Q: When you’re unemployed, how is the weekend different from the rest of the week?
A: Um…
Anyway, at least I had more company. Takaza had to work Thursday and Friday (and Monday and Tuesday of this week), so that left me to my own devices for those days, which was odd after having him around for the Christmas five-day weekend. I filled the time with a bit of hiking (I discovered a lovely new place for hiking – White Pines Natural Area, a lovely all-but-deserted area at the confluence of the Deep and Rocky Rivers. It’s a 45-minute drive from our house, but the walk was worth it: kind of hilly, nice flat stretches along the river banks, not a soul in sight. The temperature was in the low-40’s, perfect for a winter hike. Didn’t see much local fauna, probably because they heard me coming from miles away.
On Friday night, we did something a bit atypical for us: we went and hung out in bars 🙂 After shooting some darts at Hot Shots (our usual hangout), we walked next door ad grabbed a spot at the bar at MacGregor Ale House and found a new addiction: NTN Network trivia games. Pretty addictive, though unfortunately it was extremely smoky and afterwards I felt like I needed to fumigate all my clothes.
On Saturday we drove first down to Jordan Lake Dam, which I had stopped by on the way home from White Pines and thought Dan would like to see too. We took a bunch of pictures of the dam and the water rushing torrentially out of the spillway. The Haw River, which the spillway runs into, is actually at a higher level than the spillway exit. The water trying to flow into the spillway meets with the water rushing out and creates a tremendous froth which is simply awesome to stand next to and watch. Dan even took some short Quicktime movies showing the power of the water. Yeah, maybe it just appeals to the engineer geek in me, but I thought it was cool.
After visiting the dam, we drove up to Triangle Town Center and I got some pictures of their very furry Christmas decorations there, and we picked up a few small items. The alleged sales were rather underwhelming, though we picked up a couple of calendars at 50% off. I found my next book purchase – Cookwise, by Shirley Corriher. She’s the food scientist on Good Eats, and the book is fabulous. In the section I was reading, she described not just some good bread recipes, but what each ingredient did for the finished product, and the chemistry behind it. This is a book for me! It’ll have to wait until we have a bit more disposable income, though.
We drove around Raleigh for a bit looking for dinner after we left, and wound up going to Playmakers. We grabbed some dinner, enjoyed a drink at the bar, and played more NTN trivia. A nice way to end the evening.
And on Sunday? On Sunday we didn’t do anything. And it was good. (Candle-lit showers are good too. Oh yes. I recommend them.)
Got shopping to do today. Preparations for tomorrow’s New Year’s Party – need to make tomato sauce for the homemade pizzas we’re doing, and get stuff for the artichoke dip, too. Thomas is bringing his tiramisu, and Donald and Janelle are bringing some delicious champagne too. Yay! It’s a nice day out, so I’ll probably walk a bit too, and listen to some more Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.