remembering

Sherlock Holmes, the movie - no spoilers here

Allow me to rave a little about "Sherlock Holmes":

I think this is probably THE BEST movie that Robert Downey Jr. has ever done. I don't usually like Robert Downey Jr, nor do I like Jude Law, but I have to say that in this movie, they were both brilliant! It's a fun movie, although set in dark and gloomy London, similar to the set of "Sweeney Todd, The Butcher of Fleet Street". The music is great, the story is great, and the acting is wonderful.

If you haven't seen it, RUN, don't walk, to the nearest theater showing it!

Harry made me do it.

Well, I should NEVER go to see Harry Potter movies. The problem is that I like them too much. They get me thinking about all the little stories I told myself when I was a kid, and all the little stories I told my daughter when she was a kid. See, I happen to think that we ALL have a little magic in us, especially women. It's just that we often forget about it, what with growing up and boyfriends, and husbands, and kids and responsibilities. In fact, I think we have A LOT of magic in us, if we just slow down enough, often enough, to remember it. I've been playing with my sparkly ladybug magic wand these last two days. I'm not so proficient with it and spend a lot of time sparkling things up. Luckily, Celeste knows when to dodge the magic wand sparkles and when they're just sparkles that are falling out of my spinning batts. She's only had sparkles from one or the other on her a couple of times. Both, I might add, are equally magical!

I remember that huff and fluff that was going on in the various churches some years back, when they decided that Harry Potter stories were DANGEROUS to kids and threats to God and the church. I thought it was ridiculous then and I still do. As I was perusing the Harry Potter books on Amazon.com this afternoon, I noticed that right there, among all that printed magic, was a book that warned about the dangers of Wicca to children. Well, I have to say that Harry Potter has nothing to do with Wiccan beliefs. While listening to the hubbub about it, after my sister got kicked out of her church because her kids revealed in Sunday school that they had indeed read ALL the Harry Potter books (gasp!!!), and when I discovered Lynn V. Andrews's books, I did some in-depth digging into the Wiccan religion and investigated. Just call me "Super Sleuth".

Wiccanism's nothing to do with Harry Potter. I have no judgements to proclaim, except to say that I just can't get into it as a religion. It's not for me. It is very interesting, though, and I think that before condemning it, one should know about it.

But anyway, because Harry was so good for me this week and lifted my spirits so immensely, I ran right over to Amazon.com, as I was saying earlier, and looked for some more fun and magical books. I haven't read all of the Potter series, and intend to do so when I get home in September because, you know, those corrupted children in my sister's house have all the stories, PLUS the Spiderwyck series!!! At this point, I think I need to point out that I corrupted my own daughter at an early age with the Wizard of Oz and later, with Magyck (the Septimus Heap series opener), Phillipa Gregory's book The Wise Woman, and Monica Furlong's Wise Child and Juniper. Even later, I turned her on to Diana Gabaldon's Voyager series and she traveled through time in her dreams.

She didn't tumble headlong into Wicca because of it - but she DID name her dog Juniper.

And when my mom was alive, all the women in our family, from age 7 to seventy, stumbled into a magical store in Olde Town in Fort Collins (just to the right of platform 9 1/2) to get a price on a Nimbus 2000 and wands similar to those used in the movies. Luckily for us, they were priced WAY out of our Christmas shopping budget. If they had been more affordable, we might have spent that Christmas zapping one another. Then the Church would probably have sent us all to hell, post haste. Good thing that fate intervened, isn't it?

Back to the search through Amazon.com for a Harry Potter-like magic fix. It turns out that I only glanced through Magyck in a very cursory way and don't remember much, if any, of the story. So I ordered the first two books in the Septimus Heap series, and then pre-ordered the one that's due out in a couple of months. And then I ordered Abby Franquemont's new spindling book, too, due out in December. Sorry, Abby. I didn't order from your website, even though I'd love to have your autograph. The money I saved by not having you sign the book will go towards the shipping costs. Spindling is a magical process in itself.

There. I said it. I admit it. I blew my fiber budget for next month on frivolous magic and IT'S ALL HARRY'S FAULT.

Sunday

Well, this is the last day of the Tour d' Fleece, and I've definitely bitten off more than I could chew. I managed to complete the Cabaret yarn, and filed a spindle with Rough Cut Diamonds, but only one, and I've got a private English lesson coming at 11, and a correspondence course on the puter that I've got to work on. Wah. I need to learn to stop over-committing and pace myself. I'm a non-finisher. But at least I've got 900 yards of really pretty sparkly yarn for a shawl and matching socks, probably...and the Rough Cut Diamonds is going to be nice, too. I should probably do some housework and laundry, too, before the lessons show up in a couple of hours. This apartment smells like STINKY DOG FEET.

And, I've been reading the Yarn Harlot's blog. She has a troll. Terrible. You may remember that I had a troll of my own a while back. I have sympathy for her, but Steph is lucky in that her troll doesn't personally know her, so cannot personalize her nastiness to the extent that mine did. I think, though, that she will be able to get past the ugliness by not responding to it. Delte all the ugly comments without posting a one, and not responding in any way to the comments or e-mails. I wonder what moves people to be so ugly on line. I wonder why they always feel so justified in their written attacks on others. I've had a lot of time to think about it, and I know that it has to be some kind of mental imbalance. After doing some research, I have learned a lot about Borderline Personality Disorder, and I feel like this fits my previous troll to a T. If you Google this, you will find a wealth of information on it. I can't think about this anymore - it still bothers me - so I'm moving on to another topic.

I went to see Harry Potter and The Half-blood Prince last yesterday afternoon. I loved it! I went kind of apprehensive, because all those child actors are growing up and I wondered how good it might be. I hoped the movie would still have all the charm that the first couple did. And it did. The ending is left open for the continuation, so I imagine that another one will be on the way in the next year or two. No spoilers here. I'll just say thank goodness there was no extended quiddich game. Just a short, quick match to prove the power of the mind.

Twilight? Get the Leash!

Well, the Terrible Twosome seem to have recovered from their binge night in the fridge. Both are back on their regular feed and no unscheduled trips to the potty or dangerous explosions happening at unexpected times. So, hopefully that won't happen again for a long time. The kitchen is mostly restocked after being ravaged, but I'm still out of most of my dry goods. We don't keep ready-made foods in the house, other than bread and crackers, but the need to cook didn't seem to slow things down at all in this instance. I may need to re-think what foods I'm keeping. I need anti-binge foods for both man and beast, heh.

While O was feeling crappy, I went to the movies by myself. There wasn't much to see, so I watched "Crespúsculo", or "Twilight". The name is in Spanish, but the movie is in English with Spanish subtitles. I've never heard of it, but the advertisement said that it was based on the book that has captured millions of readers. The movie was pretty good, but I didn't think it was adult movie fare. It was an interesting story, well done if you like vampires (and high school stories), but definitely a young adult or older teen flick. I'm not sure why they called it "Twilight", because these vampires came out in the daytime. I may have to get a cd of it to watch again. Sometimes I miss the most obvious things in movies. Last time I reviewed a movie on my blog, I was chastised, so today I'm not a movie critic. No spoiler here. So go see it. I wouldn't take my little kids to it, though.

Celeste has learned to bring her leash to us whenever she wants to go outside. What a good girl! No more silently staring at us with desperate eyes for her! She grabs her leash from the coffee table and drags it to wherever we are. If we are busy or distracted, she sings a little to us to get our attention. With the leash there, of course we go immediately to the bike path or park - no waiting. A relief for her and a relief for us, too.

Mad Mr. T - Fleet Street's Demonic Barber **Warning - Spoiler**

I just got back from watching "Sweeney Todd, Demon Barber of Fleet Street". I enjoyed it. It was a dark comedic thing; the depiction of London was as gray as could be, without a hint of sunshine, until Mrs. Lovett's daydream about marrying mad Mr. T. In spite of many throats graphically cut and blood sprayed in all directions, Johnny Depp's performance was as brilliant as ever and he sings pretty well, too. I doubt I will ever get tired of him as an actor. The few interviews with him that I've seen have been much less than brilliant, but I could care less about his personal life or opinions so I don't hold those few dreary moments against him. (Not much of a fan then, am I?)

It's not, though, a movie for kids. As I said, throats graphically cut and blood sprayed in all directions, even by special effects...these might cause some nightmares...think "Edward Scissorhands" with an attitude. In fact, those of us who have seen "Edward Scissorhands" will recognise the hair right away.

The only thing I didn't like about the movie was the ending. Mr. T is killed by a kid. Throat cut with his own razor, and simply bleeds to death with his dead wife (whom he's just discovered that he's killed) in his lap. I suppose that's life, though, and death. Most of us don't go out with a bang. We just go. No happy ending for this killer, no matter how he amazed us with his singing voice. In spite of that, I want the dvd when it comes out.

The Illusionist, Mimsy, and crochet...

I recently found a new movie (well, new for me), The Illusionist. As usual, I watched it several times. At first, I thought it was a beautiful love story. But with successive viewings, I began to understand that there was a hidden plot to kill one of the characters. The more I watch it, the more I understand that, yes, it it a love story, but also there is a plot to do away with one of the characters, very meticulously planned. Granted, the character of Prince Leopold is a dangerous one, but I watched the plot unfold and it could not possibly have happened without the cooperation of many, including the chief of police. The more I watch, the more intrigued I am at the subtleties on the plot and the story line. Amazing!

I also am still watching The Last Mimsy. Although there are many who apparently disliked this film, I am enjoying it.

Have you seen these? If so, what did you think of them?

I've also almost finished the black circulat vest. I'm on the last and seemingly endless round of the outer edge. I'm almost out of yarn, and I hope I can finish this without having to rip it out and think of another, less yarn-intensive edging, because I have no more black alpaca yarn, nor do I have more black novelty yarn after these last half-skeins. Then I need to block the vest, and I will not wash it, since there's still no regular sunshine and warmth, and I don't want it to mold. So I'll press it with steam and take care not to melt the gold monofilament in the novelty yarn.

I've got another hat finished that's ready to felt - it's of bright pink alpaca yarn and gray Peruvian sheep wool, one strand of each knitted together. I'm hoping for a nice mauve color, but I won't be felting it here, once again because there's no sign of the sun on a regular basis, and I can't risk putting a wad of mildew on a potential customer's head, not to mention that my hat form (the insert of an ancient tamale cooker) is in storage there at the farm, at least I hope it is...So I'll wait until I arrive at The Wooly Works to do the felting.

Finally, THE RULES have arrived

Yeay! The English grammar book that I ordered way back in the first part of June has FINALLY arrived. I had one before, but lent it out and it never returned. So, finally, when those students ask WHY?, I can answer. I ordered "English Grammar For Dummies", and the title is exact. I learned by immersion, and never was taught the names for the grammatical structures nor the rules. It simply WAS the proper way to speak, and there was a proper way and an improper way. So, finally, I have the RULES. The students here want THE RULES of grammar.

"The child confessed to have eaten all the candy" does not mean the same as "the child confessed to have been eaten all the candy"...it simply is not the same, but how to explain it to a non-English speaker without THE RULES of grammar? So, since I was not taught all THE RULES in rule terms, I need a book of grammar rules. Yeay. Now I have it, and what's more, it's for dummies, so it suits me just fine.

Along with English for Dummies came PRACTICAL MAGIC, a movie I have loved for years. Stockard Channing is one of my favorite actors. She makes a wonderfully eccentric witchy aunt, and is very SALTY. Just the right touch of magic, wit, and drama to be entertaining. I'm off to watch it now, as soon as I get the cellophane off of it!

Tuesday stuff

Not much going on here...I'm in the midst of the circular crocheted vest. It WAS on the way to being a sweater, but morphed while I was looking through other patterns, and now it's a vest. There's a lot of repetitive stitch work, and it's getting tedious, although I'm just about finished with it. Actually, that is why I'm writing now - I had to take a break from it. It's done in alpaca, the inside circle is a hand painted skein and the outside is the natural light fawn color of some alpacas. The whole piece is nice, but with the hand painted portion, it's beginning to look just a little too hippy, even for me.

Have you seen this? I can't remember how I came across her blog, but wow. It's done by Greenfingers. She does beautiful work! I really like the white doll.

I've been watching "The Last Mimsy". I love it. What a charming little story! I bought the cd. I only buy the movies that I'm sure I will watch more than once, since I tend to do that. I watch them several times, a habit I got into when my daughter was little, because inevitably I would be called away from the movie for something. So now I only buy the movies that I'm sure I will love. My next purchase will be "Stardust", if it ever comes to the theaters here. I've been waiting for it, but so far, only the posters have arrived here in Lima.

I finally got on Ravelry! Yey! But now I'm so busy surfing through it that I have not put up any of my own stuff - my stash, my FOs, my UFOs, etc. With time, I suppose. For now, I need to get a Flicker account, so I can add photos and, I guess, be seen.

And, lastly, I do try to be adventurous in food. But there is a limit to what I can handle. On Sunday afternoon, O and I went to eat at a place we'd never tried before. The food style was from northern Peru, specifically from Ferrañafe, which is quite close to Chiclayo. We tried tacu tacu. Everything I've read says it's made with beans, rice, bacon, and other basically harmless ingredients, so I was open to try it. And we ordered a cold dark malt beer to drink with it. When the food arrived, it was not as I was expecting, but hey, I'm not an expert here, so I ate.

Apparently, Ferrañafe style tacu tacu is different than the rest of the world's idea of what it should be. The meat was definitely NOT bacon. The flavor was quite good, and the sauce was wonderful. But the meat...well, let's say I suspected it was not something that I would be eating at any time. I thought it was the skin of a tongue, but later (O prudently refrained from telling me what it was while I was eating) I found out that it was the lining of a cow's stomach. But I had eaten it, and it was okay. Later that evening, though, the cow's stomach began to pitch a fit and fought with my own stomach, resulting in a HUGE case of heartburn. Luckily I do have quite a strong gut, and my stomach proved to be the stronger of the two. I hope I don't run into another cow stomach too soon.

TACU TACU

Ingredients :
3 cups canary beans
150 lb (300 g) pork fat or bacon, diced
2 cups of cooked rice
2 onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 fresh yellow aji/chili (aji amarillo fresco), seeded and deveined

Preparation:

Soak beans overnight. Drain and cook in unsalted water together with pork fat or bacon until soft.

Remove from heat and let cool. Beat with a wooden spoon to form a coarse purée. Set aside and let cool.

Heat oil in a large skillet and add onion, garlic and aji. Saute onion and aji until soft and tender and correct seasoning. Add the beans and the cooked rice, mix well and correct seasoning. Cook stirring, until golden and remove from heat.

To make the tacu tacu:
Take one part of the mixture into your hands and form a small oblong tamale.

Cover with bread crumbs or crackers to maintain shape.

Heat oil in skillet, place one part of the bean mixture, and fry turning constantly to avoid sticking. Repeat with the rest of the mixture.

Serve with breaded fried tenderloin, fried banana, fried egg and Creole sauce.


6 servings

Projects and a little movie magic

I've re-started my circular sweater/shrug. I'm crocheting it medium fawn alpaca blend yarn. I figure I've been procrastinating long enough. It's time to get moving on building my stock of hand knits to take to the craft shows this fall. So far, the poor little thing is only about 10 inches in diameter, but it'll grow quickly!

Celeste has been dancing through the house lately, and down the bike path, being a good girl most of the time. She is such a happy girl, joyful at seeing the world and happy every morning. She is a lot like my Sunny, who is now on the farm with my sister and her girls. He's very happy there, having the run of the place; lots of space to run and play, lots of trees to take a siesta under, lots of places to explore, and lots of comings and goings of people. Sunny is a naturally happy boy, and that is what makes him such an attractive dog. People are drawn to look Celeste, too, but I think it's more because of her strikingly blue eyes. She's happy, but her cup of happiness runs over when she meets someone and she tries too hard to jump all over them. She doesn't understand how big she is getting to be and she doesn't understand why they only want to look at her and not be completely LOVED by her.

Last night, Omar and I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Before the movie, we ate out at a polleria, and shared a quarter of a chicken, french fries, a salad, and a piece of cake...and the tail end of the Americas Cup soccer tournament. Brazil won - poor Argentina lost the cup, as they did the last time it was played, but still, what an accomplishment to be in the final game of the tournament!

The movie had everything! Funny, suspenseful, active, and full of the usual Hogwarts magic. We both enjoyed it. I guess I wasn't ready to see cute little Harry so grown up at first, but hey, kids grow. Still, by the time it was over, the age of the characters seemed completely appropriate for the movie content. Wouldn't we all like to have a magic wand and a flying broomstick sometimes? :o) There were times when I couldn't have felt more tense - I think I tend to immerse myself in the story a bit when I go to the movies, heh - but there were times when I was completely enchanted. One character that I hadn't seen before was Luna. She was wonderful - so innocent and so wise. Nothing malevolent about her and able to handle things with patience and sweetness that never left her. What a wonderful evening we had!

Sweaters, hats, and beads :o)

I walked down to Arequipa Avenue yesterday afternoon. There is a little shopping area there, with a grocery store, a movie theater, and a few restaurants. There's not really that much, not like a mall, but it's cute and the McDonald's is there. I treated myself to a Big Mac and walked around a bit, looking around and thinking. Omar and I went there to see the Fantastic Four on Thursday. I can't remember if it was the English or the Spanish version...and that strikes me as odd. I love going to movies, but usually, when the movie is in Spanish, I spend most of the time just trying to figure out what they are saying, and don't get to enjoy it that much. This time, I got to enjoy the movie. So that's something that makes me go hmmm.

The artisan fair closed up yesterday and I only went the one time. I'm pretty proud of myself for resisting! Here's a photo of one of the sweaters I got when I went:



Although the hood is a tiny little useless thing, and only there for the sake of the current style, I really like the pattern work, and it's alpaca, so it will be a warm one, I hope. So I'm good for sweaters for the moment. Here's another shot of the pattern work. I wish I was that good with intarsia and fair isle patterns. I have brought back stuff like this in the past, but oddly, what sells the very best is our own handknits. Most of these are handmade, but apparently too closely resemble machine-knit pieces for the taste of most folks. I imagine that most of them are looking for a one of a kind piece, or something that is very different-looking, which is where my work falls and that happy thought is comforting to me. Almost all of my knitted and crocheted items are unique pieces. I have only a few things that I do over and over, and even those change as my techniques change and improve. I know that things go in cycles, though, and that things could change. I have some very nicely made Peruvian knits tucked away for just that kind of situation.





On another knitting note, I have almost finished Maggie's 3rd chullo, and it's very different than the other two. I hope she likes it. I only have half an ear flap left to finish, then weave in the ends, and put tassels on. I'll do that this evening. Here's a quick shot of it, in it's unfinished state. It's longer than the others - long enough to put your lunch in on a cold day - and based on a pattern she suggested to me earlier.



I've also started a set of fingerless gloves for myself. It's chilly in the classrooms, but writing with gloves on is difficult and clumsy, so I decided that fingerless gloves are the way to go. I have one finished and the other one partially done. I'm getting better with the DPNs, so my next project will hopefully be socks! Anyway, these fingerless things are probably due to be ripped out and redone - they are turning out a little too big, and I want to bead them on the edges. Good practice, though, and I hope to be able to use them before winter's end.

magic all around

Celeste got new pajamas yesterday. Mmmm...more like a bathrobe, heh. It's really a fleece dog sweater, but it's about 2 sizes too big and fits her loosely. So it drapes on her like a robe. She seems to love it, though, and went to bed in it last night. Voluntarily. I couldn't believe it. Usually, getting her to go to her own bed is like pulling teeth, but last night, with her fleece sweater on, she went to her own bed and was out like a light. She slept till almost 9 this morning! Another miracle! She's usually awake and destroying things at 5:30, but this morning was a different story. I was actually expecting to find a shredded fleece collar hanging from her neck and the rest of the sweater scattered around the laundry room, but it was intact! When I went into see if Celeste was still breathing, she just looked up at me from her laundry basket and yawned. As soon as I took her PJs off, she sprang into action and leaped around the apartment like a horny toad, so I know she's normal outside of the sweater...maybe they're magic pajamas! Maybe they keep the monsters away, like Ms. Violet did.

I went to the artisan fair today in the big parking lot just a couple of blocks away. It's open through Sunday. Most of the vendors are from the mountain areas, and they sell knitwear, mostly, but a few also have herbs and herbal remedies, and some folk magic stuff. As I walked through the aisles, I noticed a few gallon jars of preserved snakes, monopoly money, copal incense, and various animal bones...all for casting spells to bring money, chase away the evil eye, protection against other spells and curses, and the like. I passed a booth that had piles of herbs and incense on it and heard bells and chanting coming from behind a curtain, heavy incense smoke filling the air. I wasn't allowed to peek behind to see what was happening, but I know that voodoo workings are still practiced in some areas of Peru, including parts of Lima. I can't tell how seriously people take it or how often they make this part of their lives, although I do know that Omar's cousin is currently employed by a company from Spain, to read tarot cards over the phone. This is the first place I have ever been where "eye of newt" would be an item that people would go shopping for, and you really might find it on the shelf.

I wonder why I didn't see magic wands. Is the wand a European creation, not included in voodoo magic? When I have gone to craft shows and eclectic stores in the United States, I always see those kinds of items, including wands.

Anyway, I came away from the fair with 2 beautiful sweaters, one all alpaca and the other probably an acrylic blend, a pair of hand-knit socks with matching mittens, a jar of very strong-tasting honey, a jar of carob syrup, and the first three Harry Potter movies for about dollar a piece - the extent of my magic for the day. I didn't buy any herbs or snake bits. I think the movies might see me through Saturday. Omar had a change of plans and has to return Saturday afternoon...he has classes on Sunday, so is cutting his visit in Trujillo short by a day. I'm glad. I know he enjoys visiting his family and friends there but I miss his presence here in the house.

The Bear

There is an older movie out again in DVD. It's called "The Bear". Have you seen it? Made in 1989, it is the story of two bears. A bear cub's mother is killed in a rock slide, and the cub goes on his own at a very young age. Not much dialogue in human form, but an amazing story all the same. I highly recommend it! Celeste has left me here at my computer to go in the living room to watch this movie. She has her spot on the floor, on the doormat, where she has parked herself to listen to the sounds of the birds, the frogs, mountain creeks, and the bears.

Omar hasn't seen it yet. I wonder how he will feel about the vast mountain ranges and, as a complete city boy, the lack of people.