Two Days of Technically Clean Fun in the Relative Sun
Thursday and Friday went just grand.
A few hours after my last post, machi_neko and I walked up to campus to catch the #7 (thanks, ravin_raven!) through downtown to German Village. We made it there successfully (with a little help figuring out which stop to get off at), at which point I believe I led us in the precisely wrong direction we wanted to go. But oh well, it was a lovely day and we walked around Schiller Park a bit, and I got a lot of pictures with my sexy new camera I'll be sure to upload later.
We had lunch at Rooster's, got directions to the Book Loft, took more pictures, and spent a good couple hours in there, did I mention it's thirty-two rooms of books? There are wings, people - it's a bookstore with wings. And everything they sell is at least five percent off the list price, and sometimes much more than that. If they could just find a way to slap exactly ten more rooms on there, it would possibly become the most holiest place ever.
Lauren found a cool art/comics book she liked and got it, and I treated myself for my birthday by getting about sixty dollars worth of stuff. There was this really great goddess book that was marked down to about a third of what it was originally, and I also picked up the next two Kitty Norville books, and I decided I was tired enough of waiting for the next Fables graphic novel to come out* that I wanted to try Jack of Fables as well.
I picked up the first two volumes and have already read my way through the first and into the second. I'm really liking the stories so far, but considering how much I love Fables that's probably not a real big surprise. It sort of amuses me that, while I was never overtly fond or disfond of the character compared to the others in the world, so far I'm finding Jack to be a much bigger jerk in his own series than he ever was in the ensemble one. Maybe it's just because he's getting more screentime. Oh, and I love Gary - he is just adorable. I really hope nothing bad happens to Gary. I mean, outside of the inevitable bad luck being traveling partners with Jack Horner is bound to land you with. Duh.
I also went ahead as long as I was in the neighborhood and got geministep's Christmas present early (Susan, if you're reading this, unless you want to be spoiled skip this paragraph!). See, she really likes jigsaw puzzles...but she's also really, really good at them. Like, once I gave her one of those photomosiac ones of Winnie the Pooh and she was done way faster than I expected her to be. She also really likes hard puzzles - she thinks they're fun. Freak. They happen to sell a lot of puzzles at the the Book Loft, so I got one for her: it's 500 pieces...a picture of a herd of zebra. And if you don't get why that's hard, just think about that for a second.
After the Book Loft, we headed over to Schmidt's Sausage Haus, because I was afraid there would be a crowd. Turns out there wasn't (...really...), probably because it was a weeknight. We weren't really hungry yet, so we went to the Fudge Haus next door. Drooled lots, didn't buy anything. I was saving myself for one of Schmidt's notorious half-pound cream puffs.
Then I got a call from textileowl that she was coming down with skylark913 and pyralis_phyre. So we waited for them...during which time we wandered into a nearby jewelary store, and I bought five pairs of earrings and a choker. Because I like to spoil myself on my birthday**.
The five of us had a very enjoyable and yummy dinner together. Laur got along well with the Rennies. My Germanic ancestors will be pleased to know I had bratwurst and beer on my birthday. We got our dessert to go and headed over to the park just in time for the play to start.
The Three Musketeers was very enjoyable in a silly kind of way. The actors did a great job with it, I thought. Afterwards we said hi to the lighting person and the fight choreaographer, whom we knew from Guild (natch), and then Laur and I hitched a ride home with the others.
Friday we got up early and it was raining buckets. Lovely weather to drive out of town on, right? Luckily it died off not long after we hit I-71. Lauren slept most of the way while I most certainly did not drive about twenty miles over the speed limit consistantly. We made good time.
After dropping Laur off at her internship and bidding her adieu (sniff sniff), I decided I should gas up Joey and get some fuel for myself as well before heading back out. So I hit the Shell station not far from my house, and went about five minutes down the road to McDonald's...where the debit card I had just used to purchase gas wouldn't work. Well, I've had that card glitch on me before, so I thought not much of it and sat down to eat.
At which point my mom called me in a panic, asking if I had lost my card because the bank had called saying some odd charges had appeared (like someone buying gas in suburban Cleveland when I was supposed to be in Columbus) and they'd put a hold on the card. Whoops.
So, if any of you out there are concerned about identify theft, I'd personally say not to, because the bank is freakin' on top of it.
I explained what was going on to Mom (I didn't tell her and Dad I was going to be in town because they don't want me traveling long-distance in Joey and I assumed they'd be at work when I was in anyway, so it's not like I could see them, so I was gonna save it for our weekly phonecall on Sunday when they inevitably asked what I did on my birthday), she called the bank back, and I swung on over to the house for a few minutes for a hug and to show her the pictures I'd been taking on my camera.
Got back to Columbus by 3:30ish. One thing about riding a long way in a car by yourself, you get to listen to the radio a lot, more than I usually do now since I don't really drive that much in the city. Joey is now resting comfortably back in the parking garage from his grand adventure.
By 5, some more Guildies came over and we swam in the pool and used the hot tub for an hour or so, then came inside for dinner and such (with a minor lock-out misadventure involving me sticking my apartment's card key inside my new camera's case, which is held shut by a magnet, oops). I didn't really have the time or energy to cook, so the menu was fruit salad, hot dogs, grilled cheese and a delicious chocolate cake I picked up at Kroeger. I did get to use my new bikini with the skull and bones top though, so that was good. Dr. Just-Friends swung by, and some of Guild got to meet our friend Kristin, who fooled some of them into thinking she was normal for about five minutes, until she started talking about making glowstick dresses that work like Rorschach's mask.
It seemed like everyone had a good time overall, both days, which makes me happy ^_^
I like my friends. All of them.
*I know, I could just hunt down and read the comic by issue, but I figure the plot twists and cliffhangers at the end of Fables' story arcs have me tearing my hair out in frustrated longing to know WTF happens next enough as it is; I really don't need to do that by the issue as well.
**...and pretty much whenever I can.
A few hours after my last post, machi_neko and I walked up to campus to catch the #7 (thanks, ravin_raven!) through downtown to German Village. We made it there successfully (with a little help figuring out which stop to get off at), at which point I believe I led us in the precisely wrong direction we wanted to go. But oh well, it was a lovely day and we walked around Schiller Park a bit, and I got a lot of pictures with my sexy new camera I'll be sure to upload later.
We had lunch at Rooster's, got directions to the Book Loft, took more pictures, and spent a good couple hours in there, did I mention it's thirty-two rooms of books? There are wings, people - it's a bookstore with wings. And everything they sell is at least five percent off the list price, and sometimes much more than that. If they could just find a way to slap exactly ten more rooms on there, it would possibly become the most holiest place ever.
Lauren found a cool art/comics book she liked and got it, and I treated myself for my birthday by getting about sixty dollars worth of stuff. There was this really great goddess book that was marked down to about a third of what it was originally, and I also picked up the next two Kitty Norville books, and I decided I was tired enough of waiting for the next Fables graphic novel to come out* that I wanted to try Jack of Fables as well.
I picked up the first two volumes and have already read my way through the first and into the second. I'm really liking the stories so far, but considering how much I love Fables that's probably not a real big surprise. It sort of amuses me that, while I was never overtly fond or disfond of the character compared to the others in the world, so far I'm finding Jack to be a much bigger jerk in his own series than he ever was in the ensemble one. Maybe it's just because he's getting more screentime. Oh, and I love Gary - he is just adorable. I really hope nothing bad happens to Gary. I mean, outside of the inevitable bad luck being traveling partners with Jack Horner is bound to land you with. Duh.
I also went ahead as long as I was in the neighborhood and got geministep's Christmas present early (Susan, if you're reading this, unless you want to be spoiled skip this paragraph!). See, she really likes jigsaw puzzles...but she's also really, really good at them. Like, once I gave her one of those photomosiac ones of Winnie the Pooh and she was done way faster than I expected her to be. She also really likes hard puzzles - she thinks they're fun. Freak. They happen to sell a lot of puzzles at the the Book Loft, so I got one for her: it's 500 pieces...a picture of a herd of zebra. And if you don't get why that's hard, just think about that for a second.
After the Book Loft, we headed over to Schmidt's Sausage Haus, because I was afraid there would be a crowd. Turns out there wasn't (...really...), probably because it was a weeknight. We weren't really hungry yet, so we went to the Fudge Haus next door. Drooled lots, didn't buy anything. I was saving myself for one of Schmidt's notorious half-pound cream puffs.
Then I got a call from textileowl that she was coming down with skylark913 and pyralis_phyre. So we waited for them...during which time we wandered into a nearby jewelary store, and I bought five pairs of earrings and a choker. Because I like to spoil myself on my birthday**.
The five of us had a very enjoyable and yummy dinner together. Laur got along well with the Rennies. My Germanic ancestors will be pleased to know I had bratwurst and beer on my birthday. We got our dessert to go and headed over to the park just in time for the play to start.
The Three Musketeers was very enjoyable in a silly kind of way. The actors did a great job with it, I thought. Afterwards we said hi to the lighting person and the fight choreaographer, whom we knew from Guild (natch), and then Laur and I hitched a ride home with the others.
Friday we got up early and it was raining buckets. Lovely weather to drive out of town on, right? Luckily it died off not long after we hit I-71. Lauren slept most of the way while I most certainly did not drive about twenty miles over the speed limit consistantly. We made good time.
After dropping Laur off at her internship and bidding her adieu (sniff sniff), I decided I should gas up Joey and get some fuel for myself as well before heading back out. So I hit the Shell station not far from my house, and went about five minutes down the road to McDonald's...where the debit card I had just used to purchase gas wouldn't work. Well, I've had that card glitch on me before, so I thought not much of it and sat down to eat.
At which point my mom called me in a panic, asking if I had lost my card because the bank had called saying some odd charges had appeared (like someone buying gas in suburban Cleveland when I was supposed to be in Columbus) and they'd put a hold on the card. Whoops.
So, if any of you out there are concerned about identify theft, I'd personally say not to, because the bank is freakin' on top of it.
I explained what was going on to Mom (I didn't tell her and Dad I was going to be in town because they don't want me traveling long-distance in Joey and I assumed they'd be at work when I was in anyway, so it's not like I could see them, so I was gonna save it for our weekly phonecall on Sunday when they inevitably asked what I did on my birthday), she called the bank back, and I swung on over to the house for a few minutes for a hug and to show her the pictures I'd been taking on my camera.
Got back to Columbus by 3:30ish. One thing about riding a long way in a car by yourself, you get to listen to the radio a lot, more than I usually do now since I don't really drive that much in the city. Joey is now resting comfortably back in the parking garage from his grand adventure.
By 5, some more Guildies came over and we swam in the pool and used the hot tub for an hour or so, then came inside for dinner and such (with a minor lock-out misadventure involving me sticking my apartment's card key inside my new camera's case, which is held shut by a magnet, oops). I didn't really have the time or energy to cook, so the menu was fruit salad, hot dogs, grilled cheese and a delicious chocolate cake I picked up at Kroeger. I did get to use my new bikini with the skull and bones top though, so that was good. Dr. Just-Friends swung by, and some of Guild got to meet our friend Kristin, who fooled some of them into thinking she was normal for about five minutes, until she started talking about making glowstick dresses that work like Rorschach's mask.
It seemed like everyone had a good time overall, both days, which makes me happy ^_^
I like my friends. All of them.
*I know, I could just hunt down and read the comic by issue, but I figure the plot twists and cliffhangers at the end of Fables' story arcs have me tearing my hair out in frustrated longing to know WTF happens next enough as it is; I really don't need to do that by the issue as well.
**...and pretty much whenever I can.