D is for desert

Despite construction in several spots of I-80, I made it to the site north of Reno some time after 9 PM. One of the first things I did was ask the autocrat if she had any idea which the prevailing winds for the area were likely to blow, then set up my tent in wedge (instead of HOCM lean-to) mode side-to-the-wind.

Saturday dawned pleasantly cool and overcast, revealing the site to be a scrubby pasture in a valley surrounded by high desert hills.

Hami melon for breakfast, then waited for day-trippers to show up to our rather intimately populated event site.

Ran out of silk for the mokume-shibori class (my package from Dharma showed up yesterday, which did me no good!) so a couple of us ended up working on some coarse scrap linen that took the silk dye rather interestingly, but was too coarse to get good results with the stitched resist. Note to self, the good Gutterman thread breaks just as easily as the Coats & Clark. Must try some tests with quilting thread and buttonhole thread. However, everyone seemed to enjoy giving it a try and listen to me natter about things Japanese while we stitched patterns into our fabric. Had a minor dye spatter on my shibori kosode (because someone took it off the stool I'd set it on and put it on the ground near the dye bucket), but the good news is the indigo flecks landed on the right side which is hidden when it's worn tied shut.

Siobhan's class on travel in the Middle Ages was interesting - she'd found a translation of a guide to pilgrims going to Compostela at the UNR library and read some sections of it: bad food in many places, thieving ferrymen and the odd customs of the denizens of various towns along the route.

I managed to win Connor's convoluted and sometimes obscure trivia contest. What can I say? I was a history major and I have a trivia brain. It also helps that he allowed everyone to pass and take a new question if one didn't know the answer.

Taiko never happened. The sky got rather dramatic to our east and the winds got bad enough that we ended up dropping most of the pavilions as quickly as we could.  At least one had a rope shear apart in the process. My wedge stood up quite well, thanks to prior planning, but Cyneburgh helped me walk the poles down and drop the canvas on the contents just to be safe.

It didn't rain, but the high winds persisted, so I brought my truck in, packed down and accepted the invitation of allison_is to crash at her parents' place in Reno. We did get a few fat raindrops on the drive down from Red Rock into town, but that was about it rain-wise. Grabbed a shower, praised the kami of hot water and shampoo, then A & I went to Jazmine, a pleasant Asian fusion kind of place with a fairly impressive all-you-can-eat sushi menu. A picked a couple of their specialty maki (both very good), and a metric crapload of salmon nigiri which they serve here with wafer thin triangles of lemon on top, a non traditional, but tasty touch. I added an order of tobiko with quail egg (MINE ALL MINE MWAHAHAHAHAH) and some yellowtail (MINE ALL MINE I TELL YOU!) and we managed to eat most of it.

Stuffed to the tonsils, we made a run over to Vigdis and Hrothgar's place in Sparks to drop off some of their stuff A had grabbed out of their pavilion while they were tearing down, and hung out for a few minutes. I was offered something rather terrifying called "Ty Ku." I sniffed cautiously, recapped it and cried, "Product of CHINA????" and opted for a nice single malt instead. (The shampoo-bottle looking packaging didn't help Ty Ku's case either.)

I slept like the dead, but woke up a little headachy, probably from the altitude. Blessed, blessed be the coffee maker, A's Mom, who gave me the nickel tour of her gorgeous flower and vegetable garden ane filled up a bag with tomatoes, zucchini and fresh basil for me. Breakfast was an EBIL AND PERNISHUS CONKOKSHUN known as a Dutch Baby. Put a hunk of butter into a pan and stick it in the oven to melt. Whisk eggs, milk and flour into a thin batter. Pour ontop of the melted butter and return to the oven until it looks like a golden brown thunderhead climbing out of the pan. Slice and serve with something sweet ontop. We had sour cream and homemade strawberry preserves, but you could put powdered sugar on it. Or honey, or pretty much anything.

A & I had a  nice visit geeking over some of her Dutch and German costuming source stuff and I showed her some stuff from the Kyoto Costume Museum and the Genre Scenes screen from the Tokyo National Museum. We got onto the subject of European contact with Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries and I showed her some examples of namban art. Voila, I now have a new topic to research for a future class!

The drive back was relatively uneventful, though I did actually hit rain in Berkeley and I can hear it rattling through the downspouts outside right now.

Despite the weather, I managed to have a very good time for what there was of the event, the Silver Desert folks being a fun bunch to spend time with. The drive up and back was pretty, even with the occasional construction zones to deal with. Special thanks to allison_is and her family for their hospitality. I'm gonna use her mom's tomatoes and stuff to make some scratch spaghetti sauce tomorrow night
 

Dumbass meme because I'm too tired to go to sleep yet.

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