Dec. 14th, 2014

lauradi7dw: (Default)
Background music (although it's worth watching)


URL here if that doesn't work  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqGfvtJvaSg

The most important part of the Christmas prep was done months ago - buying tickets to visit relatives.
More recently:
Cards done except for the last-minute ones that get sent when we receive one I didn't expect.
Charity money donated.
Little kid presents to strangers added to collection site.
Sappy Hallmark Channel Christmas movies watched (or at least fast-forwarded through.  I even made up a better ending for the one in which the protagonist finally sold her late husband's failing bike shop in order to follow her dream of making and selling cookies - she should have combined them to do something like the Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington Center, which is mostly a coffee shop with pastries, but also sells bikes and fixes them).  Also saw the last few minutes of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (its 50th year!), Charlie Brown's Christmas, and about half a minute of White Christmas, all onTV.
Home decorations:
I have greenery with decorations on two tabletops downstairs.  I took photographs, but can't find the cable that attaches the camera to the laptop. It probably ran away with the missing library book.  If I find it when some cleaning takes place, I'll edit to add the images. One thing I noticed after I set everything up was that almost all the ornaments we have (not many in total) are handmade, either by a young Flo or by someone far away, bought at international crafts markets.  Exception: the plastic Hello Kitty wreath.   The string of lights I thought we threw away were in the attic and work oddly - if plugged in all the way, they don't turn on.  If partly plugged in, about half of them light.  Still pondering a solution.

To be done:
Youth choirs with manger scene tableau (this afternoon)
Blue Heron concert (Thursday)
Messiah sing (Friday)
Chanuka activities (brought some stuff down from the attic, but the holiday doesn't start until Wednesday evening).
Baking (this may not happen, but I have the indgredients available for the vegan ginger people).  I will buy frozen latkkes - no interest in cooking with all that oil in our own pan.

Personal opinion: there is no such thing as an ugly Christmas sweater (I suppose if it had violent or racist or anti-woman or other such slogans on it, it might be ugly).  I think the parties mocking them are a bit mean.  I don't have one (although I have an uncomfortable sweatshirt that says Ho Ho Ho on it that my aunt gave me decades ago), but I do have a velveteen vest with appliqued poinsettia blooms on it that I bought for a tap dance show once, which I will wear.
lauradi7dw: (Default)
It turned up immediately in a search, it has exactly the information I needed on the front (only) page, and I probably know enough code that I could make one like it if I wanted to do so.  I might add a photo of a solar hot water heater, but what the heck.   This guy takes care of our (Carter-era) solar hot water system. I *want* him to be old-school.
http://easternsolarservice.com/
lauradi7dw: (Default)
About a month ago, we were in London.  I mentally composed a long list of stuff that happened, with photographs, and thoughts about repeated travel to a place, but I never typed it.  Maybe some day. Just this one subtopic now.  It seemed to me that there was more hijab diversity in London than there is here, but maybe I'm not paying enough attention.  Several times I saw one and thought "How beautiful" and also that it was really familiar, in a throwback to medieval European headwear kind of way.  When I was rummaging through old cards in the attic the other day, I found the partcard version of this portrait

Detail available here, including the ability to zoom in or out  
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/robert-campin-a-woman
The ones I saw on the Tube etc that I admired were not made out of that kind of fabric, but the draping was similar, including the pin placement, sometimes.  If we saw her on the subway today, would we just think that she is Muslim, rather than a time traveler?  (the women I saw were wearing it with jeans and long-sleeved shirts and jackets, I think, not a 15th century gown).
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