Adventures in the Colonial 'burg: September 2009

Monday, September 28, 2009

Fame!

Corbett's mother was visiting last week, so much of the time was spent touring around the area. She had been here before, and had seen most of the colonial 'burg itself, so we had to figure out what to do this time. Since her flight arrived late Tuesday night and at a different airport due to a missed connection, she had no luggage, so the first stop was at WalMart (sadly I had to go into this place for the first time in years, but alas, nothing else was open at this hour...I will be happy to say that I did not purchase anything). Wednesday was low key; I worked and they shopped in case her luggage didn't make it (which it did).

The touristy things we did though were Jamestown and Yorktown, which I find entertaining, so I was happy to do those again (and it's free for us residents). Other than that it was mostly relaxed visiting time. We rented Tropic Thunder (first half of the movie: awesome, second half of the movie, it got really horrible), and watched several movies we own (Connie and Carla, Wall-E), and went to see Fame! at the theater on Saturday (it was good, but not spectacular).

So for the most part the visit was relaxing, even if sleep was lost for much of it. She left yesterday very early in the morning, and I slept in. The whole day was one of decompressing, which always must happen when a visitor leaves, as you well know.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Heart Attack

What better way to start off a Monday morning than to give your sister a heart attack? There is none.

I've been collecting CDs of French lessons for my sister, and will burn them to a CD to send to her, and I would like to put them on a DVD so I had to make sure her computer had a DVD drive. Email is sometimes too slow for my tastes, and so I planned to call her yesterday (and well, it'd been a while since I talked to her). Things got in the way of that though, so I did not call her. Instead I called her at work this morning. Apparently, when you never call someone at her work and are a family member, I think there's a panic that sets it, and for the first few "How are you?"s, she had that sound in her voice of "What the hell is wrong?!?"

Now I get to continue with my day.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Dog bed

Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I will finish my dog bed for Dante. I have tried to describe it to several people to no avail, and so it just has to be finished before I can show everyone what it'll look like. I may have to do some modifications to the pattern, as I'm not sure the bottom of it will be cushy enough for my baby, but that'll be determined after finishing tonight's work. If Dante likes it as is, I will do no more for him. If he seems to not like it, I'll do the modification.

Then back to my socks!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Psych

Corbett has often mentioned that I tend to like stupid, gimmicky detective shows. I don't mean Law & Order (I actually actively dislike that show, much to my parents' chagrin), or "real" detective shows. I mean more along the lines of quirky comedies, such as Psych (or the recently cancelled Pushing Daisies), where there's a murder and then wackiness ensues while trying to solve it. In the case of Psych, the main character pretends to have psychic ability and works for the Santa Barbara police department, helping them solve murders (in a very Scooby Doo-like manner). The show is ridiculous and absurd, and I am completely in love with it.

But, I am not alone (of course I'm not, it's in the third season), as Andre and Erin also enjoy this show. They were over a few weeks ago on a Friday night and so we all watched the new episode together. Now, Corbett will watch it and laugh at some parts, but really he'd just as soon not watch it. It was great having two people actively enjoying the show with me, so they came over last night to watch the most recent episode. Corbett now really doesn't mind watching anything since he can knit while doing so, and I just loved having two other people there to laugh when I laughed, and to get giddy when I got giddy.

In other exciting news: Corbett finished his first afghan, and it looks awesome! Too bad it's not cold yet, or it could be used. Right now it just makes a perfect complement to the futon in the office.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Good weekend, good food

We had two great new restaurant experiences. Corbett accidentally stumbled upon another German restaurant down in Newport News, called "Deutsche Ecke." So we tried it the other night, and it was delicious! Far superior to Das Wald Cafe, also in NN, and much closer than Eckhardt's, which is like an hour away. The place was empty though, and so we must go as often as possible to make sure they stick around :)

Then last night, we went with Andre and Erin to the new Vietnamese restaurant in the 'burg here. It's called Saigon Pearl and just opened last night. Also, delicious! The other Vietnamese restaurant here is disgusting, so this is a new favorite place to go.

The rest of the weekend has been sucked up with knitting (lots of knitting), bad movies (such as Step Up 2: The Streets), and miniature golf (at Pirate's Cove...that was our date night, since it was just the two of us having dinner and then playing golf). Now it's a rainy Labor Day, and we must go shopping.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

People should mind their own business

Several times a week, I feel as though I have an interaction with someone I do not know that makes me think, "Mind your own business." Usually I do not say this, and I come up with other great comebacks after the fact. Sometimes these people butt in out of (what they think is) kindness, and other times it's just because they can't stay out of other peoples' lives.

Case 1: Yesterday I was biking home and stopped off at the library. I had a DVD to return, so I leaned my bike up against an outside wall so I could run in, drop it off, and head out. No need to lock it up. As I was walking away, a lady said to me, "Are you just dropping something off or are you staying a while?" I think she was implying, "It's not safe to just leave your bike there unattended, you naive little man." I wanted to just say, "Mind your own business," but I mumbled something about how I wouldn't leave it unlocked for more than a second and moved on. But seriously, if I wanted to just leave my bike there for four hours, it would be my fault if it were stolen. Why does she have anything to do with it?

Case 2: (This didn't happen to me, but still angers me.) Last week Corbett was walking Dante outside and Dante was doing his business on a tree. A grumpy old man yelled at him, saying that it was unsanitary that Dante was peeing on a tree. I don't recall Corbett's reaction, but um, how is anything outside sanitary? It's outside! I would also liked to have said, "You're lucky we pick up after him when he poops, unlike most everyone else here, so shut the hell up!" I wouldn't have, but it would have felt good.

These are just a couple of examples. I would come up with more, but I really should work. And I'm sure I am going to.