( Running. No zombies are chasing me, alas )

( Doctor/Money Stuff )

Other than that, things are pretty meh. We're going down to Duck for Thanksgiving and it'll be lovely. I still can't find any pants that fit. I continue to have a fabulous fiancee who I love dearly. I continue to be amazed that I can say the word "fiancee." DC continues to be on the verge of passing gay marriage. I've been knitting a little bit (monkey, yes, but a baby blanket and a chemo cap as well). I want a hardcore massage to work all the kinks out of my neck and shoulder. The TV show Glee is the best thing ever and so is its soundtrack. stentoriansista and I are taking salsa lessons, which is really fun except for the whole 'wait, a girl is leading?' aspect and the fact that Joy of Motion has the worst customer service ever in DuPont. I miss Thursdays at Playbill with prettyprincessb and mareska. Everyone I know is pregnant, which is weird to me. I want to see both Precious and The Blind Side, so I can weep like a small child. Now that the monkey's done, I can read again and I've been devouring library books. Auditioned for The Vagina Monologues. That sort of thing.

Delightful time out at karaoke last night, quickly followed by this morning, where I had to go to the dentist. Again. Went to get a permanent crown from last month and told them about how bad it's been hurting (4 advil a day bad). So, he put the permanent on and whittled it down until it cleared well, then decided that it was so whittled it needed to be polished by the lab, so the temporary went on again and got about an inch shaved off of it. My tooth still really hurts (despite the Advil I took two hours ago!!), but I'm hoping it'll go away in a day or two.

And, of course, on the way to work, I ran into the blood drive guy on the elevator. Apparently my top shows a bit of my tattoo if it's pulled down, so he asked me about it and I had to explain it and mentioned that was why I couldn't give blood. Sigh.

Also, everyone needs to watch this video because it's freaking adorable. (Yes, it's the wedding entrance one)

I'm making refrigerator pickled beets (and maybe carrots) tonight before watching the end of the Torchwood miniseries, which I DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT. I've got about 50 different things I want to make before next Sunday, not a lot of time to do it and, weirdly, not enough basil. Despite having about 5 plants around the house and the CSA of all basil all the time.

Despite obsessively reading livejournal, I seem not to be blogging too much these days. So, here's a roundup of last week.

Monday - I'm breaking up with Heroes. Bleh.
Tuesday - Adam Lambert is so my gay boyfriend.
Wednesday - My sinuses hurt so bad that I actually want to cry.
Thursday - stentoriansista hurts her back, I am still sniffly and miserable. We stay home from karaoke like two little old ladies. I read the new Tamora Pierce novel and am mostly underwhelmed. (I love the characters, but the plot is a little weak, I feel)
Friday - after a quick Target trip, we spend most of the night cleaning the kitchen and living room. Victory is ours.
Saturday - My Becoming event at the Arboretum! It is very, very hot. We are mostly underwhelmed, which was a little disappointing, but it was still a nice time. After we go home for a quick shower and a nap, it's off to Old Navy for some much needed shopping (nothing like it being 90* out to remind you you need summer clothes). In the car on the way, I say I'd be happy to get 2-3 pairs of work pants and 1 pair of shorts. I leave with two pairs of work pants and a pair of formal-ish shorts. And sometimes I scare me. Dinner with stentoriansista's awesome friends that I finally get to meet.
Sunday - BOOZE! Linganore wineries with mareska, prettyprincessb and a_muse_amused. Almost eaten by Maryland vultures after googlemaps put us on, I kid you not, an unpaved gravel road next to a crick. Delicious, delicious wines with delicious delicious cheeses. We split 2 cases between the 4 of us (I got strawberry, peach, mead, their May wine, Melody and Bacioni) and head to the Majestic for Nana's ham dinner. Delicious, delicious ham.

This week is going to be similarly busy. I may, for the first time in 5 years, have to miss MD S&W. My sinuses are still nasty but they seem to be allowing me to exist without pain, which is nice. I've worn skirts two days running in this heat. I've got a chicken in the crockpot for tonight's dinner from the farmer's market (w00t!). Yeah.

Also, I now need an event at which to serve all my delicious new summery wines. This requires thinking.

Oh, and for a_muse_amused - Crockpot Lady and Pioneer Woman Cooks. Nom nom. (ETA: And Cheddar Jalapeno Bread)

Last night was Thursday, otherwise known as karaoke night at Playbill. As has been our on again, off again tradition for the past six weeks, prettyprincessb, mareska, stentoriansista and I went out, had some cheap bacardi, ate some cake for bartender birthdays and sang some songs. My 'Add It Up' was shortly truncated at 4 minutes, so I did not, in fact, get to add it up. Woe. I might have rememebered what 8 was for this time... Also, I need some karaoke songs that both suit my range (mezzo soprano, actual soprano if I get warmed up) and level of awesome. Any ideas?

It got to last call and our fabulous server was singing 'Happy birthday... get the fuck out!' so we decided it was time to hit the road. I'd had just enough booze that going home at a relatively decent hour (2am) was outweighed by the promise of fried food, so we all headed over to the falafel and fry place in Adams Morgan with a few other folks. So, we've got our falafel and our fries, I have discovered the joys of garlic mayo, one of the girls has dropped one of the containers of delicious garlic mayo through the hole in the table intended for fries (and as I found out later, hit my foot), life is happy and we're being loud, generally happy, slightly tipsy people.

Until the people at the table next to us start getting into an argument with the employees. Apparently, one of the guys had spooned some sauces and toppings onto his half eaten falafel. That was unacceptable and a health hazard because he'd contaminated the food with his germs. We were kind of giggling at it, and then they started shouting at each other... One of the guys arguing told an employee to get the cops, the employee responded that he would, we decided that perhaps it was bed time after all. So, as we troop out of the falafel place (and I discover mayo on my shoe, woe), the employee heads out to the street. As we get into our car to leave, five moto-cops and three squad cars pull up, lights blazing. "Did he just call the cops for... double dipping?" We saw them escorting the gentlemen out of the premises as we drove off. Five motorcycle cops and three squad cards. (I wish the people starting flame wars on the 3-D substation Yahoo group about the lack of police presence in Adams Morgan could have seen that, too.)

Don't double dip, kids. They'll call the cops on your ass.

Friday was an insanely busy work day with a lot of cake, followed by Old Crow Medicine Show with stentoriansista, prettyprincessb and mareska. Having had very little contact with the band, I must say I had a good time! We went to The Red Derby (otherwise known as the awesomest bar ever) and had really tasty sweet potato fries while kind of watching some weird ass movie. I'm toying with going there to watch at least one of the presidential debates (I'm much less likely to cause property damage while watching them if it's someone else's property).

Saturday, we went out to take advantage of the Old Navy friends sale - y'all, clothes shopping is so painful right now, I can't even describe. I did get a work shirt, sports bra and sleepy shorts for cheap, but ooh, it hurt. Then off to work to work a gala. Had some slight wardrobe malfunctions with my swanky dress and I hadn't brought a wrap, which... OMG NEVER AGAIN. It was so cold inside I spent the entire time shivering. I must say, this swanky party wasn't nearly as much fun as previous swanky parties at my last job, but on the other hand, this wasn't the kind of event where I could hang out and booze it up with the rest of the staff afterwards. Came home, watched Volver, which has been with us from Netflix since probably February and went to bed way too late.

Slept in Sunday, rode Ernest the bike over to City Bikes to get them to fix the joints they loosened when they tuned up the bike (took 5 minutes, was pleasantly surprised), then biked with Girlio over to Meridian Hill Park where we lay out on a blanket and read in the sunlight for a few hours (and got eaten alive by the bugs, BTW). It was seriously wonderful just to lay there in the sun, hear the drum circle and enjoy my book. Biked down to Gallery Place, got a salad from Chopp't (OMG, the new Harvest Cobb is AWESOME - spinach, chicken, apples, beets, walnuts and goat cheese! I could not love that more) and saw one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. Debated sneaking into The Women, but it was late, so we headed home. Spent half an hour trying to remember how to fold up my bike but finally got that put away. I love my bike, Ernest. He's good people. The seat is a little wobbly and my patootie is sore today, but I think I'm going to start taking him to work soon. Before it gets too cold, anyway.

So, a good weekend, except that I didn't get any cooking done. stentoriansista made applesauce on Saturday (OMG, SO GOOD) and my immersion blender died trying to blend it (I've been leaving it in the sink and I think some water must have shorted out the motor). It was $5 at Goodwill and lasted me a good 4 months, so I can let it go fairly easily. But I definitely need another. And not covet, the way I've been coveting a breadmaker and a 4 cup cuisinart. If I don't get another one, there may be blood. I may actually stop by Target on the way home from work to see if they have a cheap one. But I think I'll make regular bread and apple bread tonight and prep a stew to crock while I'm at work tomorrow. I really want to make a black bean, sweet potato and chicken soup. I also really want to carmelize some onions in the crock pot. And make more apple sauce. The 6 quart crockpot full of apple sauce still left us with 1/2 a bag of apples from the apple picking over Labor Day. I figure one more batch will get rid of 'em and I'll grab some 1 cup tupperwares and freeze them to sub in for oil in recipes.

So, really, I want to make 5 dishes tonight. And clean. And go to the gym. And watch Heroes. Also, we desperately need to do laundry. Can I get another day off?

I could not be more thrilled... I've spent a lovely weekend with stentoriansista. We went to Larriland Farms on Saturday and bought probably $75 worth of fruit - raspberries, white raspberries, blackberries, probably 20 pounds of apples and peaches. We've got a raspberry crisp about to be made, blackberry wine sorbet churning and we're going to make apple bread and attempt either apple sauce or canning apple butter.

We were there for about an hour and a half at around 3 in the afternoon and when we got home, we were so wiped that we really couldn't move. The heat took it out of us, so we had a casual dinner, ate half the raspberries, watched TV and set up curried squash & apple soup in the crockpot.

Yesterday, I emerged from bed around noonish, cooked the chicken for the soup, pureed the soup and enjoyed a tasty lunch before doing a brief venture to the gym, Target and the wine store for prosecco (for the berries!). Then it was off to wiredwitch's birthday party, a Buffy the Musical sing along. While there wasn't a whole lot of singing along, there was a whole lot of verita, cheesecake, good food, good people, good times. Had to bug out a little early, unfortunately. I'd heard a lot about verita and after having had it, I must say... it was all true. Also, awesome.

Today we got up early so we could hit up G Street before stentoriansista had to work. Got a pair of work flats at Payless and stopped by Target for their wine cubes - got a sauvignon blanc for cooking/I feel like a glass of wine and a cab/sauv combo for the sorbet/I feel like a glass of red wine. Got home, took a nap, and then hit the pool for the first time in two years. And, y'all, I am wiped. I got a plan from SwimPlan, got there and then couldn't do a 25 meter lap of freestyle. So I threw it out the window, played with the kickboard and the pulley, and then felt better about it and did the remainder of the swimplan as written. So, my 30-45 minute workout took me a little over an hour. Got home, ate some food, got a couple of loaves of bread started and made the sorbet. And now I am sitting here. Very, very happy. We're going to have an awesome dinner of farm share food, fresh bread with the prosecco and berries and raspberry/basil crisp for dessert.

Blackberry Sorbet w/ Wine
(makes 4 cups)
2 1/2 cups pureed blackberries (about 4 cups pre-pureed - if you've got extra, freeze it to make blackberry ice cream)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup red wine
lemon juice to taste

In small sauce pan, combine sugar and water. Heat until sugar is completely dissolved and then put in refrigerator to cool. (Most sorbet recipes want more sugar - closer to 2/3 - 1 cup, but I always find that to be too much sugar. Your tastes may vary) When mixture is cooled, combine it with wine and blackberries. Mix well. Add lemon juice to taste. Mix well. Taste and do a 'omg that's delicious' dance. Make in ice cream maker according to instructions. Rejoice again.

So, my older brother shows up in like 36 hours. I think. He hasn't actually called me to confirm that he's coming and I don't actually know if he's booked tickets or has my street address. So, that's weird. And in theory, Sears is showing up tonight to give an estimate about replacing our HVAC system and fixing the moldy pad. Hopefully, the two will be nearly equivalent in price so our landlord will opt to replace the whole thing and we can get an HVAC system that won't cost us $200 to cool our 600 square foot apartment for a month.

Crap, I put clothes in the washer on Saturday and never moved them.

We also had the MOTHER OF ALL CLEANY FESTS on Saturday. Moved a bunch of shit around, reorganized, cleaned up crazy amounts of dust and debris that had been living on the floor and organized a freecycle and a goodwill pile. Then, of course, as one does when one gets rid of stuff, we immediately went to Ikea for more stuff. (Not a lot more stuff - a couple of organizing boxes, more grundtal hangy things for the craft room, discounted cute fabric and some light bulbs) On the way to Ikea, we decided the best way to celebrate our cleaniness was to have people over to enjoy it, so we texted an invitation out to a few friends and have prettyprincessb and a few others out for wine and board games. It. Was. Awesome. I mean, they drank all our wine (we thought 4 bottles for 6 people would be plenty. They brought two, which we drank and then finished off the remains of our wine cube and one of our nicer bottles), we played Cranium and Wise & Otherwise, our downstairs neighbors probably hate us (more) and we finally kicked everyone out around 2am and collapsed. So, now I have to buy a lot more wine. And y'all know how I hate wine shopping. Next time we do this (because there will totally be a next time) and if the Columbia Heights target ever gets alcohol, I might just get three wine cubes and call it a night. Because the swanky wine in a box is actually quite good. No, I swear!

Yesterday, I emerged from the bedroom around 11:30, hung out reading Ken Follet until 1:30 and then biked my new bike over to City Bikes. It's getting a tune-up and the guy working said that it needed new brakes and brake cables. It's going to take them two and a half weeks to get to fixing it and will cost me probably $120. Which made me a little queasy and regret buying the bike until I remembered that even if I bought a bike new, it'd still need an adjustment and I'm paying less money because I got it used. It's also apparently the proto-type of the Dahon folding bikes, so I've got some serious folding bike street cred, yo. Stopped by CVS and picked up some groceries and hair dye, got subway, dyed my hair, threw on some cute clothes and then we went out with anneball, prettyprincessb and sabekkas and lj-less Mindy to get a burrito and see Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2. They kind of condensed the entire last three books into the movie in a bad way and ended with one of the worst lines ever, but it was still enjoyable and there were several very nice looking shirtless men.

Now, I'm at work. Huzzah. And I have the chance to introduce sabekkas to the joy that is Twilight. Yeah.

Oh, and I totally need me some Apples to Apples.

I forgot to mention... with my tummy being punky on Friday, I ate several Pepto Bismol tablets. I woke up Saturday morning to... a black tongue. It's one of the side effects of Pepto Bismol chewables, but it definitely freaked me out first thing in the moring, like... did I have a lot of grape popsicles?! And all I could think about was that story of the poison on the edge of the Bible where the guy licks his finger to turn the page and then his tongue turns black and he dies and people stick out their tongues as a greeting to make sure that the person they're meeting is honorable. (Which I had been told was a folk legend in elementary school but is apparently in the plot of In the Name of the Rose?!) anneball thought I was a Chow Chow and stentoriansista thought I was a giraffe, so clearly I'm just weird that way.

Saturday night I fell asleep on the couch while watching Degrassi. I don't know which is worse. Crawled into bed to have one of the worst night's sleep I've had in a long time. I probably woke up 6 times between 12:30 and 6:30, at which point the cat realized I was awake and started meowing at me to come feed her (the cat is very sweet and very talkative when she wants something. Like food), so I stumbled out of bed and did and went back to sleep where I slept fitfully... until 8am. When someone nearby started hammering. And then they stopped. And then they started again. And then they stopped. And then they started what I originally thought was a chop saw but then later decided was an electric leaf blower. And then they stopped. And then they started again. And then they stopped. And then they started again. At which point I was seriously considering yelling out the window and telling them to shut the fuck up but I decided that wasn't polite, so I went back to the couch on the other side of the house to sleep (where I could still hear the leaf blower, but it was quieter) and continued to have really fitful sleep until noon. It was the kind of thing where you go to sleep and you have a bunch of dreams that feel really long and you wake up and it's 10 minutes later? Yeah, it sucked. Dragged myself out of bed, got some food in me and headed to the Uptown to see The Dark Knight with anneball and a friend. I got there wicked early and got in line at 2:30 for a 3:30 show... and was not the first person in line. (anneball, I will repay you for the ticket, I just didn't have any cash on me) We got kickin' seats and the movie was very, very good. I agree with the reviews... it's really not Batman's story, it's Harvey Dent's story and it's the Joker's story... both characters were much more interesting and dynamic than Batman's, who just stands around being conflicted.

The movie ended and it was 6:20 and there was a line down the street to Four Fields to get into the 7:05 show. Went to anneball's apartment to steal books and then I left 20 mintues later, the line was to the corner, around it and then up the street. For a 7pm show on a Sunday. Crazy.

Back at the cat-sitting house, the TV wouldn't turn on (...), so I sat and read on of the books I got while I listened to the people next door have a screaming fight for 45 minutes. At first I thought it was their television or people on the street, but I definitely put my ear to the wall like Nosey McNosersons and yep, this woman was full on screaming (at who? I have no idea). Took a bath, went to bed, left the house this morning and the owners should return tonight. All good in the hood.

Schwinn won't pay for labor to fix the crank and I'm sure as hell not going to, so it looks like the bike is going back to Amazon. I was actually really peeved when I went to City Bikes and found that they had two folding bikes after all. I guess when I get my prepaid return label and ship it back to Amazon, I'll have to go give the two folding bikes they have there a try. (That will make me feel better because I'll support my local bike store and get me some free service at the same time!) And if I don't like those, I might actually call Spokes Etc... instead of just checking their website. Hrm... now I have to figure out what to do with my b-day present from pucksraven and co (thanks again y'all!), since that got applied to the bike (which was also a present to stentoriansista since we could have gone on bike rides together... if said bike had actually worked properly. Bitches)

Also... the book I read last night? I am so embarrassed to admit it, but... Twilight. OMFG. OMFG. I just... wow. Y'all? ( Minor Spoilers. )

So, Girlio & I went to Harper's Ferry for what was supposed to be a two day, one night thing.

Pros: KOA Kampgrounds are much, much less crowded during the week in early June, set up our tent in maybe 10 minutes we white water rafted with an awesome guide, saw a bald eagle, like 20 great blue herons, roasted weenies & marshmellows and stayed dry in our tent. New sleeping bag & air mattress are awesome sauce. I also drove most of the way home, including on 495 & in the city, without incident. I even got us parked fairly well.

Cons: It was OMG SO HOT, we had to pull the raft off the water while a lightning storm ran through, which promptly chilled us to the bone (actually, it was kind of cool to watch once I was certain we wouldn't die), some teenagers 20 CAMPSITES AWAY were ridiculously loud until 10pm and then started up again at 7am, the rain meant that the ground was damp & I couldn't get a fire started without copious amounts of lighter fluid, some ground water in the tent (kmusser, is that par for course with this thing? First time we've used it when there's rain - I wasn't sure if there was just seepage from a crappy tarp that was slightly too small for the tent or what), stentorinsista broke her eye, resulting in us ditching the tubing and me driving most of the way back.

She's asleep and has been since we got home about 3 hours ago. I feel like I should go wake her up, but whenever her eyes bother her, she's always exhausted anyway.

One of these days, I'll remember how to make a fire. I was on the waterboiling team for skills camporee for pete's sake!

I am oh so tired. Which is really unfair as I slept at least 10 hours and didn't do very much today.

So, yes. Thursday, Girlio & I flew out to California. It was a 7:40am flight and at 1am, we got into bed. I set my alarm for 5am. At 6am, Girlio shook me awake... as it turns out, I had not actually turned on the alarm. World's fastest shower, moved the car, got into a cab wit the world's nicest lady cab driver and got to the airport at 6:40. Proceeded to California without incident, got picked up by the moms, got home, took a nap, hot tubbed it, watched some television, greeted the Little Brother who'd come to town for the week and went to bed.

Friday, we drove up to Daiso and spent about $100 between the two of us. Keep in mind that Daiso is a Japanese dollar store with most items costing $1.50. Then we went to the Exploratorium, which I love so so much. I could have spent another two hours there and we couldn't get tickets for theTactile Dome, dammit. Went home for dinner with the family (Older Brother had driven up from LA to see us all), and then out with some friends for drinks & karaoke.

Saturday, we slept in and then went to an old high school standard, the Creamery, for lunch & milkshakes, then some of the Stanford sights and then went to a wedding of an old friend. I managed to wear a pushup bra that gave me serious cleavage but showed the entire time. Bleh.

Sunday, we went out to brunch with the gang, putzed around the house, took the little brother out for pizza & then to the airport and then I drove us home. On the highway. At night. It was scary. Monday we bounced around the city, saw Fisherman's Wharf, went to Ghiradelli Square, rode a couple of cable cars, the usual. Sunday night, we'd priceline negotiated our way into a room at the Serrano. We got back just as they'd finished their wine hour, but a nice server gave us a leftover bottle. Went out to a great dinner and then enjoyed some of the great board games at the hotel. I'll have you know I pwned at Clue.

Tuesday, we slept in, wandered around Chinatown, had dim sum, wandered around some more, had a Citizen Cake cupcake, took the BART to Millbrae (surprisingly easy - Metro technology FTW!) to meet with my parents for more Chinese food and then caught a red eye flight back to DC to go to my last day of work. Which was actually quite productive. And I got cake.

Today we slept for hours and hours and hours (oh so much sleep deprivation) and got a bunch of our crap to Goodwill, picked up some of my stuff from my old house and girlio had her very first guitar lesson. Now... to watch some Doctor Who.

3 boxes filled, bookcase mostly empty, books all packed upstairs. My head aches, as does my throat, a lymph node and my eustachian tubes. I'm going to pray this is just my sinuses drying out due to neti pot & allergy meds and not a new cold that I don't have time to have.

I'm vacillating that it's ridiculous that I'm hiring movers becaue I don't have that much stuff and just not caring because I don't want to deal with carrying my furniture. And frankly, I don't really have the time, the resources of desire to do it on my own. (If I had a license, I might get a Ziptruck for a day and just deal, but I don't) I'm also vacillating between 'OMG, WHY am I hiring these guys, I own NOTHING!' and 'Oh right, I do have a lot of crap after all.'

Still no word from my landlord. I'm not worrying about it, there's nothing I can do, aside from antagonize her further. I may send her an email if I haven't heard back from her by Thursday. As is becoming a custom for me in the evenings, I'm starving and I have a low blood sugar headache. What is up with that?

Oh, anyone in the DC area want the following?
Women's clothes, sizes 12-14 (mostly pants)
brand new women's coat (ugly)
brand new, never used TruTech DVD player (would like some money for it)
24" television with no working remote control (ditto)
Vurm or 3? (tritto)
green sheers shears sheers
cloth shower curtain (white with embroidered blue fishes - may need to rescind this offer)
random crap (Hawaiian flowered bowl from CVS, radio, other crap)

ETA: Yanno, it's a 4 hour minimum and I doubt I'll be more than 2, I wonder what would happen if they came and picked up Girlyfriend's heavy crap (4 blocks from the new apt) and took it over...

Lease: Signed & Sent
Movers: Booked
New Roommate: Not Approved
Work: Only Semi-Productive
Utilities Out of My Name: Incomplete, Pending Roommate Action
Utilities Into My Name: Incomplete, pending DC WASA being open (also, they have crappy hours)
Packing: Unstarted
Chevy Chase Bank: Money grubbing whores (remember how they touted how awesome they were for the change counters that didn't charge fees even if you weren't a member? They do now. There's $3 I'll never see again) (Also, their notary wasn't there)
Boxes: 5 more stolen from work
Rental Sitting: Still Here
Benefit Knitting: 3 out of 9 Pieces Complete
Plans with the Moms for Tomorrow: Arranged
kestrel127: Cranky and starving
kestrel127's girlyfriend: Completely awesome

Next on the list: Pack, ferry unwanted furniture over to the Aunt, pick out paint colors, paint, and move. Oh right, and help plan, organize and run the largest fundraising event our theatre holds and go to another while the girlyfriend frantically writes papers. Yeah.

ETA: And going in to work early tomorrow to try to catch up. Too many projects, not enough time in the day right now.

Bizarrely, I have no idea what I did on Thursday. I'm sure I did something... oh right, boring work event with really good cupcakes. Got my order of crack Girl Scout cookies, pimped the GS out for another 9 boxes and called it a night.

Friday, I'd planned to go see that random friend I ran into at New Years at Palace of Wonders, but I ended up working until 6:45 and when picking up delicious, delicious dinner, I realized how very much I didn't want to get off of the couch and go out. So we didn't, even though the Torchwood was a disc we'd already seen and What Not to Wear was a rerun.

Saturday, we went off and wandered around the Botanic Gardens with Becoming peeps and then had a very, very delicious lunch at the NMAI Smithsonian, followed by a couple of quick errands, party prep and a nap. Two parties - one at Indebleu, one at stentoriansista's (and one at my house, but I skipped that one). Indebleu... sucks as a bar. Like, HARDCORE. Bad DJ, expensive drinks, and they took away the freaking barstools at 10 o'clock. The one stall bathroom had a bathroom attendant. It was bizarre. Second party was a lot more fun, though there was a random guy in a sailor outfit with a camera that kinda freaked me out.

Sunday, I slept until the end of time, ran some stuff home, got 1/2 of the rent (RAGE) and went to G Street. I'd picked up this pattern the last time I was there and got some awesome cream and rust red knit to make it with. Of course, I'm about to sew a similar dress that's bright pink with a white kimono-style trim, so, you know, there's that. The annual tradition of wine, pizza and yelling at the Oscars continued minus the wine.

Now, I've managed to clean out my closet (or at least organize it in a semi-cohesive way). For the last time, does anybody want some plates/cups/bowls/tchochkes or yarn or some clothes cast offs? Or a pie warmer? (That would be a ceramic dish shaped like a pie with a pie cover for pie display purposes only. I don't know why) They're probably going to the women's shelter and/or goodwill, but I thought I'd check. Again.

LOL Cat Happy Fun times: No fite, pimp my alpaca & brit cat.

DC-ians, No pants metro ride.

Via divalion, an awesome story.

Via ninthraven, an entry about pagans & belonging.

Ushered in a happy new year last night - Girlyfriend & I went to Palace of Wonders over on the H street corridor in NE. We were standing in the balcony waiting for the show to start and making up stories about the people downstairs when Girly asked me about one woman... and I thought that it was a girl I was in Girl Scouts with in middle school. And as it turns out, it was! Completely random - we chatted for a good amount the rest of the night. Palace of Wonders is one of my favorite new bars... if only it wasn't quite so far away from everything. Well, I'm definitely going to go see jaaron twirl fiery things next week. The show itself was a combo burlesque/vaudeville - pasties, sword swallowing, snake dancing, that sort of thing.

Today's been fairly low key - made jambalaya, ate pizza, watched a lot of Stargate Atlantis... Girly started feeling wonky early in the evening and conked out a couple hours ago. I, on the other hand, have had a ton of Diet Coke and the thought of bed still hasn't occurred to me. Still, I've got the 'there's someone on the wing' episode of twilight zone on and some internet. Hopefully I'll want to sleep around midnight.

So, I wake up at 4am to get ready to go to the airport. I step outside my room and my parents inform me that they got a call at 2am that my 6am flight to Dallas has been cancelled and I'm being rerouted through Chicago. I am upset.

I eat some coffee cake and drink coffee and get to the airport at 5am. I get to the airport, I get my bags checked, I get my boarding pass for my 6:45 am flight to Chicago, now leaving at 7:10 and my 1:30 flight to DC. I get through security, buy a water and find out my flight time is now 7:30. At some point shortly before boarding, I realize that I don't actually have a seat assignment for my DCA flight. I ask the gate attendant, who tells me the flight is 16 people oversold and that I should just run to the gate when I get in... "Welcome to American Airlines." At 7:20, they board the plane and then tell us that the flight time is now 7:58. I'm upset to find I'm on an aisle and not a window, but beggars can't be choosers, I guess. 5 minutes later, they tell us the flight time is now 9:05. Everyone flips out. I text girlyfriend, call my parents, while my seatmate proceeds to flip out, call everyone on the planet and generally bitch about now it's Friday and with the weather he won't be able to get home until Sunday, blah blah blah, I'm an entitled twentysomething fishcakes. I call the AA reservation line and learn that I have a guaranteed seat and I'm not on standby, so I'm good for my connector. 20 minutes later, the pilot tells us that though people have asked (totally Mr. Entitled) to get off the plane and rebook, he can't do it. I check on my connector. It claims to be running on time. Mr. Entitled then calls some place to ask if some girl is up. She's not, but he insists to whoever answers the phone that she needs to open his gift to her. He then complains that he's been delayed for four hours and I point out to the woman next to me that it's only two. The plane is a small one and does not have movie capability, so I'm deprived of mindless entertainment. At 9am, we take off. At 10am, I buy a sandwich, which costs $5 and is disgusting, but I'm starving and desperately need protein. I make the flight attendant give me two sodas and I save the Diet Coke for later. 5 minutes after I finish my sandwich, Mr. Entitled decides he needs to go to the bathroom, causing me and the poor sleeping woman in the middle to get up while he uses the first class bathroom. Since I'm holding all of my food detritus, I give it to the first class flight attendant, who points out that they'd collect it later. I point out the whole Mr. Entitled situation and she takes it without further comment. I bug someone else for a blanket and then sort of sleep for two hours, bringing the total amount of sleep for the day up to 6 hours. I have weird dreams, including the fake suicide of Marilyn Monroe, a dream that I think I've had before and think how nice it is to revisit, though I can't remember having it before. I also have a dream where someone tells me a really profound saying that I tell myself to remember, but can't now. Mr. Entitled calls the girl and then reams her out for opening the gift in front of "everyone." "I mean, you should have locked yourself in the bathroom to open it." Charming. Such a prize.

At 3 pm, Chicago time, we land. I call AA and find out that my connecting flight, while half an hour late, still took off half an hour ago. I get off the plane and go to a rebooking center, as listed on the various banners, only to find out that it's an unmanned gate with three phones. I call AA and almost immediately get hung up on. I call back again, bitch out someone else who rebooks me via US Airways... Pittsburgh and then DCA, getting in at 9pm. I text everyone, find a manned ticket counter, get my ticket reissued, discuss the possibilities of standby, decide to go with the guaranteed ticket, ask the gate agent who is so not being paid enough to deal with today about flight delays for US Air. She has no idea. I walk from terminal 4 to terminal 2 and arrive at my gate for my 5:05 Pittsburgh flight to find out that it's now leaving at 8pm and the DCA flight has been cancelled, but they can get me out on a 6:50 am Pittsburgh flight. I cry a little at the poor gate attendant, who probably also isn't paid enough to deal with today. I get my ticket and call AA and talk to a very nice woman who points out the standby is far more likely with all the delays and that if I want to do it, she can put me on standby via the phone. I call girlyfriend (because I'm incapable of making an independant decision) who helps me decide that while I'm sure Pittsburgh is a very nice city, I don't want to spend the night there. I cancel my Pittsburgh ticket and walk back to Terminal 4 to get on standby for an 8:10 flight to BWI. This is gate H3A. The gate attendant tells to run, RUN to try to catch the BWI flight in final boarding at gate G17. I run, only to find that the gate is empty, the flight has left, there were 9 people on standby and one got on.

I trod back to H3A and get on the standby list for that flight. I'm third on the list. I also try to get on standby to earlier flight to DCA only to be told that I can't do both. I decide 3rd to Baltimore is better than 22nd to DC and go back to H3A to wait. It's about 5:30. I call girlyfriend with updates. Around 6, I notice that one of the screens is advertising a gate change for my flight. I ask my gate helper. His name is Ray Fiday, which is an awesome name, and tells me that yes, the gate has changed and I'm now first on the list. I mosey over to the new gate, H7, tell the nice gate attendants that I'M THERE, YES! YES! PLEASE DON'T LOSE ME! and then go over to a Chili's Too for dinner. It's about 6:30 now. I eat some disgusting cheesesticks and have a coke ($2.99) instead of a beer ($7.25). I then find out that my gate has changed again to... G17. Luckily, I know where that is. The 7:10 flight, which has previously been on time, is now leaving at 8:10. I get down to the gate, and find the departure time is now 8:45. I again announce myself and the gate attendants really, really don't care. I wait some more. The departure time goes from 8:45 to 9:10. The gate changes to G15. Everyone else is waiting and is cranky. We share stories. I'm still first on standby list. The gate attendant asks for 3 volunteers because the flight is oversold. At this point, I start crying, because while I'm booked on a 6pm to DCA the next day, I'm really, really tired and just want to go home. They board. Nothing happens. I ask. They're waiting from word from upstairs. The melodrama gets huge, I text girlyfriend and cry again some more. At 9:25, they get 4 seats, meaning the remaining two volunteers, me and someone else are on the flight. I call girlyfriend (who has sweetly offered to pick me up through all of this) triumphantly from the plane with arrival time and we take off. The flight attendant wants to not be there so badly. She gives me a free beer. I get off the plane at midnight and call my parents to tell them that yes, yes, I really did make it back and girlyfriend is picking me up, which earns her major cool points from my parents.

I get off the plane. It's now about 12:15. I find girlyfriend. I do not find my bag. I go to file a claim with baggage claim only to find out that the bags from my flight were cleared about 10 minutes ago. Claim files. I get to girlyfriend's and into bed around 1:30. I get up at 10 and head home. I also get a voicemail from some guy about my bag. I call him back and between his accent and ambient noise, I can't hear a damn word he's saying. I order a pizza and take a nap. At 1pm, I get up. At 1:30, I get my pizza. At 2pm, I get my bag back.

I'm almost completely settled in, I'm about to go to bed... and I've still got 2/3rds of a pizza left and a bunch of garlic bread (so not worth it, but it was free) left. Yay. Sleep.

I'm tired and cranky and headachey and have a sore throat and still working and this displeases me greatly. I came back from Duck with Girlyfriend last night and left my bags at her house. I managed to remember to bring everything essential back (glasses, extra pants, toothbrush, deodorant) except my contact case. That's 4 cases at Girlyfriend's, none at mine. Luckily, my aunt gave me a cool decanter with a bunch of mini shotglasses, so I've got two glasses full of contacts.

So, Tuesday, I worked an 8-4, got home and worked until about 8 when goingdriftless borrowed my yoga mat and I realized that if I was going to pack and take a shower, I had to sign off. (Second work, by the way, was inSANE - I had one lady yell at me for 20 minutes about billing issues - it took me 40 minutes wrap up the call) Packed, metroed over to Vienna, got picked up by the girlyfriend and drove to Virginia Beach.

Wednesday, I skipped out on a breakfast, took a conference call and then we moseyed out to DUCK. Oh Duck, how I love you. The moon was nearly full, the water was beautiful, we picked up Thanksgiving in a box and something for stentoriansista's mom and then went and crashed on the couch. I attempted to take some calls, but after two calls where the handset never rang and an inability to call out after, I called it a day (turns out the phone number was input incorrectly). Around eleven o'clock, the winds started really picking up and right before bed, I went out to the top balcony and... charged up. I was expecting to enjoy the wind and the quiet night, but I was not expecting the cleansing and exultation that came with it. It left me dazed and pretty buzzed (and my solar plexus and chest chakras were tingly). That was awesome.

Thursday, there was much turkey. I discovered the wallet suck that is etsy, ordered a couple of Giftmas presents, took the dog for a good long walk on the beach and nearly got frozen solid. Friday was Operation For the Love of God, Don't Leave the House!!! Which was successful, in case you were worried. Saturday, we hit the outlet malls and I got myself a dress, two sweaters, a pair of pants and an awesome purse that matches my bedspread. And I hit the yarn store and got some Giftmas yarn that will soon become socks. Somewhere in there, I joined 2002 and finally got a facebook account. (Friend me! Thanks!)

Sunday, we drove. And drove. And drove. And missed most of 95 (WOO!), ate a couple of Brie LTs and listened to the two most depressing This American Lifes ever. (Seriously, there was the developmentally disabled brother with the armadillo and then the entire This American Life about violent death of parents)

Today, I got home to my Awesome! New! Boots! and to the two new bookcases my aunt gave me two Sundays ago. I took all the books off the old one, moved it into the hall, put the two new ones in place, took the shelves upstairs, went to go set them up... and realized the Aunt neglected to give me the sticky-outy things to hang the shelves on. So, now I have two beautiful new bookshelves and my books in piles all over the floor.

Also, I severaly dislike today. Something about coming to work an hour and a half early and spending most of the day photocopying. And the heartburn. And the filthy room. And the lack of a cell phone charger (long story) (OK, not longer than this, but I'm tired of typing).

Also, um... who decided that a new American Gladiators was a good idea? Because I have to hurt them.

So, I had to go to Other Office today to drop off some paperwork. Other Office is up in Northeast, but I can get from work to Other Work back to work in about 40 minutes, so it's fine. Other Office also shares space with a dialysis center, so there's always MetroAccess cars and vans hanging around. Today, I'm walking up and there's a guy getting out of a car with the help of two ladies in scrubs.

Old Guy: Hey, beautiful, how you doin'
Me: ::smiles thinly, continues walking::
OG: She got some fiiiiiiiiine qualities about her, too!
Me: ::mouth open in shock::

Photocopy paperwork, exchange pleasantries, smooch girlyfriend, head out. About to cross New York Ave (a major, major street), when this SUV runs a redlight. As it speeds by, I see the driver talking on his cell phone (illegal in DC) and the DC logo and 'PARKING ENFORCEMENT.' I cross the street and see the back says 'How's my driving? Call 202-xxx-xxxx!' So, I did. I'm pretty sure I got his plates too.

Finally, I'm waiting for the train to pull in, as one comes in going the other way. Suddenly, the guy next to me screams 'NO NO NO NO NO NO' and goes running - turns out, he was stopping a young blind woman from walking into the gap between cars that she thought was the door. He then escorted her into the car.

How's your day been?

I was walking crosstown to drop off a grant application today when I saw a bus poster for K-Ville. The slogan printed across the top was "In New Orleans heroes don't run away." Which, I... uh... wow. First of all, that's the worst slogan ever. Heroes don't run away? What if they're chasing down bad guys? And then the bad guys come out with a rocket launcher? I know I'd run. And second, I know it's Fox and therefore dumb, but who is the genius who approved a major, national marketing campaign WITH A GRAMMATICAL ERROR? The COMMA, people. Learn it, live it, love it.

Good weekend. Saturday involved Terry Pratchett, a guy with a grey parrot on his shoulder, every street in civilization being closed off, ninth_raven being filled with rage, Becoming event at Haines Point (which was gorgeous!), home, grocery shopping, cooking everything in sight (chili, watermelon sorbet, roasted beets, chicken in crockpot & dinner) while listening to podcasts, spinning, wine, courtesans dying of consumption and wizards.

Sunday involved getting up, remaking the watermelon sorbet, eating leftover watermelon, going to Crafty Bastards, seeing the same guy with a grey parrot on his shoulder, buying too much stuff, getting jumbo slice, walking through an open house and doing a "what if we bought this?", reading bad literature, eating "dinner" with stentoriansista, mel21clc & friend at Bar Pilar (I spent $8 on a sausage), going home and eating real dinner, watching Stargate: Atlantis, reading some pr0n and going to bed. And now I'm at work. And I should be working. More.

I had to leave a stitch 'n' bitch about 5 hours too early (well, it's not over yet, so who knows) and managed to get home right as the rain started. Awesome, except I had to walk the puppy. So we got completely soaked. It was really funny, she kept trying to get into cars... I guess when she was in Angola, folks would shelter her from the rain in vehicles? The rain was HARD and there was a lot of lightning and close by, so we made it a short trip and went home. Our later night walk, the rain had stopped, but there was a little bit of lightning and halfway through the walk, there was this bolt of lightning across the sky and a CRACK of lightning so loud and immediately connected that the dog tried to run away from it and I was still breathing hard from the shock 10 minutes later. It made the back of my head feel all funny for a while.

Anyway, some linkspam.

Camp Psychics - Yeah, but they're Spiritualists and I'm pretty sure Spiritualists have been proven frauds on many occasions. No one's perfect.

Puppy... whistling! - this one made my dog poke her head up and see what's going on.

Bunny comic tries knitting

David Lynch was asked to direct Return of the Jedi?!

I must say, this is why I don't trust people on the internet

Dildo Diaries w/ Molly Ivins - this one made Kwanza look up in surprise too!

Scary Trousers!

I'm wearing pants I wore on Friday. They smell of woodsmoke. This pleases me.

So, Friday, stentoriansista and I got in her car and drove out to Harper's Ferry for a weekend of being crunchy hippy granola types. We get to the Harper's Ferry KOA with rising amounts of OMGWTF because of the sheer volume of people and smallness of campgrounds. It's luau weekend. Our list of activities for the weekend include a hula competition and a pig roast. We decline said activities. We check in, I buy firewood, firestarters & a camp chair and drive out to our site. Which is right next to a family with four small children and no firepit. We drive back to the store and get a new campground, across the way from the original site. We pitch the tent, I start the fire and stentoriansista goes to inflate the airmattress, only to discover that the pump I bought from Target a few weeks ago... has no back. We go back to the camp store and I pay $5 more than I paid for the first one for a pump that has to go into your car adapter. Inflate the thing, I attempt to rekindle the refusing to burn fire with firestarter #2, we realize that we'll be sleeping on the mother of all downhill angles and stentoriansista moves the batteries from the backless pump to the flashlight... which doesn't turn on. stentoriansista goes to get her campchair only to discover it decided to stay home and canoodle with the kiddies. Moving to a hotel is discussed and rejected because my will is stronger than wood. stentoriansista has a bucket to sit on. Firestarter number three actually gets a fire going. Wine is swigged from the bottle. We go to bed, only to be woken up an hour later by the people across the way from us swearing loudly (probably drunk).

We get up at the crack of 7:45 to get some breakfast and then go to River Riders to get checked in and everything. There's an informative bike safety video, a nice gentleman from Austin with a large beard and even larger ear spacers loads the bikes and some other folks' canoes into a van and we head out. stentoriansista and I, being nice people, strike up a conversation with him and he invites us to hang out with him & his wife in Shepherdstown that night. Canoers get dropped off and we get dropped off at Lock 38? of the C&O trail and start biking.

The C&O trail is absa-frigging-lutely beautiful and runs along the Potomac at a 1% downhill grade, so the biking time is easy and fun. We bike 12-ish miles in an hour and a half and then head into Harper's Ferry, eat some food looking out over the water and then wander around the old church & cemetary. We make it to our pickup point right as our picker-upper shows up and then wait around for 20 minutes as he tries to figure out how to ratchet the bikes into the trailer. We drive very, very slowly back to River Riders and get back to the campground, where I change into a bathing suit and we drive into the mouth of hell itself Wal-Mart, where we get a camp chair, flashlight, more firestarters (we used all the old ones!), a lantern and a faux-bathing suit for stentoriansista and drive back to the river, where we climb out onto some rocks and proceed to just hang out and enjoy the sun and water. There's a bunch of folks around, including some people with a few German shepherds that are swimming. One, named Ruckus, pulls himself out of the water, shakes himself off on OUR TOWEL, relieves himself and then shakes himself off on OUR TOWEL AGAIN and runs away. At this point, we realize we're going to make the car smell like river. We head back to camp and I leave stentoriansista to make fire while I take a much needed shower.

We continue to fail at fire until I remember that you need kindling before the big logs and we burn up a bunch of deadwood & leaves and then the big logs finally catch. We roast weenies and marshmellows and drink more wine and generally have a lovely time until the people next door show up at 9pm and proceed to set up their tents by headlight, ask us really dumb questions and then be loudly annoying and drunk for the next three hours. We go get more beer (we would have gotten more wine, but they were selling Little Penguin for $9 a bottle, which is pretty outrageous). We drink a little more and proceed to go to bed, after I ask the twelve drunk people to please keep it down. They proceed to laugh at me.

We get up at 9:45 and attempt to be as loud as possible as we break down camp, because we know Drinky McDrunksaLot next door are still passed out. After a leisurely breakfast, watching the drunkards next door pee in the woods (the bathrooms are almost as far away as you wandered to go hide behind trees! What's wrong with you!!!) and checkout, we go peruse the flea market next door, where everything that is crappy in the world has come to die. Seriously, it's the worst flea market ever. We get to River Riders at 12:30 for our 1 o'clock check in, eat some snacks and check in promptly at one... when we are told to be back at 1:45. So, we sit on top of the car and knit and watch the sky, which is pretty, but also gray and threatening rain. I'd gotten a phone call saying that we couldn't raft on the Shenandoah because the water level was too low, but that we could go on the Potomac, which was supposed to be "near constant rapids." It was disappointing. Our guide was awesome (I think he enjoyed hanging out with girls near his age and not families or teenagers), but the route was almost exactly what we'd biked along the day before and there was a lot of shiny nature (herons, osprey & egrets), but not a lot of action. We did jump out and swim the final rapid, which was pretty awesome. I forgot to take my watch off, but it took a licking and kept on ticking. We finally got back to the base, changed, and made it home by 6:30ish, where we proceeded to be dead on the couch and watch What Not to Wear until we passed out.

The SUPERLOUD THUNDER woke us up at 1am. It was crazy raining. And then I finally shipped my spinning wheel back to Wisconsin. The damn thing cost $50 to ship. Apparently, it cost extra because they were shipping it to a "rural area." WTFever. If I get a hundred dollars refunded for the thing, that's $50 more than I had before I shipped it and I don't have to have it in my house anymore.

So, to sum up, River Riders = win, Harpers Ferry KOA & UPS = suck. Also, for future camping trips, we're only going to by firewood while camping. Also also, I won't forget pillows. Or dishes.

So, I picked up something resembling this at the Crate & Barrel outlet yesterday - the one I wanted had too small bowls & salad plates and too large dinner plates. Small plates = good. I had this moment of "what will I do with the coffee cups?" but then I came up with about 8 ideas (dessert, mostly), so yeah. Glad I made that investment.

I've decided I'm seeing the show we're putting on tonight and will kill time pre-show by switching to T-Mobile and maybe wandering around H&M. Whee!

Potterpuffs are back!!! (HP7 spoilers)

Also, prisoners do the Thriller dance. For serious.

Thursday. Up. Metro. Metro breaks down. Wait. New train. Wait. Airport. Plane. Low hydraulic fuel. Wait. Taxi to runway. Wait for Air Force One to take off. Take off an hour late. Only have 45 minute layover. Annoyed. Stewardess tells us we'll have to rebook. Get off plane. New plane hasn't even boarded. Run through airport. Plane. Take off. Finish all reading material for the weekend. Boise. Play pinball. pucksraven & hubby arrive. Drive to hotel. Check in. Food. Pass out.

Friday. Up late. Breakfast. See people. Yay people. Drive. See warmaker and friends. Yay. Guns. Woo! Rifle. Semi-automatic rifle. M-16. Burned by shell casing. Leave the boys with their toys. Lunch. Rehearsal. Rehearsal dinner. Hotel. Cab to downtown Boise. Round of drinks & pack of cigarettes for $20. Only gay bar in Boise and completely empty on a Friday night. Wander to another bar. Followed by lonely guy with unfortunate facial hair. More beer. Dance. Cab back to hotel. Sleep.

Saturday. Everyone meets early for breakfast. Yay breakfast! Poor coffee. Drive to Moxie Java, the Starbucks alternative. Yummy. Go to Target for things. Buy gift bags. Get 6 pack for beer cozies. Hotel. Wake up napping girlfriend. Finish beer cozies. Arrange presents. Play in pool. Shower and put goop in hair. Lunch. Wedding prep. Put on makeup. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Put on poofy dress. Wait. Wait. Presents! Wait. Walk down the aisle. Matrimonial schmoopiness. Food. Booze. Spill food on poofy dress. Woe. Get birfday cake. Yay cake! Toast. Toast with Bon Jovi. "Shout!" Very drunk best man. Hotel. Dinner and drinks with newlyweds and bridesmaids. Hang with friends. Bed.

Sunday. Up. No, really. Up. Up? Pack. Breakfast. Airport. Buy magazine. Prop plane. Free beer! Finish magazine. Seattle. Lunch. Books. Board. Sleep. Finish new book. Crossword puzzle. Sudoku. Get ride home from mel21clc. Unpack. 80 emails. 350 LJ entries. Bed. So. very. tired.

Hello, Monday, my arch nemesis. I can't bring myself to do any work on Mondays. This is not good when it comes to that whole remaining employed thing.

I left my farmer's market spoils at stentoriansista's today. No strawberries and cherries for me. Sigh... I shall live, I guess. At stentoriansista's party on Saturday, I managed to drink the majority of a 375 mL bottle of Malibu and be extremely not drunk all evening. I don't understand why I can be a little extra giggly but not much else off of all that rum and accidentally get rip roaring drink off of wine at E's wedding in April. The two and two, they do not equal four. Spent the entire weekend with cottonballs in my brain and my pants... well, they were cranky.

T minus three days until I leave for Idaho. I need to pick up my dress from the tailors (stupid dress needing a new zipper and to be let out), do my nails, deep condition my hair, do laundry, PACK, finish warmaker's gag gift, and generally run around like a crazy person. And maybe find something for us to do on Friday during the day. What is there to do in Boise? Hopefully, warmaker's actual present shows up before we leave on Thursday.

Also, someone please make the bugs not like me. I have so many bites on my extremities and they ALL ITCHES, BITCHES.

Also also, I Has a Hat.

I am tired and my calves are sore. I don't think this has anything to do with the heavy drinking and various activities I did all three nights this weekend at all. Friday involved standing in hells for 6 hours, Saturday involved a big gay dance party and Sunday was walking around the national arboretum and getting winded after 5 minutes of hills. Please see one and two as well as a very little sleep for reasons why.

But yes, a good weekend. Friday was donor night where I realized one of the new girls in the box office went to my church growing up (in California). Her dad played the clarinet in the choir and my mom ran the Sunday School. We grew up three blocks apart from each other. So weird. Towards the end of the night, I got slightly drunk and honest and then I got home and got hit by a bout of nausea. Thanks tummy!

On Saturday, I got to be in the pride parade! stentoriansista had a car for work that was being used by a production company, so the two of us and some coworkers got to drive along or walk around and hand out flyers and things. Of course, the production company had a street team of 18 year olds who were acting very, very 18. The one downside of being in the parade is that you don't get to see the other floats, really. I mean, drag queens galore and HRC, SMYAL, Gay Men's Chorus, etc... but I missed Eleanor Holmes Norton and Adrian Fenty being prideful. And then I became a giant crankypants for reasons I'm still not entirely sure of - mostly whacking the hell out of my wrist on the car door and getting to clean up someone else's beer from the back of the car seat.

We took the bus back and 14th street was still blocked off. This old tourist couple from Florida on the bus saw us being cute and wearing beads and were all "Oh yes. We saw a bunch of gay men walking up the street earlier today." We gave them directions and the wife said that she was "sorry we missed the party!"

After a late dinner, we went to the pride after party at Love, otherwise known as a Big Gay Dance Party, which was too fabulous for words. I mean, the music sucked, a bud light cost $5, mel21clc couldn't drink because she was driving, but the scenery was fantastic. A couple voguing (CONSTANTLY), a guy in a spiderman hat and stilettos, an older leather daddy couple, etc...

Yesterday was Becoming and opening. Becoming was fun, if small. I think I'm permanently assigned dessert for their potlucks (fine by me! Cookies next month?). Went to go get my house key copied again to find that even the minions at Home Despot couldn't do it and I really do need to go to a locksmith. We are not amused. A trip to the fabric store, a trip to Wendy's, a glance through urban outfitters and I was at opening last night. Saw a show, hung out, drank booze, went home and went to bed. Managed to have a rather vivid dream where a woman was in my room. That was freaky. And now I'm at work. I'm going to the gym after work, then I'm making salad, and then I'm not drinking for the rest of the week. =)

I went to Giant before work and bought chicken and stuffing to make dinner with and then I got to work and remembered I have 6 packets of frozen chicken breasts in my freezer at home. Undercaffeinated FTW!

Friday, stentoriansista and I grabbed a quick dinner at Ella's Wood Fired Pizza (and I mean quick - we were in and out in half an hour! WTF mate?) and then saw Peter & Wendy at Arena Stage. Loved. Loved loved loved. Even if I had to run into that employee we fired (and then he blogged about it). I, being a giant wimp, didn't actually talk to him and talked to the other chick working that day. But the show was wonderfully done and a joy to watch.

Saturday we slept the day away and then biked to the zoo and wandered around. There were golden tamarinds with babies on their backs, pandas, sea lions, woogy octopi, capybaras, pygmy hippotomi and some incredibly overpriced food. It was also extraordinarily hot and we were kinda dehydrated and cranky. It didn't help that the bike home was almost entirely uphill and we were tired. Then we made salad, watched some Atlantis and went to bed early, where I proceeded to sleep another 12 hours after being up for about 12 hours.

Yesterday, we had some much needed pancakes, went to Target and then saw the last PotC movie. Verdict was mostly squee with unsatisfying ending. Also, if you see if, be sure to wait through the credits for that final scene after the credits thing that's becoming the norm (much to my annoyance - I don't like credits!). Went back to my house where I made stentoriansista hang things for me - now I have curtains! And hooks! And wine racks from last August hung! It was awesome except for when an anchor attacked stentoriansista's eye. That was not so much awesome. And then we ate the last of my calzones and watched the Corpse Bride, which was a lot of fun.

It was, aside from the whole eye thing, a most excellent weekend, which was lovely and charming and reminded me how very much I love this other person and want to attack her with hugs and the like. It's nice having that as a reminder.

If you'll excuse me, I should be the workings now.

Also, stentoriansista and I ate three pounds of cherries in two days. It's cherry season again. This is most excellent.