'I'm tired of knitting this sweater. I think I'll run for president this year.'
~Gracie Allen
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
A visit to Atlanta (and a football game)
Donny and I went to Atlanta last weekend for the SEC Championship game. We had a good trip up on Friday, both of us still working most of the way up. We checked into the Inn at the Peachtrees, where we ran into a group of Gator fans from Monticello. They warned us that the rooms were very small. They were right. The hotel was well located, but lacked some conveniences. We unpacked, changed, and walked down to Centennial Park and over to Peasant Bistro for a very nice dinner. Then we went up to the Marriott to have a drink, then back to the Inn. Our room hadn't gotten any larger in our absence.
The next morning as I lay in bed I heard drums and thought, "is that a band?" Surely not. But when we went to breakfast we still heard band sounds and on television there was a parade that appeared to be local. Some people were looking out the glass doors and we realized that the parade on television was happening right outside our hotel. I ran up to get my camera (and some warmer clothes!) in time to photograph Kermit the Frog,
and President Obama.
Since we were out and about, we found a shop that sold game related items and bought some more layers of Gator clothing. It was really cold! Donny passed on this fetching hat. I think he thought it may have been a bit too "Bear Bryant" looking for the occasion. We went back to the room and "suited up," then headed down to the World Congress Center for the FanFare. It was not too exciting, but we did see Danny Wuerffel, and Bobby Bowden and some guy from ESPN! Finally, it was almost game time. We went to the Dome and found our seats. Here's our view. Pretty nice, huh? And sitting right in front of us was a former student of mine, Michael Lynn. Quite a coincidence.
Here's the last happy picture from the evening. We had dinner afterwards with Donny's friend Doug and his aunt Sue at Pittypat's Porch. I had always wanted to eat there but it was a disappointment. Perhaps it's better when you haven't just lost a football game.
It was a long ride home the next day, but all in all I had a great time. However, I don't think Donny will be taking me to any football games again. I am pretty sure he blames this one on me.
I met Lisa and John in Austin 11/6/09, where we stayed at the Austin Motel. We spent the weekend eating and listening to music and shopping. We had a wonderful time.
On Friday night we listened to a band at the Continental Club, then went to El Sol Y La Luna for dinner, where we dined with music provided by a mariachi band. After that we walked to Antone's and heard, among others, Jimmy Vaughn (below).
Saturday we got up and had breakfast at Guero's, then shopped along South Congress Street. Here are Lisa and John after a productive visit to Allen's Boots.
After a brief rest back at the motel,...
...we took a taxi across town to El Zunzal, a Salvadoran restaurant. Lisa and John declared that it was pretty good (they are experts on Salvadoran cuisine.) We had pupusas and platanos and Suprema beer. I liked that a lot!
We went back downtown and visited the Weird Museum. Then we walked down Congress toward the motel where John took our photo in front of the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue.
From there we walked to the Ann Richards' bridge to await the millions of bats that emerge at twilight.
That evening we went back to Guero's and sat outside and listening to music.
The next morning we said good by to Austin and flew to Tallahassee.
Lisa and John had lots of other adventures, including stops in Las Vegas, Death Valley, Area 51, and a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, but when they returned to Swamp Cottage, we went to Bainbridge and ran a 10K (where they both won first place medals in their age groups) and went paddling on the Wakulla. The manatees didn't let us down, and Lisa spotted a gator!
SC&K had a kayak surfing weekend just for women. It was great! I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. Doesn't get any better than that. There were 3 students each day, with Nigel teaching/coaching. That's me in the middle in both photos below.
This weekend I went to the Wanee Music Festival at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. It was wonderful -- great music, camping, a bit of rain, lots of mud. Laura Kate came over on Saturday and stuck it out through the rain. The only other person that I knew that I saw there was Robert McMullen.
Photos aren't great, but they give you and idea of what it was like. If you go to Youtube and enter Wanee 2009, you'll pull up some videos. There's one of Susan Tedeschi playing with the Allmans last night.
This year we went to Tybee Island for a week -- all of us -- Christopher and Marie, Nicholas, Bucky, Bryn, and Don. The weather was...well, awful. We arrived in a terrible rainstorm, but that's not unusual, then it got cold, windy, and continued raining for the next couple days. It did warm up into the 70s, and the wind died down, but it never really stopped raining.
However, we still had a good time, and the time went by way too quickly. Christopher and Marie went to Savannah several times, once for a cooking class and once to do a "foody" tour. Very cool, as Marie pronounced them both. Donny worked a lot. I had lunch in Savannah with Kristin, and she and I went paddling on Thursday to Little Tybee. Nicholas played a lot of Grand Theft Auto, ate a ton of shellfish, and pronouced the stromboli at Cousin Vinnies "the best."
We stayed in one of Diane Kaufman's Mermaid Cottages, a beautiful old house that we all just loved.
Here's a collage of the Tybee Turtles (Hey! Is that Johnny Depp?). For more photos, go here.
I have finally finished two items from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing. This book is very popular, but like the two other sewing books I've bought, the patterns aren't really that well drafted and the instructions aren't great either. You'd think I'd learn. I really love Heather Ross fabric, which is what I used for both garments. The tunic is made from "Swim Class" from her Mendocino line. Aren't the fishies cute? This is actually the second one of these I made...not on purpose. When I was planning the pattern layout I made a mental note not to flip any of the pieces or the fish would be upside down. So I flipped all the pieces and it looked like a school of dead fish. I went ahead and finished that one, though, so I could see how I fit (all my mistakes become "muslins.") I'm glad I did because the sleeves were very long, so I adjusted them and the hem. I'm not crazy about how the placket goes in and I played with that a lot but couldn't come up with a better idea. Also, I serged the edges of the placket rather than fold them over, and I'm not crazy about how that came out, but it will do. I made a LOT of bias binding from the seahorse fabric, so I had plenty left over to bind the sleeves and hem. Even though you can't see the seahorses very well, I know they are there.
The sundress is made from a older line, Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries. I really like the colors. The instructions for this one, though, were really basic, and the drawings weren't much help. For instance, the bodice front piece is curved on top, and the back is curved on the bottom, but in the drawing they are both straight, so it took some figuring to put them together. (Look at the photo of the dress in the book -- the flowers on the straps are upside down, so I'm not the only one who is design challenged.) Also, I didn't like the way she tacks down the back straps after the bodice is sewn, so I fit them and put them in the way I thought they should go. The danger with this is that the back hem may be off if you don't get them right, but I still think this looks better than if I had handsewn the straps on top of the finished bodice. All in all, I think that the designs in Weekend Sewing are interesting. The patterns are very basic so you will need to add your own markings for center lines and so on, and I have no idea why she uses 3/8" seam allowances, which is annoying (standard is 5/8" and some designers, like Amy Butler, use 4/8", but 3/8" is awkward and too small, I think.) BUT the photography and design of the book are simply beautiful and will make you want to sew, even if you don't use her patterns exactly.
