LolaGeek

We had a fun and busy weekend. On Saturday we spent the day cleaning the house – really cleaning. Later, we went to New Hope and met J and S for dinner. That was really nice, except it was like 100 degrees with 99% humidity or something crazy, so it was basically like sitting in a sauna. And we were eating outdoors on a deck by the river. Then we walked around a while, and J and S got the full GG experience, how he looks at every item in a store and talks the shopkeeper’s ear off, even if you’re on your way somewhere (to get ice cream, in this case). However, they got to see his mural, and we went to the Jerry Garcia gallery, which we’d never been to before. And then we went to an ice cream shop (well, it’s a hot dog place but they sell ice cream) where we’d never been, and had a delicious treat – in the air conditioning!

On Sunday GG and I went out for lunch, and then went to see Inception. It was really good! I’ll put my thoughts at the end of this post so you won’t be spoiled if you haven’t seen it yet. Afterward, we went to Home Depot to get supplies to fix up a couple things around the house we’ve been meaning to take care of. And then we relaxed at home. I’m now all caught up on Work of Art, which I just started watching on OnDemand this weekend. It’s like Project Runway but with artists. I love it because it reminds me so much of college! The dumb projects, the lame explanations, and the characters: the old lady “real artist,” the guy who draws everything like comic books, the girl who uses naked pictures of herself for every assignment…

Speaking of dreams (or, I will be, in a minute), I had a dream last night that I had to stop somewhere before work, and then there was a road that would take me from there to the town I work in, so I figured I’d just follow it. So I was driving and driving along this road, and it was getting later and later, and before I knew it, the day was half over and I was still not at work and didn’t know how much longer I’d take. I ended up stopping at some office and calling in to say I was just going to take the day off, and then I had to figure out how to get home from there anyway. If I had to interpret this dream, I’d say it’s telling me that I shouldn’t just continue following a road and hope I eventually end up where I want; instead, I need to take charge of my own map and make sure I’m going where I want to go, getting there when I want to get there. Or, you know, something like that.

SPOILER ALERT: Okay, my thoughts on Inception… The theory I like most is that the whole movie was basically one giant inception of the audience. The tagline is, “Your mind is the scene of the crime” (“your” = you, the audience?); the film starts without a title or credits (do you remember how we got here?); the last scene in the airport is the same as what is about to happen as the audience leaves the theater, strangers sitting next to each other and having the same dream. However, if you’re looking for resolution to Cobb’s story, the point isn’t whether he’s still dreaming or not, or even whether the entire thing was a dream (even though I hope it wasn’t that lame – I think there were some scenes in “real life”). The point is that in the end he chooses to stay with his kids, rather than with the memory of his wife, or on the run and working his “extraction” business. Also, there are two sets of actors playing his kids (and they are listed specifically with their ages in the credits), so some people are taking that to mean that the kids at the end of the movie are older, and therefore real. But I think maybe the older set of kids are just heard, and not seen. The kids he talked to on the phone from Paris sounded older than the little kids playing that he remembered – especially the girl. So maybe that part was real, but the end scene was still a dream. Even though it sounded like it was wobbling, we never saw the top fall, so we’ll never know! As soon as the movie ended and the screen went black, someone in the theater went, “What?!”

Last night was our third (I think) “Bad Movie Night.” This time we had an animal theme to our movies, so I served all animal-named foods: cream cheese penguins, gummy bears and fish, animal crackers, pigs in a blanket, ants on a log, and buffalo dip. I was worried because GG ended up inviting a lot of people (in addition to the folks I had already invited), but luckily none of his friends showed, so we had a comfortable group of about ten people, and everyone had a place to sit and there was exactly the right amount of food. We watched Gatorface, which was awesome and perfect for making fun of, and Karate Dog, which was also a bad movie but somehow didn’t lend itself to as much joke-making as Gatorface.

Today I went out to Target and discovered that they are giving out a free reusable shopping bag with your purchase! Not sure if it’s just for today or this weekend, or all month in honor of Earth Day. Also, you get $.05 off your order for each reusable bag you bring, and the one they give you counts as one of the bags, so I got $.10 off since I had also brought my own bag. I hope that’s something they’ll continue, and isn’t just for Earth Day. (It’s a nice bag, too – cute pattern, and it’s made of recycled plastic bottles.)

Leaving soon for my imaginary nephew’s first birthday party! …Better wrap his gifts!

These are not necessarily things that were released this year (in the case of the TV shows and books and such), just things I experienced this year that had an effect on me.

Movie: District 9
I saw a lot of movies this year, but this was the one that really got everyone thinking and talking. It had gore, action, and social commentary, plus we learned that aliens love cat food!
Runner Up: Star Trek – pretty awesome, not to mention it featured ZQ and his awesome eyebrows! And because J.J. Abrams has now created an alternate timeline, he can pretty much do whatever he wants in sequels.

TV Show: Fringe
I loved season 1 of this show and was so excited for the second season, which started this fall, but unfortunately it aired opposite some other shows I watch, so I chose to catch up with Fringe online. Every time I went to watch it I would think, “Maybe I should just skip this, I watch enough TV shows,” but by the end of the episode I was totally hooked again, and all I could think was, “I love this show!” Like Lost, it seems to have a lot of mysteries that are carried throughout the series, which still haven’t been answered. But unlike Lost, it doesn’t make me angry. At the end of each episode, I can’t wait to see what they have in store next.
Runner Up: Parks and Recreation – I didn’t want to like this show, and I didn’t at first, but I stuck with it and by the end of the first season I was really into it. Season 2 had me from the start, and routinely has me laughing out loud.
Honorable Mention: The Office – only for the hour-long Jim and Pam wedding episode, which brought a tear to my eye for sure. The rest of this season (and actually, last season too) has been so depressing and weird. What happened to the goofy awkwardness?

Book: The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
After taking a long break from book reading, I finally got a library card and got back into the habit late last year. I found myself reading mostly nonfiction, and out of all the books I read, I feel like this is the one I actually learned the most from. Now I know the origin of fortune cookies, the Chinatown bus, Americanized Chinese food, and why every town in America seems to have its own Chinese restaurant, and why they’re all so similar.
Runner Up: A Mercy – I’m not a huge Toni Morrison fan, but this was quick, interesting, and came together at the end in a pretty awesome way.

Album: Tally Hall, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum
I discovered this band in the most random way, ordered their CD right away, and I am totally hooked. Their CD was in my car for most of 2009, and I never got sick of listening and singing along. (In my opinion, a good CD is one where you can sing along with almost every song in the car.) Seriously, I like every song on that disc – even the ones I don’t love, I can tolerate. If I had to have one CD stuck in my car radio forever, it could be that one. (And not to make this about the band over the album, but those guys all seem super great, their Internet Show is hilarious, and they’re fantastic live – even when they’re tired and sick!)
Runner Up: The Lonely Island, Incredibad – Okay, there’s a bit more cursing than I’m comfortable with, but how can you listen to something like “Sax Man” without at least chuckling? I think I know all the words to “Santana DVX,” which amuses my friends. And GG and I have gotten a lot of mileage out of the phrase “big ol’ bag of trash” from “Dreamgirl.”
Honorable Mentions: Traced in Air by Cynic and The Ladder by Yes both came to me via GG and I became obsessed with both of them this year, but they lose points for not really lending themselves to singing along.

Restaurant: Amada
GG and I had wanted to try this place for a couple years, and we finally got to go for dinner on our anniversary. It. Was. Amazing. We were still talking about some of the things we tried there months later. I even tried to re-create a couple of the dishes. And maybe it was just that we didn’t order anything crazy and extravagant, but the total bill was not as high as we’d feared it might be. If I went again, I’d make reservations well in advance so we could get a better seat, but actually sitting at the bar by the kitchen was really interesting because we got to watch all the food being prepared.
Runner Up: Tastebuds – We stumbled upon this New Hope restaurant kind of by accident, and it’s now totally our favorite place in town. I’d go there four times a year just to try all their seasonal menus. (And I still haven’t given up trying to make my own version of that asparagus ravioli.)

Vacation: Portland, ME
I went on more overnight trips this year than I think I ever have, so I had a bunch to choose from, but without a doubt our “big trip” to Maine was the best vacation I took this year. We planned it well in advance and by the time we left I’d made up an itinerary that really mapped out our schedule for each day. Some would say that’s insane, but it was tremendously helpful because we made sure we got to do the things we wanted to do while we were there. And of course we could break from the itinerary if we wanted! Portland itself is a great town, and despite my worry that there wouldn’t be enough to do there to keep us busy for a week, we ended up with a lot of stuff we didn’t have time to do! I’d definitely go back (if only it weren’t so far away)!
Runner Up: OCMD long weekend with my Brothers – I was on the beach longer than I had been in probably the last 10-15 years, total. And we just had a lot of fun and ate a lot of stuff and had a good time together.

Catching up with highlights of the last few days:

Thursday: I was taking a nap in the living room when I was awakened by a knock at the door and saw through the peephole a man in a suit standing on my porch. I was all disoriented from having just woke up. He was running for Mayor of our town and wanted to see if he could put a campaign sign in our yard, since we’re right across the street from the polling place. I told him I’d have to check with GG, who wasn’t home. If I’d been more aware of the situation, I would’ve asked him some questions about his position on things, but instead he probably thinks I’m crazy.

Friday: GG filled in on bass in the band that three of his old bandmates are now in. He had a good time, but didn’t get home from his show until 4:30 AM (it was at the Jersey shore). I’m glad he doesn’t do that every weekend anymore! Meanwhile, I ate Taco Bell for dinner.

Saturday: I happened to see on the internet Friday night that the bridge in our town that’s been closed for the past two years was reopening on Saturday morning. So GG and I went to the ceremony. Everyone gathered in the middle of the bridge and a bunch of politicians talked, including PA Governor Rendell. Apparently, ours was one of the worst bridges in the state (the worst in the region), which is why they decided to rebuild it. They were supposed to cut a ribbon, and even had the ribbon set up, but then decided it would be better to just remove the “Road Closed” signs at the end of the bridge. So everyone walked down and applauded as they carried the signs away. Then they were supposed to have some old-timey car drive over the bridge as the first vehicle to cross, but it couldn’t actually get across because all these other trucks and the Governor’s limo were parked at the other end of the bridge! They got everything cleared up, though, and we actually drove across it a little while later while we were out doing errands.

Later, we went to visit friends of GG’s from college, who just moved into this house in NJ together. We stayed up really late watching movies, but luckily we got an extra hour of sleep thanks to Daylight Savings. We saw Even Dwarfs Started Small (totally weird), Frontier(s) (totally gorey), and The Onion Movie (totally the third time I’ve seen it).

Sunday: I slept way in, then did errands and chores around the house while GG was out working. I noticed that there is now way less traffic in front of my house since it’s no longer the detour for the bridge, woo hoo! Supposedly they’re going to be removing the No Parking signs soon, and we will be able to park on the street in front of the house again! His parents were having a lunchtime birthday party for his brother, but GG didn’t even get home until 2, so it was about 3 by the time we got there, so we had more like an early dinner. We were there for a few hours eating, opening presents, and later an uncle we don’t see very often came over, so we had to hang out with him for a bit. The little gray kittens they adopted this summer are home now, and they are so cute! They play like mad, then totally crash and fall dead asleep.

Monday: While I was at work, GG called and told me he’d talked to… someone from our town, I’m not sure who… and they put a sign in our yard for the mayoral candidate who’d stopped by on Thursday. Well, when I got home I saw that it was like a giant billboard! Haha… guess we had to support him then! Then we went out with GG’s parents and brother and his girlfriend to a sushi buffet. I am probably not the best person to take to a sushi buffet, considering I don’t eat seafood and can’t really eat enough in one sitting to make any buffet worthwhile. I’d been to this place a few years ago, though, and I have to say they definitely had more non-seafood options this time. In addition to various rices, noodles, salads, and chicken and vegetable dishes, there were even some non-fish sushi – I had a bunch of mushroom sushi, a pork rib sushi, and there was some tofu sushi but I didn’t get any in time and then it was gone. That’s the other thing – there is so much food there and it’s constantly changing! Because it was GG’s brother’s actual birthday that day, the waitstaff brought out a nice piece of cake with a candle in it, and had him hold this Japanese parasol while they took his picture, which they printed and gave him afterward. That was pretty funny.

Tuesday: Today I got more bad news at work and suffered through another day at the most downbeat office in PA. Then I came home, voted, made dinner, and tried to set up in the living room with my laptop so we could watch “V” on the big TV. However… my laptop can no longer find any wireless networks?! It was working fine, then I turned off the wireless for a minute while I was updating my antivirus software and was momentarily unprotected. When I went to turn it back on, it wouldn’t pick up our network. I tried turning wireless on and off, turning the modem on and off, turning the computer on and off, setting up the network as a new network… nothing. Ugh, I hate that stupid laptop. It’s been nothing but suck.

In order for this to not be too overwhelming (for me to write or for you to read), I’m splitting my vacation post into a few sections.

Note: This post is pretty link-heavy. Many of the links go to my photos from the trip. If you want to see all the photos together, go here.

We decided a year ago that we didn’t want to go back to Virginia for our summer vacation this year. Around that time, we got some brochures about Portland, ME and decided we’d go there for vacation, but we didn’t tell anyone for a year! (In fact, he called his parents on the way there and they still weren’t sure where we were going!) So here’s how our week went.

Friday: I thought it might be a slow day at work, but ended up having an extremely busy day. Lots of last-minute technical problems, meetings, solutions, and fixes. Plus I was trying to get things done for Monday, which would have been one of my twice-monthly very busy days, except I was going to be out of the office and needed people to cover for me, so I did as much as possible ahead of time and then wrote them detailed instructions. (Things went great on Monday, by the way – I never got any panicked phone calls, and when I returned this week everything had been done just fine.)

Saturday: I spent the day cleaning and doing chores around the house, because I hate coming home to a dirty house! That night, GG and I went out with a friend of his to see District 9. So good! It’s a really original take on the theme of dealing with immigrants, and the style’s really neat, in that it turns from a documentary to a sci-fi action movie. Super gory! (Peter Jackson’s specialty…) And aliens love cat food!

Sunday: We packed up and headed north! We took GG’s car, as he is our usual driver for long distances and unfamiliar territory. However, he asked if I’d drive once we got past New York, which, of course I would. I had suggested that he plan out a route ahead of time, but he figured he’d let the GPS figure things out, so of course it just had us head straight up I-95. It actually wasn’t that bad on a Sunday morning/afternoon. We stopped for gas in New Jersey, crossed the George Washington Bridge into the Bronx (where we got slightly turned around, but it was okay), then made it to Connecticut. At a rest stop there we switched seats, and GG did nothing but complain about my driving the whole time! So at the next rest stop, we switched back! We continued through Massachusetts, New Hampshire (stopped again to stretch), and finally Maine! Checked into the hotel, got cleaned up a bit, and headed out to see Portland!

We stayed at the Holiday Inn By The Bay, which was a great combination of affordability (the other hotels right in town were either gross or super-expensive) and location (walking-distance to just about everything). I had written up a whole itinerary for us using my spreadsheet (of recommendations) and TripIt, so we already knew we were having dinner at Pepperclub. This restaurant was described to me as a casual place serving good food made with local ingredients, so I was really looking forward to it. It ended up being probably my least-favorite meal of the whole trip. The food was… interesting. GG seemed to like his linguini with scallops, but I found my roasted veggies on goat cheese (with a side of spinach-rhubarb something-or-other) kind of nasty. The bean salad I was served was very good, though! The atmosphere was kind of weird, too. The staff seemed a little bit rude. Also, they only have one kind of salad dressing! (At least it was good!) After dinner, we just headed back to the hotel because we were tired, I had a monster headache, and we had big plans for the next day.

Monday: We got up early and, following the itinerary, planned to go to Strawberry Banke. But first, GG had to ask a question at the front desk of the hotel: Where can you get a lobster omelet? We were recommended to go to Bintliff’s, which again was walking-distance from the hotel. (On our way there we saw a man sitting in front of his house with a black and white cat on a leash sniffing around the garden. He must let the cat out every morning like that, because we saw him a few times.) Bintliff’s was awesome! We were seated upstairs by an open window overlooking the street. We both had a glass of delicious orange juice (and they serve it in big glasses, too!), and GG was about to get the lobster eggs benedict but decided to ask if lobster could be added to the Bintliff scramble (eggs with basil, pepper, and parmesan), and they could! So for $7 he had lobster added to his $6 meal. I had standard scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast, and it was also quite delicious. The bacon there is like 1/4″ thick!

After breakfast we walked back to the hotel, got in the car (nooo! weren’t we just in that thing for 8 hours?!), and drove an hour to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to go to Strawberry Banke. The place was recommended for us to visit. I read their web site. We watched an introductory video when we first got there. And I still didn’t understand exactly what Strawberry Banke was! I get it now, though. It’s a re-created neighborhood, sort of like Jamestown or one of those places, but all the houses are set up to represent different time periods of the neighborhood’s existence, which ranged from the 1600s to the 1960s. So there’s like an 18th-century shipping tycoon’s house, and then there’s a WWII grocery store. GG tried out a privy. And one of my favorites was the Russian-Jewish immigrant house, the Shapiro house – one of the few spots with a reenactor. We had started out with a tour group (which was split into two groups, and even then was huge), but ditched them after going through just a couple houses because it was so hot and the houses were crowded, and it was awkward and you couldn’t even see anything. And the tour guide didn’t tell us anything, she just opened the door to the house, let us in to look around, then led us to the next house. So GG and I had a much better time just going around on our own. Most places we were in by ourselves, and we had the full attention of the reenactors or volunteer guides or whoever was in there. Learned a lot of interesting stuff, too!

Just when it was too hot to bear, we came across the ice cream shop, which reminded us of GG’s parents’ place, both in decor and in smell! We each had a cup, then wrapped up our visit with a trip to the Goodwin house, an upper-class house owned by a former governor that was set to be demolished, but instead was moved to Strawberry Banke. (Homes like that wouldn’t really have been part of Strawberry Banke, which was more of a working-class neighborhood.) The house had a beautiful garden and a breezy porch with a swing, where we sat for a few minutes to cool off before heading out.

Wanting to make the most of our day, GG suggested we walk around Portsmouth. The little town was cute, but it was so hot and humid. We weren’t prepared for that warm weather at all, and I was wearing closed shoes, capris, and a double-layer t-shirt. I could barely make it around the block without passing out. (Seriously, I actually thought, “Hmm, I could pass out right now.”) We found a little shop that sold cold sodas, and we each got one and stood outside to drink them. Then we finally got back to the car and headed back to Portland, where we got cleaned up and had lovely naps before dinner.

When we woke up and were ready, we walked through the “Old Port” area (think brick sidewalks, cobblestone streets, lots of shops and restaurants) to the bay, looking for lobster. This was all according to the itinerary. We decided on the Portland Lobster Co. GG got a tremendous 2-pound lobster, and I ate a kind of sucky cheeseburger (but the fries were great!). We sat on a dockside deck under a canopy, there was live music, the temperature was finally dropping a little for the evening, and it was very nice. After dinner, we walked around the Old Port some more and visited a few shops before heading back toward the hotel. At GG’s request, we stopped at Brian Boru, an Irish pub we passed walking between the hotel and the Old Port. GG had added it to the spreadsheet, actually. He had a Guinness and cider, I had a Coke. We sat at the bar for a minute, but then went out to the upstairs deck, which was nice, except someone was smoking. (Everyplace in Maine is smoke-free, it’s like a dreamland.) Finally we went back to our room and collapsed into bed.

Continue to Part 2!

This weekend was not as relaxing as a weekend should be. I’m back at work and I feel like I haven’t even had any time to rest since last week.

Friday night GG had to go someplace (I think he was painting his parents’ house?), so I went to the mall to look for a couple things. The only thing I actually ended up getting was a new pair of earbuds for my MP3 player. I have a problem with in-ear headphones, I think my ear holes are small or something, because most don’t fit or if they do they’re very uncomfortable and fall out a lot. So I got one of the pairs with little rubbery nubbins on the ends, and the rubber parts are interchangable, so you can size them up or down. I’m using the smallest pair, and I guess they fit okay, though I think I could go smaller. (They do make one size smaller, but you have to buy them seperately. Of course.) Also, maybe it’s just the fit, but it feels I’m underwater and there’s water in my ears – I hear that swooshing sound when there’s no music playing, and I just hate that feeling. I’m wearing them at work today, so we’ll see. They’re this pair, by the way.

So Friday night after we both got home from our respective errands, GG and I hung out on the sofa in the living room. We still haven’t set up our air conditioners but it was getting really hot and humid, so we figured we’d do it over the weekend. In the meantime, we just stayed downstairs where it was cooler. He hadn’t been able to use his laptop for a couple weeks because it wasn’t picking up any wireless signal. I thought it was a problem with our modem, because the wireless does seem to keep going out, and you have to turn the modem off and on to reset it. But he was sure there was a problem with the computer, so he finally called Dell support. Guess what – he’d accidentally turned off the wireless function by using his keyboard! (Apparently it’s like F2 or something – you don’t have to hold down any other key in combination – and there’s no light or anything to signal that it’s on or off.) Glad he got that solved, now we can sit and surf together like a happy couple!

Saturday we got up early and went to the farmers market. We got I think three kinds of peaches, some tiny plums, Yukon Gold potatoes, more portabella mushrooms to grill, a bunch of basil for GG, and a wedge of Birchrun Blue (which I have just about finished myself… but I always recommend it as blue cheese for people who don’t like blue cheese – it’s very mild). When we got home I did laundry and took a nap in preparation for going out to dinner and a movie. We were literally just about to leave the house when Ed called and said he and Kate were minutes away and could they stop by? Well, okay. So Ed and Kate came over to tell us that they got engaged! Yay! They really couldn’t stay long because they were on the way to see her family, but that was nice of them to come by and tell us in person.

So we went out to dinner, and the meal was not that great and the restaurant was noisy and crowded, and there were tons of screaming kids right by us. I especially hate when parents just let their kids run around a restaurant. If you are going to take your kids out to eat, please keep them in their seats at least! Then we walked over to the movie theater, met up with GG’s friend, and went to see Bruno. I wasn’t sure if we’d like it or not, because even fans of Sacha Baron Cohen have been giving it bad reviews. I think GG enjoyed it. I think it could have been better if they’d edited things another way to tell a different story. The first part, especially, where he’s trying to become famous in America, just didn’t work for me. The storyline about trying to become straight was a lot funnier. (Also, it was more interactions with regular people instead of celebrities.) I would classify it as 50% dumb, 30% gross (and I mean really gross), and 20% funny.

I was up early again on Sunday morning because I wanted to go to Target before it was too crazy there. However, they still didn’t really have the things I was looking for. (That didn’t stop me from buying a basket full of stuff, though.) I wanted to go to the Old Navy that’s in the same shopping center, but it doesn’t open until later on Sundays, so basically my going out early backfired on me. Instead I went food shopping, cleaned the refrigerator, and took a nap.

I had to leave in the afternoon for a concert, which was some distance away, and my carpool was going out to dinner beforehand. I ended up driving because our planned driver had a last-minute car issue (her windows weren’t going up or down, and one was stuck down) and I was the only one with enough gas. So we got up to the area where the park was and started looking for someplace to eat. There is pretty much nothing around this place. Last year we ate at some fast food place. This year we decided to try this diner we passed. It’s a divided highway, so I had to go up and use a jughandle thing to turn around to get to this place. Worst. Meal. Ever. The service was horrible (and slow!), the food was horrible… We learned our lesson and will never be going back there. Got to the park just in time, played the concert, and Jess and Rob showed up with the baby! They just happened to be in the area and decided to come by! So that was nice that they could see the show. Afterwards we went to this place across the street from the park for ice cream (we go every year), then we drove home and I went straight to bed.

It cooled off over the weekend, and it’s cool today, but I heard it’s going to get humid again this week, so the air conditioners are definitely going in tonight!

I’ve had a bunch of time off from band, so GG and I took care of my free Wednesday night by going out to dinner and then to see The Hangover. It was really really good. Zach Galifianakis definitely stole the show. (But we already liked him :o] )

My weekend’s been pretty lame so far. Last night we fell asleep early. This morning we got up early and went to the farmers market. I had a pretty good haul: red potatoes, crimini and portabella mushrooms, peaches, plums (not regular purple ones, these are small and yellow but said to be sweet), a giant onion, basil, and some pea sprouts. I’m planning to make us grilled portabella and onion sandwiches for dinner on Monday. Then we came home, I went out again to the supermarket, came back home, and had lunch. GG and I walked up to where the Italian Feast is this weekend, but apparently it didn’t open until like 5 PM (for some reason we thought it was an all-day event on the weekends). So we came back home, I took a nap, and after while a guy GG works with came over to play guitar with him and then they went out with some other friends to the Italian Feast later. I don’t mind not going – I realized that all I do is eat water ice (which I can do anytime) and buy pizza frita (which nobody should be eating anyway). It’s GG who really enjoys going and hanging out, watching bands, drinking beer, eating the cherries out of the roast pigs’ eyes, eating lots of other things, playing the games…

Tomorrow we are meeting up with some of my friends from school and going to see a polo game in Lancaster. We’ll be tailgating, so I’ve been preparing food to bring. I don’t know what else there’s going to be, besides some chips and salsa, but I have brownies, some berries, and chicken nuggets with homemade honey mustard. Should be a fun day! And luckily I don’t have to go to work on Monday! Because I’m getting that stress echocardiogram :o( Hope they can find something…

My long weekend, which I thought going into it was going to be very boring, actually turned out to be pretty busy!

GG left on Thursday morning to go work at his parents’ shop for the weekend, so I was on my own from the time I got home Thursday night (after running some errands on the way). I think just about the whole company took the day off Friday, so it was very boring and quiet at work. Eventually we were given the word from our department’s management to go home at 3:00. I usually leave at 3:30 anyway, so it wasn’t like a huge bonus for me, but it was still nice. I went out to Target on Friday evening, and then spent the rest of the night just hanging around at home.

My uncle came over on Saturday morning to replace our kitchen sink! This was the one thing I had planned for the whole weekend and I was so excited. We figured it’d be pretty straightforward – pop the old sink out, pop the new sink in, set up the faucet. Well… nothing is ever simple in this house. The original sink wasn’t even attached to the counter or anything, so it lifted out easily. However, that also allowed water to seep under the sink so the counter was kind of rotting a little. Then we dropped in the new sink, and it didn’t quite fit. Something I didn’t know about sinks, was that they have tracks underneath them to attach with clips to the edge of the opening in the counter. The bowl of the new sink fit in the hole we already had, but there wasn’t room for the tracks. So we had to cut the opening a little wider. Of course, I guess our counter is not a standard depth, so there was barely enough room front to back to cut the opening. I figured we’d have to trim a little something, and I was prepared for some mess, but I didn’t expect the amount of sawdust we got all over everything!

Eventually the hole was widened, the sink was going to fit, and we set up the faucet in the new sink before dropping it into place. That’s when we discovered that we would need some sort of adapter to connect the new faucet to the water pipes, because they were different sizes. My uncle and cousin ran out to Home Depot while I stayed home and tried to clean up a little. Seriously, the saw dust was everywhere, and I will probably be finding dust in little crevices for a long time to come. When they got back, my uncle went to attach the adapters to the pipes and… something on one of the pipes came apart. It was like the thing the adapter screws into, which was supposed to be soldered onto the pipe, but I guess it came un-soldered? So he said he could cut the whole end off the pipe and get a new piece, but there wasn’t enough room to cut the pipe there. So he went into the basement, cut the pipe down there, cut off the end, and… went back to Home Depot! This time I came along, and taught them a shortcut. (Luckily, Home Depot is relatively close to our house.) We got the one little necessary piece, came back, and soldered everything back together (luckily my uncle brought his blowtorch!).

After that it was fairly smooth sailing. The faucet went together, the sink went into place. The only problem in the end was that there wasn’t enough space in the front or back of the sink to attach the clips, so there’s a small gap in the front and back edge of the sink. We were going to seal it with caulk, but actually my uncle called last night to say he’d thought of a way to attach the clips at least in the front. So we’ll just be careful now about getting water under there (even though there’s plumber’s putty under the edges of the sink this time), and hopefully in a few days he can come see if his idea works. Here’s all the sink pictures, including a few shots of the cats checking out the action.

Julie invited me to go to her birthday dinner Saturday night and I assumed I’d be done with the sink in time, but I’d call to let her know. She called me literally as we were carrying the old sink out the door and finishing up with everything. I said I’d be able to make it still, so I ended up having less than an hour to get cleaned up, dressed, and over to her place to drive to the restaurant. I had hoped I’d have time to take a nap or something first, so I was pretty tired and just generally sweaty and gross feeling. But we all rode up to dinner and it was actually a really nice time. It was mostly her and Brad’s families, and a couple friends. We went to this really unique sushi restaurant that made tons of unique rolls. Of course, I don’t eat seafood, so I didn’t partake – but I know a lot about sushi, so I appreciated it. They ordered a boat (which was a huge wooden boat in the middle of the table filled with a variety of sushi), and several other special rolls that came out on platters. One of the unique things they did was make sushi with various vegetables/rice/fish that are wrapped in more fish, instead of seaweed. So it was basically a big pile of fish all rolled up together. Which, if you’re into that sort of thing, I’m sure was awesome. I ate teriyaki chicken. By the time we left I was feeling really tired and dizzy and headachy. I don’t know why I felt so sick if all I ate was chicken, but when we got back to Julie’s place I was about ready to pass out or throw up. I had to go to my mom’s place to water her plants, so I went there, and after watering them, I took a nap on her sofa for about half an hour. When I got up I felt well enough to drive home, so I just came home and fell asleep.

Sunday morning I was feeling better, so I spent most of the morning finally cleaning up the kitchen. There is probably still dust on some forgotten surfaces, but I really majorly cleaned everything. And I vacuumed, swept, and mopped the floor. I went out food shopping later, but mostly stayed home, on the computer. I discovered a new band I love, Tally Hall, and they have tons of internet content, so I pretty much spent all night watching their videos and listening to their music and stuff. They are very similar to TMBG (and coincidentally are managed by the same company), but they also have aspects of some other singer/songwriters, The Beatles, and many others. Really great group.

GG came home early this morning. We’d been thinking about going to see Star Trek today, and Julie said she and Brad were also thinking of going on Monday, so I called them up to see if they wanted to go together. They did, so we went to a late afternoon show and then went out to dinner and then went out for Dairy Queen. The movie was really good, I was very impressed. I just have two complaints: 1) there was too much “Spock Prime” (as he was listed in the credits) – I thought he would be a quick cameo, not a major character in the movie; and 2) too many catchphrases! GG and I were practically checking them off a list as they said “Fascinating,” “Damn it I’m a doctor, not a physicist!” and “I’m givin’ her all she’s got, Captain!” The only one they didn’t use, which several times I was sure was coming up, was “Beam me up, Scotty.” Also, as GG pointed out, because of the time travel aspect of this film, they can pretty much do whatever they want in sequels because they’ve created an alternate timeline so it doesn’t have to follow the original timeline at all. Pretty clever, JJ Abrams. Also, great soundtrack.

We had a nice weekend. On Friday I went to see my grandmother for a little bit after work. She still has some stray cats in her yard that she feeds, and when I go over she usually asks me to do it so she doesn’t have to mess with the heavy bag of food, kicking them away from the door so they don’t get into the house, crouching down to fill their bowl, etc. When I went out, there was the usual mother/child pair of black cats that’s always there (actually they are very dark brown with subtle tiger stripes, really beautiful!), and also the weirdest looking cat I’ve ever seen, and my grandmother said she’d never seen him either. The best way to describe him is that he looked like an actor from the musical “Cats.” He was black and white, and had a big fluffy chest, and a little stub tail (not sure if he was born that way or something happened to him). He ran away as soon as he saw me in the window, but he was so strange!

I got up early on Saturday and got the house cleaned up because we were having people over Saturday night. Somehow my usual house cleaning ended up taking five hours. Yes, I was a little more thorough than usual, but that was crazy. Good thing I cleaned so hard, though, because one of our guests was allergic to cats (I think I knew this about Brandon..?). Our little get-together was fun, Julia and Kevin came out, and Brandon, and DT. We watched the “Horse Apples” episode of Wonder Showzen, then GG’s stand-up comedy debut from four years ago (which I still think was his best performance ever), Trapped in the Closet, then The Onion Movie, and finally The Wizard of Gore (which was not what I was expecting, but was so, so good to make fun of!). We got pizzas and I made a salad and we had some little pasteries from Trader Joe’s. It was a fun night, but a long day!

Sunday I relaxed and didn’t even leave the house. The main thing I did was laundry, other than that I just goofed off. GG worked on his painting, but didn’t finish as much as he (or I) wanted by the end of the night because he went to visit his mom and they were watching the Twilight movie and instead of leaving like I thought he would if someone put the Twilight movie on, he stayed and watched it. And ate steaks or something for dinner with them even though he’d told me he wasn’t hungry so I hadn’t made him dinner.

After such a beautiful weekend I wasn’t really ready to come back to work today, plus it’s supposed to start raining again?! Heather and I are having lunch with Julie and then we’ll probably go for a walk this afternoon, so at least I’ll be able to enjoy the sun for a little bit…

I had a pretty busy weekend… glad it’s over!

Friday night was my dress rehearsal for band. During my break, I saw that Jess had called me, so I called her back. She and Rob wanted to invite me and GG over to watch the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Sure! I said we’d bring some pizza and stuff, too. Anyway, the dress rehearsal went really well, and we even finished up a little bit early.

Saturday morning, as part of our plan to go out and do more things together, GG and I went to Pearl on South Street to get GG some paint brushes. He was going on and on about these certain Windsor Newton brushes he’s had since college but it’s finally time to replace them, but he’s had them for 13 years, that’s how good they are. So we got there and went through the aisles of paint brushes and they were nowhere to be found. Turns out they’re so amazing (and expensive!) that they keep them behind a counter, and after you’ve picked the ones you want, an employee has to carry them up to the cashier for you. After that little trip, we went to the Italian Market to go to a real DiBruno Brothers shop (you might remember we went to their Comcast Center location in December, but that turned out to be more like a sandwich shop than a deli). The Italian Market area itself was very overwhelming to me, I hate crowds, and even though it was about 11 AM on a rainy Saturday morning, there were still quite a lot of people.

DiBruno Brothers turned out to be very small, and also it doesn’t actually have 1000 cheeses at any one time. Once again, it was busy and crowded and I just felt overwhelmed and in the way. Meanwhile, GG wanted to talk to the employees and take pictures and sample everything. He ended up getting a couple types of Gouda, and he got a 1/4 lb. of Humboldt Fog. I didn’t even try it, but I’d actually read about it in United States of Arugula. When I picked it out, GG was like, “Is it even good?” and this random guy standing there looked up at him and was like, “Oh it’s good. I’ve had it.” We also got a wedge of brie to take to Jess and Rob’s. Then we headed home, and were only delayed a little bit due to rain/traffic/getting lost. As soon as we got home, I had to try my cheese – before I even sat down my purse. It was delicious! I actually just finished it tonight and I’m so disappointed. Humboldt Fog is crumbly goat cheese in the middle, but the edges are mild and goopy. The rind has a layer of edible vegetable ash – I don’t usually like or even eat the rind of cheeses, but this was very good.

I decided I should take a nap before going to Jess and Rob’s, because it would look really bad if I were struggling to stay awake, while the woman with the newborn was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. After I got up and got ready, we ordered a pizza, salad, and some pepperoni bites to pick up on our way. We got to Jess and Rob’s house and… there were a bunch of cars there! A man, woman, and child got out of the car next to us and headed up to the house! GG and I were very confused and I was actually just about ready to take my little pizza and head home, because we really only brought enough food for the four of us. But everything turned out fine – some people were just stopping by to see them on their way to somewhere else, and Jess’ parents were there but they were also heading out. So it did end up just being the four of us (plus the baby, but he doesn’t like pizza I guess). We watched the Derby which of course was about a minute long, and then we watched Pineapple Express on DVD (funny, but much more violent than I was expecting!). The baby slept pretty much the whole time, but about halfway through the movie they had to wake him up to eat. Then he spit up. Then he needed his diaper changed. Then he was crying and Rob couldn’t get him to stop, so Jess fed him some more. Then they tried putting him back to sleep. Jess took me upstairs to see his adorable nursery, which I hadn’t seen yet. She has the most amazing Noah’s ark rug – her mother actually bought it years ago in anticipation of a grandchild. Then the baby was crying again and he wanted to eat some more. So at that point GG and I said our goodbyes so Jess could nurse in peace and they could go to bed. It was really good seeing them (I don’t think I’d seen Rob since Christmas!). She’s got a lot of visitors now, but Jess is very social and I think she’ll be going stir-crazy in a couple weeks, so I’m going to try to stop by when I can.

Sunday was our western-themed concert, yee-haw! I think we went a little overboard on the theme (the band wore bandanas and stuff, our conductor was all Cowboy-ed up, the stage was decorated, everything was very hokey…), but everyone said the music was great! I think I personally played better at the dress rehearsal, but… oh well. Can’t wait to hear the recording. After the concert, the real work began (for me), because we had to go back and add up money, ticket stubs, coupons, etc. Then we went out for dinner. GG and I were out for the equivalent of an eight-hour workday. It was a long day.