Happy Leap Year Day!

I didn’t do anything special to commemorate this extra day, unless you count going to the grocery store. Which, oddly enough, netted me a free pair of movie tickets. Well, in theory. It seems that the free ticket promotion is so new (indeed, I had never before received such items on any previous visits) that the checker and the people she asked had no idea where the tickets were in order to give them to me. So, if I want them, I am supposed to go back in a few days with a little stamped note she gave me, stating that I am still entitled to the free items. Hopefully if/when I go back, the employees will actually have been alerted to this promotion.

It’s been oddly foggy the last couple days, and last night Ben and I walked downtown and got some appetizers and drinks while checking out a bluegrass(? I think?) band, and then continued on to hang with his friend who was bartending, before finally heading to another location to get some dinner. Although it was a bit chilly, with jackets on and doing the walking, it wasn’t actually so bad.

Despite all the things we did last night, we still had time to get back to my place around maybe 10:30 or so and catch up on some episodes of Weeds. Now there’s a show that gets crazier and crazier as it progresses and you have to keep watching to find out what will happen next! I’m thinking I need to keep a running tally of the number of scenes in which the main character is drinking expensive coffee drinks, because it makes me wonder how much money such a frequent habit would cost!

Posted at 7:14 PM | (1)

Last night was my monthly bookclub meeting. It was originally supposed to be last week, but the book we chose was so long that a few people (who ended up not even attending!) wanted more time to finish.

Our numbers had been dwindling again, especially with the departure of one of our core members, so we had posted an ad to get some new members. I got maybe 8 or so serious responses to the inquiry, and of those, 2 wound up attending last night. 2 others had planned to attend, but emailed beforehand saying that they were unable to make it, but would try again next month.

The two new girls who came seemed quite nice and to fit in nicely in the group dynamic. We talked to them for awhile—and talked so much that the meeting went longer than it normally does. They talked about how they had plans to do other sort of activities like a kickball league or perhaps a poker and/or game night. Not sure if those will wind up materializing or whatnot, but those could be fun too…

Posted at 5:48 PM | (1)

The last few Sundays I have been recording the Masterpiece showings on PBS because they have been airing Jane Austen movies! I missed the first one, Persuasion, but have since seen Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and most recently shown in 3 parts, Pride and Prejudice!

The 6 hour BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is well known for being very good and also led to a lot of fame for Colin Firth (women especially seem to like the wet shirt scene!). Despite my love of all things Austen, I had not managed to see this miniseries until now. Thanks to PBS, I no longer have to be ashamed to call myself an Austen fan having not viewed a key piece of work.

I saw the Keira Knightley movie version when it came out, and while it was good, that guy who played Mr. Darcy just couldn’t do the subtle facial expressions the same kind of justice as Colin Firth. Next up on all things Jane Austen, I suppose I should try to watch the Jane Austen Book Club (I already read the book, which was cute.).

Posted at 10:56 AM | (1)

Happy Birthday Lisa!

27 dude. Man you’re getting old! :)

Posted at 7:16 PM | (0)

Anyone watch the last full lunar eclipse until 2010 last night?

I went out and looked for a little bit until I got too cold. I expected the sky to be too cloudy to see, what with the somewhat dreary weather we’ve had the past couple days, but the sky was surprisingly clear.

The moon just looked like a very pale brownish blob in the sky, but I didn’t even attempt to take a picture of it since my zoom lens doesn’t get nearly close enough. It looked pretty cool, but I admittedly didn’t stand out there and watch it get fully covered and then uncovered. It was way too chilly for that. But it was cool to just go out and see, hey, the moon is there, yet it kinda isn’t!

Posted at 10:41 AM | (1)

Yesterday evening I joined Ben and his family at a Japanese restaurant. I actually ate something there because they have a dish that is basically breaded chicken and rice. Amazing, I know, given that I don’t generally eat asian cuisines. I did of course avoid the fish dishes.

After dinner Ben and I headed downtown to hang out with his friend at the bar and have some birthday drinks. We hung out and talked until they closed and then had his friend join us at another bar for a bit before heading back to my apartment.

We didn’t wake up in the greatest shape in the morning but we have both since fully recovered. It was a low-key celebration and I had a nice time.

Posted at 9:02 PM | (0)

Today is Ben’s birthday! Here is hoping it is the best year yet. :)

Posted at 4:06 PM | (0)

This morning, as I was showering, a spider made an attempt on my life. Thankfully, he failed in his mission.

There I was, washing my face, when he was planning his attack. I turned around to find the spider dangling in front of my face. I did what any other person would do when confronted with a creature 5000x smaller than you—I freaked out! I kept trying to throw water on my would-be attacker, hoping to blind him or else knock him off his ninja web rope. Instead, I managed to knock myself off balance, and before I knew it I was falling. I thought about how a guy at my last job fell in a shower tub and wound up permanently paralyzed.

Luckily, I had a different fate. As I fell, I slid down the tub, until I was sitting on the bottom, my body perfectly L-shaped. Unfortunately, I hit both my arms on the edge of the tub on the way down. On my left side, I hit underneath my arm not too far from the armpit. On my right arm, I smacked some bone against the edge (radius? ulna? One of those. I can never remember which one is which.) and it immediately got a lovely red line running along it from being hit so hard or scratched or both.

I immediately stood up and came face to face with my assailant, still hanging where I had left him. Seeing that he had failed in his mission, he swung over to shower head and hung out on the pole that holds it up, staying out of my sight and reach. Since I was already in the shower and wet, I figured I might as well finish up, so I washed my hair. At this point though, everything in my vision started turning bright white and I was feeling a little nauseous—just like what happened when I sprained my ankle last year. Damn adrenaline. Not wanting to pass out, I got out of the shower and sat on the toilet seat until the feelings subsided and then continued my shower.

I haven’t exactly been flinging my arm around since I hit it, but here it is an hour and a half later and it doesn’t really hurt anymore (well unless I were to touch it). Every once in awhile there is a renewal of a dull pain for a few moments, like “hey don’t forget I’m still injured!” Don’t worry arm, I didn’t forget. But I’m hoping the lack of sharp pain or anything means I didn’t break or fracture it. It does hurt a little to type this, but maybe it’s just bruising.

It could’ve been a lot worse, and I am thankful that I didn’t do any serious harm to myself. Next time I will search the surrounding shower area thoroughly for signs of arachnids before hopping in the shower. I won’t be taken by surprise again!

Posted at 11:23 AM | (2)

Last night for Valentine’s Day I headed over to Ben’s after work so that we could go to dinner. He had a gift and a card and a chocolate rose waiting for me. I gave him a card, which of course doesn’t sound equal now that I type it all out, but he does have a birthday coming up in a few short days! What is interesting is that a lot of the things we put in our cards were pretty similar, just of course worded differently, hehe.

We ate dinner at the Dutch Garden, since Ben knows I like schnitzel! Schnitzel is awesome! It was a nice dinner, although we watched in amusement as the wait staff seemed a bit confused and kept bringing things out and not seeming to know to whom they belonged.

We unfortunately didn’t have a ton of time to spend together after dinner, because he and a few other guys who have birthdays within days of each other had to leave to go on a surf trip. And I guess the guy who organized it thought it was good to leave last night! I hope they did nice things for their wives before leaving. :)

Anyway, I had a very nice evening and hope that Ben has a nice, safe, fun trip. Almost 3 weeks ago he dislocated his finger while snowboarding and hasn’t been able to surf yet. I hope that it doesn’t hurt him too much—especially since he’ll probably be out in the water all day all weekend!

Posted at 9:42 AM | (0)

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Hope you all get to spend it with loved ones.

Posted at 12:22 PM | (2)

Tonight I attended a little housewarming gathering for the member of my bookclub who moved into the location recently vacated by our other member. This girl who threw the party is the one who originally introduced me to the club, and although we always mean to hang out and never get around to it, we get along well.

The gathering tonight mostly consisted of people she worked with or knew from elsewhere, so I didn’t know them, but it was still a nice time. Unfortunately Ben wasn’t able to attend with me, which is too bad because he totally would’ve known at least 2 or 3 of the people there. This doesn’t really surprise me, because he seriously knows this whole town or something. But a couple of the guests are also surfers and around the same age and Ben knows them from where they work. He is also friends with a guy that she works with, but he was also not in attendance tonight. It’s a small town and all, but it is always quite amazing how many people are interconnected with everyone else. Hopefully there will be a time in the future when we can all get together again.

Posted at 11:03 PM | (0)

Yesterday I met up with Claire and some of her friends at Stateside for her birthday. I hadn’t been there since it was Acapulco. The way they redid the interior was nice, although the menu was some sort of weird fusion. We got some drinks, but I didn’t have too many because they were a bit pricey, and I didn’t want to spend like $50 or something on just a couple drinks. We stayed there the whole evening, and left around 1am or so.

Today I went over to Ben’s and just hung out. Unfortunately he seems to have caught a cold, so he didn’t stray from the couch too much, but I still enjoyed spending the day with him and cuddling on said couch. Hopefully he will feel better soon, since it is definitely no fun being sick.

Posted at 11:27 PM | (0)

Happy Birthday to my dad, who is enjoying his first of many weeks of retirement. His last day of work was last Friday since he wanted to retire right around his birthday this year.

Not sure what he’ll do with all that free time, but I’m sure their dog will be happy to have him home more often.

Posted at 2:16 PM | (0)

Well, as I’m sure most people are aware (If I’M aware, I pretty much assume everyone else is), today is “Super Tuesday”, which is the designation given to the primaries that were just held today.

I’m not all political, but I did go out and vote on my lunch break today, which also gave me a chance to run a few other errands like buy some greeting cards and hit up the post office. Though, I will say that it kinda sucks when the only reason you went to the post office is to buy a single stamp and the self serve stamp machine is out of order, meaning you have to wait in the long, slow line of people mailing complicated packages just so you can make a .41 cent transaction. At least I got to get rid of some of my change, I suppose!

Posted at 8:35 PM | (3)

I did indeed wind up watching the Super Bowl yesterday…sorta. Ben said he planned to head somewhere to watch it, possibly the bar where his friend works, so he swung by to pick me up and we went to the bar.

The streets, as well as the bar, were pretty dead. I guess everyone was at giant houseparties or else a sports bar with a huge HDTV or something. No matter, it meant easy driving and more free chili for those who chose to partake in it. (I wasn’ t one of those individuals, but I did eat some yummy mozzarella sticks! Mmmm!)

So, the game was on, and I looked at the screen occasionally, but I don’t recall too much of it. I think most of it was pretty uneventful, since there wasn’t a lot of scoring? I spent much of the time talking, reading the Independent, and eating cheese sticks and having a couple drinks. I did see that helmet catch thing at the end, as well as the halftime show where I marveled that Tom Petty was still with the Heartbreakers and performing. I also marveled at how he looks exactly the same. I did miss most of the commercials, however, most likely due to the fact that the sound wasn’t on super loud and that, as aforementioned, I wasn’t paying too much attention.

So I guess the Giants won and upset the undefeated team or something. I really could not have cared less as to the outcome of the game—I don’t follow football in general and have no vested interest in the teams. Well, unless you’re going by which team has the cutest quarterback (always an important, if not THE most important, point to consider when choosing your favorite team) If that’s the case, then I guess I’m sad that the Patriots lost, because Tom Brady is cuter than Eli Manning. In Tom’s favor is also the fact that he performed in an amusing SNL skit a few years back on sexual harrassment in the workplace. I have posted it below and it’s worth checking out if you’ve never seen it.

Posted at 11:21 AM | (1)

So is there anyone else out there besides me who isn’t really planning on watching the game today? Pretty much the only way I’d watch would be if I was at a gathering that was watching it, but I don’t think I will be.

Heck, until a few days ago I not only didn’t know who was playing, but I wasn’t sure if it was this weekend or next. So yea, I guess you could say I’m not a huge fan and couldn’t really care less.

It’s too bad it’s all cold and windy and rainy today—last year during the game I went to go check out the butterflies. But I don’t think getting all wet and cold and muddy sounds all that appealing, so I don’t think this year will be a repeat of the last.

Posted at 11:43 AM | (3)