sarea | What I get up to on the weekends.

Friday:

ropo,

jade_okelani and I got me officially moved out of the condo. Meaning, the last of my crap was either thrown away or moved to the new place, whichever was appropriate/convenient. This is excellent, as I can now hire cleaning services and get it in shape for selling. There will no doubt be many future entries about the stress of the sale of the condo.

Saturday: Met with

leiliaxf and

corianderstem for Polynesian food, which was yummy. We played games like Celebrity Taboo and Apples to Apples, which was of course totally dorky and fun. I have a ton of board games, but of course I don't play them when I'm by myself. After Corianderstem went home Sharon treated us to one of her belly dance routines. OMG SHE IS LIKE, TEH SEXAY. She's in a troupe and everything, but I've never seen her perform. She wasn't even wearing her normal costume or anything, just regular clothes. I can't imagine how impressive it would be if she were wearing her new costume. Yowza. To quote Roy Schneider, I was like, "I am so lesbian right now."

Sunday: Had brunch at Chinooks with Julie and

romanticalgirl. Have I mentioned their scones with orange-marmalade butter ROCKS? Because they do. Afterward was led all around Washington State by Laura, who claimed to be taking us to various Half-Price Books, but there was nary a one. (Okay, they closed their Shoreline and Lynnwood locations, for some reason.) We did manage to wearily get to Cost Plus, where we bought imported chocolate to revive us. And get mani/pedis. There was also shopping at Target, though I did not end up buying House S1 there. (I ordered it later online, so one day soon I will know what the heck you all on my flist are talking about.)

Then Robbie got a visit from Aunt Flo, suxors to be her, so Jade and I had Mongolian BBQ with Laura and her family for dinner. I used to have Mongolian BBQ all the time when I was in college, and I miss it so. It's just so YUMMY. Anyway, it was delicious, though I went totally overboard on my first round. Old habits die hard, I guess, so I put way too much food into my first bowl and didn't have room in my tummy for seconds. (Though I ate a frightening amount from that first plate, considering how large it was.) There was a point when Laura and her hubby went to get their second round (because they're smart, you see), and left me and Jade with their almost-two-year-old (I think), and their four-year-old. Now, as you all know, I'm not very good with kids. Usually when I encounter small children in public, it's like, instant birth control for me. But Laura's kids are totally adorable. And well behaved. I could have kids if I had kids like hers, but you know I would get a demon child or something. Anyway, so Jade and I are there with the kids. I'm at one end of the table with the 4yo, she's at the other end with the a2yo. And boy, am I glad that was the case. This was the subsequent scene:

a2yo: *begins to get perturbed that parental figures are nowhere around*
Jade: It's okay, it's okay. Don't worry!

4yo: I have big muscles.
Me: I can see that.

a2yo: *scrunches face in preparation to wail*
Jade: Oh, no.

4yo: I have a lot of stuffed animals.
Me: Really? Like what?
4yo: I have a giant snake from Ikea.
Me: Cooooool.

a2yo: Waaaaahhhh!
Jade: Shh, shhh, it's okay.

4yo: Sometimes I cry when I fall out of my bed and hurt myself. Did you cry when you were little and fell?
Me: Dude, I still cry when I fall and hurt myself.
4yo: Want some of my root beer?
Me: Okay.

a2yo: Waaaaahhhh! Waaahhhhh!
Jade: *picks him up* *soothes comfortingly*

4yo: I'm almost done with my food.
Me: That's very impressive.
4yo: Yeah. Are you going to finish all those noodles?
Me: Probably not. I got too many.
4yo: You don't want to get a tummyache?
Me: Yeah, that's it. I don't want to get a tummyache. A little too late, though.
4yo: Why's he crying?
Me: I dunno. Probably misses your mom and dad.
4yo: Oh.

a2yo: WAAAAAAAHHHHH!
Jade: I think I'm going to take you to Mommy and Daddy.

I'm ever so glad I got the easy one. <g> He's so precious, too -- in the middle of dinner he suddenly said to Laura, "Mommy, thank you for inviting me to dinner." OMG SO CUTE. Anyway, Jade has more experience with babies/small children, so it's best that she got the baby. After dinner we went back to Laura's, and while Jade, Laura, and Laura's hubby played fancy adult board games, I played with the 4yo (names of the innocent protected!). Want to know what we played? You will be so jealous. We played ... Lego Star Wars on Xbox! YES!! I didn't even know there was such a thing. It's totally Episode 1, 2, and 3 allllll in Legos, and you control them and make them do stuff. You have light sabers and everything. There's even a pregnant Padme, which I sadly did not get to see that night.

Monday: Slept until 3pm. Did not go to Ikea as planned (woe). However, we did go to this pub near my house (yes, they proclaim it to be a pub) for all-you-can-eat dungeness crab night. You know what? No one should have all-you-can-eat anything. That's all I have to say. Also it ruined my manicure. Then we did an early bday celebration for me and Jade, since it'll be the only time we'll all be together around our bdays. I got to give Jade the awesome Luke/Lorelai drawing that I commissioned from

tiny_q (it is sooooo goooooood). I'm sure she'll post it on her site soon, so I can link then. Jade and Robbie got me South Park shorts and ... XBOX LEGO STAR WARS!!!!!!!! Squeeee! Now I'll get to see pregnant!Lego!Padme!!! Laura swears it's the funniest thing she's ever seen. I believe her.

Went to bed at 4am and am now paying the price. *thunk*

~.~

Random things:

1) I hate Robbie's sister Michele for introducing me to lululemon and letting me wear her workout jacket, because now I want one. And there's a lululemon store at Bellevue Square! Oh no! I don't even deserve it. I'm not a triathlon-doing, marathon-running, health nut like Michele. I don't need nice workout clothes. But it was so comfortable and looked so gooooood.

2) I have finally seen the clip of Ryan and Rachel's big smooch from the MTV Movie Awards. And Jade read in People that they're now dating!! Mwahahaha! It was so the smooch that did it. It was hot, man. They're my new favorite celebrity couple, though unlike Brad/Jen I don't actually harbor any hope that they'll last. We all know it's a temporary lust thing. Still, I hope they do at least one more movie together, as they are smoking on screen. Witness: this and this and this. Sheesh. That is SO when they fell in lust. <g>

3) While at HPB I got Fire Me Up by Katie Macallister, which is the sequel to You Slay Me, the series about Aisling Grey and her wyvern mate, Drake. I really, really want to love these books. I adore the premise. But there is just something about KA's writing that I don't really like, and her heroine annoys me. It's like this love/hate thing when I pick up the book to read it. Sigh.

4) Alliance has gotten better at WSG. I haven't played very much the past couple of weeks, and when I have, they've actually won a couple of games. This is virtually unheard of. I'm not sure if I like this new development or not. It makes for a more fun game, yes, but it also makes it harder to get honor and rank up. <g> Jade wants to get Sergeant this week, and I just want to maintain my rank. I should be able to maintain my Sergeant status, but am unsure about Jade ranking up, since we haven't played much. I hope for her sake that she does, because being a Grunt is lame.

5) I need a new desk. The old one won't fit through the doorway of the 'office' (which was the problem also when I moved from the studio to the condo), and right now I'm using this long folding table that's doing the job, but is not a permanent solution.

6) Vonage ROCKS. It was incredibly easy to set up. We did a test and it sounds just like a normal telephone, nothing weird about the line at all. Woohoo!

7) After Jade and Robbie leave I need to start packing for my trip to the east coast and also start reading all the books I have that I haven't read. I am determined to cull them by hauff.

8) We saw "Red Eye," which was a fairly decent suspense/thriller. Plus I love Rachel, so seeing her performance is already worth the price of admission.

9) Does anyone know if you can get chocolate-covered hazelnuts by Caburys in the U.S. or online? I love those things, but I don't think they sell them here. :(

10) I want to go hoooooooome.