It's Monday, so it must be time for the Weekend Update
Remember how last weekend was stressful and tiring, and while it had good parts it mostly was bad? Well, this weekend was the total opposite. It was unremittingly amazingly overwhelmingly good. Which is pretty damn cool.
Friday night was the flat Pictionary competition, complete with pizza and beer (paid from the flat account) and various hangers-on. Six of us live there, so with friends and rellies we made up twelve people. Alabaster and I decided that we were too good for beer, so drank whiskey instead. Naturally, that improved our drawing style no end.
When Pictionary finally finished (and nope, my team didn't win), Alabaster introduced people to the concept of Beanie, which is like Gin Rummy but with real-time melds and reducing wild cards. Makes no sense written down like that, but everyone picked it up well, especially SMSG - Sexy Med School Girl - who thumped us all. (Side Note: SMSG forgot to take her cellphone home with her - I think it fell out of her pocket - and I found it under the Pictonary box the next morning. It's one of those newfangled ones that do pxt, and I had a blast playing with it before I dropped it back to her on Saturday afternoon. I am now lusting over shiny phone goodness.)
Alabaster and I finally crashed out about 1am, after a interesting round of trying to kiss when someone (that would be him) has the hiccups, and then laughs maniacally every time it happens.
After a wonderfully relaxed morning in bed, Cherry came visiting just before midday and had brunch (well, tea and toast) with us. She wanted to go driving, as the weather was being intermittently nice, so after Alabaster headed home to join role-playing, she and I visited Taz and Growler, and SMSG and Dali, before heading down to surprise FuzzyBen. "Look what I found. Can I keep her?" The look on Ben's face was delightful - he wasn't expecting to see Cherry at all.
There was hunger happening, so four of us headed down to Titirangi where there's a very nice Kebab place (by the New World - I highly recommend it). They have great vegetarian options as well as the traditional meaty ones, so everyone was happy. Right next door was a fabulous second-hand bookshop, specialising in early editions (some were $400, which didn't stop me drooling, but did stop me buying). I found a copy of Cryptonomicon in the paperback section, as well as a marvellous book called Advice to a Young Lady in the Colonies, which is a long letter from a woman in Britain to her god-doughter in New South Wales, in the early 19th Century. Absolutely brilliant and very interesting to read.
Cherry, Ben and I hung out and caught up, then had an excellent fish and chip dinner. The plan was to join the Casita Bianco crowd to watch Clerks: The Animated Series later that evening. However, I had forgotten that it was Judith's Birthday/Memorial party that night, until WenchWoman texted me asking for a lift. One quick trip for party clothes home later, it was off to the city for me, while the other two stuck to the original plan.
This was one rocking party. It was on the Penthouse floor of the Airedale Hotel (on Queen Street), where two of Judith's friends live. The theme was Summer, so there was much leggage and cleavage on display, and the gay boys were all decked out in their finery as well. Had a lovely time catching up with Lou and DanDanRaverman, talking about sex with some of the filthier gay boys, and judiciously downing Thai Red Bull to stay on my feet. I cut out about 11pm, so I could rescue Ben from the Hoarde, but no one told me that the only way out was to walk down nine flights of stairs! My knees were extremely unhappy at this, and are still reminding me today.
However, I made it back to Ben's OK, and despite all the caffeinated substance in my system, I was asleep very shortly after curling up in the warm bed.
Sunday went like this ...
1: Woke up nice and early, got snuggly, fell asleep again until being forced out of bed at 11am. I needed to shower and have some breakfast before going anywhere (and my hair smelled of smoke from the night before - ick)
2: Kissed Ben goodbye, drove to my Grandmother's to have lunch with her and Arana.
3: Drove with Grandma over to my niece's house, to celebrate her 5th birthday.
4: Spent 4 hours surrounded by sugar-overloaded kids, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and random hangers-on and relatives. Drank sugary stuff, avoided meaty party-foods, enjoyed chocolate crispies and birthday cake.
I'm going to be writing a column about the party this evening - with more details and lotsa fun comments. Keep an eye out for it on my website.
5: Drove back to Grandma's to drop her home; retrieved my car (I got to drive hers to the party - it's always nice to be driving a car less than 10 years old for a change)
6: Discovered I had a flat tyre. Changed the tyre, after emptying a whole lot of crap out of my boot and onto the driveway, in order to get to the spare tyre.
7: Drove home, then over to Casita to drop off Alabaster's toilet bag, which he'd left behind the day before.
8: Got caught up in a fascinating conversation with TigerBee and Shambler the Unshaven about writing, and about literary-type stuff (read: books we love).
9: Went home, cleared two days of email, went to bed.
I've just upgraded my LJ to a paid account, which I've been having fun playing with. Minimal changes at the moment, but I'll get around to making more in time. It's fun to play with coding!
Um, that'll do. Damn, but that was a busy weekend. *waves to everyone who helped make it so good*
Friday night was the flat Pictionary competition, complete with pizza and beer (paid from the flat account) and various hangers-on. Six of us live there, so with friends and rellies we made up twelve people. Alabaster and I decided that we were too good for beer, so drank whiskey instead. Naturally, that improved our drawing style no end.
When Pictionary finally finished (and nope, my team didn't win), Alabaster introduced people to the concept of Beanie, which is like Gin Rummy but with real-time melds and reducing wild cards. Makes no sense written down like that, but everyone picked it up well, especially SMSG - Sexy Med School Girl - who thumped us all. (Side Note: SMSG forgot to take her cellphone home with her - I think it fell out of her pocket - and I found it under the Pictonary box the next morning. It's one of those newfangled ones that do pxt, and I had a blast playing with it before I dropped it back to her on Saturday afternoon. I am now lusting over shiny phone goodness.)
Alabaster and I finally crashed out about 1am, after a interesting round of trying to kiss when someone (that would be him) has the hiccups, and then laughs maniacally every time it happens.
After a wonderfully relaxed morning in bed, Cherry came visiting just before midday and had brunch (well, tea and toast) with us. She wanted to go driving, as the weather was being intermittently nice, so after Alabaster headed home to join role-playing, she and I visited Taz and Growler, and SMSG and Dali, before heading down to surprise FuzzyBen. "Look what I found. Can I keep her?" The look on Ben's face was delightful - he wasn't expecting to see Cherry at all.
There was hunger happening, so four of us headed down to Titirangi where there's a very nice Kebab place (by the New World - I highly recommend it). They have great vegetarian options as well as the traditional meaty ones, so everyone was happy. Right next door was a fabulous second-hand bookshop, specialising in early editions (some were $400, which didn't stop me drooling, but did stop me buying). I found a copy of Cryptonomicon in the paperback section, as well as a marvellous book called Advice to a Young Lady in the Colonies, which is a long letter from a woman in Britain to her god-doughter in New South Wales, in the early 19th Century. Absolutely brilliant and very interesting to read.
Cherry, Ben and I hung out and caught up, then had an excellent fish and chip dinner. The plan was to join the Casita Bianco crowd to watch Clerks: The Animated Series later that evening. However, I had forgotten that it was Judith's Birthday/Memorial party that night, until WenchWoman texted me asking for a lift. One quick trip for party clothes home later, it was off to the city for me, while the other two stuck to the original plan.
This was one rocking party. It was on the Penthouse floor of the Airedale Hotel (on Queen Street), where two of Judith's friends live. The theme was Summer, so there was much leggage and cleavage on display, and the gay boys were all decked out in their finery as well. Had a lovely time catching up with Lou and DanDanRaverman, talking about sex with some of the filthier gay boys, and judiciously downing Thai Red Bull to stay on my feet. I cut out about 11pm, so I could rescue Ben from the Hoarde, but no one told me that the only way out was to walk down nine flights of stairs! My knees were extremely unhappy at this, and are still reminding me today.
However, I made it back to Ben's OK, and despite all the caffeinated substance in my system, I was asleep very shortly after curling up in the warm bed.
Sunday went like this ...
1: Woke up nice and early, got snuggly, fell asleep again until being forced out of bed at 11am. I needed to shower and have some breakfast before going anywhere (and my hair smelled of smoke from the night before - ick)
2: Kissed Ben goodbye, drove to my Grandmother's to have lunch with her and Arana.
3: Drove with Grandma over to my niece's house, to celebrate her 5th birthday.
4: Spent 4 hours surrounded by sugar-overloaded kids, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and random hangers-on and relatives. Drank sugary stuff, avoided meaty party-foods, enjoyed chocolate crispies and birthday cake.
I'm going to be writing a column about the party this evening - with more details and lotsa fun comments. Keep an eye out for it on my website.
5: Drove back to Grandma's to drop her home; retrieved my car (I got to drive hers to the party - it's always nice to be driving a car less than 10 years old for a change)
6: Discovered I had a flat tyre. Changed the tyre, after emptying a whole lot of crap out of my boot and onto the driveway, in order to get to the spare tyre.
7: Drove home, then over to Casita to drop off Alabaster's toilet bag, which he'd left behind the day before.
8: Got caught up in a fascinating conversation with TigerBee and Shambler the Unshaven about writing, and about literary-type stuff (read: books we love).
9: Went home, cleared two days of email, went to bed.
I've just upgraded my LJ to a paid account, which I've been having fun playing with. Minimal changes at the moment, but I'll get around to making more in time. It's fun to play with coding!
Um, that'll do. Damn, but that was a busy weekend. *waves to everyone who helped make it so good*