Monday was another very busy work day. I don't quite know what is going on, but boy is it busy. I suppose that is a good thing, maybe it's an indication of the economy picking back up.
After work on Monday I hung out with Troy and watched him play more Dragon Age. It's really well written. I find myself asking him about plot and character points I've missed, much like a missed episode of a television show and I need to catch up.
Tuesday evening I hung out with VK. We had dinner and then headed out to see the meteor shower. I found as dark a location as you are likely to find in the Omaha metro. The sky was hazy, but clear. VK and I got the blanket on and lay on the hood of the car watching the sky. We were rewarded with exactly ONE meteor in 30 to 40 minutes of watching. Grrr! I'm going to Montana for the next meteor shower.
Wednesday was another busy day at work. I decided at lunch to go to Hy-Vee. I almost got hit three times, twice by the same car. I was happy to be back at work just for safety's sake.
After work I went over to game night at Kaleb's. People were once again waiting outside, but this time he really wasn't home. Once inside I snacked on Maeg's fries and we played Mall of Horror. This was yet another zombie game that turned out to be fairly interesting. The link above calls it a game of "negotiation". Negotiation was a factor, but it seemed to me, with only one play, to be a game of position. The players furthest from the first player really had a tough time. Maeg and I stuck together, and she ended up winning. At a certain point our 'teamwork' broke down, though there wasn't much she could have done to help me, it was my position on the table.
The other game we played was Arabian Nights. I am hoping to play this one again ... if not again and again and again. It was an adventure / storytelling game. I have already achieved legendary status in the game without actually finishing it. I left early, and felt bad about it. I hope we get together sometime soon again to play it.
Thursday was yet another day, so we'll skip right ahead to...
Friday! At work I found myself to be the winner of a holiday turkey give away. That will help feed us at VK's holiday extravaganza. After work I took it over to VK's house in order for it to thaw in time for Thanksgiving. VK and I hung out and had dinner.
Then I had to run downtown in order to make it in time for Jillian's birthday jam. I almost managed to sneak into the door and into the circle before she saw I was there, but no such luck. Still it was a good time dancing. Jillian was in town for just a few days. I have no pictures to document the event, Matt was not there, Maeg has not posted, and I don't have any idea how to get to Lee's pictures.
Saturday dawned and it was the big moving day for Matt and Vivian. I got up and attempted to hurry over to help pack the truck. I had no such luck at all. I couldn't find my work gloves (I found them later as I was pulling in from finishing the work), so I went over to Menard's to buy some new ones. At the front of the checkout line was a lady writing a check, and evidently having trouble comprehending that writing a check can be done in less than seven minutes. Finally I had my merchandise and went to Burger King where I was confronted by another conundrum.
Well for me, it really wasn't a conundrum at all. I wanted to get an order of french toast sticks. I looked at the value menu, and you could get an order of three for $1.00, and then I looked at the regular menu, and saw you can get an order of five for $2.20. A few minutes later I rolled out of BK with six french toast sticks and a smug attitude.
Moving Matt and Vivian out of their apartment seemed like less of a chore than it was moving them in. I was behind one oddity. Remembering what a chore it was getting the couch up the stairs and into the apartment, I was determined to have none of that tomfoolery on the way out. We lowered it over the side of the deck to the ground.
It took just two minutes this way and no one swore or sweated. Photo credit: Matt
In between places, Matt and Vivian picked up a couch and love seat, a washer and dryer, and a huge fridge. Thanks to having a large number of people there to help, it all went very quickly.
The new couch came up the back deck. Photo credit: Matt
The major leftover issue was that the new fridge was too wide to get up the interior stairs, or even up the back. We had to have the doors taken off to come up the stairs. Naturally the tools were nowhere to be found. Finally we got it all done! We all settled in for our pay ... pizza, and watched Matt and Vivian have their first dance in the new house.
First house, first dance
After the moving was mostly done, I headed back to the apartment for my date night with VK. I put on my suit on, picked out my purple tie, and headed over to Lo Sole Mio for dinner. Sometimes, people plan things out, and those plans don't go quite right, but it turns out really well anyways. VK forgot the symphony tickets, and had to turn around and get them. Now, I'm not pointing fingers, because I left concert tickets in Ogden, Utah once, and didn't discover it until my friend had driven us all the way to South Salt Lake. However the symphony was at 8:00pm and we couldn't have gotten seated at Lo Sole Mio until around 7:00pm. That part of the plan was shot.
So, we improvised. We met and drove downtown, parked her car at her work, and walked over to Michael's Mexican restaurant and got an appetizer. Which we finished while watching the first part of the Husker game, then we headed over to the symphony with plenty of time to spare. This was the best 'art event' I've seen in Omaha since Midsummers Night Dream at Shakespeare on the Green in 1998. The show was "Patriotic Celebration" and it featured many American themed songs, three male soloists, the symphony, and a large combined choir (featuring VK's sister). I enjoyed it greatly. After the show, we decided to try for dinner, as we drove downtown, there was an open spot at M's Pub. A sign? Heck yeah, a stop sign. So we stopped. Ryan who I know from jitterbugs was the host, and we ran into one of my roommate Tim's best friends, Amy. In the course of a couple hours it went from possible disaster to magical evening. I like that, and VK looked terrific.
Sunday I got up and got to church! Yes, it deserves an exclamation point. I need to be back in the habit. After church I went and got Troy, and we went out to lunch at Chipotle. He used foursquare to check himself in, hmmm. After lunch we hung out while he played some Dragon Age. I left and went home, was bored, and discovered that Kongregate has a Dragon Age flash game. I immediately started playing, but was interrupted by the start of the Bears game.
I met Joe and Frank over at DJs Dugout to watch the game. We got the "Frank, Joe, and Eric Memorial Table" in front of screen 41. They sat down, and immediately checked in on foursquare, hmmm. CJ showed up a little later, and immediately checked in on foursquare, hmmm. "That's enough!" I cried and set up a foursquare account for myself using my iPhone. I then checked in to foursquare myself. At least I was sitting with the mayor of DJs Dugout.
The game was a little less spectacular. Of course I can't tell what the season would be like if we kept our draft picks and not traded quarterbacks with Denver, but this quarterback seems to be part of the problem, not part of the solution. The best part of the evening was screen 40, it was showing the MLS championship, and there were a bunch of soccer fans (why, I don't know) with accents yelling at everything that was going on.
This next week I will get my camera working.
Happy Thanksgiving!
