A peaceful weekend.
Dec. 16th, 2001 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaAfter the stress of last week, it was good to relax.
Friday night we took Ben to see the Harry Potter movie. It was my first trip to Arundel Mills, which is a frighteningly large and ornate shopping mall that I've been avoiding on purpose. Suffice it to say that their theater is made up to look like an Egyptian temple, with huge pillars covered with heiroglyphics.
Saturday afternoon, I finished my Christmas shopping. (Misha still has one more present he needs to buy, but that's not really my worry.) Shopping hasn't been very stressful - I've found some great things (like the fine-gauge silk cashmere cardigan for my mother, marked down from $70 to $35), I've finished with time to spare, and I'm just so happy to be able to afford presents this year.
I do wish I could buy a present for the TOCOTOX. That was really on my mind, Saturday, as I shopped for people who are much less emotionally close to me. But it would probably create problems to have a package arrive from me. *sigh*
Saturday evening, we didn't do much of anything - re-watched last Wednesday's West Wing episode, played the Sims, caught up on net stuff. Played Christmas albums we'd picked up: Bing Crosby, Jimmy Buffett, and some "Women of Christmas" album that we got because it had Jill Sobule and Juliana Hatfield.
This morning we went to church. Surprisingly, the Unitarian hymnal seems to have left most of the Christmas carols intact. The hymnal my parents' church uses did dreadful things in the name of inclusivity - not only did they take out all references to a male god and to heirarchical political structures (kings, thrones, lords...), but they took out all references to Jesus as "he." And they re-wrote lyrics without considering the stresses of the melodic line. For example, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" as originally written includes the line
...two melodic phrases, two lyric phrases, with the natural break in each coming at the same place, and considerable stress on the word "him." The rewritten version in my parents' hymnal is
...one lyric phrase carried over the break between the two musical phrases, placing considerable stress on the word "the." Really, people with no ear for music ought not to be allowed to revise a hymnal.
...but that's all a side rant. The point that had to do with this weekend is simply that the Unitarian hymnal has made few changes to the traditional Christmas carols. Which is nice.
After church we went with a group of people to the Walters Art Museum to see an small but lovely exhibit of Islamic art. Strangely, the docent-led tour we took skipped over the case of Islamic arms and armor, which I thought was the most impressive part of the collection. (Among other things, they had a gilded flintlock rifle, encrusted with jewels.)
We stayed afterwards, wandered through the medieval section (which is where we found the Islamic arms), and made a pilgrimage to see the mummies. It's been too long since I've been to a museum.
At the end of the day we bought a TV. My parents had offered to get us one for Christmas - our previous TV was so small that I had trouble reading the baseball scores, and besides, the remote control sensor was burned out, so we had to adjust the volume by hand and couldn't mute the commercials. We saw an ad in the Sunday paper (which is conveniently delivered on Saturday, or at least, parts of it are) for a 27" Daewoo TV for less than $200, so we went ahead and bought it without waiting for Christmas. (Because of transportation issues, my parents had actually offered us a check to be used for TV-purchase, so this works out nicely.) It's big. I'm a little worried that it makes our living room look TV-centered, but I suppose I'll get used to it. And I am looking forward to seeing shows in better detail.
I hope that the upcoming week won't be too difficult. Last week was a bit of a strain - I haven't mentioned here my impromptu 70-mile drive to Calvert County hospital, because most of the things that make it a fascinating story are client-related, and I don't care to post client stories here even if they've been identity-stripped. But suffice it to say that last week left me tired and drained, and I needed a nice pleasant weekend like this one. I don't think the upcoming week will be bad - everyone will be leaving for vacation, right? But we'll see.
Friday night we took Ben to see the Harry Potter movie. It was my first trip to Arundel Mills, which is a frighteningly large and ornate shopping mall that I've been avoiding on purpose. Suffice it to say that their theater is made up to look like an Egyptian temple, with huge pillars covered with heiroglyphics.
Saturday afternoon, I finished my Christmas shopping. (Misha still has one more present he needs to buy, but that's not really my worry.) Shopping hasn't been very stressful - I've found some great things (like the fine-gauge silk cashmere cardigan for my mother, marked down from $70 to $35), I've finished with time to spare, and I'm just so happy to be able to afford presents this year.
I do wish I could buy a present for the TOCOTOX. That was really on my mind, Saturday, as I shopped for people who are much less emotionally close to me. But it would probably create problems to have a package arrive from me. *sigh*
Saturday evening, we didn't do much of anything - re-watched last Wednesday's West Wing episode, played the Sims, caught up on net stuff. Played Christmas albums we'd picked up: Bing Crosby, Jimmy Buffett, and some "Women of Christmas" album that we got because it had Jill Sobule and Juliana Hatfield.
This morning we went to church. Surprisingly, the Unitarian hymnal seems to have left most of the Christmas carols intact. The hymnal my parents' church uses did dreadful things in the name of inclusivity - not only did they take out all references to a male god and to heirarchical political structures (kings, thrones, lords...), but they took out all references to Jesus as "he." And they re-wrote lyrics without considering the stresses of the melodic line. For example, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" as originally written includes the line
Come and behold him,
Born the king of angels.
...two melodic phrases, two lyric phrases, with the natural break in each coming at the same place, and considerable stress on the word "him." The rewritten version in my parents' hymnal is
Come and behold the
Ruler of all angels
...one lyric phrase carried over the break between the two musical phrases, placing considerable stress on the word "the." Really, people with no ear for music ought not to be allowed to revise a hymnal.
...but that's all a side rant. The point that had to do with this weekend is simply that the Unitarian hymnal has made few changes to the traditional Christmas carols. Which is nice.
After church we went with a group of people to the Walters Art Museum to see an small but lovely exhibit of Islamic art. Strangely, the docent-led tour we took skipped over the case of Islamic arms and armor, which I thought was the most impressive part of the collection. (Among other things, they had a gilded flintlock rifle, encrusted with jewels.)
We stayed afterwards, wandered through the medieval section (which is where we found the Islamic arms), and made a pilgrimage to see the mummies. It's been too long since I've been to a museum.
At the end of the day we bought a TV. My parents had offered to get us one for Christmas - our previous TV was so small that I had trouble reading the baseball scores, and besides, the remote control sensor was burned out, so we had to adjust the volume by hand and couldn't mute the commercials. We saw an ad in the Sunday paper (which is conveniently delivered on Saturday, or at least, parts of it are) for a 27" Daewoo TV for less than $200, so we went ahead and bought it without waiting for Christmas. (Because of transportation issues, my parents had actually offered us a check to be used for TV-purchase, so this works out nicely.) It's big. I'm a little worried that it makes our living room look TV-centered, but I suppose I'll get used to it. And I am looking forward to seeing shows in better detail.
I hope that the upcoming week won't be too difficult. Last week was a bit of a strain - I haven't mentioned here my impromptu 70-mile drive to Calvert County hospital, because most of the things that make it a fascinating story are client-related, and I don't care to post client stories here even if they've been identity-stripped. But suffice it to say that last week left me tired and drained, and I needed a nice pleasant weekend like this one. I don't think the upcoming week will be bad - everyone will be leaving for vacation, right? But we'll see.
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We got a big one too. And cable.
Date: 2001-12-17 08:25 pm (UTC)No, Willow. No, Buffy. No, Willow. No, Xander. No, Giles. No, Willow. Oh, hell, they're all cute. Fairly uniformly white, too, for a buncha Californians.
Glad to hear you can afford prezzies. It's a great feeling. A bit addictive.