The Sum Of Many Parts

Racial slurs, foreign food, "priceless" jewels, bacon, fun music, and above all else.... friends.
"What do all those have in common," you ask? Well, I'm about to tell you.

On Friday night after work, I headed over to my buddy Imperfect's house.
We hung out, watched a few trailers for movies coming out and played with his kids for a bit.
Then we took off for Bellevue to meet up with a couple of other friends at Mayuri for Indian food. (This is the place that almost all the Redmond Microsoft workers go to, so it's always packed)
Food was great and I was able to try something new for a change. I typically get the same couple of things whenever I order Indian, but this time we had a couple of 'experts' (read: Indian friends) who I let pick dinner and I discovered something new I liked and can now order. Yay!

Our original plans were to meet up and go to a movie, so after dinner we got back in our cars and headed over to the theater to see "Gran Torino".
I'd heard good things about the movie, but I wasn't all fired-up about seeing it. I just kind of tagged along to spend time with friends. But ten minutes into the movie, after watching Clint Eastwood be a grumpy, scowling, ornery old cuss, I leaned over to Imperfect and said,"Oh. I'm gonna like this movie. I already like his character!"
The movie was really good. Be warned though, if you're easily offended by racial epithets than this movie will make your jaw drop. It's got a lot of them.
Definitely glad I went and saw this though. It was very good.

It was late when I got back home after the movie. We went to a 9:30 p.m. show, so by the time I got home and in bed it was well after 1:00 a.m.
I slept in and did some errands before getting ready for Saturday evening's events.

Hotness was out toodling around doing her own thing, so while she was gone I made some more of the bacon explosion that I tried out a few nights earlier. (You'll see why a little later)
This time I flattened out the sausage and basted it with BBQ sauce and some rub. Then I rolled it up and wrapped the bacon around it.
While it was in the oven, I ironed clothes and took a shower and shaved to get ready for the ballet that evening.

We were going to Lynnwood first to drop in at the Comic Stop and and congratulate Technogreek and Kyle Stevens on the release of their debut CD collaboration: "Kirby Krackle".
I'd seen Kyle perform some of the songs from the CD live before but I hadn't heard the whole album yet.
Unfortunately, Hotness and I couldn't stay for the concert at the shop. But we did get to meet up with several of our friends from the store including (but not limited to): Elwood, Maimed Man, Dr. Zoltar and his wife, not to mention the aforementioned Technogreek and Kyle Stevens.

I brought a big ol' plate of freshly made bacon explosion which was quickly devoured by everybody fast enough to get some, then we talked with friends for a bit.
We could only stay for a short amount of time, so I bought a copy of the CD and had both the guys sign it before we took off for Seattle.

We got to McCaw Hall with plenty of time to spare, so Hotness got a drink and we sat and watched the people come in.
One thing about attending the arts in the Pacific Northwest; there is no 'hard and fast' rule about how to dress at these things.
You see many folks (particularly older) dressed up for the evening. Your typical evening dress for her and a suit & tie for him.
But you also see lots of jeans and pullovers, tennis shoes and the like.
Sometimes we get the occasional "WTF?" kind of outfit. Case in point last night: There was guy who looked like he just stepped out of the Blue Oyster Bar. He had black leather motorcycle boots, black jeans, black leather jacket, a T-shirt and a biker leather cap.
But hey, it's all good. They're there supporting the arts and that's a good thing.

The evening's performance was three separate pieces under the title "Jewels".
We saw these before about two years ago, and they are more in the classical style with very colorful outfits and different styles of dance to differentiate the pieces.

First up was:


This was a rather slow piece, with light music and very smooth movements.
It's a nice beginning to the set as it moves freely but not distractingly.
Here's principle dancer Louise Nadeau talking about "Emeralds";


We had an intermission after that, and Hotness and I both discovered how hungry we were.
We hadn't really eaten that much during the day and now our tummies were starting to grumble.
We wanted to see the second piece, so we decided to watch it and then decide if we'd stick around for the third piece.

The second dance was:

This is a huge break from the earlier piece.
The movements and sharp and jarring, and very deliberate. Coupled with music by Igor Stravinsky and you get a very different visual experience.
The reason we wanted to stay for this was that our two favorite dancers were performing in it and they are fantastic.

Ariana Lallone is to ballet what Wonder Woman is to comics. Beautiful, graceful and a force to be reckoned with on that stage. She is amazing and has been our favorite performer in all the years we've been attending the ballet.
Jonathan Porretta is somebody you have to see to believe. He moves and whips around on stage like a dervish without ever missing a beat. And he does it with a smile on his face every time.
Here is Jonathan talking about his role in "Rubies":


The final piece was:

There was an intermission between "Rubies" and "Diamonds" but hunger was taking over and to quite honest, after watching Ariana and Jonathan we were quite satisfied and ready to go home.

So we didn't stick around for this piece.

We originally planned on going to Pomodoro for something to eat, but Hotness wanted to find someplace a little closer to home.
So instead we went to Matt's Oyster Lounge in Redmond.
Not wanting to get too full that late at night, we split some appetizers and called it good.

After that, we came home, fed the cat and crawled into bed.
So much packed into just a day and a half and we still have all of today ahead of us.