Mishaps and other haps

So, more weekend goings-on …

I grabbed three books from the library Saturday and will probably only read one of them, but I feel fairly confident that I will finish the one since I sped through about half of it on Saturday. Mom and Sis, you might be interested in this one: Heat by Bill Buford. Buford is a New York Times staff writer who decided to research what it’s like to work in a restaurant kitchen by making himself “kitchen slave” at a restaurant owned by Mario Batali and working his way up the restaurant food chain.

I am still reading Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, which I will not put down even though I watched the 2002 movie Friday night, which featured Dumbledore #1, aka Richard Harris, as Abbe Faria. Apparently this film came out between the first and second Harry Potter movies, so it was one of the last movies Harris performed in.

Sunday morning, I woke up sufficiently late, but still had time to make sweet potato (haha, you thought they were pumpkin) muffins and carrot-ginger soup before I got the call from PhysOrg, who was driving back from Michigan, conveying the information that Gruntac/Nodor was waiting for a ride to our house from campus.

GRUNTAC HAS ARRIVED IN TOWN! He landed in Chicago from England on Friday afternoon and arrived in Madison via a bus yesterday afternoon. Inle and I went to retrieve him, we got home and socialized a bit and Inle had to leave for work, so Gruntac and I ran off to the Goddess’ place, where we played Arkham Horror and ate Chinese food.

Inle switched out with me after he was finished with work so that the game could continue, Gruntac would have a ride back to our place, and I could go to bed at a decent hour. At home, PhysOrg and Mlitiagrl were waiting up in the living room, watching something really bizarre on Adult Swim. PhysOrg was full of hugs. When someone hugs you for about five minutes and then hugs you again for about five MORE minutes, that’s serious hugging.

So we’ve got a Gruntac houseguest visiting us for the moment!

FALL weather today– overcast and cool! Lotsa leaves tumbling off those trees!

I love it! Just add a slightly smokey-earthy smell to the air, crisp mornings with a touch of frost, and bake some pumpkins and apples and I will be CONTENT TO LIVE IN FALL WEATHER FOREVER.

This is not to say that I want winter to come. I’d rather have perpetual October weather than snow.

It really rocks that PhysOrg’s new workplace is about a mile from mine. This means that we can have lunch together during the week (possibly followed by a little shopping if we don’t bother to chew), so we have successfully met up on two consecutive Fridays now.

At lunch we were talking about being black-bagged: stuffed in a black bag and carted away to some uncertain (but horrible) fate, like several of the characters in [SPOILER!] V For Vendetta. By the way, if you haven’t seen V For Vendetta yet, return all those godawful, lame DVDs you’ve been renting/buying lately and pick up a copy!

Anyway, we determined that although PhysOrg and I are probably each secretly plotting to have the other black-bagged, we’d both miss each other and be upset if, say, one of us was unexpectedly black-bagged and could not relay the message via a text message or a phone call.

However, there’s not to be any black-bagging this weekend, even if PhysOrg is taking a small trip out of town.

In the meantime, I am considering yoga and apple plukkin as potential Saturday afternoon entertainment activities. If anyone else is interested, let me know and we’ll make plans.

You eat one wasabi pea.
You find it delicious and enjoyable.

You eat one container of wasabi peas.
You think that death could not come too soon.

Alone. At the office. For the rest of the week.

Let’s have a party! Bring Doritos!

I am finding that making quiche for dinner is an effective way to use up “bits and pieces” left in the refrigerator/pantry– like extra green olives, feta, and grape tomatoes that did not make it into the pasta salad last week.

Since there are usually milk and eggs on hand, dinner sort of makes itself and there are leftovers for a quick breakfast.

Good idea.

After the brunch event on Saturday, we spent most of the rest of the day at home. PhysOrg’s mom, sisters, and nephew dropped by for a little while to visit. We spent some time playing our WoW druid alts and ran around RFK with Bovinnia (Mlitiagrl’s Shaman alt).

On Sunday, we went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire with the Goddess. We had a good time and no one passed out or vomited this year. We did all discover that we need about $500-$700+ each to buy our dream Ren Faire costumes and that was a little sad. The little leather corset + breeches + sexy red cloth lined leather jacket + codpiece (+ bullwhip?) will have to wait a while. Well, I could have afforded the codpiece, I guess. But what is a codpiece without the rest of the costume? Not as much fun

Yesterday we all slept in a lot. I slept in the least and woke up around 11 AM. So there was a lot of sleeping-in. PhysOrg had a wedding to attend in the afternoon. Mlitiagrl and I did some shopping and laundry (patch broke on waterbed Sunday night, so all sheets and blankety things needed to be washed Monday– patch is fixed, though) and I endeavored to clean the house a bit. It’s actually looking pretty good, I think!

I’d like to invest in a spot-cleaner sized steam cleaner in the short run and I keep thinking hardwood floors throughout the house would be nice in the long run (bye-bye, Ren Faire costume). Clean floors go a long way in improving the general looks of the house, though. I hear it makes a difference when you’re trying to sell, too

I could go for a three-day weekend every week, or at least every other week. I am have scheduled to have a few more of those this month and next.

In the meantime, next weekend Gruntac is supposed to be back in the States. He will probably be visiting us for a bit while he looks for the Super-Mega Job for Holders of MBA Degrees. The following weekend, our friend TheDeacon, who now lives out in Utah, is getting married and he’s coming back to Wisconsin to do so. We will probably be going to that.

In between all that, work. As far as I can tell, PhysOrg’s new job seems to be going well and my own job has been significantly improved by the recent raise. So there’s that.

Our Official Anniversary Date was brunch this morning at Marigold Kitchen. We stuffed ourselves. PhysOrg had a breakfast sandwich, French Toast (OMG, the cream and berries), and a mimosa while I ate an artichoke/sun-dried tomato omelette, yogurt with fresh berries, walnuts, and lavender honey, and coffee.

Afterwards, we waddled around the Farmer’s Market. I highly recommend Marigold for brunch on a Saturday morning with someone you love.

The aftermath (courtesy of my little camera phone):

This afternoon, we have been playing our World of Warcraft alts and I baked a loaf of banana bread because, you know, we’re complete gluttons.

Work-day lunch dates are awesome

Three years ago I had a movie party on Labor Day weekend. I had just moved into a new apartment and invited a few friends over to watch movies and eat pizza.

The year and a half or so leading up to that particular Labor Day was rough:

1) I had left grad school and entered the working world, which was not terribly rewarding on a personal level, though slightly more rewarding on a financial level. I had just left an $11/hr. call center job for a better-paying position, so things were looking up.

2) A year before this party, I had left my boyfriend, whom I had been dating off and on, mostly long-distance, since I was 20. He had moved in with me during my second semester as a grad student in Madison, so when the issues in our relationship reached a crisis point, I found another place to live. We tried to remain friends, but fell back into the same old patterns of conflict when we spent time together. In May, we had a huge fight and stopped spending any time together.

By late summer, I was making some changes in my life and developing other friendships, so I thought it would be good to have a party in the new place. I invited my gaming friends: Mlitiagrl, Inle, PhysOrg, Onlyunjeu, and Splott, plus a random guy I had worked with for a year or so and had been vaguely interested in for months (despite some complicating factors).

The random guy behaved like an ass, but he left pretty early and the rest of us had a better time after he took off.

Eventually, I ended up sitting by PhysOrg (we were all sitting on the floor, as I did not have a sofa for a while). At some point, I noticed that my sock-covered foot had become rather friendly with his sock-covered foot. I guess our feet had never really had a proper introduction. It was kind of sweet and wonderful.

Before he left the party, PhysOrg asked if I wanted to see a movie with him and Onlyunjeu. I wasn’t really sure whether Something had just Happened, but I felt happy and really didn’t care. I met them at the theater (I think it was the next day). We had a good time.

We chatted afterwards and decided to go on a real date that week. It was kind of awkward and wonderful. I ate about three bites of my dinner. I remember certain details vividly, but I have no idea what we talked about.

That was three years ago and we have spent so many hours together since then. Looking back, it seems like it happened about a hundred years ago.

Every time I look at him now, I still feel wonderful and happy.