the thing itself and not the myth

The last week of January, the Decemberists played two shows at the Moore. I had bought tickets to their cancelled “The Long and Short of It” tour, so there was no question I’d catch both of these. I was up in the balcony for both shows, which is probably best as I had brought a cold back from London and wasn’t anywhere near the top of my game. The first night was a lot of fun, but the second was awesome.

First, the opener was much better. The Butchers & the Builders, who had a great energy and mad percussion action. See the toy drums, etc, at the front of the stage? They got handed out to the audience. I whipped out my camera at first for the totally busker-esque drum kit.

Then the Decemberists were just on, with a set that included the two songs I most wanted & thus least expected to hear - “The Soldiering Life” & “Sons & Daughters”.

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Yay!

In other seafaring news, I did a little damage over at Etsy recently, getting magnets & a necklace on the theme.

And finally, totally not sailor related at all, click through this photo to see my set of photos from International New Year, aka the Work Event That Prevented Me From Caucusing.

…I really am going at this completely backwards, aren’t I? Eventually I swear I will post stuff from England, for the one person who hasn’t prowled through my Flickr already.

(Why, there you are, blog!)

I got eaten by the holidays. This is my busiest time at work, so much so that I can’t take the time to visit family for Christmas. I suspect they had a better time that way anyway, particularly as at this point in December I am super-cranky from being tired.

I took a break from working mid-month to attend our first Posada celebration. The families had been working hard in the weeks leading up to it, making decorations, like these angel centerpieces…

…and some pretty amazing pinatas, including Dora the Explorer.

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Then it was back to holiday business. We run an adopt-a-family program as well as a gift closet. This year we served 200 children between the two programs.

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After the jump, more holidays, a little Seattle, and a side of knitting.

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I have been so busy doing stuff I haven’t had time to tell you all about it. As usual, click through to Flickr for bigger photos.

Thursday we had an end-of-summer barbecue at work, which was awesome and crazy, and then that night I went back to Seattle University for an end-of-summer celebration for one of our intern programs. I went to one last year as well, but it was held in a building that didn’t exist on campus when I was a student. This time it was in the ballroom off the dorm residence hall I lived in for two years. It was very strange. They’ve remodeled the lobby — my tuition dollars at work.

The Admin building, where basically all of my classes were held…

The fountain in the quad (which we sidewalk-chalked overnight when we finished the Honors Program) And the Chapel of St Ignatius at night, which I love… Friday I went down to The Center for Wooden Boats, because they had the Lady Washington (which you all have seen on film as Norrington’s ship, the Interceptor, in Pirates of the Caribbean) and the Hawaiian Chieftain. (The Lady Washington is in front here.) On board the Lady Washington, looking out towards Gasworks Park. These ships are so small! Saturday & Sunday I spent working on our Back to School drive. Our set-up at the store: While I was there, I knitted. Unsurprisingly. I’m working on Wendy’s Cabletini socks in the yarn I got last week: Then, Saturday night was roller derby! Which is dangerous: This is technically a terrible photo, but I love it. The band was the Wages of Sin. LIME GREEN UPRIGHT BASS, BABY. And they are self-described as “Punk rock sea shanties and Appalachian death polka.” How awesome is that? The two teams I was rooting for — DLF & Grave Danger — both won. So that basically ruled.

Sunday I came home after work and passed out. I am still not quite recovered. I watched a good deal of television, including finishing off “Blackpool” (awesome!) and half of “My Life in Film” (which I snagged because I wanted more Kris Marshall after Death at a Funeral, and which is also awesome, but in a totally different way. More like “Spaced”.)

I also knitted on Samus’s cable band. I am in the 8th repeat of 11. I can do it!