The Geekend That Was, 5/6

Click now for JiffNotes

So I never did do a weekend summary from last week, but that's because it wouldn't have been pretty. Work has been killing me; I have shed tears there in the past month, which I have NEVER done before, but fortunately it was at times when no one could see them. Last Friday I had to work, and I was so brain dead that I 1) thought a similarly-named coworker who sent a "goodbye" email to everyone was someone on my team, resulting in me IMing my boss and COMPLETELY freaking him out as well, and 2) interpreted a simple shadow as a scary scorch mark indicating that I had destroyed a piece of my china by sublimating some chili. Thusly:

See there in the center of the back of the bowl? Yeah. In fact, that was the most exciting (and only) picture I had to illustrate my bleary state last weekend. The entire rest of it was shopping. Blerg.

This weekend was a little better (VIDEOGAMES, I GOT TO PLAY THEM!) and a bit more relaxing, despite more shopping. It's not that I mind shopping, by the way, I just mind it when I am looking for something specific (I almost never find it) or it's rushed. But I digress.

We saw The Avengers on Friday night, and It. Was. AWESOME. This is one of the best superhero scripts ever...funny, managed to treat six separate heroes as distinct characters with their own issues and weaknesses, but didn't weigh them down with those issues (thank GOODNESS. If there's a pet peeve I have with superhero movies, it's when they're too "emotionally damaged" to fight. Just let them kick butt, kthxbai.) And the action sequences were filmed so you could actually tell what was going on. Imagine! Paying to choreograph a great fight scene and then actually letting us see it without close-cropping or smash-cutting it to death! Genius!! (Hang on a second while I wipe up my dripping sarcasm.)

Not too much else of note happened. My laptop contracted a virus (a particularly nasty and insidious one at that), so I'm late in my WIPocalypse posting along with the eleventy-billion other catch up posts I planned! I'm also still working on a surprise gift, so I have no WIP photos. I did start to turn that scary pile of yarn back into something, and it's going well. One of my blogiversary winners let me know that her package arrived, though, so I'll share my pictures of what was in it.

Pinkundine at Misadventures in Craft won my blogiversary Atlanta giveaway. I had a lot of fun shopping for this, and I may have...overdone it...a little...but I really wanted her to love it! I tend to worry about these things way too much, LOL! You can see her take on it here.

My intent was to send Atlanta-themed or Atlanta attraction logo items that would also be useful (or yummy). Erin guessed some of the things I was going to put in the package (and may have inspired a few, too! =) First, I went down to "the local fish tank," as my hubby calls it, and picked up a cute little tin with a friendly otter on it (his name is Oz =). He comes bearing mints, but I thought it would make a great "tools" tin later on. The Georgia Aquarium is only a few blocks from my house.

Also pictured here: Vidalia Onion Cheese "Grits Bits" (well, I couldn't send creamy cooked grits), a vintage Atlanta postcard magnet (which features some Atlanta landmarks: the Capitol with its dome of gold from Dahlonega, the Cyclorama, Stone Mountain, Georgia Tech...and...I forget what else!), an Olympic pin from the 1996 Centennial Games, and a nail file from my alma mater, Georgia Tech (The Georgia Institute of Technology). I was amused by this item because in my field of study, the ratio of men to women was about 10:1!

I already hit the "salty" category, but that was honestly just to balance out the "sweet" one:

Peach taffy, because Georgia's nickname is the "Peach State", a praline because it contains fine Georgia pecans and it's one of the best things EVER (although I am worried most overseas peeps would think it's WAY too sweet), and a pecan log (keeps better...I wasn't sure the praline would make it...and less sweet, but very unique to the South). None of these are technically "Atlanta" things, but most Atlanta foods wouldn't survive the shipping...we have fantastic local ice cream, but I can't really send that!

Of course, no package from Atlanta would be complete without some of The Real Thing:

Coke Is It, and it was invented, and is currently headquartered, right here in Atlanta. That why I get all the best billboards first. =) It turns out I may be psychic; out of all the available Coke swag, I picked a bottle opener and it turns out pinkundine had just broken hers.

Finally, I had a needlework surprise in mind, but when my winner turned out to be a knitter and fledgling spinner, I knew I could find some nice local fiber to send to her.

This is hand-dyed by Gale's Art. That's a link to her Etsy shop, but I got to meet her in person at Stitches South. She lives and works in Stone Mountain, just outside Atlanta.

And now I go to backdate a WIPocalypse post!

JiffNotes
Eventually, work will get better and there will be lovely WIPs to ogle. This is what I keep telling myself.