sort of address that in the movie. Nevertheless, when he first meets and courts Sandra Dee, it's creepy because she is such a baby and he's a middle-aged man. I had no idea Kevin Spacey was such a good singer - I really enjoyed his singing in the film. Unfortunately, this movie has a very similar structure as "De-Lovely", the biopic of Cole Porter. I liked it the first time, but I felt like "been there, done that, it's not fresh" this time. They probably were making the movies at the same time, so it's too bad that it happened that way.
After the movie I went back to Archivers to pick up the stuff from class I wanted to buy, but didn't have time to shop because I had to meet Claire. I bought the tools to make those little photo books. I always get doubles of my pictures and give them to the people I was with. I think it'll be really nice to put them together into a mini album before I give them to my friends or family. I wanted to buy this really cute stamp that they showed on another card, but I couldn't find it. I'm hoping they'll order more in since they're giving this class several times a week up until Valentine's Day. I then went to Michael's to see if they had the stamp, which they didn't, and to pick up some yarn for Alexis' poncho. She wanted a pink furry poncho. Michael's was having a pretty good sale on a lot of their novelty type yarns, but the one I liked best was not on sale:
I've never seen or heard of this yarn before, but it's really soft, so that's what I'm going to use. That'll probably be the next project I cast on. I was working on my Joan Jett doll last night. I went over to my friend's house for some lovely Bean Soup and Rosemary Bread. After we ate, we watched a DVD and knit. I got surprisingly little done - I guess I was too caught up in one of my favorite movies, "Love, Actually".
I'll finish off this monster post with a couple of puppy pictures:
This is Fiona saying, "Come on, let's go inside." You can see the snow on her face - she loves to eat the snow.
That's Finbar on the lookout - he heard something and was very attentive to listening. As you can see, they've worn one path in the backyard and are not straying from it, which leaves a nice pretty blanket of snow around the rest of the yard. We'll see how long that lasts.
Now I'm off to shovel some more. I shoveled a path yesterday, but I think I'd better shovel out the rest of the sidewalks and steps. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
rdladd@arnan.com
