Caught In The Whirlwind
Posts tagged hanging out
Long Weekend Wrapup
Feb 17th 2009
Here in the US, Monday was president's day which means that some people have a 3 day weekend. And this year for some strange reason, I was one of those people. We usually don't get president's day off (at least I can't ever remember us getting it off) so I was a bit surprised when they came up with the holiday list this year.
So my 3 day weekend started by going out to the movies with my friends. We went off to see Coraline in 3D and it was very good. Excellent visual style, engaging story and very nice use of the 3D factor. There were no old people talking like the last couple movies which was a very, very good change of pace. And it was a nice non-thinking type movie after having the brain work overtime while watching Revolutionary Road and The Reader. Highly recommended.
I also received an omelet lesson on how to make them all fluffy and good. So that should help my breakfast for dinner aspirations.
Sunday was a half relaxing half working day where I did my chores and a little bit of C++ programming and then I did some relaxing City of Heroes playing. I also spent a good portion of the day watching episodes of Firefly on DVD. Wassy mentioned Sci-fi had Serenity on the other day which made me want to watch Firefly and Serenity again. Which I did.
Monday was intended to be a programming day but instead of working on C++ stuff like I had intended, I ended up spending a good portion of the day (while watching firefly) moving Wassy's website from one host to another. It took about 2 hours longer than I expected it to take, but it ended up all going smoothly in the end. After that I was pretty much programmed out, so I just relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Hoping I can get through another chapter in my C++ book this week and maybe get started on a small little project with practical applications.
This Weekend…Too Short…
Jan 12th 2009
This was the first regular weekend I've had in a couple weeks due to
Christmas and New Years extending things outward, so needless to
say…it felt REALLY short. Also compounding the shortness was a nice
trip out to Syracuse with my friends for some shopping and dinner.
Wassy needed to go out to Syracuse to pick up some art supplies (the
supply stores in this area are really bad) so we planned a day trip out
to syracuse for our usual weekend hanging out. The art shopping took a
lot less time than anticipated because they didn't have a certain type
of marker that she wanted to browse for. So we ended up getting to
Carousel Center for the window shopping with approximately 4-5 hours to
kill before we had to eat dinner.
Some actual shopping was done (they needed to get some clothes stuff
and pillows at JC Pennys and I was shopping for a measuring spoon for
tea measurement at work) but most of the time was spent wandering
around and browsing items. A couple things of note happened. While we
were sitting in pottery barn in some of the display chairs, a woman
walked up to us, set her bags down on the couch and said that we should
watch them since she couldn't cary them another step. We thought that
was weird…I'm not sure we look very trustworthy either…I'm pretty
certain I'd never just drop my bags off with random strangers sitting
in a store…
We also spent a lot of time in Brookstone playing with the gadgets they
have on display. Especially the massage chairs. Ooooh…I want one of
those. Sooo nice. The feet massage specifically was well appreciated
after wandering around most of the day. I was a little worried they
were going to kick us out of the store since we were spending so much
time in the chairs, but we ended up wandering out eventually.
I also discovered a coffee based beverage I like. At the urging of my
friends I tried out a Mocha Frappuccino from starbucks and I found out
I really liked it. I don't like coffee mostly because I'm fairly
sensitive to bitter tastes and coffee is a little too much for me. But
this was a good ratio of coffee to chocolate taste and was quite good
indeed.
After a quick stop at Barnes and Noble we ended up at Olive Garden a little early (5pm)
which was a good thing as even by that time, it was a 35 minute wait.
We hung out for a while and eventually were seated for a fine meal. We
had a good waitress, good conversation and good food. So it all worked
out quite nicely.
By the time we got done eating, it had started to snow, so our drive time got extended because the roads were becoming very slick. We eventually made it back in one piece though.
Sunday was the standard hanging out and relaxing day. I did a little
bit of cleaning around the apartment but nothing major. I ended up
playing City of Heroes for a little over an hour for the first time in
a while which was fun. I was really missing the game as it turns out.
And later I watched the Golden Globes because I was interested to see
if Heath Ledger won. Which he did, but I totally missed it as I had
stepped out for a few minutes to head over to my parents and didn't
hear that award was coming up. Dah!!
I caught it later on through the magic of the internet and it was
really moving. He totally deserves any award he can possibly win for
that role and I really hope that the fact that he died doesn't cause
him to not be nominated for an Oscar. His performance as the Joker is
probably the best bit of acting I've ever seen.
So, another weekend down, 5 more days until it rolls around again…
Snowy Weekend
Dec 22nd 2008
This weekend was, on a whole…very good. And very snowy. We had two winter storms roll through the area this weekend. The first started on friday and made my drive home from work a little bit interesting. But it was made up for it later by the unveiling of my newest piece of artwork done by my friend (Wassy). I should get the print either end of this week or, more likely, beginning of next week and I really can't wait to see how that turned out. One of the coolest parts of it is that it's a digitally colored piece that doesn't have that overly digital look to it, and that usually translates really well when it gets printed. Really looking forward to seeing it, and I'm very thankful that she did it for me.
Saturday was going to be the day I went out to my friends for our regular weekend get-together deal but it ended up not happening so I spent the day basically screwing around. I'm nearing the end of my first playthrough of Chrono Trigger and I'm really enjoying it so far. I do think I will purchase it from gamefly so that I can keep my saved games for future playthroughs. There was also much gazing at the new art hotness through the day.
Sunday was snowstorm number 2. The plan was for me to head out for some hanging out with my friends in the afternoon once the worst of the storm had dumped it's stuff but due to some windshield wiper car related troubles they were having, I went out around 10 to help them fix the issue and provide some transportation for the purchasing of a new windshield wiper. That was kinda in the middle of the storm, but my Rogue handled the snow well (really, really like all wheel drive and traction control. Oh, and anti-lock breaks. How did I survive without you??) and I managed to get there with a delay of about 10-15 minutes.
After doing the shopping, the rest of the day was spent just hanging out. We watched some stuff on TV, I played a game of chess with Jay, had some spaghetti with a meat sauce… We also marveled at the total lack of quality of the people trying to clear snow from the parking lot. The worst bit was when they plowed half a sidewalk and left the gigantic pile of snow in the middle of it, blocking the rest of it. It was just a very good, very classic hanging out with your friends sort of day which is always welcome.
So all in all, on the weekend quality meter, I'd score this one as "very good"
The Castle Didn't Move Very Far
Sep 7th 2008
You ever have one of those moments where you're thinking what you should do and are actually doing the exact opposite? Well… Friday I had gotten a couple of movies from Netflix in the mail and one of them Howls Moving Castle I had intended to bring over to my friends place yesterday so that we could watch it together. So I thought "Cool, I'll just leave these in the car so I don't forget them"
Saturday rolls around and I arrive at my friends to discover that the movies were not in the car, and, in fact when I was thinking that I should leave them in my car, I was carrying them into my apartment. Figures. I ended up heading out to Best Buy and picking up a copy of the movie there, which was ok with me because it ended up being really, really good. We also continued watching Ah! My Goddess which I'm finding very interesting as well.
After that, I ended up hanging around and watching Saving Private Ryan on TV while doing various work stuff. I managed to finish a section of wassyart.com that I had been working on for a couple weeks now that lets her edit all of the commission page information herself, so I consider that pretty good progress.
Also, Wassy brewed me a cup of black tea that I particularly liked. I've never been a real big fan of black tea as it's a bit too strong for my tastes. However, she made the absolute best cup of Irish Breakfast tea. And now I need to get some of that for myself. I turned her onto loose leaf tea last week and she got her own teapot and stuff. We've both been turned into tea snobs!
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