Author: trinalin

The things you find…

So mom & dad have been doing a lot of rearranging around in their house. (The living room is now the dining room, so the parlor room is now the living room, etc.) During this process, they’re locating things that are mine & Amy’s that had been hiding in various crevasses in the house. Several of my boardgames & puzzles are now in my own house – yay! But perhaps the biggest surprise was my AT-AT! For those of you who aren’t Star Wars fans (and to think, I call you friends! Heh), an AT-AT is a big-ass vehicle used in The Empire Strikes Back. I was under the impression that I had sold my AT-AT to some of the neighborhood boys years ago. But now that I think about it, I think it was my Death Star that I sold them. (No loss – that wasn’t nearly as cool as an AT-AT.)

Leo didn’t know what to make of this plastic thing that was even bigger than him. I haven’t added batteries to it to see if the electronics still work. And if they do, Leo will be even more confused about it. Heh. Poor Kitty.

In other news, shortly before heading off to visit with judiang, elsaf, and hergrace, I had bid upon & won a 60GB iPod video. I was pleased that I’d found it for under $380 (the winning bid was $335). I have over 30GB of MP3s on my computer (most, but not all, of my CD collection. And I still have some albums that I want to convert to MP3). So a 30GB drive wasn’t going to work. The iPod arrived while I was in Chicago, but my parents are lovely people and they picked it up at the post office. I’ve already copied all of my songs onto it (and NOT by using iTunes – woot! MediaMonkey, I LOVE you!) I still have to create good playlists, but I’ll do it as I update my MP3s to have proper album art & information. Some playlists I’ll make in QCD, the others in MediaMonkey.

Oh, and in the Keeping Up with the Short’s, it turns out that a certain recent birthday girl just HAD to go off to her local Apple Store & get herself a 60GB iPod video. The rotter! 😉 Oh yeah, and she paid LESS. Bah! Ah well, all’s fair in love & commerce.

Friend Gushing

Well, after over 10 hours in a car today, I’m back home. elsaf and I left around 11:30am Chicago time and I stepped into my house just after 9:30pm Ohio time. It’s now past my bedtime, but I thought I’d post to say I’d made it OK. And to thank my wonderful friends. Thank you, Elsa, for being my road trip partner & for all the fabulous cooking. Thank you, hergrace for coming to our birthday celebration. Thank you, judiang for being such a gracious host despite recently having one of the shittiest weeks ever. You three are great friends to hang out with and it’ll be great when we can all get together again!

Excess! Er, Success!

Tonight’s fabulous five-course meal by elsaf was amazing! Well, we’ve only gotten 4 courses done and we’re taking a break before we have dessert. But it was very good food! Elsa is a marvel. judiang, hergrace and I are grateful to our culinary friend. And all four of us are stuffed to the gills. We’re sitting around Judi’s faux fireplace and listening to her ’60s directory of MP3s.

Alas, tomorrow morning, Elsa & I are driving back to Michigan and then I drive back to Ohio. But first, Steph has promised to make us buttermilk pancakes. Yay!

With the leftovers that are currently chilling in Judi’s fridge, I think she’ll be able to go a week without having to visit restaurants or (her nemesis) grocery stores.

ETA: changed “Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch” to “Can’t Help Myself” on Judi’s recommendation in Music.

Day Before Judi’s B-Day!

Today was a nice leisure day for all of us. (Well, until Elsa cooked supper – then she worked her butt off). After faffing about in the morning (because the garage was off-limits from 8am til noon), we headed off to Jewell to buy all the ingredients that elsaf and I didn’t bring in the car. Of course, after all that food buying, we, um, went out to eat for lunch. Heh.

Elsa drove judiang and I to Chinatown for lunch. We ate at Penang (a Malaysian restaurant & sushi bar) and filled up on sushi. I ordered ebi sushi plus the Maki Combo plate. More sushi than I could eat, but there ya go. 🙂

Afterwards, we shopped in Chinatown. We picked up some key pastries from a bakery and then visited several shops that sold lots of tat. One of the first ones we visited had a Lucky Cat who waves. YAY! I have wanted one since I saw the one our local Japanese place has. It was only $9.99, so I had to get it.

I priced several Mah Jongg tile sets in several of the shops, but nobody had one cheap enough for my cheap self. So I’m still without my Mah Jongg tile set.

After shopping, we stopped once again at Jewell to pick up the things we’d forgotten to get. And even managed to forget one of those! Whoops!

We rested up from our shopping before Elsa began her tutorial on Lamb Curry. Judi and I watched while she cooked & explained stuff. She was almost as good as Justin Wilson! (Without the thick Louisiana accent, that is.)

During the 1 hour simmering time, we just listening to music, chatted, and geeked. Elsa’s just added the cream to the curry, so we’re just about ready for supper. Yay! Smells wonderful!

Bangers & Mash

elsaf and I left Detroit this morning at 8:41am and drove to Chi town. Like we’ve been doing, she drove the city bits (start & end of trip) and I drove the straight bit in the middle. A stop at Taco Hell for lunch and a couple of restroom breaks weren’t enough to slow us down too much. We wound up at judiang‘s ahead of schedule (arrived 1:15pm local time). Yay us! We didn’t take any wrong turns or missed turns – we rock!

After decompressing for a bit, we walked with Judi to Howie’s, a nearby coffee shop. She had lunch while Elsa & I had muffins (mmmm, chocolate & cheesecake muffin!) Back to the Grant Hotel (heh) where we played around a bit while Judi napped. (Poor dear – she actually worked today!)

When suppertime arrived, we headed off to the South Loop Local, aka Grace O’Malley’s. I bought drinks (amaretto sours for me & Judi, diet Coke for our designated walker, Elsa). We all had Guinness & Irish Cheddar soup for starters & then moved onto pub grub. Elsa had shepherd’s pie (peppered with actual shepherd on top). Judi and I had bangers & mash (mine without the sauteed ‘shrooms, thankyouverymuch). It was yummy!

Now we’re back at the ranch, Elsa watching tonight’s Smallville (taped on Judi’s DVR), me typing this, Judi doing – well, not sure. Anyhoo, it was a fun day and we’ve got a fun weekend planned. I love hanging out with my friends!

Celebrity Dreaming

It’s official. I’ve been watching too much Bewitched.

Now, the number of celebrities who have appeared in my dreams are few. And mostly Doctor Who or Tomorrow People related. But last night, Elizabeth Montgomery showed up. And in an unusual manner.

See, what happened was that Sylvester McCoy was filming an episode of Doctor Who. (I think it was being filmed in the US – in a big office building). As he’s racing out of the door of the office building during a scene take, he collides with a blonde lady coming into the building while wearing a trechcoat (and little else – I wonder what that says about my thought processes???) Anyhoo, the woman turns out to be Elizabeth Montgomery on the run from evil producers wanting her to film a nude scene she doesn’t want to film. But Sylv is more than happy to help her escape from the evil producers. (I wonder what THAT says about my thought proecesses?)

There was a scene that took place in a boat too – probably during the escape sequence. But I must admit, the dream was pretty bizarre, even for my standards!

On the Way…

I’m currently in elsaf‘s living room watching Mirrormask and typing on my laptop. And tomorrow morning, we’re off to Chicago to hang with hergrace & judiang at Judi’s apartment. Should be lots of fun. This weekend marks Judi’s birthday, too, so we’re bring presents for the soon-to-be birthday girl. 🙂

I think I remembered to bring everything that I needed to bring (yes, Judi, I remembered your presents). I fed Leo 2 days worth of food (which he had mostly eaten before I headed off to Elsa’s). The drive was uneventful (my favorite kind of drive) and I listened to Chumbawamba the whole way (their new album twice). And once I arrived, Elsa & I went out for Thai food. I had pad thai, as usual and Elsa had Drunken Noodles. Both were tasy.

The goal is to get up early in the morning and head off to Chi Town. We’re going to try & avoid the bad rush hour traffic. And once we arrive? Hopefully lots of fun, fun, fun! 🙂