(no subject)

As I indicated, Friday was pretty good. At least, the part after about six o' clock was pretty good. Happily, the rest of the weekend decided to live up to the good example that was presented.

We had a couple of different gatherings over the course of Saturday. First was a get together organized via a livejournal/yahoo group that Andrea is a member of. Though I was my typical self and didn't talk to much of anyone, I had a nice time sitting with Andrea, listening to others, and just being a part of things. It's also a very good thing to meet more alternative locals. I'll be looking forward to the next time people get together.

We didn't stay terribly long though, since we had our next social event of the day to get to. After dropping in to check on our doggy, we drove southward toward anarchist_nomad's dwelling. There are lots of really interesting people in that circle who I always look forward to getting to see. I was entirely fascinated by his description of the dark matter project he's working on in England. I wish I had the time to learn about that sort of thing in depth. I always wanted to be a research scientist growing up and I have to admit to some enviousness of his experiences.

I also got to play an interesting game of Puerto Rico with a couple of people, and got talk a bit, though not enough, with some others (it was really nice for my part to see crim_ferret again and I know that Moira really enjoyed talking to polymorphism. I really look forward to doing more with that group in the future.

Before we got there though, we took a detour over to みつわ (Er, Mitsuwa) to pick up a couple of books for me. I'd decided that a good way to begin working on reading skills would be to buy a couple of children's books that I could start working my way through. That way I'll have some things written in hiragana that I can practice with. At this point my vocabulary is basically non-existent so I'm limited to sounding out words that I don't know the meaning of, but I figure that doing that and then looking the words up in a Japanese-English dictionary will be a good step. It would probably help if I had the entire set of Hiragana in my head though.

Speaking of which:

あ　い　う　え　お
か　き　く　け　こ
さ　し　す　せ　そ
た　ち　つ　て　と

Yes, making progress.

Sunday was a bit more subdued. We slept in 'till about ten when I got up to get ready for our lunch with my grandparents. Moira and I met them at my aunt and uncle's house (where they're living in an addition that they put on) and we went out for lunch at a cool little retro fast-food sort of place, followed by desert at Dairy Queen. I had a really good cheeseburger with bacon and mushroom, which I think was the first time I've ever had a burger with mushrooms on it. Yum!

Then we went back to their house and talked for a while. I had intended to give my grandfather a copy of K.D. Lang's Hymns of the 49th Parallel so he could hear the Leonard Cohen covers on it (not to mention because I adore K.D.Lang and think he'll enjoy it too), but I'd forgotten to burn one and promised to bring it next time. Surprisingly though, he had gifts for me!

He gave me copies of a couple of trade compilations that have some of my great-grandfather's works in them. And, even better than that, he gave me his copy of The Durability of Concrete Construction, his monograph. Did you know that Hubert won an award for that monograph? I didn't know either, but, since my grandfather actually gave me the wall-plaque that he'd won for it, now I do. I am incredibly honored to have these things; I'm quite certain it's the first time that a book about concrete construction ever brought tears to someone's eyes. The awards are definitely going up on the walls in the computer room as soon as I get time to mount them.

After that, my sweetie and I, rather than driving back northeast toward Kenosha, to go straight north and up to Lake Geneva. We'd seen a neat road that we didn't go very far down the last time we were there due to time and gas constraints, and we wanted to see the rest of it.

It didn't go all the way around the lake as we'd hoped, but it was still a very pretty drive and showed off some of the gatehouses of the huge mansions that the very rich who live around the lake reside in. (Lake Geneva was summer home to a number of captains of Chicago industry and it continues to be home to a good number of people with far more money than I can imagine ever having.)

After that pleasant drive through the woods, we went back eastward through the town proper and decided to stop in downtown for a little walk and a bit of ice cream. There's a Kilwin's there that I knew would make Andrea happy to stop into. We both procured cups of yummy Michigan frozen treats and sat on a bench outside the store to eat and watch the passers-by. It's a fun locale for people watching.

Finally, we got home and, shortly thereafter, went to bed. We'd had plans for a little more activity thereafter, but we ended up going to sleep instead. It had been a long few days! I wish there more of them though. Monday always sucks. I can't wait for my vacation coming up.

It looks like they've finally settled on July 1st as the launch date for the shuttle, so I'm going to take the preceding Thursday and Friday off to give me time to get down there, and then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the week after since my company is closed Monday and Tuesday. I'm still not one-hundred percent certain that I'm going (it would help if I could confirm that someone's going with me, especially if they could help drive. Anyone?), but whether I do or not, I could really use a vacation.

I guess that's about it for now. As if that wasn't enough. For now, I'm going to eat some of the wonderful dinner that Andrea made for me (which I hope will take edge off of the headache I'm developing) and then work with her some on cleaning up the house. The excitement never ceases!

'Till next time!