Bird trouble; Cookie making and partying; chiarOscuro & new friends
Well, I think that pretty clearly cinches the question of "can my macaw be left unattended, out of her cage, all day?" She took one of her rare vantures off of the cage and upstairs, where she tore up a bit of paper (not a problem), pooped here and there (annoying), and destroyed my laptop's keyboard--26 keys with some or all of the components removed, plus part of the little nubby joystick and its buttons. Fortunately I have a USB keyboard that came with the laptop, but I suppose I'll be a) calling Dell to see if they can just send me a replacement keyboard, and b) locking the bird in her cage when no one's home. (Either that, or put an acrylic gate in the kitchen doorway that she can't climb but the dogs can hop over. :P
Fortunately, the rest of the day went much better than that. Woke to my alarm around 09, remembered why I was getting up at 09--cookies!--and set about on that task. Headed toward Manassas around 10, stopped by Giant to pick up the ingredients I thought mom was lacking--incorrect, it turns out, I just hadn't looked in the right places--then stopped by Steph and Matt's to borrow their KitchenAid mixer. A godsend, that--made the mixing process far easier than it otherwise would've been. (These cookies have a very dense dough, which makes regular mixers cry and run away.) Halved the recipe, and made three batches of cookies, for a total of 63. They went over well with the family and Chris; I stuck around for lunch and chatting before heading toward SSB's (about 80 miles away) around 1500 or 1530.
Things hit a snag when I foolishly believed that the directions eVite.com provided to SarahScott's address would, you know, take me to her address. Instead, it took me to a street a few blocks away, but with SSB's guidance I was able to find her apartment fairly quickly. Joined her, Megs, Misty, Chris, Adam, Steph, Diana, Jesse, Diana's sister, Mikey, and possibly other people, plus the adorable cat named Oliver, and a whole table full of cookies. Around 1800, most of those people headed to Dave & Buster's somewhere, knocking it down to SSB, Megs, Adam, Steph, and me. A while later Adam and Steph headed out, and I hung out with the two girls and their two cats--Maggie was let out, but wasn't happy about the state of the house or the extra two people in it. We headed out on a CVS run, but realized immediately upon closing the door that she'd locked her keys inside, and had locked all the windows. While she racked her brain for who she could call, I borrowed her Giant card, and had the door open in about five seconds. (She'll be using the bolt from now on. ;)
After leaving there around 2230, I headed toward home, but decided along the way to go straight to chiarOscuro, and successfully navigated from the GW Pkwy to 395, by ignoring the signs near the Pentagon pretending to lead there. By the time I arrived, my toes were damn chilly, and it probably took me 15 minutes to find parking--I just wanted to get inside where it was warm! From there, things just went uphill. I met Jessie at the door, who had a 2-for-1 coupon, so it only cost me $5 to get in. I entered the CD drawing, and later found my name on the announcement board--I won, and got first pick! (The two CDs were soundtracks from The Wedding Singer and Valley Girls, I didn't even look at the track listing for the latter before taking the former. :) I met anarcha, a girl who I'd talked to via the chiaro comm, who promised to introduce me to some people next time.
The music on the dance side was pretty good all night long, particularly DJ Swank; the lounge side featured chiarOke, which was entertaining. And the mystery girl I had my eye on a couple weeks ago was there again! Body language spoke volumes, and eventually I followed her (Cristy) and her friend Liss (both students at AU) off the dance floor, and chatted with each of them for quite a while. Danced more until they kicked us out at 03, chatted with Cristy in the cold, offered her cookies from the stash I took from the party, and parted ways around 0330, I think. =)
Only 60 new friends page entries since 10am! Slow day. (Still behind on comics, Thursday--present.)
Fortunately, the rest of the day went much better than that. Woke to my alarm around 09, remembered why I was getting up at 09--cookies!--and set about on that task. Headed toward Manassas around 10, stopped by Giant to pick up the ingredients I thought mom was lacking--incorrect, it turns out, I just hadn't looked in the right places--then stopped by Steph and Matt's to borrow their KitchenAid mixer. A godsend, that--made the mixing process far easier than it otherwise would've been. (These cookies have a very dense dough, which makes regular mixers cry and run away.) Halved the recipe, and made three batches of cookies, for a total of 63. They went over well with the family and Chris; I stuck around for lunch and chatting before heading toward SSB's (about 80 miles away) around 1500 or 1530.
Things hit a snag when I foolishly believed that the directions eVite.com provided to SarahScott's address would, you know, take me to her address. Instead, it took me to a street a few blocks away, but with SSB's guidance I was able to find her apartment fairly quickly. Joined her, Megs, Misty, Chris, Adam, Steph, Diana, Jesse, Diana's sister, Mikey, and possibly other people, plus the adorable cat named Oliver, and a whole table full of cookies. Around 1800, most of those people headed to Dave & Buster's somewhere, knocking it down to SSB, Megs, Adam, Steph, and me. A while later Adam and Steph headed out, and I hung out with the two girls and their two cats--Maggie was let out, but wasn't happy about the state of the house or the extra two people in it. We headed out on a CVS run, but realized immediately upon closing the door that she'd locked her keys inside, and had locked all the windows. While she racked her brain for who she could call, I borrowed her Giant card, and had the door open in about five seconds. (She'll be using the bolt from now on. ;)
After leaving there around 2230, I headed toward home, but decided along the way to go straight to chiarOscuro, and successfully navigated from the GW Pkwy to 395, by ignoring the signs near the Pentagon pretending to lead there. By the time I arrived, my toes were damn chilly, and it probably took me 15 minutes to find parking--I just wanted to get inside where it was warm! From there, things just went uphill. I met Jessie at the door, who had a 2-for-1 coupon, so it only cost me $5 to get in. I entered the CD drawing, and later found my name on the announcement board--I won, and got first pick! (The two CDs were soundtracks from The Wedding Singer and Valley Girls, I didn't even look at the track listing for the latter before taking the former. :) I met anarcha, a girl who I'd talked to via the chiaro comm, who promised to introduce me to some people next time.
The music on the dance side was pretty good all night long, particularly DJ Swank; the lounge side featured chiarOke, which was entertaining. And the mystery girl I had my eye on a couple weeks ago was there again! Body language spoke volumes, and eventually I followed her (Cristy) and her friend Liss (both students at AU) off the dance floor, and chatted with each of them for quite a while. Danced more until they kicked us out at 03, chatted with Cristy in the cold, offered her cookies from the stash I took from the party, and parted ways around 0330, I think. =)
Only 60 new friends page entries since 10am! Slow day. (Still behind on comics, Thursday--present.)