Back in SF

Well, New Year's itself wasn't so eventful. Mike came over in the late afternoon and he and Carl and I hung out. We walked around Ballard and decided to walk to Chinook's for dinner, which was awesome because we were at Chinook's and we walked there, but kinda sucked when we were full and had to walk back. (I had salmon and a crab cake, the "northwest duet", and it was amazing.) On our way walking back, we were going over the Ballard Bridge when it started going up! WTF! It was dark and we figure the guy operating the drawbridge tower just didn't see us. Oops. So as we're getting towards the middle of the drawbridge part we hear the bells ringing and see the gates going down, and we all run for it, and make it to the end of the bridge just as it actually started really lifting. Weird. That could have been a LOT worse...

Then we played Cities and Knights of Catan, which was a favorite in the rotation for me and Carl like 12 years ago but we haven't played it much since (to the point that I gave away my copy, still in the wrapping, to Roman a year ago or so). It was a close game except everyone kept dogpiling on me of course, and I lost the 6-metropolis in green because Carl kept the robber on my 6 of wood long enough that Mike got more paper, so Carl won in the end.

Then I went back to Mike's house to spend Monday with him. Though in reality we mostly spent the day running errands. We got cases for our guitars! (I have an acoustic dreadnought and he has an electric stratocaster, he actually uses his to play Rock Band, I've just played mine on and off over the years as needed for filk.) And we went to Bell Square so I could get new Superfeet inserts, and pay my phone bill (I am very annoyed at Verizon for having this clerk in the store who hovered over me as I was entering things like my SSN. WTF), and then we saw this movie called The Artist.

The Artist is actually like, a 99% silent film in itself, and it's about a silent film actor who can't make the transition to talkies and flames out, combined with an up-and-coming flapper girl who becomes a superstar, and their interwoven story. It's really really well-done, I had doubted whether or not I'd enjoy a silent film but this was great. The best part is how little they actually did use intertitles, and how little you actually NEED to know exactly what the actors are saying! (Though I loved how they put some silent film tropes in there, especially when the female lead is yelling for her driver and they put in an intertitle of simply "CLIFTON!") There were a lot of shades of Singin' in the Rain in this too, and that's one of my top 3 favorite movies EVER, so it's not really a surprise that I enjoyed this I suppose.

Oh yeah, one of the things we did in the evening was buy tickets to Boston for MIT Mystery Hunt, so I'll be there from the 13th to 15th. No idea how much hanging out time I'll have, but we'll at least get to puzzle with Lahut again so that is a bonus :)

So, flew out this morning on the usual 9:30 or so plane. I had a checked bag since I was carrying assorted videogames and books home (we also stopped by Eli's place on Sunday to get a box of my books, though I ended up taking 2/3 of them to Half Price the next day). When I got off the plane in SF, we were in the international terminal, and usually I wouldn't care, but this time I had to find my way to domestic baggage claim. It was kind of confusing. Then I got to drag a suitcase home from the 16th and Mission BART stop. Fun!

Now I'm at work but nobody else on my team is. Go figure. :)

Also, yes, I'm doing this number-a-day thing for real on my shirts. Gotta find a 4 tonight.