so much updatage
Oh goodness. When grammar attacks...
This only adds to a realization that I've come to lately: I'm not nearly cynical enough. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm gullible, because most of the time the people that "fool" me aren't even trying to do so. I accept at face value things that I should not necessarily believe. Mostly the reason I do this is because I try to be a Nice Guy and don't want to promote dissention or say "you're wrong" for fear of making people feel bad. Or for fear of having to think hard to back up a point that I don't really care that much about in the first place--I think maybe that's the more common reason I don't enter into an argument. I just need to be more cognizant of when being easy-going in this fashion might bite me in the ass.
So, I've once again gotten into the situation where I said I was going to write a post for for-frickin'-ever (over a month!), and didn't, and now have a massive update on my hands. The upside of this is that in large part I'll be able to cut and paste from the lovely tool that is Google Calendar.
So here we go again! We left off at...
Fri 4/28: So as I said, Applebee's was chosen for dinner. Got really lost on the way there, because you can't take the I-35 exit from 183 cuz it's on the feeder before you have a chance to get on the feeder. And then I took every wrong turn I possibly could and ended up on winding roads that made me lose my sense of direction and eventually at... Mt. Bonnell. WTF?!? But eventually I got there and had the steak I'd been craving. Afterwards went to G&D's where we watched some Tivo.
Sat 4/29: I may have played some WoW, but the important part of the day started when I had dinner with Adri and Carly. Tasty salad w/crasins, almonds and couscous, plus Parmesan bread provided by Adri. Also strawberries and whole wheat shortbread. I've made the salad for myself several times since, because it was Really Good. Carly, in turn, got the salad idea from Brazil, in Houston. From there we went to the Austin Slam-Off, where Adri was voice of God. Wasn't particularly blown away by any poem/poet, though I'll say Tony Jackson did deserve to make the team. I wish Big Poppa E had made it. Andy's boyfriend PJ, who was filming it, was very cute. Afterwards I still didn't have plans and thought I'd just go home, but then I heard that Adri was doing some poetry reading for an art museum opening, and that sounded quite cool. So the three of us hung out at Carly's place, made some interesting peanut butter cup brownies, and helped Adri write poems for her gig, which was at 1.
Sun 4/30: 1am. There was a crazy long line, but the fact that Adri was performing got us all in (us being Adri, myself, Carly, and Andy who had called and been like "I can't get in!"). Very cool stuff, and tons of beautiful people. Many UT students brushing elbows with older cultured types. Almost surreal. I absolutely loved this one exhibit with random objects hanging from a ceiling that you could walk between. Some of them were moving slightly in the draft from A/C units and such. Later on people were moving them purposely, and the museum staff asked them not to, but I kinda wish they hadn't. As long as they were still moving slowly, it really added a lot to the experience. Anyway, Adri performed, and we all looked at various exhibits. I did not let Adri introduce me to Christopher Lee, because that just seemed like a Bad Idea, no matter how cute he is. Also, I'm awkward. But in any case, I did have an extremely good time. And then I went home and slept, because it was like 4am or something. I think I might have even played a couple minutes of WoW when I got home, because I was so tired I didn't realize I was tired and it wasn't a work night, but I honestly don't remember it. Meh.
I woke up after a while and then had a movie date scheduled with Adri. Picked her up on time (gasp!) at 1:45. She bought tickets, I bought food, including a pitcher of Sangria. Mmm, Sangria. The movie was okay, not spectacular but amusing. Afterwards we went back to Adri's place, where I hung out briefly and we looked at some pictures, then she had stuff to do and I went home to G&D's place, cuz they were having waffles for dinner and invited me. Then we played WoW; we did the Mallet and Egg quests in Hinterlands, then the Tremors of the Earth quest in Badlands. Yay new chest armor for Aesil!! Then home and sleep, after a very long weekend.
Mon 5/1: ...so long, in fact, that I felt the need to take the day off. I just did NOT feel like getting up in the morning, so I emailed in "sick" (I did have a slight headache and felt a little under the weather, though not enough to force me to stay home). Slept more. Woke up at around 11:30 and logged in to WoW--figured this would be a good day for some relaxing there. Also it was a kinda crappy day outside, IIRC. Got into a WC pickup group with Dam'ren by 12:30. Initially it was just a 24 hunter and my char (26 warlock). Then we added a 20 warrior and a 15 mage, and finally a 16 shammy for healing. Ended up being a great group! We finished everything, except I was short one Deviate Dreadfang. Oh well. A few days/weeks later I decided to drop the quest, because it wasn't worth going back in for that. We even talked about doing SFK afterwards, but people didn't feel like it. I was very impressed by the quality of that PuG, though. Played some more WoW, both Dam'ren and Ishok, then logged off and showered.
Next up: game night! It was at G&D's place anyway, so I had dinner with them. Broccoli and chicken fettucine alfredo, some TiVo, then game night started up with Po & Gus and later Jonathan. We played Kill Dr. Lucky and two games of Bang!. A good time was had by all.
Tue 5/2: *Sigh*, back to work. It was uneventful. That night I did a Gnomer run with Nalai, along with Mervo, Kessli, and Keelgar. We made it through all quests and bosses except Essential Artificials, Crowd Pummeler, and Thermaplugg. Wiped at the beginning of the Dark Iron trail. We need a few more levels--and a fifth player!--then we'll own the place. [As of today I still haven't gone through a second run with Nalai; I may need to grab a PuG for this purpose.]
Wed 5/3: Work, workout. Both pretty uneventful. I think it was a Roman workout. At Magic night I had a kinda close match with Greg using my pseudo-Selesnya green-white deck, a pretty bad 2HG with Greg and I vs. Todd and Chris (using the same deck), then a REALLY close match vs. David using my blue-black milling Dimir deck. It was a good night--which is more than a passing statement since, strangely enough--there's no event in my week that can affect my mood more than Magic Night. In analyzing this, I think it must be because I started playing Magic back in the days when I had little to no self-esteem and was constantly down on myself and so it reminds me of those days--especially when I lose continuously! I try not to let it get to me, though. It's a silly thing to get upset over.
Thu 5/4: Work. After work, grocery shopping. I hadn't gotten groceries in WAY too long, and was thwarted by storms on Tuesday when I originally planned to go. Didn't want to get soaked as I left the store, so I moved it to Thursday. The length of time I procrastinated was reflected in the $90 bill :-/ Then guild night was a Zul'Farrak run; we finally finished the instance! Yay!
Fri 5/5: Work, including an 11am 1-on-1 with George, which was in place of our usual weekly team meeting. One of my co-workers incisively pointed out that he probably did this since our management survey was coming out the next week :P Anyway, I described it in this entry. Suffice it to say here, I was pleased.
Went home after work and did some cleaning; Jason got in before 9, so we rode to Carly's cocktail party together (originally we were going to meet up there). It was fun. Adri left kinda early, and Jason and I left before the party died down too much also. I think all of us were kinda tired, and I didn't feel particularly social (which is kinda a must to get along with Carly's friends--they're all very nice but notably social. If I'm being anti-social, I'm not going to fit in or be particularly comfortable. Anyway. Quite delicious cakes and alkie.
Sat 5/6: Jason was in town, as I said, but I have nothing on my calendar. What did we do? I really don't remember. Was this one of the times we went hot-tubbing in the not-so-hot tub? We probably played some WoW. This may have been when we went to the game store for the first time and I got Nexus and we played that. I do think I made that spinich salad I referred to earlier.
Sun 5/7: Similarly to the day before, nothing written down. It was a relaxing weekend, which I needed. Good to see my boy, too :D Sunday night was guild night; we did a bunch of Azshara quests. I went to Felwood afterwards and was disappointed when I realized my quest item was in the bank. Then I played Ishok a bit.
Mon 5/8: Back to work. On my lunch break I traded out my modem at TimeWarner HQ. Cores meeting, workout, then game night at G&D's place. We played Coloretto (I really liked it), Rage, and then Zendo. Zendo is awesome and totally stole my mind away for the entirely of Monday night and Tuesday, and had me thinking about it some the week following too.
Tue 5/9: The appointment with the cable guy didn't happen since I traded in the modem, making this an entirely uneventful day. I probably played WoW in the evening, but I don't remember and don't have it written down.
Wed 5/10: Work, workout, Magic night. I have no details written down about any of them, so it must have been pretty typical for each!
Thu 5/11: Work, then Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie in the park! We ended up not having a blanket, so we had to be on the grass and as some of you probably know, I don't do well on grass. Cuz I don't like bugs. Especially ants. And there were ants, even if not many of them. See, I love nature when you're talking about rock, water, wind, plant life, fresh air, the open sky, etc.. But when nature includes bugs and spiders... not so much my thing. Too bad they usually go hand in hand. Walking in an open area with a fairly strong wind is great, though, and I was lucky enough to experience that a couple weeks later (as you'll read if you actually make it that far--and congrats for making it this far, though I don't envy you ;)) Anyway, movie was good. We had a little popcorn and G&D had a little ice cream. I called Carl when on my way home, as he expressed interest in coming over, but he had fallen asleep early and didn't return my message until the next day.
Fri 5/12: Uneventful work day. Jason decided to drive in even though he'd just been here the weekend before, because he didn't yet have internet or TV in his Corpus Christi apartment and would have been bored out of his mind. We went out to eat, I think, but I don't remember where. I write down less when Jason's around, because hey--I'd rather be enjoying his company! :)
Sat 5/13: We went to the game store again and got Icehouse pieces, brought them home and played some Dharma-duels of Zendo. I think G&D were busy the first half of this weekend, and so we didn't get together with them. I called my dad to find out when my mother would be getting home; she was down in Maryland visiting her mother and I didn't want to sound flowers there for logistical reasons. That night we went to Christi & David's place to play some pool and generally converse and share good company. We were late, though, because we went to Salt Lick 360 for dinner. Sorry everyone, but I still think The County Line is better. HOWEVER we had an incredibly hot waiter that Jason and I were both totally staring at and ogling. If anybody has any connection to a Jeremy who works at the Salt Lick 360... lemme know, will ya? ;) Anyway, it didn't matter that we were late to C&D's because they had just gotten home from the emergency room with the kiddo, who had gotten nursemaid's elbow from throwing himself on the ground. Christi was understandably upset, but of course, it wasn't her fault. Spent an hour or two there, then went home. It's really dark down that far south...
Sun 5/14: As it was Mother's Day, Jason wanted to get back a little early and visit his Grandmother in Corpus. I logged on to WoW when he left around 11:30am and got in a SFK PuG with Dam'ren. I actually had this well documented in my GCalendar, so I'm just going to cut and paste. It's fully WoW-oriented, so be warned.
Group started out with a LF1M in the LFG channel. I joined with Dam'ren (at 27); group was a 27 shammy, 27 warrior, 23 rogue and 24 hunter. Hunter and Shaman were already at each others' throats. Got to the courtyard before people started dropping out, rogue and warrior. Then the Shammy /w'ed me and said I was cool in his book but he hated the hunter and was leaving. Whatever. We got a new group with a 24 lock, priest, and warrior. Except the priest sucked (tried to tank a couple times!) and the warrior hadn't ever tanked before. Didn't know what it meant. DIDN'T HAVE DEFENSIVE STANCE. Made it to the ramparts, then the warrior had to go do homework. By that point the other lock and I (obviously the only competetant ones) were /w'ing each other. We all took out our tanks. Hunter was yelling at the priest to heal his pet. Frickin' annoying 14yo (he said so himeself). But we managed to beat Arugal in an EXTREMELY close fight (two locks died pretty quick, right after the pet Kresh). At least the hunter taught us that nifty line of sight trick for fighting Arugal.
After that I went directly to G&D's place, where we started playing FFVII and got pizza from Rockin' Tomato: feta and tomato on one half, pepperoni on the other. Not much sauce, but very tasty. Then was guild night, which was Gnomer with Ravel, Opalanna, Keelgar, and Tilmundo. Did the early quests. Opalanna finished Artificials too; I need 3 more. We'll go in again in a while for Thermaplugg. Also, got My Little Pwnies set up finally! Paid a couple people 50s to sign and get kicked; they complimented the name :D
Mon 5/15: Work. At lunch, had a Boca burger with cream cheese, red onion and tomato. Also did some Wetlands quests with Alairius. Grouped at the end with a very gung-ho warrior before I had to run back to work. Workout was kinda tough. It was mostly arm stuff, not much abs, but it's my quads that hurt! I guess we did a lot of lunges. Game night was Chez Gregory; we played We <3 Katamari and Zendo. The former was very weird but strangely enthralling. Aaron's rule finished off the latter. It really wasn't that hard, but we made it a lot more difficult than it actually was via superstitions and religions; the rule was pips on reds and blacks must sum to 3. Drove Jonathan home after he stepped on his glasses :-/
Afterwards, I popped on WoW briefly to finish a certain Hillsbrad quest except for a Strong Troll's Blood Potion. Was ganked once, but it wasn't bad. Didn't attack a pally that was a couple levels above me who I probably coulda taken on.
Tue 5/16: This was the day I biked to work, which I wrote about here. As it turns out, the way home is about 10x easier than the way there! The day was otherwise uneventful, or so says my calendar.
Wed 5/17: Work. Didn't go to my workout, and I can't recall why. I think I forgot my clothes or something. Meh. Since I did, I decided to work out at my apartment instead, but then didn't do so. Rescheduled it for the next day.
Thu 5/18: Work, early. Made it to the Interlock Meeting almost on time (just about 5 minutes late, not bad for me for an 8:30am meeting!), which was interesting. Took some notes and passed on some info to George. After work I did, in fact, exercise like I had planned; wrote about that here. Guild night was Maraudon; we did the orange section and part of the back section, as well as a brief pop into purple so as to complete Celebrus' Rod and enable the shortcut for next time.
Fri 5/19: I think this was the morning I woke up after an apocolyptic dream about meteors and firestorms. Felt very real, and thus had me minorly freaked out through the rest of the day. Work was uneventful, as usual, aside from seeing the word "apocolyptic" in some form 2 or 3 times during the day, which only served to freak me out more. Left slightly early (meaning 5) to go home, do a little cleaning and throwing of stuff in a bag, then left for Houston. Got in while Jason was working out; the place felt weird with the fridge off and so much stuff missing. I had brought lappy, though, so at least we had internet access.
Sat 5/20: We slept in some, played some Zendo, then made ourselves ready for Rachel's birthday party/BBQ. Fun stuff! It was a good party with really tasty food (spinich inside the burgers, along with some other stuff, good potato salad and delicious brisket that I totally tore into like an animal). Drove myself, Jason and Rachel from there to Adri's place, where Pete then drove us to Ben's party--that's the guy who was "white consultant" in catricya's journal, if anybody reads both hers and mine and wouldn't have otherwise made the connection. That was also extremely fun. Some people played dirty Jenga. I finally made out with Adri, although it was extremely brief :P The guy other than Pete that she invited was really cool. He's this football player who I expected to be big and dumb and intimidating but who was actually extremely intelligent, interesting, and friendly. Sure showed me. Um... I don't remember much more about the night, except that Pete drove us back to Adri's and I drove us back to Jason's. Where there was no fridge or Brita pitcher and I had to drink tap water. Ick. Oh well. Sleep!
Sun 5/21: My birthday! It started out in a not-so-stunning way that I'm hoping is not indicative of this year in my life: I woke up very early and was sick. See, I'd had a very alcoholic drink or two just before leaving the party and thus was very sober on the drive home--but started to feel drunk about a half hour later. I was also warm, so I sat on the couch for a while before heading back to the bed. Anyway, the rest of the day was a relaxation day, which was really a necessity given the events of the previous day. Jason and I both headed home earlyish. I went to G&D's place for dinner and watched some Tivo before guild night, during which we did... something. I don't have written down what, and don't remember.
Mon 5/22: Went to work, cores meeting, workout, blah blah blah. Then I hosted game night! Carly and Adri came, as well as Ben, Todd, Christi, and David (J). Funny, no couples... unless I missed someone. Did I miss anyone? Probably. Anyway, we played Bang! which lasted a while, then we played... something else. I don't remember again. But we had skinless Brie with herbs on crackers, white chocolate m&ms, an atonal "happy birthday" (sorry folks, but it was pretty bad), and delicious chocolate cake with cream cheese icing! Yumm.
Tue 5/23: Took the rest of the cake to work, minus one piece. Never even checked on it, but I assume it was devoured within 15 minutes! I probably played WoW in the evening, but I don't recall.
Wed 5/24: Work, team meeting, workout. Magic night brought new cards, but I was frustrated at my inability to create a deck to compete with everyone else's maturing mechanisms. I just didn't have the cards I needed to make things mesh together, which was disappointing since I really thought a new set of cards would manage that. Oh well. Got me kinda down, as it is wont to do as I described above.
Thu 5/25: Had an all-day call-first appointment with the cable guy after some night not long before had brought ridiculous disconnects. He called at 1:30, I was away from my desk. So I called back, told the people I would be home, and to have him just come. Went home. Ate lunch, played some WoW, waited. Waited. No cable guy. So I logged into work from home, sent an email saying I'd be working from home, and waited more. At this point I was both doing work and playing WoW, which I could do because a) I had to submit things and wait for them for work, and b) I could be logged into work on Curran (compy) and WoW on Dryad (lappy). It worked out well. Other days I probably wouldn't have been able to, but this particular day lent itself to that. Anyway, cable guy never showed up, so I called and they were like, "oh, he called again at 2:10 but got no answer" (of course not, since it was my WORK PHONE and I told them to send him a message saying I'd be home!). And "it's too late to send him out again today, can we schedule you another appointment?" GRAR! Yeah, sure. They scheduled another one for 7-10 next Tuesday. Bastards. At least that way it wasn't an all-day, I could just go into work a little late, and I could give them both my home and my cell number so he was sure to get a hold of me. Or not... as I'll write about later.
Anyway. Guild night was the second half of Maraudon; there was an annoying point at which our two rezzers (Rilinar and Dextra with jumper cables) died without the rest of us dying, and they had a hell of a time trying to get back in. Also, I died at least one more time (at the Princess) and maybe a time aside from that also. I was low on the damage meters too, but at least I know why that was--I was doing stun skills as much as possible, rather than damage skills. Carl came over afterwards; we watched a couple of episodes from season 4 of Will & Grace, which he brought over.
Fri 5/26: Work. At 7, X-Men 3 at the Alamo Drafthouse Village! Enjoyable--not as good as the second movie, arguably better than the first (some people will call me a heretic for that, but I didn't like the first movie all that much). Typical action movie fare. And a tasty Spicy Bleu Burger, though I had to send back a Pulled Pork Sandwich that I didn't order first, and was thus very hungry by the time it came! Went back to G&D's place afterwards with them and Jonathan for some Smash and a little alkie. Stayed overnight--
Sat 5/27: ...and rode in Greg's Prius to Port Lavaca for David's family graduation party. Three of them were graduating this year! It was a huge party (~40 people at the peak). Got me pretty addled after a while (my tinnitus amplifies noise...), but still fun. Volleyball, games (42, Zendo, Five Crowns, Poker), kids running around, some tennis later in the night, etc..
The best part was going to the boardwalk/beach at night and just looking at the waves and feeling the wind, as I alluded to earlier in talking about nature. It just felt very, very good and I felt connected to it all. Good stuff :D
Sun 5/28: They went to mass in the morning. I, being a bit uncomfortable with Catholic church (and probably a little bit with church in general lately--I haven't been in a while), didn't go. Instead I played a little piano and then hooked up the GameCube and started unlocking stuff on Mario Kart Double Dash. When Stephen came home we played a few rounds; he beat me at Battle Mode, I beat him at Grand Prix Mode. Afterwards, went to El Patio for lunch when I had chicken enchiladas (which everyone asked me how they were--they always got other stuff!) which were pretty good. Came back and played a bit more MKDD then Ticket to Ride (I won) then Taboo (my team won, but it was close!). Headed back to Austin after that, stopping at Pizza Hut on the way back for dinner. Jonathan and I shared a green pepper and pepperoni pan pizza; David got breadsticks and Greg got hot wings. I snagged one breadstick and two wings :) Went back home for guild night since I didn't have my lappy there, and we did lots of Un'goro Crater. Fun stuff! I like that zone. Levelled to 53.
Mon 5/29: Memorial Day! Lazy day. Played WoW for most of the day. At least two WC runs with Ishok (but no luck on set items, though he got 3 of them plus the Seedcloud Buckler the time before that, which was awesome). Levelled Nalai a little and will do more soon (she's up to 35). Was going to do some Duskwood with G&D's alts, but David got frustrated. I thought I had burgers frozen but it turns out it was sausage instead, so I popped it back in the freezer and got myself some Wendy's. No grilling on Memorial Day! Sacrilege! Meh, it's okay ;) I was kinda tired and was gonna go to bed early, but I felt like watching a movie in bed. So I popped in The Butterfly Effect around 11:30 and decided to watch the Director's Cut version. That ended around 1:30, at which point I slept.
Tue 5/30: Got a one-ring phone call at 7, and was confused until I remembered my cable guy appointment. Then I realized--oh, my phone's out of battery (had been all weekend, since I left my charger at work) and my main phone forwards to the cell! So he'd get immediate voicemail at both numbers. Called HQ again, said, "I'm home, DON'T call, just come." So he did, but at 9:30 rather than at 7:30 when he probably would have originally. Meh. Putzed around straightening stuff up and such while he replaced all the fittings from outside the building right up to the coax connecting outlet and modem, except what was inside that outlet (since I'd have had to move my whole computer desk and I didn't relish that idea). It's been better since, but I could've said that every time they've "fixed" it before. If it keeps going wrong now, I'm switching to DSL. The way it has been is intolerable. Anyway, headed to work then. Uneventful day. Home, probably some WoW, to sleep kinda early.
Wed 5/31: We're finishing up one project at work and starting into a transition that I'm halfway in charge of (it's software/tools related, which is a major function of mine in my team). So when I say these days are uneventful, it's often because they're just busy. I was late for our team meeting... oops. I realized I was late while still at home for lunch, at which point I raced out without gym clothes. So no workout. Apologized to the boss. At about 6, I locked my screen to use the restroom. When I came back, my password wouldn't unlock it! So I went to my boss and told him what was wrong; we filed a helpdesk ticket and I went home.
Magic night again. I put together a slightly better deck and mostly just played it against David's friend Tom who was visiting. He was pretty quiet, but I liked him. I think we'd get along well, so I hope he comes to more Magic nights (he's here for the summer, if I understood correctly). Went home, played a little WoW (more Nalai-levelling), then went to sleep.
Thu 6/1: Went to work, found my screen still locked and unable to be unlocked with my password, and no messages on my phone about the issue. Talked to George again. He recommended I try it on another machine, which was my next plan anyway. Lo and behold, it worked! So it wasn't a password issue, it was an issue with my system. Used the box (which I think is there for consultants to use when they come in from Cadence or wherever) for the rest of the day. Eventually I got a response from Engineering Support Services that asked for my machine name, and later they killed the lock process on my machine and told me what the problem is (apparently, this is just something that happens with this version of RedHat. There's no patch, and the solution is to kill the lock from another machine). Meh. That was the excitement for the day. Boss came by around 6:15 to say he wouldn't be in the next day; he tried to send an email about it but it didn't go through. Funny, for a technology company our systems are sure screwed up sometimes. At least what we produce works. Usually. What MY team does works, anyway! ;)
Anyway, guild night. We had a somewhat abortive run to SM graveyard and library, but at least we got done the quests we wanted to do (grabbing Mythology of the Titans and Mervo's mage book). We'll go in again soon--after we've gained a level or two!
Fri 6/2: Today. Boss isn't here so I'm kinda lackadaisical on the work front. Might have a run with the HHG, we'll have to see. I'll probably invite Carl over later to watch more Will & Grace. Tomorrow I head to San Antonio for Les & Lorena's wedding! I'm kinda anxious about that, since I'm travelling alone to a city I don't know well. But once I get there there'll be familiar faces, at least. Heading down Sat around 1 or so, probably, staying in a Motel 6, then heading back probably earlyish on Sunday.
Another monster update down. I'ma save my kinda creative post idea for another day that suits it. Hej då!
This only adds to a realization that I've come to lately: I'm not nearly cynical enough. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm gullible, because most of the time the people that "fool" me aren't even trying to do so. I accept at face value things that I should not necessarily believe. Mostly the reason I do this is because I try to be a Nice Guy and don't want to promote dissention or say "you're wrong" for fear of making people feel bad. Or for fear of having to think hard to back up a point that I don't really care that much about in the first place--I think maybe that's the more common reason I don't enter into an argument. I just need to be more cognizant of when being easy-going in this fashion might bite me in the ass.
So, I've once again gotten into the situation where I said I was going to write a post for for-frickin'-ever (over a month!), and didn't, and now have a massive update on my hands. The upside of this is that in large part I'll be able to cut and paste from the lovely tool that is Google Calendar.
So here we go again! We left off at...
Fri 4/28: So as I said, Applebee's was chosen for dinner. Got really lost on the way there, because you can't take the I-35 exit from 183 cuz it's on the feeder before you have a chance to get on the feeder. And then I took every wrong turn I possibly could and ended up on winding roads that made me lose my sense of direction and eventually at... Mt. Bonnell. WTF?!? But eventually I got there and had the steak I'd been craving. Afterwards went to G&D's where we watched some Tivo.
Sat 4/29: I may have played some WoW, but the important part of the day started when I had dinner with Adri and Carly. Tasty salad w/crasins, almonds and couscous, plus Parmesan bread provided by Adri. Also strawberries and whole wheat shortbread. I've made the salad for myself several times since, because it was Really Good. Carly, in turn, got the salad idea from Brazil, in Houston. From there we went to the Austin Slam-Off, where Adri was voice of God. Wasn't particularly blown away by any poem/poet, though I'll say Tony Jackson did deserve to make the team. I wish Big Poppa E had made it. Andy's boyfriend PJ, who was filming it, was very cute. Afterwards I still didn't have plans and thought I'd just go home, but then I heard that Adri was doing some poetry reading for an art museum opening, and that sounded quite cool. So the three of us hung out at Carly's place, made some interesting peanut butter cup brownies, and helped Adri write poems for her gig, which was at 1.
Sun 4/30: 1am. There was a crazy long line, but the fact that Adri was performing got us all in (us being Adri, myself, Carly, and Andy who had called and been like "I can't get in!"). Very cool stuff, and tons of beautiful people. Many UT students brushing elbows with older cultured types. Almost surreal. I absolutely loved this one exhibit with random objects hanging from a ceiling that you could walk between. Some of them were moving slightly in the draft from A/C units and such. Later on people were moving them purposely, and the museum staff asked them not to, but I kinda wish they hadn't. As long as they were still moving slowly, it really added a lot to the experience. Anyway, Adri performed, and we all looked at various exhibits. I did not let Adri introduce me to Christopher Lee, because that just seemed like a Bad Idea, no matter how cute he is. Also, I'm awkward. But in any case, I did have an extremely good time. And then I went home and slept, because it was like 4am or something. I think I might have even played a couple minutes of WoW when I got home, because I was so tired I didn't realize I was tired and it wasn't a work night, but I honestly don't remember it. Meh.
I woke up after a while and then had a movie date scheduled with Adri. Picked her up on time (gasp!) at 1:45. She bought tickets, I bought food, including a pitcher of Sangria. Mmm, Sangria. The movie was okay, not spectacular but amusing. Afterwards we went back to Adri's place, where I hung out briefly and we looked at some pictures, then she had stuff to do and I went home to G&D's place, cuz they were having waffles for dinner and invited me. Then we played WoW; we did the Mallet and Egg quests in Hinterlands, then the Tremors of the Earth quest in Badlands. Yay new chest armor for Aesil!! Then home and sleep, after a very long weekend.
Mon 5/1: ...so long, in fact, that I felt the need to take the day off. I just did NOT feel like getting up in the morning, so I emailed in "sick" (I did have a slight headache and felt a little under the weather, though not enough to force me to stay home). Slept more. Woke up at around 11:30 and logged in to WoW--figured this would be a good day for some relaxing there. Also it was a kinda crappy day outside, IIRC. Got into a WC pickup group with Dam'ren by 12:30. Initially it was just a 24 hunter and my char (26 warlock). Then we added a 20 warrior and a 15 mage, and finally a 16 shammy for healing. Ended up being a great group! We finished everything, except I was short one Deviate Dreadfang. Oh well. A few days/weeks later I decided to drop the quest, because it wasn't worth going back in for that. We even talked about doing SFK afterwards, but people didn't feel like it. I was very impressed by the quality of that PuG, though. Played some more WoW, both Dam'ren and Ishok, then logged off and showered.
Next up: game night! It was at G&D's place anyway, so I had dinner with them. Broccoli and chicken fettucine alfredo, some TiVo, then game night started up with Po & Gus and later Jonathan. We played Kill Dr. Lucky and two games of Bang!. A good time was had by all.
Tue 5/2: *Sigh*, back to work. It was uneventful. That night I did a Gnomer run with Nalai, along with Mervo, Kessli, and Keelgar. We made it through all quests and bosses except Essential Artificials, Crowd Pummeler, and Thermaplugg. Wiped at the beginning of the Dark Iron trail. We need a few more levels--and a fifth player!--then we'll own the place. [As of today I still haven't gone through a second run with Nalai; I may need to grab a PuG for this purpose.]
Wed 5/3: Work, workout. Both pretty uneventful. I think it was a Roman workout. At Magic night I had a kinda close match with Greg using my pseudo-Selesnya green-white deck, a pretty bad 2HG with Greg and I vs. Todd and Chris (using the same deck), then a REALLY close match vs. David using my blue-black milling Dimir deck. It was a good night--which is more than a passing statement since, strangely enough--there's no event in my week that can affect my mood more than Magic Night. In analyzing this, I think it must be because I started playing Magic back in the days when I had little to no self-esteem and was constantly down on myself and so it reminds me of those days--especially when I lose continuously! I try not to let it get to me, though. It's a silly thing to get upset over.
Thu 5/4: Work. After work, grocery shopping. I hadn't gotten groceries in WAY too long, and was thwarted by storms on Tuesday when I originally planned to go. Didn't want to get soaked as I left the store, so I moved it to Thursday. The length of time I procrastinated was reflected in the $90 bill :-/ Then guild night was a Zul'Farrak run; we finally finished the instance! Yay!
Fri 5/5: Work, including an 11am 1-on-1 with George, which was in place of our usual weekly team meeting. One of my co-workers incisively pointed out that he probably did this since our management survey was coming out the next week :P Anyway, I described it in this entry. Suffice it to say here, I was pleased.
Went home after work and did some cleaning; Jason got in before 9, so we rode to Carly's cocktail party together (originally we were going to meet up there). It was fun. Adri left kinda early, and Jason and I left before the party died down too much also. I think all of us were kinda tired, and I didn't feel particularly social (which is kinda a must to get along with Carly's friends--they're all very nice but notably social. If I'm being anti-social, I'm not going to fit in or be particularly comfortable. Anyway. Quite delicious cakes and alkie.
Sat 5/6: Jason was in town, as I said, but I have nothing on my calendar. What did we do? I really don't remember. Was this one of the times we went hot-tubbing in the not-so-hot tub? We probably played some WoW. This may have been when we went to the game store for the first time and I got Nexus and we played that. I do think I made that spinich salad I referred to earlier.
Sun 5/7: Similarly to the day before, nothing written down. It was a relaxing weekend, which I needed. Good to see my boy, too :D Sunday night was guild night; we did a bunch of Azshara quests. I went to Felwood afterwards and was disappointed when I realized my quest item was in the bank. Then I played Ishok a bit.
Mon 5/8: Back to work. On my lunch break I traded out my modem at TimeWarner HQ. Cores meeting, workout, then game night at G&D's place. We played Coloretto (I really liked it), Rage, and then Zendo. Zendo is awesome and totally stole my mind away for the entirely of Monday night and Tuesday, and had me thinking about it some the week following too.
Tue 5/9: The appointment with the cable guy didn't happen since I traded in the modem, making this an entirely uneventful day. I probably played WoW in the evening, but I don't remember and don't have it written down.
Wed 5/10: Work, workout, Magic night. I have no details written down about any of them, so it must have been pretty typical for each!
Thu 5/11: Work, then Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie in the park! We ended up not having a blanket, so we had to be on the grass and as some of you probably know, I don't do well on grass. Cuz I don't like bugs. Especially ants. And there were ants, even if not many of them. See, I love nature when you're talking about rock, water, wind, plant life, fresh air, the open sky, etc.. But when nature includes bugs and spiders... not so much my thing. Too bad they usually go hand in hand. Walking in an open area with a fairly strong wind is great, though, and I was lucky enough to experience that a couple weeks later (as you'll read if you actually make it that far--and congrats for making it this far, though I don't envy you ;)) Anyway, movie was good. We had a little popcorn and G&D had a little ice cream. I called Carl when on my way home, as he expressed interest in coming over, but he had fallen asleep early and didn't return my message until the next day.
Fri 5/12: Uneventful work day. Jason decided to drive in even though he'd just been here the weekend before, because he didn't yet have internet or TV in his Corpus Christi apartment and would have been bored out of his mind. We went out to eat, I think, but I don't remember where. I write down less when Jason's around, because hey--I'd rather be enjoying his company! :)
Sat 5/13: We went to the game store again and got Icehouse pieces, brought them home and played some Dharma-duels of Zendo. I think G&D were busy the first half of this weekend, and so we didn't get together with them. I called my dad to find out when my mother would be getting home; she was down in Maryland visiting her mother and I didn't want to sound flowers there for logistical reasons. That night we went to Christi & David's place to play some pool and generally converse and share good company. We were late, though, because we went to Salt Lick 360 for dinner. Sorry everyone, but I still think The County Line is better. HOWEVER we had an incredibly hot waiter that Jason and I were both totally staring at and ogling. If anybody has any connection to a Jeremy who works at the Salt Lick 360... lemme know, will ya? ;) Anyway, it didn't matter that we were late to C&D's because they had just gotten home from the emergency room with the kiddo, who had gotten nursemaid's elbow from throwing himself on the ground. Christi was understandably upset, but of course, it wasn't her fault. Spent an hour or two there, then went home. It's really dark down that far south...
Sun 5/14: As it was Mother's Day, Jason wanted to get back a little early and visit his Grandmother in Corpus. I logged on to WoW when he left around 11:30am and got in a SFK PuG with Dam'ren. I actually had this well documented in my GCalendar, so I'm just going to cut and paste. It's fully WoW-oriented, so be warned.
Group started out with a LF1M in the LFG channel. I joined with Dam'ren (at 27); group was a 27 shammy, 27 warrior, 23 rogue and 24 hunter. Hunter and Shaman were already at each others' throats. Got to the courtyard before people started dropping out, rogue and warrior. Then the Shammy /w'ed me and said I was cool in his book but he hated the hunter and was leaving. Whatever. We got a new group with a 24 lock, priest, and warrior. Except the priest sucked (tried to tank a couple times!) and the warrior hadn't ever tanked before. Didn't know what it meant. DIDN'T HAVE DEFENSIVE STANCE. Made it to the ramparts, then the warrior had to go do homework. By that point the other lock and I (obviously the only competetant ones) were /w'ing each other. We all took out our tanks. Hunter was yelling at the priest to heal his pet. Frickin' annoying 14yo (he said so himeself). But we managed to beat Arugal in an EXTREMELY close fight (two locks died pretty quick, right after the pet Kresh). At least the hunter taught us that nifty line of sight trick for fighting Arugal.
After that I went directly to G&D's place, where we started playing FFVII and got pizza from Rockin' Tomato: feta and tomato on one half, pepperoni on the other. Not much sauce, but very tasty. Then was guild night, which was Gnomer with Ravel, Opalanna, Keelgar, and Tilmundo. Did the early quests. Opalanna finished Artificials too; I need 3 more. We'll go in again in a while for Thermaplugg. Also, got My Little Pwnies set up finally! Paid a couple people 50s to sign and get kicked; they complimented the name :D
Mon 5/15: Work. At lunch, had a Boca burger with cream cheese, red onion and tomato. Also did some Wetlands quests with Alairius. Grouped at the end with a very gung-ho warrior before I had to run back to work. Workout was kinda tough. It was mostly arm stuff, not much abs, but it's my quads that hurt! I guess we did a lot of lunges. Game night was Chez Gregory; we played We <3 Katamari and Zendo. The former was very weird but strangely enthralling. Aaron's rule finished off the latter. It really wasn't that hard, but we made it a lot more difficult than it actually was via superstitions and religions; the rule was pips on reds and blacks must sum to 3. Drove Jonathan home after he stepped on his glasses :-/
Afterwards, I popped on WoW briefly to finish a certain Hillsbrad quest except for a Strong Troll's Blood Potion. Was ganked once, but it wasn't bad. Didn't attack a pally that was a couple levels above me who I probably coulda taken on.
Tue 5/16: This was the day I biked to work, which I wrote about here. As it turns out, the way home is about 10x easier than the way there! The day was otherwise uneventful, or so says my calendar.
Wed 5/17: Work. Didn't go to my workout, and I can't recall why. I think I forgot my clothes or something. Meh. Since I did, I decided to work out at my apartment instead, but then didn't do so. Rescheduled it for the next day.
Thu 5/18: Work, early. Made it to the Interlock Meeting almost on time (just about 5 minutes late, not bad for me for an 8:30am meeting!), which was interesting. Took some notes and passed on some info to George. After work I did, in fact, exercise like I had planned; wrote about that here. Guild night was Maraudon; we did the orange section and part of the back section, as well as a brief pop into purple so as to complete Celebrus' Rod and enable the shortcut for next time.
Fri 5/19: I think this was the morning I woke up after an apocolyptic dream about meteors and firestorms. Felt very real, and thus had me minorly freaked out through the rest of the day. Work was uneventful, as usual, aside from seeing the word "apocolyptic" in some form 2 or 3 times during the day, which only served to freak me out more. Left slightly early (meaning 5) to go home, do a little cleaning and throwing of stuff in a bag, then left for Houston. Got in while Jason was working out; the place felt weird with the fridge off and so much stuff missing. I had brought lappy, though, so at least we had internet access.
Sat 5/20: We slept in some, played some Zendo, then made ourselves ready for Rachel's birthday party/BBQ. Fun stuff! It was a good party with really tasty food (spinich inside the burgers, along with some other stuff, good potato salad and delicious brisket that I totally tore into like an animal). Drove myself, Jason and Rachel from there to Adri's place, where Pete then drove us to Ben's party--that's the guy who was "white consultant" in catricya's journal, if anybody reads both hers and mine and wouldn't have otherwise made the connection. That was also extremely fun. Some people played dirty Jenga. I finally made out with Adri, although it was extremely brief :P The guy other than Pete that she invited was really cool. He's this football player who I expected to be big and dumb and intimidating but who was actually extremely intelligent, interesting, and friendly. Sure showed me. Um... I don't remember much more about the night, except that Pete drove us back to Adri's and I drove us back to Jason's. Where there was no fridge or Brita pitcher and I had to drink tap water. Ick. Oh well. Sleep!
Sun 5/21: My birthday! It started out in a not-so-stunning way that I'm hoping is not indicative of this year in my life: I woke up very early and was sick. See, I'd had a very alcoholic drink or two just before leaving the party and thus was very sober on the drive home--but started to feel drunk about a half hour later. I was also warm, so I sat on the couch for a while before heading back to the bed. Anyway, the rest of the day was a relaxation day, which was really a necessity given the events of the previous day. Jason and I both headed home earlyish. I went to G&D's place for dinner and watched some Tivo before guild night, during which we did... something. I don't have written down what, and don't remember.
Mon 5/22: Went to work, cores meeting, workout, blah blah blah. Then I hosted game night! Carly and Adri came, as well as Ben, Todd, Christi, and David (J). Funny, no couples... unless I missed someone. Did I miss anyone? Probably. Anyway, we played Bang! which lasted a while, then we played... something else. I don't remember again. But we had skinless Brie with herbs on crackers, white chocolate m&ms, an atonal "happy birthday" (sorry folks, but it was pretty bad), and delicious chocolate cake with cream cheese icing! Yumm.
Tue 5/23: Took the rest of the cake to work, minus one piece. Never even checked on it, but I assume it was devoured within 15 minutes! I probably played WoW in the evening, but I don't recall.
Wed 5/24: Work, team meeting, workout. Magic night brought new cards, but I was frustrated at my inability to create a deck to compete with everyone else's maturing mechanisms. I just didn't have the cards I needed to make things mesh together, which was disappointing since I really thought a new set of cards would manage that. Oh well. Got me kinda down, as it is wont to do as I described above.
Thu 5/25: Had an all-day call-first appointment with the cable guy after some night not long before had brought ridiculous disconnects. He called at 1:30, I was away from my desk. So I called back, told the people I would be home, and to have him just come. Went home. Ate lunch, played some WoW, waited. Waited. No cable guy. So I logged into work from home, sent an email saying I'd be working from home, and waited more. At this point I was both doing work and playing WoW, which I could do because a) I had to submit things and wait for them for work, and b) I could be logged into work on Curran (compy) and WoW on Dryad (lappy). It worked out well. Other days I probably wouldn't have been able to, but this particular day lent itself to that. Anyway, cable guy never showed up, so I called and they were like, "oh, he called again at 2:10 but got no answer" (of course not, since it was my WORK PHONE and I told them to send him a message saying I'd be home!). And "it's too late to send him out again today, can we schedule you another appointment?" GRAR! Yeah, sure. They scheduled another one for 7-10 next Tuesday. Bastards. At least that way it wasn't an all-day, I could just go into work a little late, and I could give them both my home and my cell number so he was sure to get a hold of me. Or not... as I'll write about later.
Anyway. Guild night was the second half of Maraudon; there was an annoying point at which our two rezzers (Rilinar and Dextra with jumper cables) died without the rest of us dying, and they had a hell of a time trying to get back in. Also, I died at least one more time (at the Princess) and maybe a time aside from that also. I was low on the damage meters too, but at least I know why that was--I was doing stun skills as much as possible, rather than damage skills. Carl came over afterwards; we watched a couple of episodes from season 4 of Will & Grace, which he brought over.
Fri 5/26: Work. At 7, X-Men 3 at the Alamo Drafthouse Village! Enjoyable--not as good as the second movie, arguably better than the first (some people will call me a heretic for that, but I didn't like the first movie all that much). Typical action movie fare. And a tasty Spicy Bleu Burger, though I had to send back a Pulled Pork Sandwich that I didn't order first, and was thus very hungry by the time it came! Went back to G&D's place afterwards with them and Jonathan for some Smash and a little alkie. Stayed overnight--
Sat 5/27: ...and rode in Greg's Prius to Port Lavaca for David's family graduation party. Three of them were graduating this year! It was a huge party (~40 people at the peak). Got me pretty addled after a while (my tinnitus amplifies noise...), but still fun. Volleyball, games (42, Zendo, Five Crowns, Poker), kids running around, some tennis later in the night, etc..
The best part was going to the boardwalk/beach at night and just looking at the waves and feeling the wind, as I alluded to earlier in talking about nature. It just felt very, very good and I felt connected to it all. Good stuff :D
Sun 5/28: They went to mass in the morning. I, being a bit uncomfortable with Catholic church (and probably a little bit with church in general lately--I haven't been in a while), didn't go. Instead I played a little piano and then hooked up the GameCube and started unlocking stuff on Mario Kart Double Dash. When Stephen came home we played a few rounds; he beat me at Battle Mode, I beat him at Grand Prix Mode. Afterwards, went to El Patio for lunch when I had chicken enchiladas (which everyone asked me how they were--they always got other stuff!) which were pretty good. Came back and played a bit more MKDD then Ticket to Ride (I won) then Taboo (my team won, but it was close!). Headed back to Austin after that, stopping at Pizza Hut on the way back for dinner. Jonathan and I shared a green pepper and pepperoni pan pizza; David got breadsticks and Greg got hot wings. I snagged one breadstick and two wings :) Went back home for guild night since I didn't have my lappy there, and we did lots of Un'goro Crater. Fun stuff! I like that zone. Levelled to 53.
Mon 5/29: Memorial Day! Lazy day. Played WoW for most of the day. At least two WC runs with Ishok (but no luck on set items, though he got 3 of them plus the Seedcloud Buckler the time before that, which was awesome). Levelled Nalai a little and will do more soon (she's up to 35). Was going to do some Duskwood with G&D's alts, but David got frustrated. I thought I had burgers frozen but it turns out it was sausage instead, so I popped it back in the freezer and got myself some Wendy's. No grilling on Memorial Day! Sacrilege! Meh, it's okay ;) I was kinda tired and was gonna go to bed early, but I felt like watching a movie in bed. So I popped in The Butterfly Effect around 11:30 and decided to watch the Director's Cut version. That ended around 1:30, at which point I slept.
Tue 5/30: Got a one-ring phone call at 7, and was confused until I remembered my cable guy appointment. Then I realized--oh, my phone's out of battery (had been all weekend, since I left my charger at work) and my main phone forwards to the cell! So he'd get immediate voicemail at both numbers. Called HQ again, said, "I'm home, DON'T call, just come." So he did, but at 9:30 rather than at 7:30 when he probably would have originally. Meh. Putzed around straightening stuff up and such while he replaced all the fittings from outside the building right up to the coax connecting outlet and modem, except what was inside that outlet (since I'd have had to move my whole computer desk and I didn't relish that idea). It's been better since, but I could've said that every time they've "fixed" it before. If it keeps going wrong now, I'm switching to DSL. The way it has been is intolerable. Anyway, headed to work then. Uneventful day. Home, probably some WoW, to sleep kinda early.
Wed 5/31: We're finishing up one project at work and starting into a transition that I'm halfway in charge of (it's software/tools related, which is a major function of mine in my team). So when I say these days are uneventful, it's often because they're just busy. I was late for our team meeting... oops. I realized I was late while still at home for lunch, at which point I raced out without gym clothes. So no workout. Apologized to the boss. At about 6, I locked my screen to use the restroom. When I came back, my password wouldn't unlock it! So I went to my boss and told him what was wrong; we filed a helpdesk ticket and I went home.
Magic night again. I put together a slightly better deck and mostly just played it against David's friend Tom who was visiting. He was pretty quiet, but I liked him. I think we'd get along well, so I hope he comes to more Magic nights (he's here for the summer, if I understood correctly). Went home, played a little WoW (more Nalai-levelling), then went to sleep.
Thu 6/1: Went to work, found my screen still locked and unable to be unlocked with my password, and no messages on my phone about the issue. Talked to George again. He recommended I try it on another machine, which was my next plan anyway. Lo and behold, it worked! So it wasn't a password issue, it was an issue with my system. Used the box (which I think is there for consultants to use when they come in from Cadence or wherever) for the rest of the day. Eventually I got a response from Engineering Support Services that asked for my machine name, and later they killed the lock process on my machine and told me what the problem is (apparently, this is just something that happens with this version of RedHat. There's no patch, and the solution is to kill the lock from another machine). Meh. That was the excitement for the day. Boss came by around 6:15 to say he wouldn't be in the next day; he tried to send an email about it but it didn't go through. Funny, for a technology company our systems are sure screwed up sometimes. At least what we produce works. Usually. What MY team does works, anyway! ;)
Anyway, guild night. We had a somewhat abortive run to SM graveyard and library, but at least we got done the quests we wanted to do (grabbing Mythology of the Titans and Mervo's mage book). We'll go in again soon--after we've gained a level or two!
Fri 6/2: Today. Boss isn't here so I'm kinda lackadaisical on the work front. Might have a run with the HHG, we'll have to see. I'll probably invite Carl over later to watch more Will & Grace. Tomorrow I head to San Antonio for Les & Lorena's wedding! I'm kinda anxious about that, since I'm travelling alone to a city I don't know well. But once I get there there'll be familiar faces, at least. Heading down Sat around 1 or so, probably, staying in a Motel 6, then heading back probably earlyish on Sunday.
Another monster update down. I'ma save my kinda creative post idea for another day that suits it. Hej då!