Plans for the weekend went awry. Ian and I thought we'd play Champions Online, but the servers went down for the weekend at 6:00 pm Central on Friday. So much for that. Then we had friends over to play Ian's D&D campaign yesterday. One of them announced with about 20 minutes' notice that he thinks 3 hours is the maximum length of time he wishes to play at one time. I hoped that was his starting point for negotiation, but no, apparently that was his compromise. Alas, we only have a group of 4 people, so we can't really go on without him. That was disappointing, and Ian was decidedly bummed. Ian's floon (his enthusiasm for all kinds of gaming) is low overall -- job, Champions, and running his D&D campaign (or not running, in point of fact) are all conspiring to bring him down.
We sat around blue for a bit, sort of freely talking about random bummers on our mind, and sinking together into a bit of a funk.
Somehow, rather by accident, we managed to pull out of the tailspin and actually have a really nice evening together! We finally managed to get into the beta test for an Xbox Live game of 1 Versus 100. We sat and played trivia together, competitively with a bunch of nameless, faceless strangers out there in the interwebs somewhere. It was really jolly and cheerful! We set a reminder to play again this week, maybe during Sci-Fi Night. We've been saying since last Thanksgiving that we wanted to get into a trivia night someplace, and our living room just may be the place!
Afterward, we went to a chain steakhouse that we like, Saltgrass. They had some promotion running with sort of "lottery coupons" that expires today. The Luck of the Irish was with us, and our coupon was good for a $50 gift card for the restaurant. We had an appetizer and dessert with our dinner, all for only $11 of our own cash. We've got enough leftovers for lunch for three days, and we'll be eating that giant slice of take-home cheesecake together all week! That was fun.
We also narrowly escaped the horrid inconvenience of a flat tire while we were out at 9:00 on a Saturday night. Just as we pulled into the restaurant parking lot, we heard a consistent fwap-fwap-fwap-fwap coming from the right-front tire. Ian said the car was not handling any differently, however, so we were confused. We pulled into an area with good light to examine the tire -- we had a big ole hunk of duct tape stuck to the tire! So odd, don't know where we got that, but WHEW! We have AAA and cell phones, and we were in a convenient place to wait had we needed a tire change (please, folks, we're city mice, this is why we have AAA!). Nonetheless, we were relieved to avoid the whole mess and just go enjoy our dinner, then with the added sense of having escaped minor peril.
Late in the afternoon on Friday, I got called in for two interviews next week. Both are decent commutes, one really ideal. The job with the ideal commute is permanent, but pays the same amount I made in 2003. The other is 36 miles one way, but through literally open country on a giant new highway that no one uses. It's a toll road, but the speed limit is 70, so you can imagine how fast everyone really drives. It'd be a very easy 36 miles. That's for a 4 month contract with possibility for extension, better money, and benefits from the agency after 60 days. It's in a Legal Dept., however, so the better match with my skillset. Then there's still Super Awesome Company lingering, and I hope to hear from them next week. For once I conclude the week with 3 irons in the fire rather than 0, or maybe 1 if I'm lucky. You can imagine I feel some relief there.
Ian and I shared a good discussion over dinner last night about division of domestic labor when I go back to work. I've done nearly all domestic work for the past two years, since we moved to Texas. It makes sense while I'm home and especially while unemployed. When we lived in Plano, it was something I did to free more of his time while he was in the Guildhall. I reminded him that all this was a limited time offer, and when we're both working, I'd like a more even split. We had a good talk about which chores to split and how to do so, and that went smoothly.
We also had a bit of a surprise discussion about how much we both like having one of us home full-time. It's not financially feasible right now to continue unabated, hence my job search. Months ago, I told Ian that I really want to stay home full-time when we have kids. He said he'd keep an open mind then. This unintended period of extended unemployment has been something of a trial run for having a full-time homemaker (with the caveat that we know things will be extremely different with the addition of children). It's been good. It's given Ian a chance to slowly move into the hot bath of a new idea. He's on board with the idea now. Our talk about that last night was brief, simple, and very good.
Trace
P.S. Watson still absolutely losing his mind over trying to find the
DARGON toy!