This weekend was pretty eventful, and full of lots of fun stuff (and a
few not-so-fun things).
Saturday, Jenn, Stu, Tif, and I all
went to the first birthday party for the son of one of my coworkers,
Vishwa. He’s Indian, so the party was all done up Indian style, and it
was amazing. I mean, the guy went all out, and it totally showed.
Folks were dressed up in traditional garb, there was more wonderful food
than you’ve ever seen in one place, and people all over were having fun.
I met some of the crazy uncles Vishwa has and had a total blast.
Vishwa’s son was running around dancing and was totally cute in his
little suit, bouncing up and down to the music. Great fun, plus it
really shows me how little culture the US offers with respect to parties
and the like - this was worlds better than any little kid’s birthday
party I’ve ever been to. If that’s what they do for a first birthday,
I’m curious to see the 18th or 21st!
Unfortunately, we had to leave a little early because my sister, Tori,
and her fiancee, Brandon, changed their plans at the last minute and
decided to come down this weekend instead of some time next month. I
hadn’t met Brandon yet, so this was my opportunity. In fact, it was
everyone’s opportunity, including Stu and Tiff, so we all carted down to
West Linn to visit the parental units and meet Brandon. A bit of
talking, some eating, and a little Donkey
Konga
later, and we were on our way home. Mission successful.
Sunday Stu came over and we did a little gaming. We finished up Super
Mario
Sunshine
and, needing more Mario-based torture, headed out to the game store
where Stu picked up Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year
Door. We
made quite a run at that (it’s pretty cool) and called it a night around
7:00p. Looking forward to this weekend and maybe running a little more
Paper Mario. Gaming like that actually is way more enjoyable, even on
a one-player game: if one person can’t beat the bad guy, the other
person can, so you never get stuck and always feel like you’re winning.
We’ve got that down to quite the system now. After that: 24: The
Game.
Monday… ugh. Besides some gaming (We Love
Katamari),
there were a couple of irritants. Nothing to get too worked up about,
but annoying at best.
First, my router. I decided to update the firmware on my router to have
the latest security updates and so forth. Ever have a three-minute task
turn into an hour-long nightmare? Yeah, me too. Turns out there’s this
interesting and entirely undocumented feature that appears in the latest
version of the router firmware called “SecureEasySetup.” Supposedly it’s
one-click security setup for the router. In reality, it’s one-click
destruction of your wireless network. Lesson learned: don’t click the
“SecureEasySetup” link. Just configure the router the usual way. A reset
button push and reconfiguration of all of my router settings, and I’m
back in business.
Second… our master bathroom mirror was pretty dirty, so I decided to
clean it. Got out the Windex and some paper towels, sprayed the mirror,
started wiping. Turns out Jenn had this precariously perched Dixie cup
full of Listerine with her toothbrush soaking in it. I ended up knocking
that over, so there’s four ounces of Listerine all over the counter and
running over the edge.
I’m not sure if you know how much four ounces is. You know how you
rinse with, like, a capful of Listerine? Four ounces, when spilled on
the counter, is roughly 227.6 capfuls. Yeah, it’s a lot of Listerine.
I started mopping that up, fast as I could, but it had already soaked
down Jenn’s necklace that was laying on the counter, and her
prescription bottle, and some apricot body wash… So I picked up the
necklace to rinse it off, but couldn’t rinse it in that sink because
Jenn had something soaking in fucking Woolite in that sink.
Moved the Woolite-soaking clothing to a different bathroom. Came back
and rinsed off the necklace, pill bottle, body wash. Noticed that the
Listerine has gotten into some candle holders that sit on the edge of
the bathtub below the counter (where the Listerine overflowed off the
counter) and is also on the damn iron because, for some reason, the
iron is also on the edge of the bathtub.
Did you know that Listerine doesn’t just wipe up? I didn’t. You
actually need to scrub with soap because just water leaves a sticky
Listerine mess.
Went and got the bathroom cleaner, cleaned the entire counter (which
involved moving countless hair maintenance articles - brush, clips,
rubber bands, etc.), got everything back where it goes.
That’s when I saw that I didn’t get the mirror cleaned up to begin with
and the Windex has dried on there so I had to start that whole process
over.
Needless to say, there was a short conversation about precariously
perched cups full of Listerine and the sheer quantity of shit on the
bathroom counter that has a home and needs to go back to its home when
it’s done being used and what the fuck is the iron doing by the bathtub
anyway. All straightened out, at least for another two or three days.
Back to your regularly scheduled program.