Good Morning Humans!

Ahhhh, we are in the Christmas season. I am watching my neighbor deftly putting up his outside lights. He makes it look so easy.

Now is the time of year to go hear holiday music sung by choirs, played by orchestras, danced to in the Nutcracker.

So, why were we accosted by someone in one of those bouncy T Rex costumes at Orchestra Hall last night?

Because it was the hubster’s birthday. Ha!

Well, also because the Minnesota Orchestra was playing the score as the audience watched Jurassic Park on the big screen above the stage.

I haven’t had that much fun in a long, long time.

That audience was ready for a good time and the Orchestra delivered in aces. Conductor Sarah Hicks encouraged us to cheer for the good guys and boo the villains.

And, boy,  did we ever, with the biggest cheer going for the T Rex when he comes into the Visitor Center and swoops up the raptor threatening Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler and the kids.

Another cheer was raised for Dr. Sattler’s finish of Ian’s “God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.”    Her response of “Dinosaurs eat man…woman inherits the earth, ”  was well received.

And the laughs…wow! I think because this movie is now 25 years old and the members of the audience have watched in their living rooms more than once, they were tuned to the parts they thought funny. And what was magical was those individuals found that others joined in their laughter, too.

It was a packed house that moved and wheeled together as one, just as Dr. Grant observed of the birdlike behavior of the gala…gala…gallamimuses. But instead of a predator causing that behavior, it was the shared joy of a cultural event enhanced by the strong performance of Minnesota’s Orchestra.

And when John Williams’ name came up on the credits, they cheered.

And when Sarah Hicks put down her baton, the audience leapt to their feet as one to cheer their Orchestra, thanking them for the wonderful experience.

And when the French horn section stood up, they cheered even louder!

Oh, it was a happy event, from the T Rex greeting everyone in the lobby, to the laughter at the chubby kid at the dig site who becomes wide eyed after Dr. Grant schools him on why the raptor would be scary, to sight of the California condors flying above the ocean as they leave the island.

Happy Birthday, Hubster.

We celebrated another holiday here on Thursday. ( Yep, a bonafide transition)

I discovered a few days before as I set up the tables that the white tablecloths that I had wouldn’t be long enough. Dang.

So, it was off to JoAnn’s to see if I could get either five yards of the extra wide    or,  gulp, ten yards of 45 inch wide.  Now if you’re not a crafter, you perhaps don’t know what this store is like around holidays. To say it’s busy is not enough. Crazy is closer.

So I’m in the fabric area looking at the extra wide fabrics. Hmmmm. Nope. Nothing here. So I meander over to the fall fabrics which are now on sale at 50% off.  Oooh, I like that. Bummer. Not enough on the bolt for 10 yards. Oooh, there’s another one. Hmmm, same story.  Not enough. The only bolt with enough fabric is and ugly plaid with acorns and leaves on it.

But then I see it—it’s perfect! It’s sparkly! It’s not enough.  And as I look longer at the bolts, I see another bigger bolt of the same print.

SCORE!!!!!

My number at the cutting table is 86 and they’re on 84. But there’s a sale on fleece and people are stocking up.  After all, winter is coming.

So, I wait.

When I finally get there, I find out that the average bolt has 8 yards on it. So I need to split it up to five and five. I’ll have to have a seam down the middle of the tablecloth.

Go through checkout which by now is snaking around corner with about 12 people in line. Sigh.

Go home. Put the fabric in the washing machine, then the dryer as I catch up on an episode of Cracker.( critically acclaimed 90’s BBC mystery with, of all people, Hagrid as the hard boozing, gambler of a profiler)

Well, it’s not Hagrid really because he could just tower over people and get the accused to confess. It’s the actor who played Hagrid in the Harry Potter series. And just like the actor who plays Mr. Bean, he is talented.

I digress. So now the fabric is out of the dryer and I have glittery lint. Everyone at least once on their lives should reach for the lint filter and discover glitter lint.

It’s like a unicorn has stopped in your laundry room. Cheers up everything!

So now it’s Wednesday and I am finally ready to start sewing this tablecloth together.

Bulky and unwieldy doesn’t even touch it. Wrangling two five foot pieces of fabric through the ironing and then sewing process was an exercise in logistics. Squaring it off afterward was, uh , interesting. And I needed to make two tablecloths, one very long and one very short, for the card table.

The long one came together with a lovely drape over the side.

The card table one, not so much. The problem was that the edge of the card table is not a 90 degree angle, there’s a rounded edge to it.

Result? With the long tablecloth draping perfectly in the background, the short one covering the card table looked like a French maid’s frilly lace  headpiece. It had wings like Sally Field’s Flying Nun.

Drat.

It was now Wednesday evening. I was going to need to lengthen the shorter one on Thursday morning.

Something you need to know about me: I am not spatially smart. That’s the hubster’s forte. So, adding on to the already existing square was not an easy job for me.

But still she persisted.

People were set to arrive at noon. I finished the smaller tablecloth at 11:35. Nothing says you’ve got to finish this like people showing up!!

But I will tell you this. There are more seams in that little tablecloth than a comparable area of a quilt top.

Ironing helps.

So, that left 25 minutes to shower, do the hair, put on makeup. Applying the mascara was the last thing to do  and as I heard people start to arrive, I missed the tube and smeared a nice thick black stripe of mascara across my thumb.

Oh brother.

So, it has been an exciting couple of days here. I hope that you have had a warm and wonderful start to your Christmas season. May it continue full of laughter, good food, and fat snowflakes that fall only on the grass.

Love,

Janet