Another Thanksgiving Dinner That Couldn't Be Beat

  

At Stacy + Jim's for dinner last night, along with Bernice and friends and dogs. Way late, having too much fun.

No chance of a hike today; snowing big flakes (though not sticking), cold, gray, miserable. And so the last of the leaves will sit, wet and cold, for at least another week as well. We'll emerge from the house in a couple hours to go tape the Mouth of Wonder Breakfast for Dinner Extravaganza,* to be broadcast on the 4th Saturday. With any luck, the material for this year's Rula calendar will have arrived by the time we leave.

And speaking of with any luck — there may actually be a new Raised By Squirrels posted by the end of the weekend.

* Preview: frittata; chile cheese waffles; cheesy grits with eggs; monte cristo sandwich

Update: it's on Saturday the 26th — KSFR.org at 10:30 MST, or you can find Mouth of Wonder at iTunes.

Update to the update: Now available at the MOW site.

Pixies!

Whoa. Last Wednesday already, The Pixies were in town as part of their Lost Cities Tour. Andy tipped me months ago; there was panic with an announcement of an immediate sellout, but we were able to get some of the last tickets a couple weeks later for us and Stacy and Jim.

So the deal was that it's the end of their Doolittle tour (the one that Dori saw last year), a live performance of the 20-year-old (!) album. For me, it's pretty much Surfer Rosa or nothing, but, hey, sure to be a good show.

We lingered over dinner at our place, then to the Convention Center, where we caught the end of The Imaginary Cities' quite-good set. Some milling about, and then the house lights dimmed. And Un Chien Andalou came up on the video screen. And then it went out. Started again. And then the Pixies came out on stage.

Kicked off with a couple B-sides — that they even admitted they didn't remember the A-sides they went to — and then launched into the album. Patter was, safe to say, at a minimum; Kim was in charge of addressing the crowd and, but for recurring commentary about the altitude, was pretty general.

But the sound was great. The way Frank and Kim's vocals played off each other has certainly lost none of its strength over the years, and was even better live. Best was, though, the wall of sound that the group produced, tight rhythm that you felt in your bones. Couldn't help but feel the energy.

With two encores, including a few Surfer Rosa tunes, wrapped up by 10:30.

Update: photos from closer to the stage at Santa Fe Reporter.

latest Spoonflower contest!

So, Spoonflower, yes? Fabric of the week contest, remember? It's calendar towel time again!

My entry is called Mod Vine. Please vote for me — voting is open through Wednesday, November 16!

All the designs appear in random order, so you'll probably have to page through a few screens (there are 10 total) before seeing mine. You can vote for as many or as few designs as you like (not just mine) by clicking on the images you like best. A green box will appear around the design(s) you select for voting. You submit all your votes on the last page. Any and all votes are appreciated!

Spy's Guide to Santa Fe

Santa Fe. Spies. Pretty much perfect fit for me. William Held kicked off the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference with a talk on his Spy's Guide to Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Hearing him, though … sure I'm looking forward to the cloak and dagger in the book, but it sounds like his focus is on the events that nobody pays attention that shape the way we live. Perfect fit.

So, after years of seeing it, I'm doing the conference. His talk and several names I recognize, and maybe bit more of a focus on the thriller and espionage, got me to register months ago. More later.

D&D Night

Now that Kevin's running the shop, the long-discussed D&D night finally came together yesterday. Yes. Dungeons & Dragons. At Big Adventure Comics. Maybe the first of a weekly event. It doesn't get much more geeky than that.

  
Above, our band of adventurers; Steve's a great DM, very dry sense of humor; the one I threw trying to be stealthy, which resulted in my flare exploding.

Really, that "nerdy" tag down there's pretty redundant, isn't it?

Inaugural Sunday Houndie Walk, 2011 Edition

Daylight Savings means Sunday Houndie Walk season. And she knew it.

A bit of snow up in the mountains there.

A Little Snow ...

... yesterday morning. Would've been a much funnier photo about ten minutes earlier, when there was an actual quantity of snow on her head. Barely anything accumulated and was soon gone.

Past month's brought a bunch of sudden change, so we're making do. Will see about getting back to some regular posting, maybe even that vacation post that's in draft. You can also check out how the garden turned out.