Memorial Day Weekend Update

Friday Nate and I went to El Cid for Mexican food. I hadn't been there since November and forgot how good it is. Nate had never been there. It's an easy blue line ride, so hopefully we'll go more often and take advantage of the outdoor dining. Then we met up with some of his friends to see Hot Fuzz at the cheapo theater. The theater was pretty nasty, as were the people who were there (both workers and movie-goers). Hot Fuzz was undoubtedly well done and very intelligent, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Despite the gore being "humorous" it still had gore. I hate bloody movies. Especially unnecessarily yucky ones.

Saturday was supposed to be the awesome Patio Party day. We were going to go to the Patio at Cellular Field, then watch the game from the first row above the visitors' bullpen. Half that happened - we definitely did the patio, complete with all you can eat hot dogs, fried chicken, burgers, potato salad, and two beers per person per round. Too bad the weather wasn't cooperating and the game got called before a single pitch could be thrown. It was a pretty big disappointment, as I had been looking forward to this day for months. Also somewhat of a waste of money. We can go to the make-up game, but it isn't the same without the patio beforehand.

Then Nate and I headed home slightly tipsy at 7:30 pm, which sucked because nobody was going out. We both passed out early and the night was over. Sunday turned out to be much more exciting. We went to Windy City Cafe for waffles, then I went home to watch the Sox get slaughtered by the Twins.

Sunday evening we went to the Fasts' apartment for a BBQ. I was allowed to bring Audrey so she could enjoy unfettered playing in their awesome fenced-in back yard. She was there for five hours, and was active the entire time. Did lots of running in huge circles for no reason, lots of sniffing stuff, digging, lapping up the attention, pooping...she loved every minute of it. I loved it too because she's been knocked out ever since. I hope she can go over there again in the future for more activity time.

The humans played badminton (I sucked), BBQed, and sat around enjoying the summer weather. It was a great way to ring in the 'official' start of summer.

Monday Nate and I flipped between the Cubs and Sox games, got a late lunch at Cleo's, played scrabble...we were pretty bored on Monday. I was depressed because it was the end of a relaxing weekend.

Tonight I went grocery shopping and made us falafel sandwiches with strawberry shortcake for dessert (Nate has NEVER had strawberry shortcake. Unamerican? Yes). I also did laundry. Hooray for domesticity.

Tomorrow is round two of my attempt to get a driver's license in Illinois. I have the "super duper official" social security card now, along with my three other pieces of identification so I'm good to go I think. Nate's headed to Portland with his band, Sleep Out, to record with some super awesome dude for the rest of the week. I'll be kept busy by cleaning and organizing in preparation for my aunt and uncle from Menlo Park, CA to visit this Friday.

I promised photos in this post but flickr is down, and I got lazy.

Weekend in Review

Friday night was Mrs Meow's Talenza Bonanza in which I was lucky and got to be a judge. My personal crowning achievement as a judge was when fellow judge Stacey wanted me to snort Smarties, so I put the silly straw in my mouth and started sucking them while she took a photo. It took us about five minutes to realize that a nostril is involved in snorting, and the photo was re-done. Whoops! Yes, it was that kind of night - drunk from the start, dancing at the end, yelling the entire time, catching up, never finding a cab home, and passing out. It was a great night - nearly all my friends were there, mostly everything went smoothly, I had a ton of fun, and Amelia did such a great job coordinating the entire event. Before I moved here I had heard all about the first Talenza Bonanza, so I've been looking forward to this forever. It certainly did not disappoint.

Saturday I was feeling not right (I blame the Sparks Plus - curses again! Why do I consume you! It's not funny anymore!) but slogged through the day by sleeping on the couch and trying to move as little as possible so as not to hurl. Around five Nate and I got the courage to face our nauseousness and walk three blocks to Cleo's for grilled cheese, french fries, soup, and burgers. The food helped immensely, but we were still feeling brain dead. When we got back to my place we found out that Mean Girls and Charlie's Angels was on tv. Watching two brain-dead movies was the perfect way to end a brain-dead day.

This morning I made waffles and got crushed in Scrabble. Nate had TWO bingos, TWO (seasoned and hustler). It was brutal. Nate left, and I washed my dog and myself. I don't want to waste all of today, but the work I have to do today sucks. I have to mail my taxes, do some work for my job (working on the weekend is the worst), and other junk I can't remember but I am sure I'd rather not do. In fact, I'm sort of feeling another nap coming on. It's only 2:30 and I'm all alone tonight so a little nap can't hurt right...?

Table Games

ignore the flash spot - don't have photoshop at home and it was bad lighting in the apartment

Nate kicked my ass in scrabble on Sunday night - 369 to 214. I was so excited to start the game off with "Labia," but he then flipped the script and plopped down all 7 letters with "agitate"! Blam, 69 points just on round one. I gave up and went for goof words like "gnu" from then on. This is what I get for not studying, then playing someone who has memorized all 92 two letter word combinations.

In puzzle news, we are almost done with the puzzle (you can see it under the scrabble board). The pieces are together, we just have to figure out their order so the maze drawn into it works. The puzzle has been on time-out since I got scrabble a few weeks ago.

This post brought to you by the age 65.