A Saturday full of friends
So yesterday's plan was to get up early, pack up Learned Cow, drive up to Baltimore for a.f.u. no Breakfast, and then head over to brian_edminster's place for grilled Bambi and computer diagnostics. In the middle, I'd hoped to drop by and visit some friends in Columbia. Got about two-thirds of that done...
I was on the road by a little after 0700, which meant I was already behind the curve since a.f.u. no Breakfast was scheduled for 0800, and fell further behind by stopping at 7-11 for coffee and cash, Wawa for more coffee (but no cash, unfortunately) and driving through Laurel in futile search for the SunTrust branch, which was not where I remember it being. Well, I had $14 in my wallet and minimal plans for breakfast, so that would have to do. Even though it has been two years since my last a.f.u. no Breakfast, I remembered how to get to the Blue Moon, and found free parking right around the corner. I was badly late, pulling in at 0835, but it worked out for the best since onsenmark and deathquaker had arrived around 0800 but didn't get seated until 0830. We were joined shortly after I arrived by an internet friend of DQ's who was a hentai dealer at Otakon - I could tell I'd been away from anime fandom too long when I totally failed to translate the rebus on his T-shirt.* Good food and conversation ensued, and we finally left around 1000. Pix were taken, rides were arranged, we made tentative plans to get together for Katsucon. (Well, onsenmark and deathquaker and I, at any rate) and we said our good-byes.
I motored on down to Columbia, firing off an e-mail and a voice mail to one of my friends to see if they were up for visitors, and camped out in the parking lot of the Giant for a bit after picking up some water and Diet Coke. Unfortunately, one of my friends was recovering from surgery earlier in the week, so since it was still way too early to drive up to brian_edminster's, I hung out at the local branch of the Howard County Library, where I browsed through House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion
. This is a pretty neat book in several respects. First of all, it's a collaboration between David Weber (who wrote the original short story "I Will Build My House Of Steel", about Empress Elizabeth's father King Roger) and a group of fans known as BuNine; secondly, it's a nice primer on the history, politics, and significant characters of the Honorverse; third, it's a gearhead's dream with line drawings and specs for damn near every ship class of Grayson, Haven and Manticore that makes an appearance in the Honorverse. The one quibble I have with the book, and it's a minor one, is that there's a virtually complete absence of cross-references to indicate where the people and historical events take place in the stories, which is unfortunate. Aside from that, it's a good book and well worth having if you're a fan of the Honorverse.
That killed the afternoon quite nicely, and around 1600 I saddled up and rode forth to Linganore, stopping briefly at a McD's en route for meat and a cold Diet Coke. Got to brian_edminster's about 1640 and chatted until dinner, after which I helped clear up and we settled down to figure out what ailed Learned Cow. The consensus after a few minutes of cable swapping, examination of the entrails, and futile poking at the power button was that the power supply was dead, dead, dead. B will order a new one, invoice me, and we'll take it from there. More conversation ensued, and about 2330 I headed for home via the Frederick Walmart, where I planned to pick up some tax-free cold cuts and protein bars of the Supreme Protein variety. This I did, also collecting a pack of La Banderita low-carb tortillas (5g net carbs as opposed to the 9g in Flatout wraps) which I was surprised to find there. After that, a long drive home, with -for once- no stops at the Waffle House or Sheetz.
All those calories (and unfortunately some extra carbs from all the half & half in all the coffee I drank, and a grilled onion besides) added up to an additional 1.5 pounds this morning and a BG of 113, which is still normal but way above what it's been this last week. I'm confident that I'll have that number down and the weight with it fairly soon.
*His shirt had a pic of a female chicken wearing a necktie.
I was on the road by a little after 0700, which meant I was already behind the curve since a.f.u. no Breakfast was scheduled for 0800, and fell further behind by stopping at 7-11 for coffee and cash, Wawa for more coffee (but no cash, unfortunately) and driving through Laurel in futile search for the SunTrust branch, which was not where I remember it being. Well, I had $14 in my wallet and minimal plans for breakfast, so that would have to do. Even though it has been two years since my last a.f.u. no Breakfast, I remembered how to get to the Blue Moon, and found free parking right around the corner. I was badly late, pulling in at 0835, but it worked out for the best since onsenmark and deathquaker had arrived around 0800 but didn't get seated until 0830. We were joined shortly after I arrived by an internet friend of DQ's who was a hentai dealer at Otakon - I could tell I'd been away from anime fandom too long when I totally failed to translate the rebus on his T-shirt.* Good food and conversation ensued, and we finally left around 1000. Pix were taken, rides were arranged, we made tentative plans to get together for Katsucon. (Well, onsenmark and deathquaker and I, at any rate) and we said our good-byes.
I motored on down to Columbia, firing off an e-mail and a voice mail to one of my friends to see if they were up for visitors, and camped out in the parking lot of the Giant for a bit after picking up some water and Diet Coke. Unfortunately, one of my friends was recovering from surgery earlier in the week, so since it was still way too early to drive up to brian_edminster's, I hung out at the local branch of the Howard County Library, where I browsed through House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion
. This is a pretty neat book in several respects. First of all, it's a collaboration between David Weber (who wrote the original short story "I Will Build My House Of Steel", about Empress Elizabeth's father King Roger) and a group of fans known as BuNine; secondly, it's a nice primer on the history, politics, and significant characters of the Honorverse; third, it's a gearhead's dream with line drawings and specs for damn near every ship class of Grayson, Haven and Manticore that makes an appearance in the Honorverse. The one quibble I have with the book, and it's a minor one, is that there's a virtually complete absence of cross-references to indicate where the people and historical events take place in the stories, which is unfortunate. Aside from that, it's a good book and well worth having if you're a fan of the Honorverse.
That killed the afternoon quite nicely, and around 1600 I saddled up and rode forth to Linganore, stopping briefly at a McD's en route for meat and a cold Diet Coke. Got to brian_edminster's about 1640 and chatted until dinner, after which I helped clear up and we settled down to figure out what ailed Learned Cow. The consensus after a few minutes of cable swapping, examination of the entrails, and futile poking at the power button was that the power supply was dead, dead, dead. B will order a new one, invoice me, and we'll take it from there. More conversation ensued, and about 2330 I headed for home via the Frederick Walmart, where I planned to pick up some tax-free cold cuts and protein bars of the Supreme Protein variety. This I did, also collecting a pack of La Banderita low-carb tortillas (5g net carbs as opposed to the 9g in Flatout wraps) which I was surprised to find there. After that, a long drive home, with -for once- no stops at the Waffle House or Sheetz.
All those calories (and unfortunately some extra carbs from all the half & half in all the coffee I drank, and a grilled onion besides) added up to an additional 1.5 pounds this morning and a BG of 113, which is still normal but way above what it's been this last week. I'm confident that I'll have that number down and the weight with it fairly soon.
*His shirt had a pic of a female chicken wearing a necktie.