Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

* Today I must pick up my exoskeleton, attend a wine tasting, and schedule a cake tasting. 07:00 AM July 18, 2008 from web
* They have my exoskeleton, but I can't get it until next Thursday. Curses, foiled again! 02:07 PM July 18, 2008 from web
* Phil is feeling peculiarly, which may imperil my plans for wine-tasting. 3 hrs on the bus = not worth it. 02:22 PM July 18, 2008 from web
* Anybody else want to be my date (& transportation) to a wine tasting if Phil can't go? 03:05 PM July 18, 2008 from web
* Nobody wants to go to wine thing with me. Very sad. I will never see my swimsuit again. 04:46 PM July 18, 2008 from web
* Got ride to wine thingy, hooray! 05:59 PM July 18, 2008
* Fresh garlic is sooo much stronger than cured. Too late, I think, "Eating a garlicky dish is a strategic error before a wine tasting." Oops. 06:29 PM July 18, 2008
* Will be working on editing stuff at Cahoots. First, must taste wedding cake for Chesh. Oh, the hard life I lead. 11:17 AM July 19, 2008 from web
* Naturally, I forgot my umbrella. I hope my backpack's waterproof! about 20 hours ago from Ping.fm
* And the day was going so well until we got into a car accident. http://tinyurl.com/5vl898 about 19 hours ago from Jott

Copy-pasted by me because Twitter has broken LoudTwitter. Snarly. I like using this to consolidate what would otherwise be a half-dozen or more tiny posts.

The week in review. It occurs to me that I'm having trouble remembering what I did when, or even if, for times ranging from yesterday to last week. So this might have some rather large gaps in it.

( Saturday & Sunday )

Big thanks to everybody who came to our party (and some who didn't). I think it went pretty well. We had lots of people all dressed up, a large spread of food and liquor, everybody seemed to be playing nice with each other, it carried on into the wee hours of the morning (made wee-er by Daylight Savings Time, civilization's April Fools' Day trick), and there were delightful surprise guests (devilstears and erragal)! The supplies held out for the length of the party. People participated in the alternate activities on offer--playing cards and watching old Ali fights. There were pleasant corners of "fewer people" where the crowd-averse could relax for a bit. The cats didn't complain about being shut in the attic for the entire length of the party. Also, I don't think I flashed anybody because of my unfamiliarity with the whole strapless-dress thing, which is good.

scathach wins for best outfit with her silver-and-blue pinstripe vest and long blue skirt.
susanofstohelit wins for Most Popular Food Offering with her assemble-your-own mini
strawberry shortcakes, though the devil-breathing-fire cheeseball was inspired.
raoulthegoatboy wins for best gift--a clock that fits the traditional five-year "wood" theme.

Aftermath:
The entire kitchen floor was...sticky.
We have an incredible amount of booze.
Lots of juice and pop in the fridge, along with a bowl of leftover strawberries. Yum.
Very affectionate cats.

Note to self: Yes, do actually clean the bedroom properly. Because if cute girls decide to lie down on your bed and cuddle and wriggle around in an aesthetically pleasing fashion, people will stop to watch. And you will be wondering if they notice that the bedroom's kind of trashed. And that's Just Plain Wrong.

In my endless quest to balance my life, I've decided that Tuesday and Thursday night Tae Soo Do classes are more important than social engagements, but Friday and Saturday classes are not, or at least, not all the time. A corollary to that is that if I've stayed up only until two the previous night, making Saturday class is reasonable and something I should be able to do...but if later than that, no. Because, yes, I'm old and tired.

Which explains why I slept until 1 p.m. today. Poker tournament last night went well--I left with five times more money than I brought! I scraped by on the first table to to make it to the second, where I briefly ran the table until three players went out at once on the same hand, and it was just me and discoflamingo left, going after the pot. For that tiny space of time, I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing.

And then there were two players instead of five, and all my statistics were screwed up, and I started sucking. I've decided that six to four players is the range I'm most comfortable in. I need to work on my endgame. I mean, c'mon, I usually make it to the final table, and frequently to the final three players, but I don't think I've actually ever won first place.

And although there is a saucier potluck tonight, we will not be going, for we are insecure in our sauciness. Sniff. Why can't I just have a chef to do all this stuff? Corollary: Why wasn't I smart enough to either get a guy who cooks really well or to motivate him to learn to cook really well back when I had the ability to motivate him at all?

Side-note:
It amuses me, but I find it vaguely odd that our former real estate agent ends emails with, "Please, let me know how I may serve you."