Mondo Weekend Edition! Vero's B-Day, the Fair, and Some Books Blurbed

I always know that when things get you down, there's only one solution: GO DANCING!
Saturday, ten of us got together for Vero' (and Tracy's) birthday. We had drinks, then went for dinner, then went dancing.

I did a lot of walking (to town, from place to place) and then did a whole lot of shakin' of the tailfeathers. These shoes were wonderful! I had no sore feet the next day...although my head was another matter...

Wow, I haven't been out dancing* since my 40th birthday (nearly 3 years ago, in case you're counting). It was so fun!

It was a great opportunity to showcase this awesome dress again (worn twice, here and here). It had many admirers throughout the evening.

I also had compliments on my outerwear:

Just right for keeping me warm on a cool summer evening.

*Actual dancing is much groovier, thrashier and punkier. I'm trying to look sedate here (stop laughing, L).

Dress (Desigual), shoes (Tsubo "Erebus"), bag (Ollie & Nic), jacket (The Gap, consignment), cuff (thrifted), gold hoops (gift from L).

After a full day of doing nothing, I was ready to go to the Fair today. The Fall Fair is an annual Labour Day tradition. I used to enter all kinds of art, home-grown vegetables, sewing, and baking into the competitions at the Fair when I was a kid. It was cool to hang with my Mom, my bro, Dave, and my nieces, Zoe, Hannah and Sidney...and even cooler that Mom, Zoe and Hannah all won prizes! Well done!

Because the Fair is outside and there's dirt and animals and tractors all over the place, I have to go ultra casual:

My poor Vans are on their last legs. I'm going to take them to the consignment store soon, I think. Aw...sad...

I thought I was prepared for the weather:

Just like last year, it poured rain the whole time we were there (both outfits are a lot more casual than what I wore two years ago! I've learned my lesson). I was freezing and very, very happy for this scarf. I only wished I'd brought gloves and a toque!

I had a blast going on rides with Zoe and Hannah (and Mom on the Tilt-a-Whirl)!

Someone was not very happy that we spent the day at the fair, though:

See him on the side of the two pictures above?

Look at the cuteness!

Sitting on my coat and hoping we don't go.

Coat (B.U.M. Equipment, thrifted), tee (Plum), striped tee (Majestic, gift from Caro), jeans (Seven7, gift from Caro), belt (gift from Ruth), shoes (Vans), scarf (Club Monaco).

So! I read a lot this weekend and finished off quite a few things, including my latest batch of Magic Teeth Dailies:

Perogy Cat rules! Gareth is an acquaintance of ours - he's a great guy and knows more about comics than pretty much anyone. Yes, that much.

Anyway, loved these ones. If you're in my neck of the woods, you need to buy these.

I got the next graphic novel on Gareth's recommendation:

"The Unwritten: Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity" by Mike Carey and Peter Gross. It took a really cool idea (what if a child who inspired a Harry Potter-like literary character grew up and sort of lost the boundary between himself and the character?) and turned it around and went in an unexpected way. If you like graphic novels like "Fables", you'd probably like this.

And I finally finished this Book Club selection, Steig Larsson's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo":

Everyone and their dog (and cat) is reading this book right now. I saw the movie last year in the theatre and recommend it (please rent the original movie before they remake it...yes, it has subtitles). The movie follows the book quite nicely, although the book has a lot more plot around the corporate intrigue - I kept thinking the book would be over when the thriller part wrapped up, but no, it went on for another 80-odd pages. Note: the movie gives away a key point that I think is going to be revealed in the 2nd book.

Stats: Speaking of pages, there are 841 of them. However, this is one of those new-fangled brick-shaped paperbacks where the text is centered on the pages with huge borders. Feels like you breeze through it. Started August 23rd, finished September 5th.

Blurb: The two main characters, Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, are fairly thinly sketched. Lisbeth is really the central character over the trilogy (I plan to read the other two books), and you can see that the author wants to hold back a lot of her background, and not put it all up front for the reader, which is nice. I expect that we'll find out more about Mikael as well as the series goes on. Anyway, I had read a couple of reviews of this and had expected it to be worse, so it was a pleasant surprise. It's a fairly light read, and there will be lots of second-hand copies in the bookstores soon, I'm sure, so I'd recommend it.

Hope you all had a fabulous long weekend!