(no subject)
Well it was a good weekend.
So Friday I took the day off and drove down to St Louis with childsplay and dkasak. Wait, let's back up here. So childsplay and I woke up in a timely fashion, packed our crap in a timely manner, waited downstairs for dkasak in a timely state, and oh crap, guess who was an hour and fifteen minutes late? Yeah, I kept saying, "don't rush it, Don's always late" but I guess Chuckie has less experience with that then I do. So of course, I call at noon because I said come at 11-12 and Don was leaving his apartment, heh. Go figure. Don finally got his shit together and came over, we hit Portillos on the way to get a whole chocolate cake and some lunch (a hot dog AND beef and cheddar croissant - whoa girl!) and hit the road at a little before 2, I believe. It was a boring drive, but I had my iPod full of songs, Don had a crossword puzzle, and Chuckie had to drive (poor baby) so we made it the four hours without going too nuts from the scenic view. (Oh look! A cornfield! Oh look! A billboard! Mooooo! That's a Pinto! Not the car, the horse. Look, a tractor! Yawn.)
Arrived in St Louis around 6 and dropped Don off in Laura's extremely small apartment which is conveniently located next door to a convicted child molester. Used her bathroom and Chuckie and I drove about 20 minutes to Jen and Rachael's new house. It was weird, because we'd be looking around and it'd be ghetto, nice, ghetto, nice, ghetto, nice, Bosnian area, Jen and Rachael's! Their house was cute, actually, and we dropped off our stuff and looked around. Here's what I thought:
Living room - very nice, the textured walls reminded me of Jen's mom's house in Arlington Heights, which is probably why Jen feels comfortable there. A little small, but it's a small house which is perfect for two people sharing a bedroom.
Dining room - I want that table. Which I was yelled at repeatedly for putting things down on, like glasses, etc. So maybe the table is not for me, but damn, it's nice.
Kitchen - nice, open kitchen with NO counter space, but I don't think they cook that much.
Bathroom - great bathroom, LOUSY location. It's between the kitchen and their bedroom, with a closing door leading to the kitchen and a sliding door leading to their bedroom. I'll explain why I hated going to the bathroom once I get to the upstairs. Oh, but if someone is sitting in the bedroom, they hear everything in the bathroom. This was not so bad until I came back from Hooters.
Bedroom - very nice. Not much to say.
Upstairs - this is where Chuckie and I got to set up shop and sleep. They had three birds at the time we came to visit (explanation to follow) and Jen had warned me that we'd be sleeping by the birds and I didn't mind, though I hate birds and find them to be dirty, disgusting creatures the same way my friend Lisa used to be repulsed by fish. So we had our air mattress set up by the cages. There is NO DOOR between the upstairs and the bedroom. This made going to the washroom difficult. Rachael's dog Oscar wakes up and barks if you walk down the stairs, and so poor Chuckie was struggling with too much alcohol in his system two nights in a row, and didn't think to pee before turning in. Oy.
When Chuckie and I were introduced to the birds, He sticks his finger right in Pixie the lovebird's cage and gets bitten. "Careful, she bites," Jen said a little too late and Puck, the I-Don't-Know-What-Kind-Of-Bird-He-Was starts laughing just like Rachael. That bird I liked. Then there was a completely boring white budgie named Cotton. I actually know a lot about Budgies (for those of you who haven't a clue, that's a Parakeet) because this lady who I will not tell ya'll how I knew her (let's just say the word "god" comes into play here) had 14 of them, so I can tell what sex they are, and that's all I want to know about birds.
Besides the three birds, they also have two dogs and three cats. I liked those just fine. Dogs and Cats I can understand, birds I just don't get. Need I relay my pigeon stories? Nah. I'll just continue with this boring one.
So when we got in Rach and Jen were hungry and so we went to a little neighborhood Mexican restaurant. The tamale I had was good, the enchilada was just okay, the hot sauce was not hot but I asked for hotter stuff and it was pretty good, the cheese dip was nothing special, but Jen loves it and the guacamole was just okay. Then again, I'm spoiled when it comes to Mexican food. I really wanted to go to a place where I knew they had good empanadas but they wanted to stay closer to home, I think, considering it was the Final Four weekend and we all wanted nothing to do with that crowd. Ate, went back to the apartment, and Jen took Chuckie and I to Novak's and Rachael couldn't come because she lost her ID after putting her wallet on top of her truck at a gas station in Alabama (where she's from). Gay bar, lotsa lesbians, a few gays guys, and I swear, Chuckie had to either look like the ugliest woman in there or just about the most masculine thing anyone had ever seen. Had three vodka-cranberries (mostly cranberry), a shot of Wild Turkey (first time for me), a shot of Jager, and then we went home. Jen's eyes were bugging her because they're always dry and she's got prescription eye drops for them and everything. This happened after she got lasix (sp?) and I guess because of her rheumatory arthritis (why yes she IS 25!) her eyes got broken or something. It's awful. I'd hate to go through that. Went home, passed out. The room was spinning a bit for me, but not too bad.
Next morning we got to go to a bird show! Ah, what a delightful treat for someone who hates birds as much as I do! So yeah, we walk in and paid the six dollar cover charge or whatever and Chuckie noted that there was a show in Chicago Heights or something, and I make a comment like "god, what a crummy area to have a bird show in" and in the thickest hillbilly twang I've ever heard the guy responds with "yup - we tell our patrons not to leave the premises". Okay, had to be there, but still, I was saying that, like, all day. Walked around and looked at birds. Yay. No big birds, except for three baby ones that were absolutely hideous and crapping themselves senseless. A few neat looking small ones I'd never seen before. So Jen and Rach fall in love with a two month old blue budgie boy. They want it, we can tell, but claim they can't afford it. So they're toying with the idea and we tell them we'll buy them the cage. So now they're all over it, pick out the cage they wanted, put the bird in the cage, and we got to leave - yay! Oh, there were some cute little Yorkie-Chiuwauwa puppies at the show. But who cares, right? Went back, dropped Rachael off with the bird, went with Jen to Hooters, she began to grow very ill and sneezy - annoyingly so. It's not annoying to sneeze or be sick, it's the way you handle it. We were at Sam's Club buying meat for dinner and she was just gone. I told her we should take her home and we'd finish up the grocery shopping at the Try 'n Save (yes, I know it's Shop 'n Save, but I say it that way). When she got in the car, she goes "I need to call Rachael and get sympathy". So she calls and goes "Rach, I'm sick" and if that were me on the other end of the line I'd probably have been tempted to say "so what do you want me to do about it?" So yeah, Chuckie and I gladly dropped her at home and went to the Try 'n Save and got the remainder of the groceries we needed and went back. Jen seemed better now that she was home, and walked around the kitchen to give me various items I needed to make dinner, as people were coming over that night.
So dinner. Yeah, I screwed up the potatoes, which sucked (they were LUMPY) but the roast was good, the asparagus was good, the garlic bread was good (that's just too easy) and what else? Oh, there was a veggie lasagna someone made and brought because Jen and Rachael's friend was a veg-head. Dinner was good, Jen got extremely cheap on us at Sam's Club when I was buying meat. See, it costs money to feed eight people, but I think she thought we could do it on $40 total. I understand she and Rachael work for non-for-profit so we picked up the tab, but we did it a lot, so I guess I don't feel too guilty for not cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. Don and Laura came by, all fresh and happy from their day together, so that was cool. I was happy to see them considering Jen was driving me up the wall with her cold.
And then Sunday we had brunch and took off for home. Ah, home. I feel bad that Don had to leave Laura, but damn, I think we were happy to go home.
And now, back to work and month-end crap that I desperately need to catch up on. Boooo!
So Friday I took the day off and drove down to St Louis with childsplay and dkasak. Wait, let's back up here. So childsplay and I woke up in a timely fashion, packed our crap in a timely manner, waited downstairs for dkasak in a timely state, and oh crap, guess who was an hour and fifteen minutes late? Yeah, I kept saying, "don't rush it, Don's always late" but I guess Chuckie has less experience with that then I do. So of course, I call at noon because I said come at 11-12 and Don was leaving his apartment, heh. Go figure. Don finally got his shit together and came over, we hit Portillos on the way to get a whole chocolate cake and some lunch (a hot dog AND beef and cheddar croissant - whoa girl!) and hit the road at a little before 2, I believe. It was a boring drive, but I had my iPod full of songs, Don had a crossword puzzle, and Chuckie had to drive (poor baby) so we made it the four hours without going too nuts from the scenic view. (Oh look! A cornfield! Oh look! A billboard! Mooooo! That's a Pinto! Not the car, the horse. Look, a tractor! Yawn.)
Arrived in St Louis around 6 and dropped Don off in Laura's extremely small apartment which is conveniently located next door to a convicted child molester. Used her bathroom and Chuckie and I drove about 20 minutes to Jen and Rachael's new house. It was weird, because we'd be looking around and it'd be ghetto, nice, ghetto, nice, ghetto, nice, Bosnian area, Jen and Rachael's! Their house was cute, actually, and we dropped off our stuff and looked around. Here's what I thought:
Living room - very nice, the textured walls reminded me of Jen's mom's house in Arlington Heights, which is probably why Jen feels comfortable there. A little small, but it's a small house which is perfect for two people sharing a bedroom.
Dining room - I want that table. Which I was yelled at repeatedly for putting things down on, like glasses, etc. So maybe the table is not for me, but damn, it's nice.
Kitchen - nice, open kitchen with NO counter space, but I don't think they cook that much.
Bathroom - great bathroom, LOUSY location. It's between the kitchen and their bedroom, with a closing door leading to the kitchen and a sliding door leading to their bedroom. I'll explain why I hated going to the bathroom once I get to the upstairs. Oh, but if someone is sitting in the bedroom, they hear everything in the bathroom. This was not so bad until I came back from Hooters.
Bedroom - very nice. Not much to say.
Upstairs - this is where Chuckie and I got to set up shop and sleep. They had three birds at the time we came to visit (explanation to follow) and Jen had warned me that we'd be sleeping by the birds and I didn't mind, though I hate birds and find them to be dirty, disgusting creatures the same way my friend Lisa used to be repulsed by fish. So we had our air mattress set up by the cages. There is NO DOOR between the upstairs and the bedroom. This made going to the washroom difficult. Rachael's dog Oscar wakes up and barks if you walk down the stairs, and so poor Chuckie was struggling with too much alcohol in his system two nights in a row, and didn't think to pee before turning in. Oy.
When Chuckie and I were introduced to the birds, He sticks his finger right in Pixie the lovebird's cage and gets bitten. "Careful, she bites," Jen said a little too late and Puck, the I-Don't-Know-What-Kind-Of-Bird-He-Was starts laughing just like Rachael. That bird I liked. Then there was a completely boring white budgie named Cotton. I actually know a lot about Budgies (for those of you who haven't a clue, that's a Parakeet) because this lady who I will not tell ya'll how I knew her (let's just say the word "god" comes into play here) had 14 of them, so I can tell what sex they are, and that's all I want to know about birds.
Besides the three birds, they also have two dogs and three cats. I liked those just fine. Dogs and Cats I can understand, birds I just don't get. Need I relay my pigeon stories? Nah. I'll just continue with this boring one.
So when we got in Rach and Jen were hungry and so we went to a little neighborhood Mexican restaurant. The tamale I had was good, the enchilada was just okay, the hot sauce was not hot but I asked for hotter stuff and it was pretty good, the cheese dip was nothing special, but Jen loves it and the guacamole was just okay. Then again, I'm spoiled when it comes to Mexican food. I really wanted to go to a place where I knew they had good empanadas but they wanted to stay closer to home, I think, considering it was the Final Four weekend and we all wanted nothing to do with that crowd. Ate, went back to the apartment, and Jen took Chuckie and I to Novak's and Rachael couldn't come because she lost her ID after putting her wallet on top of her truck at a gas station in Alabama (where she's from). Gay bar, lotsa lesbians, a few gays guys, and I swear, Chuckie had to either look like the ugliest woman in there or just about the most masculine thing anyone had ever seen. Had three vodka-cranberries (mostly cranberry), a shot of Wild Turkey (first time for me), a shot of Jager, and then we went home. Jen's eyes were bugging her because they're always dry and she's got prescription eye drops for them and everything. This happened after she got lasix (sp?) and I guess because of her rheumatory arthritis (why yes she IS 25!) her eyes got broken or something. It's awful. I'd hate to go through that. Went home, passed out. The room was spinning a bit for me, but not too bad.
Next morning we got to go to a bird show! Ah, what a delightful treat for someone who hates birds as much as I do! So yeah, we walk in and paid the six dollar cover charge or whatever and Chuckie noted that there was a show in Chicago Heights or something, and I make a comment like "god, what a crummy area to have a bird show in" and in the thickest hillbilly twang I've ever heard the guy responds with "yup - we tell our patrons not to leave the premises". Okay, had to be there, but still, I was saying that, like, all day. Walked around and looked at birds. Yay. No big birds, except for three baby ones that were absolutely hideous and crapping themselves senseless. A few neat looking small ones I'd never seen before. So Jen and Rach fall in love with a two month old blue budgie boy. They want it, we can tell, but claim they can't afford it. So they're toying with the idea and we tell them we'll buy them the cage. So now they're all over it, pick out the cage they wanted, put the bird in the cage, and we got to leave - yay! Oh, there were some cute little Yorkie-Chiuwauwa puppies at the show. But who cares, right? Went back, dropped Rachael off with the bird, went with Jen to Hooters, she began to grow very ill and sneezy - annoyingly so. It's not annoying to sneeze or be sick, it's the way you handle it. We were at Sam's Club buying meat for dinner and she was just gone. I told her we should take her home and we'd finish up the grocery shopping at the Try 'n Save (yes, I know it's Shop 'n Save, but I say it that way). When she got in the car, she goes "I need to call Rachael and get sympathy". So she calls and goes "Rach, I'm sick" and if that were me on the other end of the line I'd probably have been tempted to say "so what do you want me to do about it?" So yeah, Chuckie and I gladly dropped her at home and went to the Try 'n Save and got the remainder of the groceries we needed and went back. Jen seemed better now that she was home, and walked around the kitchen to give me various items I needed to make dinner, as people were coming over that night.
So dinner. Yeah, I screwed up the potatoes, which sucked (they were LUMPY) but the roast was good, the asparagus was good, the garlic bread was good (that's just too easy) and what else? Oh, there was a veggie lasagna someone made and brought because Jen and Rachael's friend was a veg-head. Dinner was good, Jen got extremely cheap on us at Sam's Club when I was buying meat. See, it costs money to feed eight people, but I think she thought we could do it on $40 total. I understand she and Rachael work for non-for-profit so we picked up the tab, but we did it a lot, so I guess I don't feel too guilty for not cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. Don and Laura came by, all fresh and happy from their day together, so that was cool. I was happy to see them considering Jen was driving me up the wall with her cold.
And then Sunday we had brunch and took off for home. Ah, home. I feel bad that Don had to leave Laura, but damn, I think we were happy to go home.
And now, back to work and month-end crap that I desperately need to catch up on. Boooo!