my last day in Austin - lotsa loose ends, kinda

This morning we got up early to go to lunch with Carl. Everyone met up at A&R's, piled into cars, and we went to a place called "Zen" or something. (They have a website. I said, "Whoa! Eat Zen!" Carl said, "It's obviously a long-lost reindeer, Eatzen. It's Blitzen's cousin, I think.") Despite the tagline being "Japanese Food Fast", the food was neither fast, nor particularly Japanese. It was kinda tasty, as I got "yakisoba" which was really fried udon in spicy sauce.

Ah well. We ran very early, so we came back to the house o' games for a few hands of Mu before Adam took Carl to the airport. Bye, Carl. I hope you made it home okay. I guess I'll see you at Carnival or something.

While Adam was gone, Nick and Brad and Zach made me play a game called "Die, Stephen Seagal!" Okay, that's not really what it's called. Die Sieben Siegel, or The Seven Seals, is a trick-taking game, but you have to bid the exact tricks you will take in every suit. One person can also bid to be "saboteur" and they get points when other people screw up. I guess it is a neat game, but I wasn't in the mood to pick up new games. I have been learning new games all week and I think it's just taxing my brain.

Adam got back, and for some reason everyone decided they wanted to watch the movie Clue. So at that point, Adam and Brad and Nick and I played Tichu while Zach ran out to Fry's to get a copy of Clue. (Rehana had been sitting around reading Sandman novels the whole afternoon). We had one awesome hand of Tichu where I got passed the craziest cards ever -- I had 2-2-2-2, then in red 3-4-5-6-7, then something like Dog-7-J-Q left over. The best is, my partner called Tichu so I couldn't even go out first. Oi. And even worse, my partner had an 8-bomb AND a K-bomb.

After that we came back to Nick's place, where we watched the movie Clue. I realise that for some reason Nick and Zach have some sentimental attachment to this movie, but it honestly was not THAT GOOD :P I think if I was like 10 years old and still played games like Clue I might have enjoyed it more, but now most of the humor was just kinda dumb. Nick will kill me for writing this, I'm sure.

Brad and I decided to go play some ceremonial DDR for old times' sake, being as it is almost exactly 4 years since I first showed DDR to Brad (back in the old days when I'd been playing for half a year and was all like "look, I can pass Paranoia!"), and we always go play DDR together when we're in the same city. We went to Austin Park'n'Pizza, which had just opened last time I was in town. What's amusing is, the DDRFreak entry for the place says they have 1st mix, but only half the people agree. The obvious reason for this is -- they still have the 4th Plus marquee on the machine, but the game itself is DDR 1st. But. I got the Trick/Maniac codes off ddrfreak, and we GOT TO PLAY STRICTLY BUSINESS MANIAC WOOOOO! I played like 2 games before I worried about coughing up a lung (I'm still sick, but the coughing fits come and go). Brad played a third game while I goofed off on the Beatmania Core Remix machine. Fun stuff.

Stopped back at Nick's, where everyone else was watching some Babylon 5 thing. Elected to go to the GOOD County Line restaurant for dinner. That is, the one on the hill, not by the lake. And daaaamn, was it good. Also, we somehow got screwed up on service, we were sitting there like 5-10 mins with nobody taking our drink order, so a waitress came up, apologized, and gave us free drinks, free bread, and a free sauteed mushrooms appetizer. I don't think we would have cared either way, but that was pretty cool. I got the BBQ mixed platter, which had a beef rib, brisket, sausage, a salad, and mashed potatoes, and holy carp, I don't think I need to eat food again for the next week. We all got a ton of food and it was all really great. Several of us got beef ribs, too, and saved the bones for Zach to take home for his dogs, who will be very happy about it.

After dinner, came back to A&R's, played a game of San Juan, then played more Tichu, got some crazy hands, then decided to adjourn for the evening. Nick and I came back here and talked for a few hours. I'm going to miss him, and not just because he gives really good backrubs. Hehe, an amusing moment though was that we were talking about bridge or something, and I saw the latest issue of the Bridge Bulletin, and the pictures on the front cover are of the USA winners at some tournament in Istanbul... and I'm looking at the picture and suddenly go "OH MY GOD, THAT'S CHARLIE AND NOBLE!!!" Yes, oddly enough, my dear CMU bridge friends were on the cover of BB. Whooooaaaa. Nick also found an older issue with another picture of Charlie and Noble, where Noble had dyed his hair or something, and it looked weeeeird.

Ah well. Nick is asleep. I should be asleep since I need to wake up in like 6 hours to get up, get ready, get packed, and then go to a last lunch with everyone. But I'm not quite asleep. I guess I can always sleep on the plane, though, or something...

I am back in Seattle safe and sound, or something

Today started off with getting up, getting ready, getting packed, and getting one last good Tex-Mex lunch with the gang at Chuy's. We played a few card games, then everyone else had to go back to work, and Nick took me to the airport. I was running a little late so I basically got there, got ticket, got security, got on a plane. Whee.

First plane ride: Sucked. I was seated in a two-seat-bench plane, and the guy sitting next to me was... very large. He put up the dividing armrest, so I was sort of like, squished in to my seat. In addition, halfway through the trip I decided to try swallowing one of my antibiotics pills, and I choked up a mouthful of water all over my handbag. This wouldn't be so bad, except that since then, my digital camera (which was in my bag) won't work. I don't know why -- the battery didn't seem to get wet, nor did the flash card, but it just won't turn on. Ugh. I don't know if I should get the thing fixed or just get a new camera or what. The flight got to Phoenix and then we sat there for 25 minutes waiting for a gate. Infact, I got OFF the first flight about ten minutes after my second flight started boarding, which SUCKED. I ran through the airport... well, not really. I moved as quickly as possible for me given I was carrying heavy bags and couldn't breathe. Bleh. I did make it to the connecting flight though.

Second plane ride: Not nearly as bad. The guy next to me was nice, and sort of cute, and was reading A Prayer For Owen Meany. The in-flight movie, ironically, after I complained so much about not watching all my baseball movies in Texas, was Mr. 3000. I have to admit, this movie is nowhere near as bad as everyone said it was. I would watch it again because I am curious how the swearwords were changed for the airflight version, and whether they cut anything else. I'm not sure I'd watch it a bunch more times though. But it honestly was kind of a cool movie, and even a real honest baseball movie, with lots of good baseball footage. Plus it had some really funny characters. The funniest was Fukuda, the team's token Japanese player. He also looked a lot like Ogasawara, so I might be sort of biased.

Speaking of baseball, the Mariners signed Pokey Reese! HOW COOL IS THAT? They also supposedly optioned Jolbert Cabrera to a Japanese team but no Japanese team is confirming that yet. I hear the Fighters are ditching Echevarria so maybe they're picking up Cabrera? That'd be cool.

Airport: thatenglishguy picked me up from the airport as he said he would, and I felt bad because the plane got there a bit late. He gave me a ride home, and I couldn't really talk because I'd had a coughing fit in the airport because I think people were smoking outside and I hadn't breathed in cigarette smoke in like 2 weeks. It's just as well.

Upon getting home, I got my mail from the last few weeks. I have a postcard from csg87! I think he sent it from Istanbul like two months ago! Whee, that is SLOW mail!

I went grocery shopping because I was dead starved and had no food here, and it was easier to walk across the street to Safeway than it was to go get food somewhere.

I played some Pop'n'Music 9. In another weird turn of events -- I only played like 3 games, and only unlocked two more things, but one of them was Cinema Hyper, which is what I've wanted to unlock ALL ALONG. Grumble. Well, anyway, I also almost AAA'ed Loveholic -- got 99682, with one Good, bleh. I'm so close. Not that my camera would work to take a picture anyway.

Oh, and I logged in to Puzzle Pirates. It seems that Chernabog has decided to quit the game, or something. This makes me sadder than I expected. I was sort of thinking it'd be fun to get home and spend some time wreaking havoc on the ocean with him, but ah well. Maybe this will help me another step towards quitting the game...

I want to do a big post summing up 2004, and a new year's resolutions post, but oddly I think I will try to go to sleep soon instead. I feel very alone; there's nobody here to give me a hug goodnight. I hate coming home from trips.