entertainment

Was anyone else disappointed in the academy awards last night? I'm not talking about who won, although the Slumdog sweep was so predictable and boring I didn't even bother watching the end of the program. I'm talking about how they presented. I look forward to seeing substantial clips from the movies which they mostly omitted this time. A lot of the collage-y stuff they did was strange and confusing. A collage of the best songs.. by the orchestra? Geez, were they too cheap to pay individual performers? It all sounded like the same song to me. Horrible. Their tribute to those who had died last year was also terrible, you couldn't even read the names on a "regular" TV. No controversial speeches, no racy or ridiculous costumes... boring! You girls will kill me, but Bruce had to tell me who the host was. And I can't say I was very impressed. If I wasn't so freaking tired, I would have skipped it altogether and went to bed. Wait.. that doesn't make any sense. Oh right, I think I was actually too tired to get in the shower, so I plopped down on the couch beside Bruce and vegged in front of the tube for the next couple hours, a captive audience to the thing. At any rate, I'm sorry to say I haven't seen any of the big movies, but I'm sure I'll netflix most of them eventually.

So.. the reason I was so beat last night is I spent the last three days at our quilt fair which was vastly more entertaining than the aforementioned TV program. Our guild puts on a fabulous show, unquestionably the best "local" quilt fair I've ever been to, and in many ways better than the big regional and international shows. We have amazingly talented quilt makers and artists in our guild, so the exhibit is exceptional. This year we showed around 250 quilts, plus various other fiber arts. We have program by a featured artist, countless demos, a fashion show, and an auction which raises a huge amount of $$ for our guild. The quilt fair is our only fund raiser, btw, which supports everything our guild does. We also have a "bargain garden" ie flea mkt (where we donate all our unloved fabric and other sewing castoffs, then turn around and buy another load of crap we don't need) another big $$maker. We have music! Quaint, but we have a member who roams through the fair playing all sorts of stuff on the accordion, plus a banjo and fiddle combo, folk dancers (this I could do without) Another cool feature is our bed turning, where old quilts are stacked up on an antique bed frame, then one by one held up and their story told - very interesting historically. We also have a merchant mall of 45+ vendors, in case there's any doubt about the opportunity to spend even more $$ on stuff we don't really need but feel we have to have.

You probably all think I'm nuts, but this has become one of the highlights of my year. I am probably way too involved in the planning and execution of the thing (this year I was the volunteer coordinator, plus ended up signing up for a number of "worker bee" jobs.) I did some math and determined it takes over 750 man/women/hrs and that's just the "worker bees" not counting the committee of over 20 of us and the countless hours we put in all year leading up to the event. Big deal, lots of work, but a wonderful show in the end. Anyway, its over. Part of me is sad because I look forward to it every year - it really is wonderful - but part of me is glad because my various commitments around it are finally over. Almost. Ha ha. For the time being anyway, as I'll surely do it again next year. btw for the curious (or bored) you can check out our website at pvqa.org.

OK, that's it for today. I'm leaving Sat to spend a week with my mom up in Washington, so I've got today and Friday to morph my house into someplace respectable enough for guests, who are arriving when I'm away for pete sake. God forbid I leave it up to Bruce. Better idea, maybe I will. They're his friends, after all.