All in all, the weekend was great. Thursday night Dave came up from Milwaukee and we took him out for his birthday dinner. We tried the new Italian restaurant that the Victoria family just opened (a bit down the street from Victoria’s.) The food was essentially the same so it was really yummy. We had a bottle of Chianti (no liver or fava beans though) which was also delicious.

More good news on the Australian front: my passport arrived on Friday. Woohoo! All I’m missing now is the visa. Jon better hurry up and apply for his passport soon, dammit. Even if I keep pestering him about it I’m sure he’s going to have to get it expedited. :\

The guys and I played Stepmania in the evening and I was appalled at how much skill I’d lost in the month or two that I haven’t played. I wouldn’t say I sucked by any means but I sure wasn’t nearly as good as I once was. I worked up a good sweat though, and after showering I watched Jon play Dungeon Siege for awhile and I fell asleep on the loveseat. Jon asked if I wanted to keep sleeping there or go home and I mumbled something about “mmgoinhome…” to which he replied “oh, just stay put.” So after he went to bed I moved to the full size couch and passed out.

I got up at a decent time on Saturday and stopped off at an auto parts store to get some car paint (I’d managed to scratch the rear passenger side door loading my computer in the night before :\ )…the employees were all rednecks who looked like hardcore NASCAR fans. shudder I went to my parents’ house for a bit, then returned back to my place to wash my car. While I was home, I told my dad about the spider that lives behind my sideview mirrors that builds a web from the mirror to the door every day (no matter how many times I destroy the web it’s always back the next day.) He suggested trying to blow the spider out using an air compressor…we thought we’d give that spider the ride of its life but there was no evidence of it when we blasted the shit out of the back of the mirror. (The next morning the web was back, bigger and stronger than ever. DAMMIT!) Anyhow, I touched up the paint in several places, so all is good for now, except for that spider. :-(

I rollerbladed in the park in the afternoon and was interrupted by a parade of Seventh Day Adventists. Geez. They’ve temporarily taken over our town with this camporee thing being held at the airport, so there’s no escaping them. Yikes is all I have to say about that. Dave was feeling good enough to get together so we headed over to Jon’s later in the evening. (Dave got his wisdom teeth yanked out on Friday.) Unsure of what to do, we decided to go rent some movies, so we got American Splendor (interesting idea but slightly meh) and Bowling For Columbine (which I had never seen before and thoroughly enjoyed despite Dave’s running commentary on the inconsistencies and inaccuracies. I think it’s especially funny when people get disgusted and just up and walk away from Michael Moore when he’s still talking..,though one has to wonder just how much of that is staged.) I stayed up till about 4 AM crocheting, then passed out on Jon’s couch again. :3

Sunday was much like Saturday…rollerblading in the afternoon, a bit of crocheting, then getting together with the guys again. We headed up to Green Bay and Hiroko made us curried rice for dinner at Ben’s house. She was trying to get rid of food stuffles before she moves to Seattle, so we gladly partook…it was delicious. Jon took her bed and futon frame home in the trailer and we unloaded it and rearranged his room to fit things in. I had some ice cream then went home. Crocheted more. Didn’t sleep enough.

Monday was about the most suck-tastic day I’ve had in a long time. There was nothing really specific that made it shit, but I was in a horribly pissy mood all day. Every little thing was just annoying me to no end, including the funeral convoy that I had to wait for when I left work to get lunch. Ross came online while I was gone and dropped offline the second I returned to my desk, which really frustrated me because there was nothing more that I wanted than to be able to talk to him. Luckily he came back a bit later on, and I think his mere presence kept me from doing anything rash. I wasn’t directing any of my frustration towards him but I felt like I still was indirectly by complaining so much. I have a tendency to feel really horrible when I act really irritated when talking to people who are not the cause of my irritation, like they don’t deserve to have all this negative energy hanging around them. I feel a bit guilty, and I do apologize for it, despite how many times Ross tells me to never apologize for being myself. I still feel like I’m being really unfair when I act that way when a) there’s no particular reason for it and b) I’m well aware of how I’m behaving and could stop if I really tried. Sometimes it’s just so much easier to be whiny and complain about stuff. I guess everyone feels that way at times, and it’s far better to let it out than to let it fester inside. sigh In any case, a nap and an evening of crocheting cured me of that mood…it would have been nice to rollerblade but it was raining. Oh well. Must give my body a bit of rest sometimes.

I’ve been downloading and watching episodes of The Upright Citizens Brigade and Kids in the Hall to keep me entertained while crocheting. UCB is very interesting…I’d never seen it before but it pulled me in from the start. There’s a dude on the show who has excessively poofy hair (he’s of course the skinny geeky tech guy) and I find myself unable to not drool a bit. :-D Heh. I’m trying to get ahold of Monty Python’s Flying Circus since I’ve never seen that either.

Which reminds me, my parents finally got cable internet yesterday. whew So I’ll at least have broadband of some flavor when I move back with them. I’m thinking of getting an LCD monitor to replace the huge ass CRT I have, but that’ll surely have to wait until I have saved up a bit more cash given that I’ve just blown over 3 grand on the tickets to Australia. Several of my work colleagues are convinced I’m going to devise a way to stay in Australia and never come back. I find this quite interesting and funny since I don’t really talk about Aus all that much at work. I guess they just can see it in my eyes when I do talk about it, how important this trip is to me.