…and I’m stuck inside all day. It figures.
Saturday was almost what I’d hoped for: a nice, lazy day around the house. takaza got us motivated around 2 PM, though, and we went out looking for ceramic tile stores for possibilities for the kitchen backsplash. The two places I knew of turned out to be closed, of course, but we did walk through Lowe’s and a carpet/tile place where the salesman ignored us completely (he had to be gay – what straight man would ever wear a black turtleneck?) I’ve got a line on some other places, though. I’m looking for someplace that has lots of sample boards set up so we can evaluate some different design possibilities, then we’ll buy a couple of sample tiles and see how the colors work in the kitchen.
Anyway, after that we stopped by Target, CompUSA (bleah – high prices), and K Mart, where I was reminded of why K Mart is in Chapter 11 – dirty parking lot, dingy store, surly help, and lousy products. We did buy a crosscut paper shredder, though, since I’ve been getting paranoid about all the credit card solicitations and such that we receive getting fished out of the trash, even though I tear them up before disposing of them. Naturally, after we bought it at K Mart, Dan saw an ad in a Target circular on Sunday witht he same thing for $10 cheaper.
Anyway, Donald and Janelle invited us over for dinner, and we spent the rest of the evening with them and Thomas, chatting and noshing. Whee!
Sunday was just fabulous. A group of nine of us took a three-mile hike out at Jordan Lake. It was a gorgeous day – blue skies, temps near 70. Dan was in shorts, but then he figures anything above 50 degrees is shorts weather. He’s weird, but I love him π Anyway, the walk was mainly through conifer forests with a small scattering of what appeared to be oak and tulip trees. The combination of a heavy coating of pine needles and leaves and the fact that the trail isn’t apparently heavily-used made navigating a bit more interesting than usual; after a bit of losing the trail, I wound up taking the lead (lead dog and all that…) and keeping an eye out for the trail blazes. And as a bonus, we got to hang out with Cliff, the spastic husky!
Afterwards, we hung out over at Donald and Janelle’s house and made grillables and things that are bad for us (mmm, mushrooms sauteed in garlic and butter…). I sauteed up some peppers and onions to go with some grilled Italian sausage, and life was good. The usual Sunday night gaming session was to follow (there’s a group of about eight of us who have a weekly Mage game running) and I announced I was dropping out. It’s unfortunate, but I’ve missed a lot of games since last September due to commitment ceremony and convention planning, and in the time away I found I didn’t much care what was going on with the game or my character. Rob put it best: he’d rather have people either in or out, not halfway in, dragging down the group. Everyone took it well, so it’s cool. I’ll probably still show up on Sunday nights since there’s a couple folks who don’t game but just hang out, chat, and play other games like Fluxx and stuff. Plus, that gives Dan some time alone at home every week, which is also good – I love being with him, but there’s also times that it’s good to be apart.
There’s more to ramble about, but for now I’m off to get some work done…