The Geekend That Was, 5/5

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I did a lot of sewing on Friday, but since one of the things I made is going out to a long-suffering giveaway winner, I can't show it to you yet. =) I did some other crafting I also can't show you, but while I was at it, I finally made stitch markers from some charms I bought in New York years ago:

It took me all of 5 minutes. Gee whiz, why did I wait so long??

Saturday after a good breakfast,

we went to see Iron Man 3. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Don Cheadle kicking some butt! If you haven't seen it, stay until the bitter end after the credits. There's a coda that's worth the wait. Better than schwarma. We saw it in 3D IMAX (really liemax, since it wasn't a true IMAX screen), and I'd say the 3D wasn't worth it for this movie. We mainly saw it in that theatre...and I am going to come off here sounding like a total elitist...because we were hoping the higher price point would keep out the idiots who check their cell phones or talk during the movie. What helped me more, though, was wearing earplugs. As I've mentioned before, I have freakishly sensitive hearing, so this time I took some earplugs and just lightly put them in my ears. I couldn't hear anyone next to me slurping, "whispering", crunching popcorn...or laughing, which was kind of weird...but I had no problem hearing the movie dialogue. I'm doing this from now on!

In the "my really expensive education ought to be good for something" department, I helped Michael diagnose an issue with his milk steamer.

We had to make two trips to Radio Shack. The first one was to get a new fuse for the multimeter, since it wasn't reading voltages ANYWHERE. The second was to get a thermal fuse for the steamer. Of course, that may not fix the problem, but a $3 fuse is a good gamble for fixing an $80 steamer.

Sunday dawned rainy and icky like Saturday, but by the time we got out of church, it had transformed into the most beautiful day. After brunch with friends (a wonderful surprise), we dashed over to the Botanical Gardens, since we knew it was supposed to start raining again between 3 and 4. I had wanted to see the new exhibit, "Imaginary Worlds," but I didn't think we'd be able to with all the rain. I'll do an entire post about the exhibit, but here are a couple teaser shots.

One nice surprise was that the "bog" plants were in full bloom. I don't think I've ever seen them at this stage in their lifespan before! I was amazed at the colors.

There were a lot of other pretties as well. =)

We made it through all the new displays and back into the car before the first drops fell!! We're going on the annual private gardens tour this weekend for Mother's Day, so we'll be back again.

To round out the weekend, I made the latest cookies in the Cookie A Sock Club, Chocolat^e (I pronounce it as "exponentially chocolate" =).

These cookies have melted unsweetened and bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder and white chocolate chips in the mix. I wish I'd taken the time to chop the white chocolate with cocoa butter (chips don't usually have it), because it is SO much better. Eh, that's OK; these cookies are still AMAZING. Actually, I might make them with butterscotch or peanut butter chips next time!!

JiffNotes
Why yes, there is no stitching in this post, how astute of you to notice. It's driving me crazy, too!!!