I bought a tea pot at Myrorna (my favorite thrift store in town). It's ceramic so it's a little heavy but also not as fragile as others. It was only 75 kronor, which is a little under 12 dollars.

I've been drinking Jade Oolong lately. I bought it from Zen Tea at Nolia and love it so much that I even had to go out and get it a jar. Oolong might just be my new favorite. I wasn't even a particular fan of green tea before meeting this one.

The adorable wonderland cup is one of the set Phong gave me for my birthday!

Phong and I saw the Captain America movie tonight. Don't worry about spoilers, this post isn't actually about the film but the theatre. We have one theatre in town, the SF Bio. For my non Swedish friends, I shall point out a few differences between Swedish and American theatres. The most noticeable is that it only seems to have showings between 5 and 9, whereas in the states some movies start around 11 (if I recall correctly). Also when you buy tickets they have a seat number! Forget waiting in line to get the good seats people, you can choose them online if you want or at the counter.

I happen to love going to the theatre. Unfortunately, the experience is beginning to decay. Trailers have become longer and in many cases made viewing the movie itself pointless, and 3D has taken over when it comes to big ticket movies.

Most American movies take months after their US airing date to come out in Sweden, but Phong and I wait patiently to get to see them in the theatre. Tonight the movie started. Or rather, the sound did, but the darkness left by the turned down lights was never illuminated by the screen. The image never came. After a minute or so of epic sounds and voices, it seemed no one near the door was going to make the move. Valiant as ever, Phong bound down the stairs on our side of the theatre, ran around the front, and then scaled the opposite side- elegant like a gazelle- and went to find someone to fix the screen.

Sound continued for another five minutes or so, it was hard to tell in the dark, until Phong returned. When the sound returned with picture, it was from the point where the sound had been. They didn't restart the movie.

At the end we waited through the credits, as is customary at the end of Marvel (and pretty much all) films now, to see the extra bit that may or may not arrive. It did! Or at least, the sound did. The image stopped just in time for it, right after the credits.

-1 for SF Bio.

I'm suddenly worried that I'm misspelling Nolia. Hopefully not. Anywho, it was a lot of fun. We went to the craft warehouse and saw a bunch of neat booths including a new tea place where I finally bought Oolong after what had to have been at least two days of wanting. More on the tea itself later.

Unfortunately, I'm really bad at taking pictures. Not the picture taking itself, but the habit of remembering to take them.

At some point we found a booth with sewing supplies but, of course, nothing in the way of quilting hoops.

After the craft building we went to the food building, it was great but of course by then I was so engulfed by hunger that I completely failed to remember I even had a camera.

Phong and I tried coconut baklava that was really yummy. I had a slushy that was okay but failed to melt properly due to the cold. We shared a veggi pizza and then had these desserts that are kind of like logs of white chocolate with coconut flakes on the outside and marshmellowy goodness inside.

Bet you're wishing I was better at taking picture now, right?

Linn and I have decided to try our hands at quilting. The problem? Umeå craft stores are incredibly skimpy on supplies of all kinds, especially quilting. I went out yesterday to find and buy a good sized cutting board and a quilting hoop (examples below). But the only cutting board I could find was a small medium and we didn't even see any embroidery hoops let alone quilting ones.

(It's pretty much a big embroidery hoop. There are also hoops on stands and rectangular quilting stands that quilts can be wrapped around so as to work on larger parts of it. I never thought it would be something that was hard to find, since I grew up in California and my mother [like her mother and her sisters] quilts. I, of course, squandered my years with her and learned the bare minimum of sewing and quilting, only developing the desire to know more once I'd moved across the globe.)

(The green mat beneath everything else here is a fabric cutting board, which I also never dreamed would become a rare item. Picture borrowed from google.)

Linn called her mom, who happens to do many crafts as well, and she suggested that we try the Yarn and Sewing Machine shops instead of the craft store (there's only one) and fabric stores (of which I've found two, but they're a chain).

I'm considering opening a craft store in the future, preferrably when my mother retires and I sway her to move to Sweden, then she can be my labor and knowledge bank.

I'd also like to mention my disappointment in the lack of craft groups in town. Or, I guess I should say, the hidden nature of the few craft groups that exist. I swear that I've seen women knitting in groups at the cafe, so I suspect that they exist. I'd love to try a sewing group, or any other craft oriented group really, but I just don't know how to find them.

More updates soon! We're going to Nolia today (which I've been lead to believe is a market fair of just about everything [we're aiming for the craft booths and food booths, of course]). I'll let you know how that goes!

So Phong and I saw Green Lantern, which was pretty great and I won't be dishing any spoilers so I won't be saying much more on it.

My real question is, what ever happened to teaser trailers? I recall a time when in theaters they played teasers and television did the same up until the movie was playing, and then they'd start airing slightly longer trailers and then later on when the movie is out on dvd they had the crazy long trailers that I imagine are for the soul purpose of reminding people that had watched it in theaters why they want to buy it.

Now every trailer I see is pushing 2 to 3 minutes and giving me the entire movie. I saw the trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes yesterday, which was kind of great because I didn't know what it was for and it was like watching a mini movie with a catch at the end when I saw the title. But seriously, I've now seen the movie. The trailer has a beginning, middle, and then an end with all of the emotional connections and build ups. I'll see it again when it comes out in full length, but I'm not going to be surprised or amazed.

I used to love watching the trailer in the movie theater, but now I just dread it because it's a bunch of films I might have really gotten a kick out of, but now I've prewatched. No film needs a 2-3 minute trailer. 1 minute tops. It's mostly about the music, the mood set, and snap clips of action if it's action or suspense if it's suspense. And honestly, for all of the movies that already have a fanbase, it doesn't even need scene clips. Like the first Transformers teaser. The Star Trek teaser. Even the Zorro teaser back in the day.

Captain America hasn't come out here but I've watched the first minute of the trailer and at least seen the first half hour of the movie through it. It's not necessary. Flash the Captain America shield to some really epic music and then give a date. I'd be there and so would a lot of other people. Same thing with Green Lantern. Give me a pan of space, a flash of green, a camera turn to Oa, and then the ring taking up the screen. Done.

I think I'll conclude my complaint here. Hopefully the people that are paying trailer makers too much to sum up movies will read this and knock it off. I minute people. That's it. And don't try to cram as much of a movie into it as possible. Trailers aren't about miniturizing the movie, it's about making people want to see it. Think about the name... 'teaser trailer'. Tease. Don't spoil.