Genevieve

Waking Sleeping Sign Repose Wish
The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam...

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George needs a home
2001-04-16 - 2:08 p.m.

Dinner on Friday night was grand. We made it to Brian and Nancy-Ellen's around 7:30 on Friday night and then proceeded out to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. I was so shocked that we only had to wait 10 mins on a friday night to get seated, but I certainly can't complain. We had an excellent conversation about Pennsic plans, garb, Crown, pissy-assed dancers, etc. Then we went back to their place and hung out until around 11 and the cats started to get to Alan. They seemed to want nothing other than to sit on his lap and the Tylenol Allergy Sinus knocks him out cold, and it's kinda rude to snore during the conversation. The most remarkable thing is Brian and Nancy-Ellen's house. I only got to see the first level, but I swear it looked like a showcase house. Everything was stylishly decorated, color coordinated and matching and I swear that any moment Martha Stewart was gonna walk through the door and bless this house as good in her eyes. I was very impressed since I just can't keep a place clean. I have too much stuff, and I clutter up surfaces easily. Then Nancy-Ellen explained that her mother is an interior deisgner and it all makes sense. That and she is such a wonderful Southern Belle, her house could not be any other way. Also, she drove that huge Tahoe like nobody's business. Stylish, smart, good driver, nice as hell, and she even showed us her cool tiaras. Nancy-Ellen is the bomb!

Saturday we slept in a bit and watched some cartoons and I made bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese for breakfast. It turns out that I am the one person who can make bacon crispy in the microwave. I shocked myself even, I think I cooked them too long since the bacon wasn't burnt but it was damn crispy. Then I spent most of the rest of the day finishing up the butter yellow St. Louis tunic for P. Signy. It is complete, and was as of 2:30am on Sunday morning, and looks lovely. Sadly, it is really tightly woven linen so handsewing it was such a bitch. My Oh my, was it. I don't think I am going to get around to embroidering it on the cuffs and neckline either, since I still have to make the apron. Alan also decided to take a trip by Home Depot to get stuff to fill in a little puddle in the gravel driveway, and other small projects. Instead he decides to demo the current small fish pond in the back yard and rebuild it. Y'see, sometime over the winter several large and unmendable cracks occured in the pond liner and most of the water drained out and all of the fish died. Or so we thought. It turns out that one little mutant goldfish, now named George, survived the death of all his compatriots, weathered the winter cold and lack of food and was still alive in the murky depth of what sludge was left in the pond. We decided that after all that, I'm sure he has stories to tell if I could only speak fish, he deserved to live. So we scooped him out of the pond with some of the less nasty water, put him in a tank in the garage, since that was the temperature he was used to and went to work on his pond. First we had to decide what to do with the current pond. Alan got more than enough new pond liner to make a pond over twice the size, but we did have to take into consideration little things like the lay of the land, the slope, leaving a reasonable walkway, an artistic eye, etc. Alan started on the demolition of the old pond, taking apart the current "box", peeling out the old cracked liner, and the nasty carpet bedding, and we decided to simpy extend the pond so that instead of it being a 3ft. by 14 ft rectangle, it is now an 8 ft. by 14 ft. rectangle, give or take a few. Alan spent the rest of Saturday evening digging out the deep end of the pool while Laura and I taunted him with ideas of it looking like a hottub, and in general not helping. Not that there was really anything we could do. Once the sun dropped beyond the horizon, it was time to stop and shower and head out to dinner, cause digging at night is just about silly. Laura had come over to our place in the afternoon after she drove an hour to teach a mask making class to two people for 20 mins and then drove the hour back. Needless to say, she felt it was a small waste of her time that afternoon, and came over to socialize. She was very helpful in determining the new shape of the pond and how the other posibilities were limited in design, etc. Very cool.

So, after Alan showered we decided to go to dinner at the Malibu Grill in Columbia, MD. Several folks have termed this restaurant the "Meat Faucet" because they serve Brazilian? cuisine which entails a flat fee for dinner, an all you can eat "salad" bar and then these guys come around to your table with large skewers of meat offering you all you can eat. They even have these cute little wands with green on one end and red on the other to let the meat bringers know whether to turn the meat faucet on or hold off for now. What a grand place. Yes, I'd love some of those turkey wrapped in bacon, and chunks of lamb, and some of that steak, and a bit of pork and a sausage or two, and some rib meat and some more steak. My god, what an excellent place to pig out on the protein diet. :) After the days work, Alan was obviously tuckered out, so I took him home and put him to bed, while I stayed up and watched Dangerous Beauty to get in the mood for this upcoming weekend at Night on the Piazza. Hee hee hee, I'm just bummed I don't have time to make a new dress from the 1560's to wear to the event. I guess I could, but it wouldn't be my best work and I'd stay up too many late nights working on it, and it's just not worth it.

So, Alan is back up at 7am on Sunday morning and between 7:30 and 10am he digs out the rest of the bed of the pond. Luckily this gives us dirt to finally fill in an old hole in the yard and to fill in around the cascade/waterfall from the pond filter back to the pond. Last year sometime we had built this cascade on cinder blocks that was in theory very cool, but since we never filled it in, it looked like crap. Now it looks fabulous! Eventually we'll need to plant some grass or maybe iris bulbs on the mound surounding the cascade, although we have thought of jokingly placing a white wooden cross on the mound. Tee hee hee. We also need to get a bunch of slate and river stones, etc. to fill in around the cascade more to make it look like more of a part of the yard rather than this odd structure. Next it will also be necessary to build back up the top of the box to hide the nailed in pond liner and build a bench on the tall corner. Eventually we will need to put in a half circle brick patio to finish off the project and make it a lovely area of the yard instead of an eyesore. I'm so excited. Then a lot of the afternoon was spent sitting out near the pond, futzing with stuff, Alan smoked a cigar and lazed about while we watched the pond fill up with the hose and started up the filter and waterfall. It was very relaxing and theaputic to look at it. I was so amazed that this project could get this far in one weekend. I also spent some time clipping more Fodils for vases in the house. Ahh, the house is once again full of fresh fodils, and I was even more artistic with the placement of the flowers in vases, etc. And I have found even more types of Fodils than before, almost 12 different types in the yard now. Jonquils, and small delicate white ones with coral centers and others with bright orange centers, and different bright yellow ones. It's absolutely breathtaking.

Lastly on Sunday we showered after the days work, I cut out the pieces for P. Signy's apron dress to sew tonight, and I packaged up some of the Fodils to take to Sam and Kelly's place for Easter dinner. I think this is the true purpose behind most holidays. To connect with those who are important in your life. Whether it is with family, friends as close as family, friends you haven't spent much time with lately, or just one other special person. Holidays are an excuse to get together, which is kinda sad that we need special days to remind us that we need to hang out with those we love. Kelly cooked us a lovely dinner of spiral cut ham, fresh green beans, fresh mashed potatos and a lovely pineapple upside down cake. We all had a great time and it was one of the most enjoyable Easters I have had in a long time, away from home. Life was good. Laura drank a little too much wine and was funny as heck, Alan peeled potatos, I got to play with Bailey the dog, and all was well in the world.

When we got done after dinner, we went home and I had hoped to get some sewing done on the apron dress, but it was not in the cards. I unloaded the dishwasher, and read a chapter in Persuasion and could barely keep my eyes open so I sacked out early. No sewing for me that night. That's okay, because I plan to sew up a storm tonight. And just as I am getting productive, Wendy is trying to tempt me from work and drag me out to a movie. While Bridget Jone's Diary sounds funny, I really need to finish this stuff up by Wednesday to hand off for Keilyn to take back to D'wald. Perhaps Wendy and I will go out and see a movie on Wednesday night. I tried to convince her to come on over and keep me company tonight while I sew. Rent a movie, some on over. Well, I'll let you know if I was able to persuade her to come on over.

One of the best parts of Sunday was when Keilyn's Best Girl called to ask me a question. She actually did make the time to make a new Italian Ren outfit for Night on the Pizzaria, and had issues with the lacing rings. She sewed them all painstakenly in and then when she went to lace herself up, they went flying everywhere and pulling out from the stitches. I told Genie that they will do that unless they are soldered shut or butch enough to withstand the tension. So, she had her Sweetpea solder them shut and now I can't wait to see the new digs this weekend. I also gave her a bit of advice on the sleeves. I like to feel knowledgable and helpful. It gives me purpose, other than just being cute.

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