Dinner and a Movie

Just a quick note because I'm late for lunch & a swim. Had a fun, laughter-filled, delightful dinner last night with farmount and nevynn at the Green Papaya in Los Gatos. It is billed as a Vietnamese restaurant, but there were few dishes on the menu which sounded remotely like Vietnamese food, and those which did turned out to be so Californicated as to be unrecognizable as any particular cuisine, let alone Asian.

Having said that, the food was okay, and not as over-priced as I'd expected.

The highlight of the food portion of the meal was undoubtedly farmount's Banana Flambé. She told the waitress "It was awful, can you bring me another?" I told the waitress "she was devastated when her banana went out".

We were there for about 2 1/2 hours, having lots of fun, laughing loudly and no doubt annoying whomever was sitting on either side of us. Afterwards I went down the block to see what Los Gatos looked like these days, and was just in time for the 9:30 showing of March of the Penguins, so I bought a ticket and saw the film.

You have to see it. And you have to keep fixed in your mind throughout the whole film that real live human photographers filmed the whole thing as it happened. Nine months in -58º temps, blizzards, and all that that entails. Emperor penguins are such amazingly gorgeous creatures, especially when they find True Love.

I Wanna Be In Stitches

This afternoon I bought a sewing machine. It was on sale at The French Store for under $100, major brand name, and considering the simple machine I grew up using, this one is more than adequate for my lobotomized sewing skills and hilariously minor needs.

All I plan to use it for this week is to hem several pairs of cut-offs, and fix a couple of shirt pockets which have come undone at the seams.

It's going to be an adventure loading a bobbin again (I have not touched a sewing machine in about 25 years), but there's an instruction book, and the only diff I see between this machine and Mom's is the bobbin is plastic instead of metal. The holder is exactly as I remembered.

Okay, so that's half the battle. Unfortunately I did not find a suitable sewing table. Walmart & Sears didn't have anything, which surprised me. I just need a simple folding table (the machine and table will spend most of their time put away). The plan is to go to the Quilting Bee in Mountain View, if they are open tomorrow. Will also try Office Depot, though I doubt if they will have what I'm looking for, typing tables having gone the way of the Mastodon.

Do any of my costumer friends have any suggestions?