Saturday in the Park With Eli, a brief visit to Illusionz, and Chicago the Movie
First, for anyone who doesn't read Eli's journal... in response to my Friday Five, I also want to point out that Duckmaster would be another dream job for me. Of course, I'd have to live in Tennessee... nevermind.
Today Eli and I went to Discovery Park, stopping in Fremont to get bagels on the way. We walked around the park and saw lots of dogs and some children and a big bunny rabbit and stuff, and watched the sun set. Like the idiot I am, I looked at the sun while it was setting, and had trouble seeing for a while after that. It was pretty up until that point though.
We went to Chinook's, in Ballard, for dinner. We'd been there once a few months ago and eaten in the real restaurant and I'd gotten fish'n'chips and they were really good. This time, we both got fish'n'chips from their "fast food" section, which basically has fish'n'chips, some soups, and that's about it. And I don't think it was anywhere near as good. I really wanted fishies for dinner, and we had fishies, but I would have been happier with better fishies. The soup was okay. We got too much of it. I love all the Seattle fish restaurants that are on the water and surrounded by boats.
After that I came home. Sure enough, plans for CE or games hadn't materialized. That was ok, really. About at the moment when I was thinking "Blah, what should I do tonight?" I got an AIM message from![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
agh just going "Hey, what's up? Long time no talk," and I said "I'm bored. Let's hang out!" He was at work, so we made plans to see Chicago at Bellevue Galleria or whatever at 10:15, meeting up at 9:30. At the time, it was like... 7:30. So I decided that rather than sitting around at home, I'd go to IZ and see some people who were in town, for an hour, and then head to Bellevue.
So I went to IZ for an hour. In that time I played one game of DDR and one game of PPP and one game of KBM and basically spent the rest of that time talking to people. It was actually kind of fun to be there just for fun. Some of the Portland people were up here, so I saw Darren and Meghan (who I finally met), and Pete, who is a cool guy that I'd met once or twice before. He plays Para Para, and is supergood at DDR, and is neat. Me and Pete and Rumi did Para Para together for a while, that was really fun. Oh yeah, so Matt and Rumi were there (with a FUZZY FUZZY IKEA PILLOW!), and I have to admit I kind of went partially to say hi to them 'cause I don't see them that often (which is why even though I was startled, I was really *happy* that Rumi hugged me when I showed up!). And Okaeshi and Aaron and Steve were there too, and I feel kinda bad I sorta said hi and bye so quickly to them. But I'll see them next weekend! :) There was a funny moment where I was playing KBM and halfway through it Steve Gaffect said hi to me on the right, and a few seconds later the other Steve, Dancing Jedi, was on the left playing DMX and said hi, and I did this total double-take - they look scarily alike if one isn't paying attention. I said something about it and they were both like "You have NO idea how much we get that!"
Anyway, I left around 9:15, figuring that was enough time to get to Bellevue on time to meet up with Drew at the mall. Except that three things happened: 1) it wasn't, and 2) the mall closed before that, and 3) I got horribly lost! Argh. Why can I never navigate Bellevue Square at all? So Drew and I talked back and forth on the phone for a bit... eventually we agreed to meet by the movie theater, and I stopped in QFC to get shampoo 'cause I promised Eli I would. And then I finally figured out how to find the theater, parked, and met up with Drew around 9:50-55ish. So we did have a little time to hang out, but not a ton. Oops. I guess I'll have to go bug him and Matt Lahut for another Cheesecake Factory run sometime :)
The movie itself was okay. The music was much what I remembered it (yay Bob Fosse). Catherine Zeta-Jones did a really superb job with her part, and so did Richard Gere. If anything, Gere's performance for some reason made me think he looked similar to Gene Kelly, or maybe I've just had Gene Kelly on the brain lately. Renee Zellweger wasn't quite as good as the other two, but she wasn't bad or anything. The movie really suffered from being a movie adaptation of a musical, though. Musical movies (like Moulin Rouge, Singin' in the Rain, etc), where it was written as a movie originally, not adapted from the stage, are always better than movie musicals, I think. Still... if you like lots of women dancing and Bob Fosse music, it's worth seeing at least once, I think. The cinematography is interesting if not fantastic.
Anyway, so it's not exactly what I expected out of today, but it wasn't a bad day overall! Whee.
Today Eli and I went to Discovery Park, stopping in Fremont to get bagels on the way. We walked around the park and saw lots of dogs and some children and a big bunny rabbit and stuff, and watched the sun set. Like the idiot I am, I looked at the sun while it was setting, and had trouble seeing for a while after that. It was pretty up until that point though.
We went to Chinook's, in Ballard, for dinner. We'd been there once a few months ago and eaten in the real restaurant and I'd gotten fish'n'chips and they were really good. This time, we both got fish'n'chips from their "fast food" section, which basically has fish'n'chips, some soups, and that's about it. And I don't think it was anywhere near as good. I really wanted fishies for dinner, and we had fishies, but I would have been happier with better fishies. The soup was okay. We got too much of it. I love all the Seattle fish restaurants that are on the water and surrounded by boats.
After that I came home. Sure enough, plans for CE or games hadn't materialized. That was ok, really. About at the moment when I was thinking "Blah, what should I do tonight?" I got an AIM message from
agh just going "Hey, what's up? Long time no talk," and I said "I'm bored. Let's hang out!" He was at work, so we made plans to see Chicago at Bellevue Galleria or whatever at 10:15, meeting up at 9:30. At the time, it was like... 7:30. So I decided that rather than sitting around at home, I'd go to IZ and see some people who were in town, for an hour, and then head to Bellevue. So I went to IZ for an hour. In that time I played one game of DDR and one game of PPP and one game of KBM and basically spent the rest of that time talking to people. It was actually kind of fun to be there just for fun. Some of the Portland people were up here, so I saw Darren and Meghan (who I finally met), and Pete, who is a cool guy that I'd met once or twice before. He plays Para Para, and is supergood at DDR, and is neat. Me and Pete and Rumi did Para Para together for a while, that was really fun. Oh yeah, so Matt and Rumi were there (with a FUZZY FUZZY IKEA PILLOW!), and I have to admit I kind of went partially to say hi to them 'cause I don't see them that often (which is why even though I was startled, I was really *happy* that Rumi hugged me when I showed up!). And Okaeshi and Aaron and Steve were there too, and I feel kinda bad I sorta said hi and bye so quickly to them. But I'll see them next weekend! :) There was a funny moment where I was playing KBM and halfway through it Steve Gaffect said hi to me on the right, and a few seconds later the other Steve, Dancing Jedi, was on the left playing DMX and said hi, and I did this total double-take - they look scarily alike if one isn't paying attention. I said something about it and they were both like "You have NO idea how much we get that!"
Anyway, I left around 9:15, figuring that was enough time to get to Bellevue on time to meet up with Drew at the mall. Except that three things happened: 1) it wasn't, and 2) the mall closed before that, and 3) I got horribly lost! Argh. Why can I never navigate Bellevue Square at all? So Drew and I talked back and forth on the phone for a bit... eventually we agreed to meet by the movie theater, and I stopped in QFC to get shampoo 'cause I promised Eli I would. And then I finally figured out how to find the theater, parked, and met up with Drew around 9:50-55ish. So we did have a little time to hang out, but not a ton. Oops. I guess I'll have to go bug him and Matt Lahut for another Cheesecake Factory run sometime :)
The movie itself was okay. The music was much what I remembered it (yay Bob Fosse). Catherine Zeta-Jones did a really superb job with her part, and so did Richard Gere. If anything, Gere's performance for some reason made me think he looked similar to Gene Kelly, or maybe I've just had Gene Kelly on the brain lately. Renee Zellweger wasn't quite as good as the other two, but she wasn't bad or anything. The movie really suffered from being a movie adaptation of a musical, though. Musical movies (like Moulin Rouge, Singin' in the Rain, etc), where it was written as a movie originally, not adapted from the stage, are always better than movie musicals, I think. Still... if you like lots of women dancing and Bob Fosse music, it's worth seeing at least once, I think. The cinematography is interesting if not fantastic.
Anyway, so it's not exactly what I expected out of today, but it wasn't a bad day overall! Whee.
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