Great Weekend!

The weekend started on Thursday evening, when my sister, Lynn arrived.

Lynn was determined to cheer me up, and she was wildly successful. We stopped by Arby's for a quick bite, and went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

It was wonderful! Everything you would expect from the next Indiana Jones movie, and everything they need to continue the stories. I loved the movie! I could go on and on about it, and, in fact, I did, all weekend to the total annoyance of everyone around me, no doubt.

I loved it so much that I want to run out and buy lots of Indiana Jones stuff (especially a hat), so I added a page to my store.

But I don't want to include any spoilers here, and anything I said would spoil it. 

On Friday, Lynn and I had planned to go to the IRS office and get all my problems straightened out. Well we went, and they weren't there.

The people from IRS on the phone promised that I could get my problems straightened out at their local office. Well, from what I could tell, there where a whole two people there! And one of them was a security officer, so there was only one person available for help, and they told me that they couldn't do anything that the people on the phone said they could.

They urged me to come back another day, but that's pricey on public transportation, and would have me walking a couple of miles from the bus stop on a foot that's been aching and making me think there's something seriously wrong with it. With no guarantee that they wouldn't help me then, either.

So, Lynn and I went out of there wondering what we were going to do with the rest of the afternoon. I made a few suggestions and asked her what she wanted to do. She said "Why don't we get you some new glasses?" At first, I didn't think she meant it, but she did, and I had an eye exam and new glasses.

They have a gunmetal finish metal frame which is a little bigger than I might otherwise want for glasses, but there are sunglasses that clip magnetically to the frame. They are the perfect size for sunglasses. Lynn and the saleslady said it was silly to buy glasses and not get bifocals, and the difference between line and no-line was a whole $7.50, so I have no-line bifocals.

Talk about the ultimate present! She said these are for my birthday, Christmas, my birthday next year and Christmas next year, and probably a few other presents, too. It's a present for the rest of my life!

Friday and Saturday evenings, we watched some TV and movies and talked. Movies seen were: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (she hadn't seen it before) and Practical Magic. Movie shows included Ghost Whisperer, and the Blink episode of Doctor Who.

Saturday, we went to the Potomac Celtic Festival, and met Holly, Everett and Jeff. 

There was no cider! They had a problem with some of the equipment that puts various drinks on tap, and so they had just beer and (I think) stout. They could only sell two drinks, so they eliminated the cider.

We wandered around and found loads of neat stuff, and then the sky got grey, and we shopped our way back to the cars. I wanted to go back to Echo and Wild and buy a sterling rune pendant that I had seen, but all the sales booths were being packed up for the rain that was coming and I couldn't find it for a while. I bought a beautiful silver Algiz (or Elhaz) pendant. Most runes have several names. Algiz is a rune of protection, and it's a rune that also appeared in New Genesis  (also known as Twilight of the Dogs--I'm in photo 13), a movie I worked on.

I bought my rune (which I love), and it was just starting to rain, so I headed across the field, directly toward the entrance, and the sky opened up and rained harder than I've ever seen it do. I had an umbrella, but my pants were soaked through before I could get out of the open and to shelter. This was not just rain, it was a storm. When I got toward the edge (near the exit), I hid under a tent with a lot of other people who wanted to get out of the rain, and called Lynn. She had gotten back to the car, and had pulled up near the entrance. She moved a little so I could see her headlights, and I made a run for it. We also picked up Everett and Jeff, and drove them out to Holly and her car.

After a little milling around in confusion, we went to Pizza Hut and had some wonderful pizza (what else), with all the usual stuff. It was wonderful! It gave us a chance to talk and catch up, and was loads of fun!

On Sunday, Holly got together with Lynn and I for lunch and we got a chance to talk and catch up on more things, we saw Lynn off on her trip home, and Holly and I went to see The Happening. It was spooky, and strange (you were expecting something else?). I was slightly disappointed with the ending.

We went to Borders so Holly could get a copy of the next Dresden Files book, and she bought a copy of Lord Foul's Bane to loan me and to read after I'm done with it.

Then she dropped me at home, where I crashed and burned with the current cold/sore throat/misery that I'm still fighting off.

What a weekend! I feel like I've been through an adventure to rival Indy's!

Have a great Tuesday! More on cameras and photography tomorrow