wakka wakka, wakka wakka

Had a lovely weekend. Started off with Friday night dinner with Corby and Thjora of delivered sushi, and much fun, if very laid back chatting. Christian came to visit and didn't actually get to our place until just before 1am. He followed the GPS, which took him through downtown DC, which means I had to grab a map and talk him in to our place the easiest way I could think of. Was quite funny. But since he didn't get in until 1am, that meant we were up chatty chatting until 3am, when I declared a cease to the conversation and bedtime for this bonzo. 

Saturday morning I slept in longer than I had intended and unfortunately took my sweet time getting ready. But after a bagel and some cold caffeine, we eventually made it onto site by 11:20am. I beat my time of after noon from last year, so figured I was doing fairly well. :) Got to visit with many friends, congratulate the newly-wed Wests each in person, geek with friends about a variety of topics, and in general hang out and have a grand time. The Pink Apprentice and I made finger puppets from the fingers she cut off the Baron of Dun Carraig's fighting glove, which was a hoot, as well as eventually making it down to visit the A&S area. Alina's weaving blew many of us completely away, and the display and documentation put up by Issac and Emma were extremely entertaining reads. After a little bit of good Queen time, and a wonderful court, we departed for home and a plan of Outback Takeaway. 

Evja and Theo, who missed the event, showed up at our place and we had yummy steaky food with friends and much hanging out and chatting with friends. Corby kindly brought his Wii to visit and we hooked it up to our projector in the basement. I did bowling and boxing with Evja, kicked her tail in boxing, and we all had enjoyed riotous laughter when Roland and Bob boxed and bowled. Evja and Christian were well matched in boxing, and pretty much tied. Isobel was a natural at bowling, but alas couldn't box with her hurt paws. As folks slowly dropped out and meandered home, Chris and I stayed up until 2am playing a game of golf, which was hideous, but at least we tied at 43 over par. 

Again, I slept in late, but we all made it to the Birthday Brunch on time at the Ram's Head Tavern in Savage to celebrate the Green and Blue leaders' birthdays! Food and company again were yummy and a ton of fun respectively. We even did a bit of wandering around in one of the antique malls afterward, I just had to check out the green fleur de lys transom window we glimpsed on the way in, but alas it was out of my budget and an odd size to find a place for. After attempting to walk off some of our meal, we headed home, called the Theo over and played more Wii. More bowling, some boxing, and Corby and Theo make a great tennis team. I think I have reclaimed my title as the Queen of Wii Bowling (on Corby's machine) with a high score of 187. Yesterday I felt every single lunge. We had a wonderful visit from Vlad, Callisa and Arielle, and then another later visit from Val, Arielle and Gracie. It was fabulous weekend full of amazing people, who we eventually kicked out to crash overnight with Roland, Theo and the kitties around 11pm. 

Yesterday after work, Alan and I enjoyed the quiet, and I finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I kinda wish I hadn't gone through it so fast, as now I have 5 days to wait for the new book. I guess I could go re-read the last 5 chapters again or so. Or maybe actually clean and tidy the house some. What a thought. 

The one disappointment was our freaking lotus. It takes a week and a half for the bud to go from just out of the water to fully developed and blooming. At the last minute, our bud got a bend in the stem so when it bloomed on Sunday, it was all saggy and not quite the spectacle it is supposed to be. The insects didn't seem to mind, but I was a bit put out. Pink and pretty and saggy. Alan tried to stake the stalk to a tall pole, but it only seemed to help in that the bud didn't completely bend over and touch the ground/pond. sigh.

Okay, so catching up...

Last weekend was a Bandes workshop at the Morgan's new place in Ruckersville. Alan and I decided, based on the typical Friday traffic and the anticipated July 4th week vacation traffic, that we'd just get up and leave early on Saturday morning. So we ate chinese delivery, and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the basement. Alan snoozed through much of it and I woke him for the particularly good parts. I'm sure he was grateful. :) It was a lovely relaxing Friday night spent at home just the two of us.

Saturday dawned early and we got up, showered, packed and got on the road around 8am to get to the Morgan's timber-framed home of wonderful architechtual goodness a little after 10. We were greeted by the bear-dogs and poked around a bit before settling down for persona definition goodness, led by the attack_laurel . This was lots of fun figuring out the details of our personas, especially with respect to what we would have known. For example, we might not know our friends middle names, but we'd definitely know our parents' names, where they are/from, as well as the local friends and shopping opportunities, etc. Alan and I got a great start on ours. After lunch and much socializing, I crept upstairs and nodded off for a little nap before returning to the crew. We had a yummy dinner of salmon and sides, and I got to play around with embroidery a bit more.  We eventually made our late way back to Mike and Kirsten's to play with their dogs and crash out cold for the night. 

Sadly, frogs kept me awake much of the night. Stupid pond frogs. Dunno why, but I haven't been sleeping as soundly lately as I usually do. Hmm... perhaps I need to take a certain medication earlier in the evening before bed. But anyway, when the little bastards did finally shut up, I slept in until after 8am and it was glorious. Corby then introduced me to his Wii. He has a clever tactic. He makes a Mii for you which isn't quite right, and therefore you HAVE to dive in to fix it, and then fix Alan's and then fix Cuan, and then make one for the Angel of Death and Hot Bob. wow.. break for breakfast and then back to the Wii for trying out Wii sports. I am the Queen of Wii Bowling! I suck at Tennis. I was okay at golf, if terrible on the putting green. And I rocked the boxing, but am not allowed to play that since my victory dance almost took out one of their ceiling fan lights. opps. It was very addictive, and I was quite sore on my right side Monday morning. I told Alan we're not allowed to get one, since it was so addictive, but Corby is allowed to bring his to visit and we'll try it connected to the big screen downstairs. hmmm... how to play without blocking the projected image...

I finally pulled myself away from the Wii, and Alan and I got showered and on the road after a little minor pre-demolition exploration. The previous owners of that house are fascinating.

We eventually got home and while Alan mowed the lawn, I napped. Then we finally headed up to Baltimore to visit Mikey again at the rehab place. He was a bit tired from a lack of sleep, but was doing well, was moving his legs more, and we just sat and chatted and watched parts of Dodgeball for about 2 hours. It was great to see him and other friends and visit. Glad he's doing well. I know it must be frustrating as all get out, and he's likely sick of the place already, but he's getting better. What also really helped was earlier visits from Their Royal Majesties and crew as well as Their Excellencies' Lochmere. Hooray to feel loved, if a bit helpless. I made sure to order new flowers for his room since the earlier ones were fading a bit. Must check that they got there. 

Anyway, it was a lovely weekend full of friends, friend's animals and lots of laughter. Hard to complain about.