Yes, it’s time for another patented Duncan weekend catch-up post!

First off, thank you all very much for all of the kind birthday wishes on Friday – they were all very much appreciated. As predicted, I met up with roho, genet, and feren for tapas after work on Friday. And indeed, much sangria was consumed, and it was quite tasty! The tapas were not bad, but not the best I’ve had, either. The paella with chicken and chorizo was mighty tasty, though! After dinner we headed up to Antioch, where I spent the night once again abusing Roho and Genet’s hospitality.

Saturday started off wonderfully with breakfast at the Las Vegas Restaurant in Antioch. I always order the Vegas Skillet there – tasty fried potatoes, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and cheese, with scrambled eggs on top. Yum! Heart attack on a plate 🙂 From there, it was over to North Chicago – just a few blocks from where I work, as a matter of fact – to help datahawk‘s grandmother move. We had the help of Data, Data’s mom, posicat (of course), tybis, samiitiger, taren_, infinitysquared, and kryssaira. We started at 11 (-ish) and wrapped up right around 7 PM. Wow, that was a long day. It was a pleasure to meet folks who I haven’t really spent much time around, and in spite of some of the difficulties of hauling stuff around, a good time was had by most. The only drawback is I wound up breathing a whole lot of mold as we worked on emptying the basement, and it kind of screwed up my breathing. I feel better today, but still not quite 100%. I’m sure it’ll pass, though. After we wrapped everything up, we had a fun dinner at Gojo’s in Waukegan. I had hoped to swing by Capricon and be sociable there, but I was far too tired so I just headed home for the night.

On Sunday I got something of an early start and decided to walk up to Tre Kronor for a nice breakfast and perusals of the Sunday Trib. Then I walked (in the rain, bleah) the six blocks or so to the terminus of the Brown Line. I took that down to the Orange Line, all the way out to Midway. There, I picked up Linnaeus‘s car that he had left there when he flew down to North Carolina to help takaza drive up. After I got home, I was feeling pretty lousy – chest congestion, and my knee was telling me what a moron I was for doing all that work the day before. A little cough syrup and some ibuprofen helped, slightly, but I’m afraid I was very little help when Paul and Dan rolled in around 3 PM and carried the stuff up from The Box. I was very happy to see Dan, though, and that made me feel a lot better. We ordered pizza for dinner and generally lazed about until we stumbled off to bed around 9:30.

As for today, it sounds like Dan got to his new job with plenty of time to spare. Maybe he’ll tell you all about it if he ever posts to his LJ {poke, poke}. I’m planning on making a stop by Bank One to finalize all of our paperwork and get our accounts there in order, Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up a few bathroom items (like a towel rack), and Jewel to stock up on groceries. It’s back into boring domestic life we go. I couldn’t be happier.

I would be remiss if I didn’t note that today is Valentine’s Day. A word to those of you who aren’t big fans of the holiday: Remember that no one ever said the cards, flowers, and other trappings are required. In fact, even a significant other is not required. Instead, think of this day as a reminder to tell those in your life who you care about how much they mean to you. Your family, your friends, whoever. It’s too easy to take those around us for granted. Even if it’s just “thanks for being a friend” you’ll have made someone’s day a little brighter.

To all of my friends, know that you are very special to me, and I feel incredibly lucky to have you all in my life. And to Dan…well, you already know how I feel. I don’t need any special day to tell you I love you 🙂