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snowy cityscape
Originally uploaded by oilygrrl
Today--I went into the city to have lunch and play some new games. We went to Viceroy of India for lunch, then hung out and played Zombie Fluxx, Cleopatra, and Munchkin Cthulu. Lots of fun, even though I ate too much. I uploaded some pictures to my scrapbook or user gallery or whatever they're calling it these days. On the way home I decided to catch a cab from the El to the Metra station so I wouldn't be late for the 8:40 because if I missed that train it would be a looooong two hours until the 10:40 home. I flagged down a cab at a stoplight in the deserted theater district and noticed after a couple blocks that he hadn't turned his meter on. Weird. When we got to Ogilvie I asked how much and he said 'Don't worry about it." (!?) So I gave him a five bucks anyway and thanked him for saving me a two hour wait. Odd but nice.
Yesterday--We were open but I had a half-day so I left at noon, worked out plans with a couple of friends and spent the afternoon straightening and cleaning out my car. That didn't take the entire afternoon (surprisingly). Went to dinner and then saw Juno which was lovely, just wonderful. The only thing I didn't like was the music. I kept thinking it was as though "The Waitresses" had gotten back together to do the songs for this movie. Not to my taste. The rest of it was great though.
Then we went back to a friend's house and watched Hot Fuzz which I enjoyed but I don't think my friends found it quite as funny as I did. C. was the only one paying attention, so thanks to her we paused the movie and had our champagne toast ready for midnight. Then back to the movie and around 1am I left to drive home. THAT was No Fun At All. I never slid or lost control but it was really nasty out and I was white-knuckling it all the way home. Got home at 2am to find that some jackass had parked in my spot and there were no open spots in the overflow or the visitor's lot. So I parked in my neighbor's spot figuring that if he wasn't home by now he probably wasn't coming home until tomorrow. I left him a note anyway explaining why I snagged his spot. When I got home tonight he'd returned it with an invitation to do coffee sometime. That would be ok I guess. I've lived here over ten years and never had more than a nodding acquaintance with any of my neighbors. This will be something new.
Sunday--Got up and out earlyish to check out the park for the Geocaching meetup. I was mainly looking for bridges across the river so that getting back to our cars after caching wouldn't be a problem. Turns out there really aren't any bridges over the Fox between Batavia and North Aurora. We worked it out anyway and I think everyone had a very nice time. It didn't hurt that the guy who had hidden a lot of the caches in that area showed up at a FP shelter to build us a fire and make everyone hot cocoa. Very very nice of him. The restaurant that I had picked was ok, no great shakes but decent. The one amazing thing they did though was get the orders right for 16 people! No mistakes at all AFAIK. That's statistically improbable. Plus they got the food ready fast. I'd definitely go there again just to try out other dishes and if I ever need to feed lots of people in a hurry in Batavia (it could happen) they'll be my first choice. Plus the bill for 16 of us (with about half the party ordering at least one beer) was $248! EL Taco Grande, 6 N. River, Batavia IL. Nice place.
Saturday--Geocaching buddy was celebrating his birthday with a group outing beginning at 7:30 am. I didn't rsvp one way or the other since I didn't want to set my alarm on a weekend day. But I woke up in time to meet everyone at Mrs. V's for some good skillets, and then we hit the trail. It was pretty cold Saturday so I brought along my enormous Bennetton pants which went on right over my jeans, so I was nice and toasty most of the day. After we finished the Box Box series we went to Moretti's for a late lunch/early dinner. They didn't get everything right there but we were happy to be warm anyways. After dinner we got a few more caches, then I called it quits as it was too cold for me, especially since I took one pair of pants off before going to the restaurant.
Friday--Sliced my finger pretty good at work, the EMT (co-worker who's certified and does EMT stuff part-time) said it could go either way as far as needing stitches. I opted to just wrap it and stayed on Light Duty the rest of the day. Four days later and it's healing beautifully. Friday was also 'Friendsmas', the gift exchange my friends and I have been doing since high-school. For the past ten years we've drawn names so we only have to buy for one person with a $50 limit. This year I had asked for perfume (amongst other things) so when I opened my small package and it seemed to be a small bottle of Lady Stetson, I was a little non-plussed. I opened the box, and sure enough, there was indeed a small bottle of Lady Stetson inside. (!?) Turns out there was a slip of paper in with the card saying my real gift (Forever Knight, Vol.3) should be arriving soon. We had dinner at the Reel Club where they gave us a nice private room. The food there was fantastic, of course and we had a very nice time. I can recommend two of the four flights of wine they have there which were put together by Alpana Singh. Very nice.
Christmas--Very quiet, I went out Sunday afternoon and stayed with my folks until Christmas evening. We went to their church for Christmas Eve, opened presents Christmas morning (I got an electric blanket [no more putting off going to bed to delay climbing into cold covers! Yay!] a regular blanket and a "Metropolis" poster). I gave them a few things they asked for and also a Nintendo DS Lite with Brain Age 2. They seemed to like it and be interested in playing it, so I was happy about that.
That's about it I think. Finished Neuromancer on the train home tonight. It was interesting in a number of ways. I might even have time to re-read it before this month's book group, which would be good. It all depends on how quickly I get through Samedi--The Deafness which I'm about 50 pages into and it's just as confusing as Light.