No doubt

You have no doubt heard of the "death by a thousand pecks" or something similar.  There continues to be a certain amount of high drama concerning one of the volunteer boards that I serve on, and the past two weeks have been punctuated by meetings, meetings, and more meetings, emergency signatures needed here, phone calls, an opinion sought there... the Emperor and I were frankly pretty beat by the end of this week.  That's why we lit out for the territories, aiming to visit a "British Faire" in Over There Big City and to do a little bit of shopping, and not answer the telephone or emails.

First, we had a room at our favorite hotel in Not Distant Capital City.  Their rates seemed to have gone up, possibly because we usually don't stay on Fridays or Saturdays.  Even so, the least expensive room was their Jacuzzi Suite.  The Emperor and I looked at each other and shrugged, "why not?"  While the rest of the room was a little worn and the decor was early 1980s Ritzy, the hot tub was one of those modern things that you fill yourself like a bathtub.  It was nice and deep and the right size for two.  We were in the room for about one minute before the Emperor started to fill the tub.

Recently I've been having a little back trouble.  It almost invariably happens when I sit in a stupid chair, like a cheap folding chair or something similar -- my left lower back just lets me know about it.  I know it's just caused by knotted glute muscles, and I've been asking the Emperor to rub the knots out, and he's been doing a great job.  Presented with the opportunity to hop in a jacuzzi and melt them out, I was eager to see what would happen.  After a good fifteen minutes in the tub, I had a range of motion in my back and legs without the stiffness or little pains that I haven't had in a good long time.  It was great.  Just for the record, we'd been discussing the idea of having a jacuzzi when we finally buy a house of our own, and I think this sealed the deal.  I got a good night's sleep, and have not had any back trouble since, although I haven't sat in any stupid chairs for the past few days.

The next day we almost didn't get into the British Faire!  There was no parking at all, though we trolled the parking lots for a good half hour before giving up and doing our shopping on the south end of town.  When we came back to give the faire a second go, we found a spot but on entering found that the last of the tea sitting tickets had been sold.  Oh, well!

The faire was held in a community hall, and it was packed with vendors and visitors.  There was a small performance space set aside, and various groups of child step dancers were lined up here and there to take their turns in the spotlight.  King Henry VIII stalked the aisles, and the most beautiful Father Christmas I've ever seen visited as well.  There were British goods, music, souvenirs, home baked goodies, cheddar cheese, and a few booths with "vintage" items for sale.  I found an old china toast rack -- toast racks being the essential serving piece of an English breakfast table -- and a really charming little cream and sugar service with Mounties printed on it.  I think this china was made for British tourists to take home after visiting Canada; only someone who regularly serves tea in the English style would use pieces such as those.  American style sugar bowls and cream pitchers are larger and made differently.  I played Tombola, and won a piece of candy for the Emperor.  I also played "Do You Know Your English Vocabulary?" and won a curious glass dish.

On the way home last night, we stopped at a regional landmark restaurant: the Brookville Hotel.  They're famous for serving "family style chicken dinners."  They employ a set menu of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, biscuits, and home style vanilla ice cream.  The Emperor had been dropping hints for fried chicken recently, so I figured this might be a hit, and it was, right out of the park.  The food was delicious, plentiful, and the people were polite and efficient.  They would bring you out as much as you wanted of everything, and you are given styrofoam boxes to take your leftovers home.  We didn't ask for seconds of anything, and still had enough left over for another full meal, which we had tonight.  Overall, it was a good value.  I don't usually order fried chicken in restaurants, because I make a pretty good oven version myself at home.  However, since moving here to fried chicken land, I've had it a few times while out and have to admit that it can be pretty good.  Here in town one place makes a pecan-crusted fried chicken that they serve with honey that's unbelievable.  I can't go near the place because I can't resist that chicken.

As for knitting knews, I'm about a fourth of the way finished with Jupiter's neckband.  I'm collecting the yarns to knit a pair of Cloisonne mittens when that's finished, and then I have the basket full of projects here by my chair that I could pick up any time.  I think I'll put this computer down and pick one of them up and make another kind of progress.