Time for a long weekend post.

Friday I skipped out of work a little early so that Shana and I could run some errands. First off, we headed to Kirkland to pick up some things at Costco. Exciting. Then we ran downtown to find some gifts for Cathy's birthday. When we'd finished all of that we were near Katie, Kate, and Beth's, so we swung by there and hung out for a while. Around 6:30 we went to get ready for dinner, wrap our presents (just little things because we were planning a surprise party for Cathy on Sunday) and went to dinner.

We met the others at Bada Lounge. It was a nice dinner -- a bit spendy for the portions, but good -- and I had a drink. I don't drink a lot, but it was pretty obvious that I hadn't had a drink in a long time, because after finishing the one drink I could feel it. That surprised me.

I'm also convinced, after seeing a number of the women at the restaurant and on the town, that all the women that I don't know are sluts. And I don't mean that in the nice way, I mean that in the "you dress like a whore" kind of way. Sure, sure, maybe I'm turning into an old prude (yeah, right) but I really was . . . shocked, no, disgusted, no, bothered -- I'll go with bothered -- by the way many/most of the women dressed. There were a couple wonderful examples of at the bar that we were all astounded by how little clothing they felt they needed to barely wear to get the attention they must have needed ever so badly from anyone with eyes. It was funny in a sad way. Maybe I'd understand it better if I were one of the Beautiful People. I might have a better grasp on that need to be the center of attention, to show off. At some point that need becomes unhealthy. Anyway, after all that, we had fun. Oh, after dinner we stopped by a bar called Shorty's. It's a small bar with a circusy motif and video and pinpall machines. Pretty fun on the right night I imagine.

Saturday I slept in, picked up comics with Shane, walked around with he and Cathy for a while, then went home to do laundry. While the laundry was going I took care of other household things like taking out the garbage and picking up a bit. Then I sat down to do . . . nothing. And I was bored out of my mind. There wasn't anything I felt like doing, luckily Katie had mentioned on Friday that she'd be free on Saturday night, so I called her. She and Kate were making some food, but I was welcome to come over and hang out, so I did. We couldn't convince Shana to come over, so instead we went to her place, chatted, and watched a television broadcast of Almost Famous. Even with the editing, it was still an excellent film. I need to watch the real version soon.

Sunday the only things I had planned were to go to Cathy's surprise party and go to work. The party was at 1:00 or so, so I picked up some drinking water, a cooler, and ice and headed over to Volunteer Park. It was a surprise party and everything came together perfectly. Everyone showed up early, everyone brought what they were supposed to, and the birthday girl showed up a little later -- suspecting nothing -- and was honestly surprised and a bit confused by us when she stepped into the clearing and we all yelled "Surprise!" It was fun.

We spent the afternoon making balloon (sort-of-)animals, smacking a pinata, playing frisbee, badminton, and pin the tail on the donkey, throwing the football around, talking, and being lazy in the sun. It was a lot of fun. I cheated on my diet and had a birthday cupcake and some saltwater taffy -- I'm a sucker for saltwater taffy. I don't know if I'll post any pictures of the day here, but you can look here for some. The first few photos are from Friday night's get-together.

After all the fun had been had, I drove to work and helped Matt with some of the things he's been working on all weekend. I was there for a couple of hours and now I'm home, about to get ready for bed. All-in-all, a good weekend with lots of relaxing and visiting with friends.

Seth's announced on his site that he'll be making his way out here soon, and I'm excited by it and a little weirded out by it at the same time. It's so odd to think that he's moving here. I wish I could make the drive across the country with him like we didn two years ago when I moved out here. Anyway, see you soon, Seth. I'll even have some friends to introduce you to, so you'll be a few steps ahead of me when I moved.