v-day and other updates
well, the day of pink and red is upon us. i've decided to go against the norm and NOT wear pink and/or red clothing today, but rather black and khaki. i am, however, wearing pink undies, which i'm sure you're just thrilled to know. :) themarshal and i aren't actually doing our valentine's thing until tomorrow night, because, to no one' surprise, restaurants are all full-up on reservations for tonight. he called last week to make a reservation at le papillon and they were all booked. truthfully, i was slightly surprised, but then again, it's valentine's day and i'm sure everyone will want dynamic french food to share with their loved one/s. anyway, they had some openings for tomorrow night, so that's when we're going. i'm so excited. i love their food and since they're a little on the high-side, i don't get to go very often. we're also not exchanging gifts for another couple of weeks. we usually end up doing it because one of us (usually me) will be lacking funds around the date and will need sometime to save up. even though i was doing really well this month, turns out waiting is a good thing since i had to pay through the nose for my car to be serviced (more on that later). i actually haven't been very good at investigating how much his gift will cost. i haven't gotten the chance to head over and see the prices, but maybe i'll have some time soon to figure it all out. his gift is totally frivolous, but i'm hoping he'll like it. :) totally by coincidence, i brought some of the cupcakes i made this weekend to work today. i forgot to bring them yesterday, so i brought them today.
this weekend was wonderfully laid back. actually there were parts that were downright lazy, which was fantastic. friday night, marshall and i went to mama mia's for dinner and then to see babel. it was a very intense movie. yes, it has similarities to crash, but the point of the movie is NOT that we're all interconnected. the fact that these 3 different stories from all around the world were connected, was not the focus, but the fact that each story dealt with the frustrations of language. situations where people simply cannot understand what you're saying because they're speaking a totally different language; situations where you're speaking the same language but the nuances are completely different; situations where the language you're forced to speak doesn't allow you to actually say what you NEED to say. it was fantastically done and each story was told so incredibly well. i found some of the stories very hard to watch and actually the story with cate blanchett and brad pitt didn't really phase me all that much. in fact, the part i found frustrating in that story was with the surrounding people and not pitt or blanchett. so yeah, i totally recommend it and it better win at least ONE oscar. if you hated crash, don't worry - this so isn't crash. it's actually good. ;)
saturday was the laziest of days. before marshall came home friday night, i threw in harry potter and the sorcerer's stone. i got about an hour into it before we headed out for dinner. saturday morning, i finished it and then put in harry potter and the chamber of secrets and finally harry potter and the prisoner of azkhaban. i'm proud to say that i stayed in my pajamas until past 5pm that day. it was sublime. my sister called me up in the afternoon asking if marshall and i wanted to come up for a game of settlers. of course we said yes. before heading over, we went for a nostalgic dinner at this place called effie's. my grandparents LOVED that place and we'd go all the time. my dad likes it, too, so whenever the 2 of us would go out, that would always be an option. i had the veal and marshall had their peppercorn steak. his steak was really good and my veal was just like i remembered. even though i was ready for dessert, marshall was full up. we had to kill some time before heading to my sister's, so we went to barnes and noble. afterwards marshall suggested for dessert we go to cold stone, order some of their rocky road trip ice cream and share it. what a wonderful suggestion! i told him, we need to share more often. :) it was the perfect amount. the problem i always have with cold stone is i can never finish what they give me because it's all so rich. when i share, i get just enough without feeling like a blimp afterwards. settlers was fun that night. i won, finally! it's been ages since i've won and i wasn't sure i was going to, but i did, even though it wasn't as grandiose as i hoped it'd be. denny always has this way of making his winning turn so incredible and filled with so many tricks, but sadly, all i had to do was build 2 roads and that was it. *shrug* at least i won. :) we ended up staying until almost 1am just chatting. i was surprised that my sister wasn't passed out by then; usually she's falling asleep during the game and we have to keep waking her up to play her turns. it was really nice just talking.
sunday was like saturday only we started our day earlier. we grabbed some lunch at juicy burger and then headed to whole foods to pick up my multivitamins. my entry on sunday sums up my disappointment with sports authority and sports clothing in general. however, even though the shirts i bought weren't my first choice, i wore one of them yesterday during my work out and it works out great. i'm still not so keen on the super long sleeves, but the shirt does what i wanted it to do: keep me warm and not soak up all my sweat. we stayed in sunday night for dinner, which was a good choice. we continued on with our scrubs dvds and started the 3rd season. our baked potatoes topped with chili, for marshall, and baked beans, for me, were great and reminded me of my senior year in college. :) that night we took advantage of our monday off and stayed up until 2am running around ashenvale with liam and chris. we got a helluva lot done, which was great. we finally figured out a time when all of us would get together during the week. liam's been rogue-oriented with his main, so having a day out of the week dedicated to alts, he can give his hunter some lovin. it was fun being up that late on a sunday. i haven't been able to do that in ages.
monday, although a day off, started really early. i needed to take my car in for it's 80k service. i knew they were going to do a lot on my car, but i wasn't sure how much it was all going to cost. i figured no more than $500 for everything. the estimate they gave me for all the work was $597. i nearly choked. i had the means to pay, but that meant dipping into my savings bonds. not by much, but it wasn't my ideal way of getting money. however, my car needed to be serviced badly, especially since i missed out on my 70k servicing. we dropped off gidget at 8am and headed for an early breakfast out at the los gatos cafe. we went home and hung out before heading to the bank so i could get my money transferred. afterwards we went to one of my favorite stores, office max, to pick up a few things. i LOVE office supplies. i'm such a nerd about it all. marshall was having a great time making fun of me. monday afternoon was spent in front of my computer leveling up my new rogue. marshall and i hopped on our duo for a bit to get through a couple of extra quests we had and then i got the call about my car. they had a few suggestions based on what they saw going through the servicing. turns out my serpentine belt has a few little cracks on it, my battery didn't pass their loading test and should be replaced soon, my break pads are a little low, and there was something else, i think. but either way, they were quoting me like $300 for the battery, $500/axle for break pads and another $500 for the belt replacement. it was ridiculous and these are things that i could do on my own or take them to my mechanic for several hundreds less. i told her that i only have enough money to pay for the service but that i appreciated being notified of things that i need to get fixed soon. all in all, my final bill was $630. i wasn't happy, but that's what i get for going to the dealership for stuff like this. monday night was filled with heroes and studio 60. both were really good and i'm getting really into heroes. :)
work was hectic yesterday, what with me being out of the office monday, but luckily things have calmed down a bit today. i just felt like i was drowning. i was happy to see 5pm roll around so quickly, so i could get home and relax. i threw on my sweats right when i got in the door and parked it on the couch for a while. tuesday is our WoW night with chris and liam, so we logged on and decided to run shadowfang keep. it's a short instance. 2 blue items dropped for marshall and i. we rolled on the first one, a staff. since i won that, marshall said that when the blue robes drop, i would give it to him. i still thought we should at least roll for them, but i guess it wouldn't have been fair had one of us got both items. but still...i was bummed when i didn't get it. oh well, i still have the blue drop from our deadmines trip, which is alright for now. can't wait to don on my slutty mageweave gear. ;) anyway, after we finished that, chris finally joined and we decided to do another instance: blackfathom deep. that one took longer than we had anticipated, however, we were able to get EVERYTHING done for that place. marshall and i finally logged out close to 1am, only to get up 6 hours later for work. i'm surprisingly not THAT tired. but i don't think i'd be able to do that every night. i woke up this morning and my neck was sore and my wrists were killing me. :| but it was a very successful night and i'm at least happy for that. :)
this weekend was wonderfully laid back. actually there were parts that were downright lazy, which was fantastic. friday night, marshall and i went to mama mia's for dinner and then to see babel. it was a very intense movie. yes, it has similarities to crash, but the point of the movie is NOT that we're all interconnected. the fact that these 3 different stories from all around the world were connected, was not the focus, but the fact that each story dealt with the frustrations of language. situations where people simply cannot understand what you're saying because they're speaking a totally different language; situations where you're speaking the same language but the nuances are completely different; situations where the language you're forced to speak doesn't allow you to actually say what you NEED to say. it was fantastically done and each story was told so incredibly well. i found some of the stories very hard to watch and actually the story with cate blanchett and brad pitt didn't really phase me all that much. in fact, the part i found frustrating in that story was with the surrounding people and not pitt or blanchett. so yeah, i totally recommend it and it better win at least ONE oscar. if you hated crash, don't worry - this so isn't crash. it's actually good. ;)
saturday was the laziest of days. before marshall came home friday night, i threw in harry potter and the sorcerer's stone. i got about an hour into it before we headed out for dinner. saturday morning, i finished it and then put in harry potter and the chamber of secrets and finally harry potter and the prisoner of azkhaban. i'm proud to say that i stayed in my pajamas until past 5pm that day. it was sublime. my sister called me up in the afternoon asking if marshall and i wanted to come up for a game of settlers. of course we said yes. before heading over, we went for a nostalgic dinner at this place called effie's. my grandparents LOVED that place and we'd go all the time. my dad likes it, too, so whenever the 2 of us would go out, that would always be an option. i had the veal and marshall had their peppercorn steak. his steak was really good and my veal was just like i remembered. even though i was ready for dessert, marshall was full up. we had to kill some time before heading to my sister's, so we went to barnes and noble. afterwards marshall suggested for dessert we go to cold stone, order some of their rocky road trip ice cream and share it. what a wonderful suggestion! i told him, we need to share more often. :) it was the perfect amount. the problem i always have with cold stone is i can never finish what they give me because it's all so rich. when i share, i get just enough without feeling like a blimp afterwards. settlers was fun that night. i won, finally! it's been ages since i've won and i wasn't sure i was going to, but i did, even though it wasn't as grandiose as i hoped it'd be. denny always has this way of making his winning turn so incredible and filled with so many tricks, but sadly, all i had to do was build 2 roads and that was it. *shrug* at least i won. :) we ended up staying until almost 1am just chatting. i was surprised that my sister wasn't passed out by then; usually she's falling asleep during the game and we have to keep waking her up to play her turns. it was really nice just talking.
sunday was like saturday only we started our day earlier. we grabbed some lunch at juicy burger and then headed to whole foods to pick up my multivitamins. my entry on sunday sums up my disappointment with sports authority and sports clothing in general. however, even though the shirts i bought weren't my first choice, i wore one of them yesterday during my work out and it works out great. i'm still not so keen on the super long sleeves, but the shirt does what i wanted it to do: keep me warm and not soak up all my sweat. we stayed in sunday night for dinner, which was a good choice. we continued on with our scrubs dvds and started the 3rd season. our baked potatoes topped with chili, for marshall, and baked beans, for me, were great and reminded me of my senior year in college. :) that night we took advantage of our monday off and stayed up until 2am running around ashenvale with liam and chris. we got a helluva lot done, which was great. we finally figured out a time when all of us would get together during the week. liam's been rogue-oriented with his main, so having a day out of the week dedicated to alts, he can give his hunter some lovin. it was fun being up that late on a sunday. i haven't been able to do that in ages.
monday, although a day off, started really early. i needed to take my car in for it's 80k service. i knew they were going to do a lot on my car, but i wasn't sure how much it was all going to cost. i figured no more than $500 for everything. the estimate they gave me for all the work was $597. i nearly choked. i had the means to pay, but that meant dipping into my savings bonds. not by much, but it wasn't my ideal way of getting money. however, my car needed to be serviced badly, especially since i missed out on my 70k servicing. we dropped off gidget at 8am and headed for an early breakfast out at the los gatos cafe. we went home and hung out before heading to the bank so i could get my money transferred. afterwards we went to one of my favorite stores, office max, to pick up a few things. i LOVE office supplies. i'm such a nerd about it all. marshall was having a great time making fun of me. monday afternoon was spent in front of my computer leveling up my new rogue. marshall and i hopped on our duo for a bit to get through a couple of extra quests we had and then i got the call about my car. they had a few suggestions based on what they saw going through the servicing. turns out my serpentine belt has a few little cracks on it, my battery didn't pass their loading test and should be replaced soon, my break pads are a little low, and there was something else, i think. but either way, they were quoting me like $300 for the battery, $500/axle for break pads and another $500 for the belt replacement. it was ridiculous and these are things that i could do on my own or take them to my mechanic for several hundreds less. i told her that i only have enough money to pay for the service but that i appreciated being notified of things that i need to get fixed soon. all in all, my final bill was $630. i wasn't happy, but that's what i get for going to the dealership for stuff like this. monday night was filled with heroes and studio 60. both were really good and i'm getting really into heroes. :)
work was hectic yesterday, what with me being out of the office monday, but luckily things have calmed down a bit today. i just felt like i was drowning. i was happy to see 5pm roll around so quickly, so i could get home and relax. i threw on my sweats right when i got in the door and parked it on the couch for a while. tuesday is our WoW night with chris and liam, so we logged on and decided to run shadowfang keep. it's a short instance. 2 blue items dropped for marshall and i. we rolled on the first one, a staff. since i won that, marshall said that when the blue robes drop, i would give it to him. i still thought we should at least roll for them, but i guess it wouldn't have been fair had one of us got both items. but still...i was bummed when i didn't get it. oh well, i still have the blue drop from our deadmines trip, which is alright for now. can't wait to don on my slutty mageweave gear. ;) anyway, after we finished that, chris finally joined and we decided to do another instance: blackfathom deep. that one took longer than we had anticipated, however, we were able to get EVERYTHING done for that place. marshall and i finally logged out close to 1am, only to get up 6 hours later for work. i'm surprisingly not THAT tired. but i don't think i'd be able to do that every night. i woke up this morning and my neck was sore and my wrists were killing me. :| but it was a very successful night and i'm at least happy for that. :)