Phew, finally back home. After a full day and night last night last night we were wasted. I’ll recap for you though (but read all about it in today’s column [archive.org link]). We (Iambe, Martyn (rouge from cobalt) headed out Saturday morning to surprise Squiz (arranged by Sillz) on his birthday. The trip down was kinda sucky in the morning, as it was cold and foggy and pretty gross. We were however riding in a brand new red Firebird Convertable [note from 2024 – photo seems lost but I remember it distinctly, a blurry photo of us in the back of a red car with the top down, but for the life of me I can’t find it right now 🙁 ]… which, while a cool ass car, was not the most comfy to ride in the back in. After a quick stop in Bellingham for some food the sun got out and we had awsome weather for the rest of the ride. My head and face got a bit sunburnt, and nose especially, as I was wearing my awsome new sunglasses (thanks for ’em Cat5).
Anyway, when we got to where we were going I was delighted to see the absolute surprise on Squiz’s face. Iambe put it best in her saying that he “dumped core”. I’m glad we were able to do that for him, travel from so far (well, less than 2 hours drive in actuality) to surprise the shit out of him. Something I’ll have to do more often.
We did a trip to the microsoft campus (I was bad I know) and checked it out, making jokes about them the entire time. Didn’t get inside the buildings though 🙁 After amusing ourselves most of the day we went for surprise number 2, going out to a little random pub…. with a bunch of Squiz’s friends from work there! Again, another core dump. Some hanging out there, a trip to a 24 hour italian food place, back to the pub for a Guiness and then the 5 of us, weary as hell, headed back to the squizpad to (you guessed it) do a final surf, pop of mail, and then finally sleep. Martyn flaked out immediately on the futon, and Iambe and I discussed TCP/IP programming and the OSI’s 7 layers (who told me that the user was the last layer? It’s application dammit!) till we both ended up passing out from lack of sleep. I woke up with the sun (I think) and almost read a bit, but put the book back down and found myself waking up at 11 or so with everyone else. Squiz entering the bright living room where the visitors were was quite funny… “too bloody light” was what he said I think.
Today (well, yesturday technically) was done doing Seattle. The space needle, some science center place (climbing wall! yay!) and a hill with a good view on it. A long drive, sushi, another long drive, and I’m home.
That was my weekend.
I did come back to 3 things, a good, a neutral, and a bad. The good was a contact from someone I thought had dropped off the ends of the earth, good to hear from again. The neutral was interesting. Roomie* had been thinking of getting a house (they are going in on tuesday to see about loans and such) as you may or may not have known. I am kinda looking forward to this as I can have the whole place to myself, turn the big bedroom (theirs) into a computer room/hobby room/fun room where I can take people without having to worry about my overflowing laundry basket. More room to have multiple computers out and around as well. The living room would be sparse but mine, a couple chairs, stereo, my 9″ tv and me, hanging out and listening to tunes and reading and stuff. And my room would be for sleeping and would have space in it again. Maybe I’d get to see the other side of my closet again? Anyway, so they were thinking of getting a house and moving, and as I’m feeding my cats upon arrival roomiewife hits me with “how would you like to own a condo?” Now, this is just something that roomiemom had mentioned, they don’t know costs or whatever, but with the leaky window (which is going to cost $8,900) and the baby and everything they are just tired of it or something and are (maybe) offering it to me. Nothing is known about what it would cost (there is still $75,000+ owing at $280/2weeks) or anything, or if I actually want it (the comment I made when I found out about the leaky windows was “man I’m glad I don’t own this place”). I mean, for all I know in 2 years I’ll be living in Utah or California or something. Not that I’m that dynamic a person, but it could happen, anything is possible. I don’t know if I’m ready for that big a commitment yet either, I mean, me, owning a house? I just can’t see it. Now on the other hand, I’d much rather my $xxx/month were going into equity of some sort instead of just disapearing into the void. So we’ll see. The final bad thing was a full litterbox. Eeek. That was rectified quite quickly.
BTW, when you read the iambe column, remember who actually typed it, and remember how hard it is to take dictation and type in the crammed backseat of a convertable firebird in the middle of the night 🙂