a good weekend
Apr. 14th, 2008 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishFriday afternoon started off with an unexpected postcard from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nixve. Then I had lime-chicken burritos for dinner and went over to uilos's place for some much-missed snuggling. Travel's all well and good but I need weekends at home on a regular basis. Wherever "home" might happen to be.
Satyrday we got up early and she made french toast on Portuguese semi-sweet bread (used half wheat flour for the bread; still tasty, though). Then we met up with people at the Stone Ridge Book Fair, home of cheap books. Main acquisition: a hardback copy of Shikasta, the first book in Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos series. I've been vaguely looking for these since hearing that she won the Nobel last year. If I like this one I'll have to start seriously hunting for the others. (Or just senddarkfyre_muse back to the bookstore in SD that had 2-5 but not 1.) Also got a creepy little thing by Warren Ellis, "Atmospherics," and a handful of other books.
Picnicked afterwards, and had good conversation and tasty sammiches. Then off to boardgaming, excellent as usual, and home again.
Woke up Sunday, made pancakes, and had a leisurely breakfast and tea. Then headed out to Manassas and Richard McKay Books. Stopped at a thrift store on the way, because you never know where awesome shirts may be hiding. No shirts, but I did walk away with a stand mixer for $15.
It's a Sunbeam MixMaster Power Plus (to go with my toaster), which seems to have been rolled out in the late seventies to compete with KitchenAid's high-powered mixers, and retired in the early eighties. (So, not quite as old as I am.) It's in good shape, it's got a light under the body of the mixer to illuminate the contents of the bowl (awesome), and thanks to some ingenuity in the beaters the bowl rotates as the mixer runs[*].
On to McKay, where we turned in more books and CDs, and spent no money but an awful lot of credit. Walked away with a decent amount of stuff, including another copy of The Dragon Waiting to give away. Then home, where we tested the mixer by making cookies. (Verdict: yum.) And puttering online, where I learned about as much as can be learned about my mixer. (It originally came with dough hooks that didn't seem terribly useful and are now nigh-unobtainable. Sunbeam also made three attachments for it: a juicer, a shredder, and another one that no one seems to know what is.) And then slept well.
Well enough, in fact, that I was able to get up and go running for the first time since last summer's bout with Lyme. My lungs were displeased by the chill in the air; my legs are quietly complaining. Other than that, not so bad. I may be able to stop fitting into the shorts I bought two years ago (before I started running the first time) soon.
More weekends like this, please.
[*] This really is brilliant. The beaters are offset from the center of the bowl. The inner and outer beater are different shapes: the inner's the normal square, but the outer is pointed so it can get down towards the edges and bottom of the bowl well. Also, the tip of the pointed one has a plastic button that rests on the bottom of the bowl. When the beaters run, the friction between the button and the bowl causes the bowl to turn. It's not perfect but it makes it much easier to turn the thing by hand.
nixve. Then I had lime-chicken burritos for dinner and went over to uilos's place for some much-missed snuggling. Travel's all well and good but I need weekends at home on a regular basis. Wherever "home" might happen to be.Satyrday we got up early and she made french toast on Portuguese semi-sweet bread (used half wheat flour for the bread; still tasty, though). Then we met up with people at the Stone Ridge Book Fair, home of cheap books. Main acquisition: a hardback copy of Shikasta, the first book in Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos series. I've been vaguely looking for these since hearing that she won the Nobel last year. If I like this one I'll have to start seriously hunting for the others. (Or just send
darkfyre_muse back to the bookstore in SD that had 2-5 but not 1.) Also got a creepy little thing by Warren Ellis, "Atmospherics," and a handful of other books.Picnicked afterwards, and had good conversation and tasty sammiches. Then off to boardgaming, excellent as usual, and home again.
Woke up Sunday, made pancakes, and had a leisurely breakfast and tea. Then headed out to Manassas and Richard McKay Books. Stopped at a thrift store on the way, because you never know where awesome shirts may be hiding. No shirts, but I did walk away with a stand mixer for $15.
It's a Sunbeam MixMaster Power Plus (to go with my toaster), which seems to have been rolled out in the late seventies to compete with KitchenAid's high-powered mixers, and retired in the early eighties. (So, not quite as old as I am.) It's in good shape, it's got a light under the body of the mixer to illuminate the contents of the bowl (awesome), and thanks to some ingenuity in the beaters the bowl rotates as the mixer runs[*].
On to McKay, where we turned in more books and CDs, and spent no money but an awful lot of credit. Walked away with a decent amount of stuff, including another copy of The Dragon Waiting to give away. Then home, where we tested the mixer by making cookies. (Verdict: yum.) And puttering online, where I learned about as much as can be learned about my mixer. (It originally came with dough hooks that didn't seem terribly useful and are now nigh-unobtainable. Sunbeam also made three attachments for it: a juicer, a shredder, and another one that no one seems to know what is.) And then slept well.
Well enough, in fact, that I was able to get up and go running for the first time since last summer's bout with Lyme. My lungs were displeased by the chill in the air; my legs are quietly complaining. Other than that, not so bad. I may be able to stop fitting into the shorts I bought two years ago (before I started running the first time) soon.
More weekends like this, please.
[*] This really is brilliant. The beaters are offset from the center of the bowl. The inner and outer beater are different shapes: the inner's the normal square, but the outer is pointed so it can get down towards the edges and bottom of the bowl well. Also, the tip of the pointed one has a plastic button that rests on the bottom of the bowl. When the beaters run, the friction between the button and the bowl causes the bowl to turn. It's not perfect but it makes it much easier to turn the thing by hand.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-14 06:39 pm (UTC)I'm trying to get back into the habit of walking every morning. I've found when I do that, I have fewer low-spoon days.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 12:47 pm (UTC)*hug*