Adventures, Day 1&2

[firstfrost]

Our flight was a little late getting in yesterday morning; apparently the airport security had started to give a hard time to the driver who was there to meet us (because if you're standing around for an hour with a sign that says "Marty" it must be because you're planning something nefarious.) The afternoon was something of a sleep-deprived blur for me (harrock went to work), and then we had dinner at one of justom's restaurant recommendations (Zaika) which had some of the best Indian food I've ever had, though I'm not sure anything with that many truffles is canonical Indian. (Jerry also rated it the Best Amuse Bouche ever). And Cirque du Soleil, which was lovely and impressive and had some performers who seem to have bought off their Normal Characteristics Maxima.

Today I wandered around the National Portrait Gallery. My favorite bit was Champions, a set of black and white nude portraits of sports stars to benefit the Elton John AIDS foundation - the portraits were gorgeous, and also managed to convey the intended "nearly perfect, yet still vulnerable" that was being aimed for (a lot of portraits mostly just convey "Yup, it's this guy" to me).

Then, yarn shopping! My trip to Socktopus was a very odd story. I have drawn myself a little map to get there, and traipse around until I reach the address, which seems to be a set of studios - none of the visible ones look like a yarn store. I ask at the desk - the woman there asks my name, and says she'll call Alice. On the phone, she asks my name again - I explain that no, Alice doesn't know me, I just thought it was, you know, a store... Anyway, the woman at the desk says I can have a seat, Alice will be there in a bit. I take a seat, a little confused - this is not how yarn stores in the US work, in my experience. Is this one by appointment only? Am I confused, and it's not a retail store, it's a dyer's studio? I have no idea...

Anyway, Alice arrives, and it turns out that what I have come to is a yarn store which is not open on Fridays, but she lives nearby (and the store itself is on the other side of the building). Oops. But also yay! I buy perhaps more yarn than I would have had she not opened the store JUST FOR ME. I also manage to find I Knit, which is the only yarn store I've been in that sells beer and cider as well, so it's two for two of "unusual yarn store" :)

Comments

[rifmeister.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty tired today, and I keep parsing "yarn" as "yam".

inexplicable meme

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

What is this vedmAK 233302 thing? (Other than "some random Russian dude's usericon"?)

Re: inexplicable meme

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this is what you're talking about, but LJ seems to be having some trouble keeping people's user icons straight. I keep getting some dorky thing instead of my real icon.

Re: inexplicable meme

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Yeah, while I see this most recent comment with the "laughing toddler" icon, the icon for the one previous looks to me like corrugated steel and says "vedmAK 233302".

Re: inexplicable meme

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

I had that happen to me about a week ago, and found an lj help item about it. They said to try clearing my browser cache, which did fix the problem.

Re: inexplicable meme

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it keeps happening to me, too, and clearing the cache works, for a few hours, and then it's back. Mine is a really annoying-looking stupid avatar, too.

Re: inexplicable meme

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I just got an email notification of a comment by rifmeister, and a URL to the vedmAK icon was embedded in the email message. That can't possibly be my browser cache, can it?

Re: inexplicable meme

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait, the first comment was also rif. I somehow got confused into thinking it was Cael, and that the icon was jumping around between people. At least it's consistent.

Re: inexplicable meme

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine how it could be, but my last two comments it looked to me like my avatar was the really annoying one that I would never choose in ten million years. It looked fine to you, though, right?

Re: inexplicable meme

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

All your icons in this thread look like the happy-toddler one to me.

Re: inexplicable meme

[desireearmfeldt]

His icons look like a woman's headshot to me...

Re: inexplicable meme

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Oh, now it's the woman! Yesterday it was the toddler. I've seen the woman before, but not yet in this conversation. Very puzzling.

[desireearmfeldt]

There's a yarn store called Socktopus? Really?

Of course they opened it just for you. It probably doesn't exist for anyone else. :)

[mjperson.livejournal.com]

That was what I thought too.

[twe.livejournal.com]

I'm quite confident it's real, though I didn't realize it was British until recently.

[merastra.livejournal.com]

I thought you were going to say that they were expecting you, being the Mistress of the Octopus Wars and all. :-)