| *cracks the binding and blows dust off the pages* |
[Sep. 28th, 2009|10:31 am] |
I blame Twitter. No, seriously, it's eaten me a bit lately, and it's fun and all, but it fails at the unabashed outpouring of mental goo that has been my journalling wont. I've missed it. I've missed you guys.
How are you?
We've got a puppy now. She's 3 months old as of last weekend, and we named her Ember. She's a pretty good girl; still working on getting her housetrained. Some days are better than others.
Friday was our five year anniversary. Tiny Emperor went to stay with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) unl33t and erfalle, Littlest Admiral went to Grandma's, and jarien was kind enough to watch over our puppyface, all so that pgnblade and I could go to Northampton in MA for two nights. Overall, we had a great time - stayed in a place called The Autumn Inn which is SO classic New Englandy that I can't even STAND the cuteness of it all. The only think I would say was lacking for our needs was bacon at the continental breakfast. :D
Aside from that, the whole place was a fascinating mix of 1950's and modern hotel amenities. Our king size bed was two beds pushed together. The hallway carpet was bright red. The door used a KEY. Not a keycard, an actual key. There was a lock, a bolt, a chain lock. There was no hangtag - instead there was a switch to flip over one way to request maidservice, and the other way to label it Do Not Disturb. The bathroom had old yellow walls, but a curved shower rod. Side by side next to the door were a metal wall-mounted bottle opener, and an electric hair dryer (In prime position, mind you, to fall right into the toilet if one were to drop it while hanging it up). The desk was a DESK, with drawers, against the wall, not just a table with a lamp and phone on it. Wireless was free, and while slow in the way of wireless, had no dropped connection despite being in one of the farthest rooms away from the front desk.
The staff was really nice. I recommend the place, totally.
Aside from the hotel, which we did not spend much time in except when I was totally passed out (seriously, he was UNABLE to wake me until 11am on Friday. WTF?) Northampton is overall an adorable town. Blade kept talking about how like a sister city it was to Saratoga Springs. Very old, and extremely collegey and art, full of funky little shops and loads of personality. Toga could be like that again if they would stop making it so FREAKING expensive for non-chains to have storefronts around the main drag!
Anyway. We discovered that it was windy, and I had somehow managed to pack nothing that had sleeves, so we went in a funky little shop chock full of wraps and drapes and hats and gloves and shoes and neato dresses, and got me a gorgeous pashmina that is light and yet SO warm. Then we went in a men's shop where we started poking at hats, and let me just say that Blade looks EXTREMELY fine (You know, moreso than usual) in a bowler. He bought me a top hat. He says it's because it looks great on me (which it does!) but I still maintain it's also in small part so I'll stop taking his. ;)
We got some lovely wood and tortoiseshell spoons for our altar (may you never hunger) and I found (or was found by?) a small quartz sphere that replaces the one I'd had there until TTE tried to bounce it down the stairs... onto the tile floor. *rolls eyes*
Then we were walking down the street, and boom. People we know. Actually, first bumping into people we know was when we ran into my ex boyfriend from highschool. I am not making this up. Ran into my high school boyfriend while on vacation for my anniversary, and was able to do that whole, "Oh HI, yeah! This is my husband with whom I have two sons a house and a puppy. How've you been?" thing. Then shopping, then we ran into a photographer friend and her girlfriend, who we hadn't told we'd be in town because we were kind of hoping to just have the whole day to ourselves. It was really awesome to see their OMGHappeh! faces when they realized it was us, though.
I know at some point we had breakfast/lunch and for the life of me can't remember what or where.
We had to move the car, and when we were returning to our exploring we cut through a parking lot alongside a bank, where the women in the car at the drivethrough felt compelled to roll down their windows and tell me I looked awesome! I felt fantastic.
From there we went to a marvelous little used bookstore, and I gravitated into the mythology section, from which I departed with a 1942 edition of Bullfinch's Ages Of Mythology - but not before a little 2 year old boy toddled over to me and in utter silence proceeded to pull two handfulls of white gravel rocks out of his pockets to show off to me, and listened very intently as I complimented them, and then talked about being tall or small, like the bookshelves. His daddy was amused.
We walked around town a bit more, browsing and whatnot, and then went over to Webs, which had come highly recommended to my by several fiber arts friends. I have to admit, I was really disappointed by how limited was their selection of spinning items and fibers. I'd expected more than one 10x10 section of the store. For yarn selection, though, they were astounding, and I got to drool over some gorgeous floor looms.
And because Blade can't keep himself from spoiling me in spite of my misgivings, I left there with an Ashford Inklette loom, a pair of Lantern Moon ebony knitting needles, a Lantern Moon basket, a pick and a shuttle for my tabletop loom, and four skeins of a deliciously soft rich purple alpaca yarn. Knitting that yarn on those needles is like knitting with butter, if dairy could be repurposed for fiber arts!
Returning to downtown, we explored several more shops, including a guitar shop and a CD/DVD store, and then a place called Ten Thousand Villages, which has handmade knickknacks from villages and tribes all over the world. We'd apparently just missed a drum circle, but people were still milling around. We were browsing, and out of nowhere this little 7-ish year old girl came running up to me. "Hi! I love the way you're dressed!"
Her name was Samaya, and she was adorable. We chatted, and I complimented her necklace before we headed out again.
Dinnertime had arrived, and so Blade took me to his favorite restaurant in Northampton - a chinese/japanese fusion place called Teapot.
Ooh, I just remembered our lunch! We went to a little Tibetan place and shared several delicious appetizers, including some sliced yak sausage. Have you ever had yak? It's kind of like... I'd say it was like Kielbasa without any of the grease.
But yes. Dinner. Teapot. It was cute, and delicious; we indulged in appetizers and entrees, and I enjoyed a glass of plum wine. The Teapot Bento Box was marvelous - Teriyaki steak, california roll, vegetables, rice, and shrimp tempura. He got the dragon and phoenix, and while he says the shrimp was a bit lacking, the General Tso's side of the dish was divine in that melt-in-the-mouth kind of way.
After that we went and wandered through some shops a bit more, picking up presents for the children and getting some ice cream from a place that Blade is totally enamoured of, but mostly I didn't find to be anything special. The fact that all the tables were full and that we had to share our sundae while I shivered in the street may have contributed just a bit to my lacklustre impression, I must admit.
Finally we went to meet up with the abovementioned friends, as they told us there was going to be an open mic night at the local pizza place and they'd love to see us there. We spent far too much time sitting on metal cafe tables in the cold, and finally were able to get inside, where our friend got her turn to sing. She did a brilliant rendition of Sarah Maclachlan's "Angel" followed by a song that it was simply too noisy to much hear - which is particularly sad, because it was something she chose to sing just for us, for our anniversary. Le sigh. Then Blade got up and did some songs, followed by a friend of our friends who did a harmonica piece called Dragon's Lullaby. He's apparently been playing harmonica since he was five, and it shows in the easy skill he has with it; the tune was haunting, and in several places it sounded like multiple mouthharps in harmony. Note to self, must ask friends to ask him to record it so I can listen to it again and again...
Finally we called it a night, and headed back to the hotel, watched a little bit of some show on HBO about a writer pretending to be a private detective, and went to sleep. I didn't sleep very well, and 7am found me awake and maudlin and messing about on my computer until Blade awoke and we motivated ourselves to packing, heading down to continental breakfast, and finally checking out to hit the road around half ten.
Home again home again, jiggety jig, and puppy, kid, and kid all came back to us... along with a spare kid for the hell of it, so un33t and erfalle could have a night of it.
Five years ago I was on a boat beach... actually, strike that strike, five years ago might even have been the day we took the boat to bird island.
There were lizards. |
|
|
pensive![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
calm
bouncy
