A night NOT spent at the Haven

Ryan's been back in town for the last week or so, and asked if I wanted to hang out and catch up. I took him up on that offer, of course. He met me after work, and we walked over to Five Guys to eat.

After that, we stopped off at the Haven for a few minutes, 'cause I'd told him about it and how cool it was--and we were nearby anyway.

He had a bit of an errand to run--picking up his other car from the shop, which wasn't the one he parked in the Church Street parking deck--so we drove there in my car, and I followed him to his house to drop it off. From there, we decided to see a movie.

We managed to get to the 6:45 showing of Knowing, the new Nicholas Cage movie, while the previews were still rolling. I liked it a lot; they packed a lot of stuff into two hours and fifteen minutes, and it felt longer than it actually was. Ryan said he liked it up until the end, because it "couldn't decide what genre it was supposed to be" (if I elaborated, it might spoil the ending), but I think it worked--the mix of genres kind of helped with the character development, actually.

The movie was over at 9:00, so we went back downtown and walked up and down Market Street for an hour before heading back to the parking garage so he could get his car. He gave me a ride back to my car, and then we went to our respective houses.

It'll be nice, having Ryan back in the same time zone again, since that means communication will be quicker.

When I got there, Mom and Jason were in bed, but everyone else was downstairs talking. Anna and Tim were talking to Dad about cutting costs on phone lines--Dad's going to look into VOIP (voice over internet protocol), which sounds like a good thing to have when everyone has their own personal cell phones. It also sounds a lot cheaper than a land-line, and is something the four of us kids would get when we have our own house. There could be issues with power outtages, but as long as everyone has cell phones, there isn't much of a problem there.

Turns out, Anna had forgotten to tell me and Tim that we'd been approved for the mortgage loan up to $130,000 with certain specifications, but we're not going to go for a house which will cost us more than $110,000, except in certain circumstances.

We're not going to pursue the house on Vienna Court either, even though it was really nice. The lack of a basement, or any other "growing out" space is a major minus. So, it's back to the house-hunting.

I bought a one-year subscription to Xbox Live Gold so that I could connect my NetFlix account to it. Then after the phone conversation was over (and shortly before Camille left--she'd been talking to Kayla in the dining room), activated the NetFlix on it. I didn't have anything in my instant queue yet, so I didn't watch anything though.

After that, I downloaded the trial version of Castle Crashers, and played as long as it would let me. I almost beat the first big boss before it stopped me, and I think my little character guy was up to level 5 or 6 by that time. Maybe I'll buy a couple thousand marketplace points tomorrow (gotta pay the bills and go grocery shopping first) and get the full version, or maybe not.

I came up here sometime around 12:45, but I wasn't sleepy, so I decided to do some NetFlix queueing. I put 19 things on my DVD queue, and 22 on my instant queue, starting with Medieval Lives, a series of eight episodes that I'd seen half of at the Haven, but didn't catch the rest of yet. Among the rest of my queues are Quantum Leap, Shark Week, Murder, She Wrote, and SeaQuest: DSV. I've got a few movies and such on there too, but the serieses take up most of the queue lists.

I think I might actually be sleepy now.

Yesterday

I went to the Haven after work yesterday so that Steve and/or Gene could get my character caught up for this coming Friday's D&D game. It didn't take long.

When I got home around 6:30, I put my stuff away, started my laundry, and then tried to move my laptop into the kitchen so I could watch Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight while I cooked. No go. The laptop kept shutting off abruptly just as I was plugging it into the wall.

I called my dad to ask why it might do that. He said that the powerpack and/or battery in the laptop might be dead, so it could survive in the dock (which has its own power pack), but not plugged straight into the wall.

So, I cooked my casserole without entertainment.

At first, I was annoyed because when I looked in the pantry, the box of elbow macaroni I'd been planning to use was already open and looked like it was halfway gone. But once everything was cooked and put together, I saw that was a good thing--the ingredients were much better proportioned that way.

I wanted to add some of the beef sausage I bought last month to the casserole, but I think Jenn and Amit (or rather, just Amit, since Jenn's a vegetarian) ate them. Which isn't really a problem, since they share their food with me too, but I didn't even get to eat one of them before they were gone. :(

Anyway, I finished making the casserole, and filled up a plate then put the rest into containers. There were only two filled this time, so I'll have just enough to make it through lunch and dinner today and tomorrow. I'll buy lunch on Friday.

Then, I sat down at my desk and started Dragonlance while I ate the casserole. But the audio skipped a lot, so I decided to just finish eating and watch it upstairs instead.

The casserole turned out better than the last one. First, the proportions were better, so the soup coated everything a lot easier, making the whole dish more moist. Then, the soup was cream of mushroom, instead of cream of onion, and that worked better too, since there were already mushrooms in the dish and the soup enhanced that flavor. Also, I added some cheddar cheese, and put more minced garlic (still don't have any powdered) into it than last time, so it was more flavorful.

Sometime during the evening, I switched the laundry in the machines.

So I watched the movie after I'd finished dinner. It was okay, but could have been better. I posted a review of it on NetFlix, but it won't show up for another day or two.

When the movie was over, it was time to fold the jeans and put the rest of the wash into the dryer, so I did that, and then went downstairs to my computer to watch Superman Doomsday on Instant Play at NetFlix.com. That was great. I also reviewed that movie on the site, and that review won't show up until tomorrow or Friday either.

After the movie, it was around midnight, so I went upstairs to go to sleep.

Yesterday

I went to the Haven after work yesterday so that Steve and/or Gene could get my character caught up for this coming Friday's D&D game. It didn't take long.

When I got home around 6:30, I put my stuff away, started my laundry, and then tried to move my laptop into the kitchen so I could watch Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight while I cooked. No go. The laptop kept shutting off abruptly just as I was plugging it into the wall.

I called my dad to ask why it might do that. He said that the powerpack and/or battery in the laptop might be dead, so it could survive in the dock (which has its own power pack), but not plugged straight into the wall.

So, I cooked my casserole without entertainment.

At first, I was annoyed because when I looked in the pantry, the box of elbow macaroni I'd been planning to use was already open and looked like it was halfway gone. But once everything was cooked and put together, I saw that was a good thing--the ingredients were much better proportioned that way.

I wanted to add some of the beef sausage I bought last month to the casserole, but I think Jenn and Amit (or rather, just Amit, since Jenn's a vegetarian) ate them. Which isn't really a problem, since they share their food with me too, but I didn't even get to eat one of them before they were gone. :(

Anyway, I finished making the casserole, and filled up a plate then put the rest into containers. There were only two filled this time, so I'll have just enough to make it through lunch and dinner today and tomorrow. I'll buy lunch on Friday.

Then, I sat down at my desk and started Dragonlance while I ate the casserole. But the audio skipped a lot, so I decided to just finish eating and watch it upstairs instead.

The casserole turned out better than the last one. First, the proportions were better, so the soup coated everything a lot easier, making the whole dish more moist. Then, the soup was cream of mushroom, instead of cream of onion, and that worked better too, since there were already mushrooms in the dish and the soup enhanced that flavor. Also, I added some cheddar cheese, and put more minced garlic (still don't have any powdered) into it than last time, so it was more flavorful.

Sometime during the evening, I switched the laundry in the machines.

So I watched the movie after I'd finished dinner. It was okay, but could have been better. I posted a review of it on NetFlix, but it won't show up for another day or two.

When the movie was over, it was time to fold the jeans and put the rest of the wash into the dryer, so I did that, and then went downstairs to my computer to watch Superman Doomsday on Instant Play at NetFlix.com. That was great. I also reviewed that movie on the site, and that review won't show up until tomorrow or Friday either.

After the movie, it was around midnight, so I went upstairs to go to sleep.