- Two days is not enough time to be considered “time off.” If you’re planning on going out of town for a weekend in the month of August, just take Friday off. Everyone else is doing it, so it’s not like you can reach anyone you need to anyway.
- SisterAlyson has definite ideas about music that she likes. On Friday morning, I picked up my little sister at the train station and drove her to Boston with me so she could visit her friends while I visited mine. My iPod, which is loaded with about 600 songs was in the car, and she played DJ, which meant that she rejected most of my music for being too slow, too weird, or “good, but I don’t want to listen to that right now.” At least she stopped and listened whenever Springsteen came on.
- The black plague started in India in the 1340′s. On Friday I met up with Nancy Pearl Wannabe, and we went to the Boston Museum of Science, a place that she’s been many a time with her middle schoolers. We had some fun taking shadow pictures, flattening pennies, and generally making things go. I’m no scientist, but I knew a lot of the science stuff already, because the museum is not exactly dealing with quantum physics. But there was a display about the history of the world, and it included that little snippet about the plague, which I never though of existing before London in the 1600′s. Now I know.
- I should have seen The Lost Boys a long time ago. It would be a damn shame if I went all the way to Boston and actually went out and saw any of it, breaking my near-perfect record of going there for short work trips, swim meets, and religious functions (in my past life…) So while NPW and I were thinking of something to do, we ended up staying in, drinking Margaritas, and watching The Lost Boys because I never had before. When it was over, I told NPW that watching it is a lot like swimming the butterfly. If I had just done it fifteen years ago, it would be a lot easier to deal with it now. But wouldn’t you know it, knowledge of the movie gave me a little edge when we played Scene It later that night! Speaking of the fly…
- Sometimes it’s better to do a half stroke than to glide in. 1/100th of a second! Crazy.
- It turns out that I’m actually kind of good at skee-ball. I was a bit nervous, going all the way to New Hampshire for Beej’s birthday, where I would meet Aaron for the first time, after this long, arduous internet flirtation we’ve had. I knew that skee-ball was going to be involved, and the last I remember, my skee-skills were equivalent to my mini golf skills, which is to say not skillful. But NPW, Chris and I got some practice in while we were waiting, and I scored 300 points not once, but twice! So when Aaron and Mara finally came back from their trip to Massachusetts to put money in their car meter (how did that take such a long time?), we were all on a level playing field. Sadly, I had to leave after only a couple of hours, but when you have that much awesomeness in one arcade (me, NPW, Chris, Aaron, Mara, Beej, Beej’s gal, Beej’s offspring, and Ted, who I didn’t realize was an actual person until I saw him in person) it’s hard to contain it. Because they’re such great hosts, I gave my skee-ball ticket winnings to NPW and Chris so they can put it towards their dream of winning the lobster salt and pepper shakers. You can see photo evidence of the skee ball on NPW’s blog.
- I’m still pretty great at driving cross-town. On the way back from the beach, we picked up SisterAlyson, and the two of us went to Queens via the LIE and the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen over Manhattan. I was Jersey-bound after dropping her off, and instead of taking the FDR uptown, I decided I had enough time to drive across 57th St and take the West Side Highway to the GWB, just for old time’s sake. I love driving cross-town (espeically in someone else’s car,) because there’s a trick to changing lanes quickly so you never get stuck behind someone who’s trying to turn uptown or downtown. It makes for a thrilling ride, and it was good to see the city at the street level, however briefly.
- Babies are cute, and they don’t all hate me. My friends and their 6-month old son just bought a new house in Jersey, and they put out an APB for friends to help them paint and get the place ready for their move-in at the end of the month. So I went over on Sunday to help them out. In between edging the doorways, I went upstairs to chat with my friend and play with the baby. That’s when I got put on babysitting duty for a few minutes, with the instructions to pick him up if he fussed. I did it, and he even stopped fussing! I even enjoyed it and his little baby smell, but I was totally happy to give him back and continue my edging after a short period of time. Verdict: not ready for motherhood, not by a long shot.
- It’s very easy to hook up a Mac to my parents’ wireless router. I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get my new computer or my old computer, which is now my mom’s computer, hooked up to their wireless connection. The only success I had was when I was able to hook up their PC laptop to the wireless network, which is pointless because that computer does not having working “shift” key, and makes a scary whirring noise when it does anything. I called The Man of Action for help, but he was MIA until I was driving home, when he was totally available, but I was exactly half way between both places of computer trouble. By the time I got home, he was already on his way to Scotland, as always happens when I need technical help.
- My cats really, really do not get along. The Dutchess of Kickball was brave enough to potentially encounter the landlesbian in order to feed my cats for me while I was away. But being well-fed did not stop them from fighting, as evidenced by big tufts of Lucy hair all over the bathroom and living room, adjacent to the piles of cat puke, and best of all, the big old puddle of cat pee on the loveseat where Lucy likes to hang out cower. It took me about an hour of clean-up last night, and Lucy is not smelling so great at the moment. I fear that there is not enough pheromone spray in the world to keep Micki from being a nut job, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I go away for a full week in September.
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Posted by Sobe on August 18, 2008 at 10:33 am
- I can NOT wait for Labor Day weekend. I’ve heard it has three days in it.
- Is your sister a nun? A Bruce loving nun?
- The Science Museum cracks me up since the science is from the 70′s.
- Is skeeball where you roll the balls up into the circles or where you shoot things? A and I were shooting old paint pellets at my broken Roomba this weekend. Really freaked out the richies in the neighborhood. Look, the kids in the playhouse are out shooting again. LOL.
Totally stoked for Labor Day over here, too.
Posted by Sobe on August 18, 2008 at 10:34 am
Oh, that’s skeeT, not skee. My bad. I just like shooting guns.
I can see the connection, though.
Posted by 3carnations on August 18, 2008 at 11:13 am
I’m so lucky that the cats I’ve had have only destroyed furniture with their claws, and not with urine.
Lucky indeed!
Posted by Adorable Girlfriend on August 18, 2008 at 11:45 am
I hope Boston was fun! Did you give my former home a hug for me?
I tried to, but I don’t quite have the wingspan.
Posted by jason on August 18, 2008 at 11:51 am
the mac should just find the network. unless you have the router set to not broadcast the ssid. mac’s just work dammit! also, when it doubt, reboot the router. then reboot everything if that doesn’t work.
Done and done, and it didn’t do it. I’m getting full signal, but I can’t get online like I can when I take the computer to any other location in the world with wifi.
Posted by -R- on August 18, 2008 at 12:31 pm
You were in a lot of different states this weekend. It sounds like fun!
I was. I didn’t even mention how I drove through Connecticut!
Posted by Dutchess of Kickball on August 18, 2008 at 1:10 pm
There was absolutely not pee, puke or pelage when we were there. Actually there was no landlesbain either. We were scared but survived.
Avoiding her is like a fun new game now.
Posted by Sarah on August 18, 2008 at 4:14 pm
My laptop started emitting the deathrattle whirring noise about a month ago. Then it died, never to be heard from again. Kinda makes me wish I had backed up my 2,000 photos.
I’m glad to have the backup, but it doesn’t do me much good when I can’t get online at all.
Posted by courtney on August 18, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Sounds like a fun weekend! I’m glad you had fun at the Beej party. I wish I could have been there.
I wish you were there, too!
Posted by Aaron on August 18, 2008 at 8:01 pm
As a life-long New Englander, I have a weird love/pride when it comes to the Boston Museum of Science. The Aquarium can bite me; it’s full of crabs, for nut’s sake! But the BMS will always hold a special place in my heart
Nice to finally meet you (albeit briefly) this weekend! And way to go on the skeeball. Next time, though, we mini golf. And I win.
Also, hello to Mrs. Christmas Tree!
No mini golf, please!
Posted by Anika on August 18, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Oh wow. The Lost Boys. . .I once loved that movie. But please do not hold it against me. . .I was very young. . .
I would have loved it if I had seen it when I was young. But this go around, it was just bad.
Posted by Stefanie on August 18, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Now I know how everyone else must have felt when we all wrote about our Boston meetup in March, because I am JEALOUS! You got to hang out with NPW and Chris again… got to play skeeball… and Aaron actually SHOWED?? No fair.
It would have been better if you were there. I think you should move East!
Posted by Allie on August 19, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Sounds like you had a great weekend, up until coming home to cat waste. Maybe they’ll work it out?
Posted by apollocreed on August 19, 2008 at 2:42 pm
If she’s got love for The Boss, then she’s fine.
Posted by nancypearlwannabe on August 19, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Noelle, you know I love you, but if you continue to condemn The Lost Boys I might have to take your blog out of my reader.
Jason Patrick FOREVER!
Posted by jennifer on August 19, 2008 at 6:35 pm
What a FUN weekend. Was it strange meeting a Blog Bud? Did you feel like you were meeting someone that you only knew from reading their mail?
I have plans later in the year (and 20 pounds later) to meet some ladies that are Blog Buds. But you know? How weird will it be. I sound like a Hick Minnie Mouse in real life… will they still be able to read me? And what if they have Man hands or Hobbit Feet? Will I be turned off to what they write?
All very important things to think about.
I gotcha on The Lost Boys. A very good EIGHTIES movie. Now it’s not… Wesley Snipes.
Posted by Deb on the Rocks on August 19, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Skee is my very favorite “I hate the world and want to break things” therapy. I’ll play you any day!
Posted by Brando on August 20, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Oh, The Lost Boys. The Coreys plus Kiefer plus Jamie Gertz plus vampires. A win all around.
Posted by Kristabella on August 22, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I’m SO jealous you got to hang out with NPW and Beej!