Friday afternoon I took off a little early to take The Kid to her Feline Friends training for the Longmont Humane Society volunteering she's doing soon.
I didn't have to do anything with it, in fact parents are told to skedaddle (it's the kids - oh excuse me, YOUNG ADULTS - who have to do the work, after all), but since we live across town I decided to bum around awhile on that end of Longmont.
After visiting (from behind glass, naturally) with the many adoptable critters (there are too many, and in particular lots of puppies - when will people learn to fix their pets!), I headed to Hobby Lobby to pick up liner fabric for the Birthday Bag, which is ALMOST DONE. I usually don't buy fabric there, as their selection tends to be kind of limited in scope, but for some stuff it's great and I just needed a solid-color cotton.
Back in the Humane Society parking lot, I got to work reading Book 1 of the Harry Potter series; I'm re-reading the whole thing (if at all possible) to bone up on enough knowledge to kick some butt at the Geeks Who Drink Quiz-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in April. If I know the GWD folks, it will contain your basic "name the actors" and "what's a Nargle" questions that anyone who's watched the movies can probably answer, but it will also probably have trickier, points-grubbing questions like "how many knuts in a galleon" (answer - 29) and "what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow" (oh sorry, wrong movie, but in case you're wondering... African or European?).
I'm playing to WIN, but it's also a great excuse to re-read these fantastic books. It's a testament to JK Rowling's writing that, despite having seen the movie many times and knowing the story inside and out, reading the story makes me laugh and want to read parts out loud to The Kid.
Really, if you've never read them, give them a go! They're delightful, especially the first 4. After that they do tend to get a bit heavier, as the characters are older and it's less about the ZOMG IT'S MAGIC! experience than it is about growing up and having to deal with life and adversity, so it makes sense that those later books are longer and more involved. So goes life, ya know?
After the volunteer training, it was back home for leftovers (we killed the rest of the Chicken Enchilada casserole) and some serious Birthday Bag work.
Saturday morning, despite my vow to sleep in, I suddenly found myself motivated to reorganizing my entire craft/office/Room of Requirement space.
Well, when the mood strikes...
I didn't actually mean to use up 4 whole hours of time on this, it just kind of happened!
After getting The Kid ready for her sleepover Saturday night (which, since she's a YOUNG ADULT now, consists mainly of me asking if she's done packing, and does she really need 15 movies for a 12 hour visit - "We need *options*, Mom" she says), I dropped her off and headed down to Denver.
After looking at a few really cool houses online (TR's house-hunting and loves the late-60's style of architecture - think Brady Bunch with less bell bottoms - and he had some awesome listings to ooh and ahh over) we headed out for some dinner at a Syrian place called Ya Hala.
The hummus was fantastic, the falafel divine, the Chicken Shawarma...
Salty.
It wasn't bad, it had a taste very similar to chorizo sausage in fact, but it definitely had to be tempered with the lovely rice that accompanied it.
Alas, it didn't agree with me... I spent a couple of very unhappy hours wanting to die at about 2:30 AM thanks to some serious heartburn-type stuff. YUCK.
I'd definitely go back for the hummus, but I think next time I'll stick with something I can count on to be a little milder, like veggies or a kabob.
Getting old blows.
Anyway, Sunday was lovely. We slept in a bit and then headed to an honest-to-goodness diner called Breakfast King. After my nasty GERD pain earlier in the morning, I really just wanted some tea and toast and maybe some eggs... I was hungry, but not interested in tempting fate! I got exactly that, with some potatoes which were perfectly grilled, and it was exactly what I wanted.
And TR got green pancakes. Nice!
It was a gloomy, somnolent morning, so we curled up with the cats and took a nice snooze. Definitely one of my favorite ways to spend a Sunday.
Back at home, The Kid having been dropped off by her sleepover buddy's mom, we had some pasta for dinner and watched a documentary on The Endurance Expedition, which made me really glad to not have been part of it. The unbelievable hardship and struggle these men had to deal with makes you wonder how any of them made it out alive, much less how they all managed to survive. Imagine, trapped in the ice for months, only to watch the ice basically eat your ship while you're forced to take what you can and hoof it to...
Where?
You're in the middle of the Antarctic! Where are you going to go?!
Apparently to a rocky, deserted beach where you watch your captain take off in a lifeboat through some of the most dangerous ocean in the world, through which he will travel 800 miles or so to another rocky beach where hopefully he might find somebody and a ship to come and get you. It'll only take what, 4 or 5 months? Good luck...
It's really an amazing story, though a bit sobering. It left me wondering what they were thinking, but admiring their bravery and determination.
I could never have done what they did.
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