...This is just the beginning...

First of all, any delays that I could have encountered, short of an airplane being diverted to O'Hare and sitting there for 5 hours, I encountered on the way to Park City, Utah, and thus I was 2 hours late for the final dinner with my boss. Thankfully his wonderful wife made sure to order for us when we called to ask if we could still make it and we arrived to have dinner as everyone else finished dessert. Slightly uncomfortable, yes, but we still got to socialize.

But you don't want to hear about that, right? You want me to get to the good stuff. Depending on who you are that could either mean the stash haul from shopping with Stasha or the movies DH and I saw. Or both. Someone is going to be disappointed today.

First up, the stash. Stasha met up with us earlier than expected and she, I and DH travelled along to Ogden where we visited Shepherd's Bush. It was snowing, it was beautiful, and I know it was a pain for everyone native in the area. But for this native Californian, it was heaven. And it was cold, but not overly so. In fact, I was quite comfortable.

Anyway, Shepherd's Bush - if you've not visited there, you must. MUST. Wonderful store - gorgeous models all over the walls and wonderful placement of stock. My favorite section was the back wall where the Fibers to Dye For were hiding. Stasha and I laughed over some of the names, and DH groaned at some. He was a really good sport, by the way, being dragged all over the place to multiple stores but he found things to look at and checked out a couple of needlework stands looking for ideas because he knows he can build one. And I'll wait patiently, because eventually I'll tell him all that I want out of a stand. After I get the new couch and chairs that I still need to find the time to shop for. Anyway, I digress. Shepherd's Bush was wonderful. There aren't words for it.

After Shepherd's Bush we headed for Needlepoint Joint which is almost directly across from the Everwood City Hall. As in the television show "Everwood" - Ogden is the set for the show. Since it's more of, well, a needlepoint joint I didn't find very much there although I really did like looking through the fibers and buttons they had there. Very spacious place, and they easily could have put more racks of things in there, which would have cluttered up the space. They have the most gorgeous wood floors and cabinets and everything is laid out very neatly - as if it were a museum that you could still touch and fondle the artifacts at.

We also had lunch - a heart attack on a bun - at Crown Burger, and dinner at Braza Grill (a tradition now), and the trip to Stasha's house to see the mess that her stitching room is in. Which was, put simply, a pure disaster. But it's a disaster that she went to work on and has cleaned up quite a bit since I was there. Anyway, after Needlepoint Joint and lunch at Crown, we also went to Stitchin' Station, which is an annual stop and I picked up a few more Fibers to Dye For, among other things.

Don't worry, the stash haul list is coming. The final shop we hit was Pine Mountain, where I found nothing (as compared to last year) but it was still a nice look, and a nice time talking with Stasha about various things. The conversations ran the gamut from... anything and everything, and we tried to not leave DH out. And while I know he felt like a third wheel, there was no reason that he should, and he did participate here and there.

Oh oh! Forgot to mention: near Pine Mountain we went to this little sweet shop that had the best fudge in it, but when I was looking around I was amazed at seeing things I've not seen in years, or ever. They had little bottles of grape and peach Nehi there, which had DH stunned. And on the way out I noticed the drink cooler had a flavor of Minute Maid juice that I've never seen before on the West Coast. I tell you, I love traveling and seeing the regional differences that are out there. Just because you're in a big city doesn't mean that you have access to everything - some things may be better in a different location, even if it's smaller (I'll cover this more later this week, really....)

Ok... so, the stash haul:
2 packets of Yarn Tree floss keys (my favorite)
a large length of 28ct 8" linen banding (for the TWRR that will start in March - now I just have to plot out what it's going to look like)
Fibers to Dye For (I love these names): Weapon, Motive, Hitchcock, Evidence, Miss Scarlet, The 11th Hour, Forensic, Arsenic (and just because it can't be by itself...), Old Lace, Pink Panther, Evil, Dirty Rat, Rigor Mortise, Potion Green, Isolated Incident, and Vertigo Violet.
Sisters and Best Friends: Winter Peace
Amybear Needlepoints: Bouquet
Dragon Dreams: Storm Bringer (thanks to a box Stasha had)
Fibers to Dye For: with the same mo - Victim #1 (a Serial Sampler)
Margaret Sherry: Moo Moo Moo

And that's it - I restrained myself. Was it because DH was with me? No. I know Nashville Market is coming and CATS after that and I want to have some money to spend on stash. And goodness, I can't go into a shophop like that without coming out the other side with some stash, especially when there's nothing near me (without a good long drive) that resembles a cross stitch shop that's worth going to. We won't talk about the one that's 10 minutes from my house where they are snooty often, and do more with needlepoint and hardanger. Cross stitch doesn't impress them that much apparently.

Movies... you want to hear about the movies. Well, you're going to have to wait a little bit longer. I will say this - The animation shorts weren't a lot to write home about except for the animation in "The Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello" was excellent, and "Gopher Broke" had a real professional Pixar quality about it, and "Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot" was just plain funny and good (and done by a guy at DH's alma mater). I heard 'Quinceanera' was excellent, but I wasn't able to score tickets to it. I'm hoping it makes it to the local film festival (Cinequest).

But I was able to see 'Thank You For Smoking' and 'God Grew Tired of Us (which won *both* the Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Documentary)', and I'll talk about both of those on Thursday, as tomorrow I have a tag that I need to post, and I need a little more time to put all my thoughts together about those two films in a more cohesive manner. Believe me, you don't want my current thoughts which sum up to "Find a way to see these films. Films Good" and almost nothing more. Until then, remember to never eat Mexican food in Utah. Trust me on that. More on that later....

...then again, I've seen enough of that, so maybe not.