I wish I could tell you what I did Thursday and Friday, but I'm having a heck of a time remembering. Oh, right. Thursday night Jen and I had dinner with Tim at Chantanee then, because he had to get to bed early, Jen and I stopped by Toys 'R' Us and then watched a movie at my place. Friday I worked -- and when I say worked, I mean I tried to write some rules for a new project that's particularly rules light. You'd think that would be simple, but the fewer rules, the harder it is for me to get into it. There's just not much internal consistency needed and that's what makes it fun to write rules; for me, at least. So, because the rules are simple, it's taking me a long time to write them.

Friday night, I stayed at work late playing Magic, then met up with Jen for a late dinner after she got done with work. She went home immediately afterwards because she was going cross-country skiing with her mom and cousin in the morning.

Saturday for me was spent sleeping in a bit, going to the gym, then doing some clothes shopping. Jen's dad was singing in an operatta in the evening and I didn't want to wear the same thing I'd worn to Carmen. The fact of the matter is; I rarely have to get dressed up, so I just don't have nice, dressy clothes. Luckily we found a store nearby with some things for me, so I picked up some nice charcoal slacks, a new tie, and black and white dress shirts -- all of which will work with my blue sportcoat. I spent more than I probaby should have, but, like I said, I really needed some dressier clothes. I'm really happy to have the dress shirts.

That evening was the operetta. It was very good. There were no sets other than chairs and only a couple of props. I heard someone comment that they really liked the staging because it was very "intimate". It was certainly the opposite end of the spectrum from Carmen.

After the show, a bunch of the cast and Jen's family and I went to a bar at the top of a local hotel for some drinks. There was a piano player and he was playing something that many of the members of our party recognized, so they started singing. Loudly. At the end of the song the piano player was over by our table welcoming us all and asking if anyone would like to sing. Almost everyone wanted to. So, throughout the course of the evening he cycled through songs and one or two people got up to sing. The did a number of show tunes from West Side Story and Oklahoma as well as songs like Oh, Danny Boy and many others. Jen wanted to sing because I'd never heard her before, so after many of the others had taken their turn, she got up and sang I Could Write A Book, and since everyone was incredibly impressed, someone asked her to sing something else, so she did Witchcraft. She'd never sung it before, so she didn't know the words, but the pianist had a songbook handy, so she faked it and it sounded great. I was incredibly impressed. She has an amazing voice. The pianist even asked for her contact info.

Oh, this was also the first night that I met Jen's parents. They were very nice. I don't know what more to say. They seem like good people.

Sunday we went to Jen and Hays' house to watch the Super Bowl. Beforehand, we stopped at Gordito's to pick up some food because it was a "Mexican Fiesta Super Bowl Party". The food was excellent. I even ran around the corner to a nearby comic shop to pick up this week's books.

After the party we stopped by Jen's, spoke with her parents a while, and then watched Whale Rider on their envy-worthy HD TV with 5.1 Surround Sound. It was cool. The movie was excellent. Well paced, well filmed, well acted, and even though the plot is an old one, it was still very impressive and interesting.

I received a number of choice comments from people about "Ryan's" email last week, but I don't really feel like spending more time on "him". Thanks for your kind words everyone.

I forgot to mention that I saw The Cooler about a week and a half ago. It's a movie starring Willaim H. Macy and Alec Baldwin. Baldwin has even been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role. The only reason I mention the movie now is to say that it was very, very good. It was scary, sad, romantic, funny, and hopeful. I was a little put off by some of the more violent scenes (and they're pretty violent), but over all it was an excellent movie that I'll probably watch again. Hopefully soon.