Vakkotaur

sistaur, meet mnfiddledragon.

mnfiddledragon, meet sistaur.

NOTE: mnfiddledragon's posts are friends-only, so not everyone will be able to see them. The important thing here is that sistaur will be able to see them when she's logged in to LJ.

Thanksgiving Day and dinner went well. As usual, good food and more than enough of it. This time the gathering was rather small with only five of us: Mom, Dad, me, Jay, and my grandmother. After dinner there was the exchange and opening of presents, at least the ones that had been wrapped. The Mac Mini seems to be going over well (I have to be careful, I might start wanting a Mac myself). I got a Non Sequitur desk calendar, and a couple books, one of which is Sewing 101 which will be useful for at least one upcoming project. And rounding things out were a few sewing supplies.

Yesterday jmaynard and I went up to the Twin Cities and met up with my sistaur and her housemate, and our (sister & me) folks. ( This was a slightly delayed birthday gathering. )

The travelling was nicely uneventful, and the family gathering was pretty much what I'd expected. It was amusing to see Jay's reaction to a real Winter cold snap. Well, it amused those who saw it and who were not Jay. The meal(s) were all quite good. The homemade cole slaw was really good. It makes one realize how lacking the stuff one gets in restaurants is.

Pa's computer and the Knoppix CD evidently did not get along, which was rather disappointing. However the other CD with the various Windows cleaning tools turned out to be effective and with it Jay got rid of a big nuisance, and probably a few smaller ones. After a couple tries, I managed to get the needed printer driver installed and now Pa can use the desktop machine for what the (now defunct) laptop been used for. Also, Firefox was installed so hopefully a reinfection will not be as likely.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the presents they got. Well, maybe I came across otherwise with regards to one item. I'm not that good at faking appreciation when I get something I don't see the point of right off. Once home, I looked through the manual some and I'll likely try the gadget later this week. I also need to find a spot to put one rather delicate item. Looking around for an obvious good place for it, I discovered there wasn't one. At least not yet.

Saturday was spent at MNRF. This time I arrived a bit before opening gate and saw that the pre-gate show was about like last years, though I didn't see (or hear) much of it being well back from things. Once inside, I met Mistress Bawd and gave her prints of some photos I'd taken at Siouxland. All but one were pretty good, and one really turned out well. I had been snapping away, trying to take the picture when she wasn't singing. I was concentrating on her mouth, really. She leaned over (at about a 30 degree angle to me, not facing me head on) and *FLASH*. She paused to playfully scold me a bit about that - but later felt the need to tell me she was just playing the part. The resulting photo (no, I don't have it scanned - but she might get it scanned) turned out well. It's actually fairly tasteful compared to what it could so easily have been.

I watched and listened to Bawd again later when she performed at the Queen's Pub. All around, a good performance. She seems to have a knack, though, for catching me unprepared. I didn't have a verse ready for "Roll Your Leg Over" when she figured I did. Every time I think of one, someone uses it, and I haven't come up with one of my own. Perhaps I should give it a bit of thought. Chances are if I'm actually ready, I'll never be asked again. (This is not a solicitation for helpful suggestions - if I were to do that, this post be friends-locks and behind an LJ-cut with a warning before it.)

More time was spent chatting with rillaspins, though not so much in the morning. I stopped by mainly to let her know my folks would be at there and would stopping by. I went off to see if I could find the Zilch the Tory Steller or the Molly Hares, as I had a few more photos. I did catch up with Zilch (and I have yet to any of his acts at MNRF this year. That will be rectified, even if just on Signed Saturday)

When I got back to Rilla's grove, my folks were there chatting with here. Now Rilla has an idea of how I got this way... The folks and I wondered about a bit, and I did manage to drop off the remaining photos in the Molly Hares' wagon. Let's see. We saw Tuey's juggling act, some Morris dancing mainly since that's the best way to get a good seat for Vilification Tennis, which my mother hadn't really seen before. (She knew better than to admit it when they asked who hadn't seen it before.) There must have been more, I don't recall it.

Well, there was Bawd's act, but they decided they go do something else or maybe just leave to get home at a reasonable hour. As mentioned above, I stayed for her act. Afterward, I took a few pictures (no bending over this time) of her, standing in front of the flowers and water behind the Queen's Pub. It's a really nice background.

Sometime during the day I caught up with the part of Vagabond (normally a two man musical act, but one isn't available this season) and bought a CD to replace a stretched tape. Also found where a different soap vendor was located, but they didn't have the thing I was looking for. When I asked about it, they said they didn't carry with them as it wasn't a big seller, but if I called and reminded them Friday they'd pack up some for me to pick on Saturday.

Back at Rilla's grove I sat and chatted a bit more. Tom, who I'd seen (and had seen me) at Rosenthorne last year talked a bit. I jokingly mentioned Free Bird and got quite a scowl about that. I don't know what the attraction is with Free Bird that some people seem to have.

The only downsides to the day happened after I left the festival. I stopped for supper at a Hardee's in St. Peter. That wasn't bad, but I got a Sprite. When I was on the road again I noticed a sore throat starting, and the Sprite seemed to make it worse. What gives? Is this a reaction to carbonation? To sugar water? Or did the day's dust finally catch up with me? Or a long delayed reaction to that Guinness? The other downside was the bad news about Jay's father and United losing his luggage. I was under the impression that the gate-checked bag with the costume had been lost, but it was the normally checked bag. I should have known. Had it been the costume that was lost, there would likely have been enough heat for helium fusion.

Sunday was slow, overall, but ended with a trip to Minneapolis to pick up Jay's suitcase, the handling of which had been bungled yet more. To make the trip a bit more useful, we stopped at my sister's place and I retrieved the windbreaker I'd left behind a while ago. The three of us went out to Khan's Mongolian Barbecue and ate. And ate. I'm still feeling rather full. I overspiced my first bowl, and I was trying to follow the "mildly spicy" guide, too. I goofed, but in a good way. I think the spiciness just overwhelmed my sore throat and I'm feeling rather better, though still not as well as I'd like. Jay and I took my sister back to her house and then headed for home ourselves. Today might feel long - we got back just after midnight.

A couple months ago jmaynard and I visited my sister and we went out to a Baker's Square for dessert. They didn't have the particular pie that she wanted, but said that they'd have it again in May. Well, since it's May.. and this is the one weekend we both had free, Jay and I went up and visited my sister again. She gave me a tape that I'll likely listen to on the way to RCFM. I expect Jay might not appreciate it.

Again we went to Baker's Square. This time they had the desired pie. Since Jay and I hadn't had lunch yet, we had lunch there first. All in all a good time, and rather filling. Afterwards we went to Border's looking for a music section. That Border's didn't have much of anything musical, but the DVDs were of interest. It would have been easy to spend far too much. I held back on only got one DVD, Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett. This is perhaps the best adaptation of Doyle's stories. Unlike the Rathbone movies, Watson is competent and not a buffoon. (Really, would Holmes have put up with a buffoon?)

Since we didn't find the hoped-for music section, we went on to a Barnes & Noble and tried again. This place had a decent music section and a nice setup to listen to bits of some tunes. The one tune I was looking for, If I Had A Million Dollars sung by Johnny Mercer wasn't in stock - and was only available as part of a $200+ set. I'm not after it that badly. More than a few minutes were spent looking around. And then the Spike Jones stuff was pointed out to me. Uh oh. I spent a chunk. I bought the 4-CD set Strictly For Music Lovers and the single CD (not a CD single) Spiked!. That should hold me for a while, though there is another Spike Jones collection that I'm still thinking about.

Then it was back to my sister's place where it seemed not too much was done beyond talking and much petting of animals. But it sure went on for quite a while and was time well spent. At least I think it was.

There is a curiosity. The odd "machinery" music common through Warner Bros. cartoons is Powerhouse. That... tune... is on the one CD of Spike Jones stuff. Usually when Spike got a hold of something, it became more manic and strange. Powerhouse, though, is already manic and strange compared to most music. The Spike Jones version seems odd. It's not calm, but seems rather gentle compared what I'm used to. Or at least compared to craziness I was expecting. It's really weird to hear the Spike Jones treatment of something sound more normal than the common or well-known version.

Well, jmaynard's folks are in the Fairmont area this week. We saw their new motorhome last night. They saw our house. And we all had a supper at the local Mexican restaurant (which was the third night in a row for me & Jay - not bad, but I'm ready for something else now).

We'll be making our way, though not all together, to Sioux Falls on Friday. Current plans are to meet up with Billie & James for supper at Nap's Alabama Barbecue, then we all spend Saturday at the Siouxland Renaissance Festival. Depending on the weather they may well be another potluck there Saturday evening. I'm not doing the M&M thing again, though. Maybe I'll just get some bread spreads (peanut butter, Nutella, jellies and such) and if it rains, well, they can be used in Osceola, IA in a couple weeks.

Jay & I will stay for Sunday, or most of it, at the festival. His folks will be going on their way to see a bit of the Fargo area. We will likely see them again in Minneapolis next week for supper at Lindey's.

This weekend should be quite interesting. Last year was Siouxland's first year and they got more right than many well-established faires do. Sure, they had a few misfires, but they didn't have any big misfires. It seems as if everyone (performer, vendor) asked to be invited back. And the Siouxland folks not only took notes, so to speak, but sought out ideas of what could be done better - and have since then set to work to fix those things. The only real problem they may have is one they can't control: the weather.