I'm pretty used to never having anything to do, nor anyone to do it with on Fridays. In my world, sometimes I can swing things to do with people on Saturdays, though. This weekend was different. Joel quit his job that had kept him so busy, and now has part-time work which, oddly, doesn't require him to work Fridays for once. So, Friday was a good time to hang out.
I've been going to my sister's to hold my nephew every second day or so. Me holding him seems to keep him quiet, which gives her a rest. This picture is of my dad holding him. He is quite alert (and large, and able to hold his head up and almost roll over) for not being a month old yet. He is almost 12 lbs. The same holds true for my nephew. (disputable antecedent humour!)
After hanging out with my nephew, while my neice watched episodes of Josie and the Pussycats that I'd burned for her, and she had me dangle her upside down a few times, which she likes, I went and got Joel and we played some video games and watched some stuff. My video games are too old for him. He likes old Mario games, but not N64 games, and I've been doing that classic N64 thing lately. We played Goldeneye and Perfect Dark anyway.
Arrangements had been made on Saturday to meet up with J from school to go second-hand clothes shopping, as this is a themed week at school, and on retro Thursday we wanted to have funny outfits. He got a selection of somewhat funny 80s stuff (not gaudy, like I thought he would) and I was picky, and shooting for a Don Johnson look. I couldn't get a white blazer, but I got white docker pants and boat shoes I can wear with no socks. I also got a (synthetic) blazer that looks very like black suede that I can actually wear to teach in. We met at Long and McQuade, and his buddy the Guitar Section Manager there told me good things about my guitar, and what guitars would be good choices, should I be looking to expand my available pallette of sounds. J's time and availability for fun things was limited, as he was accompanied by his wife.
Afterward, I was hungry, so I went to a Boston Pizza for pizza and beer. I saw a man holding what looked like a two-headed white husky dog in front, talking about "the by-law officer," which didn't sound good. Once he got reluctant permission from the restaurant, he released what turned out to be two gorgeous white blue-eyed huskies that he'd been holding the collars of together, into the closed for winter patio section. It was all full of snow in there, so as I ate a spicy perogy pizza I watched them running and leaping, romping around in the snow, and the cute waitresses going out to pet them. Apparently they run off from their owner's place, and often end up in the middle of the bustle where the restaurant is, excited by all the people and cars.
Sunday, I realized I had really wanted to go to the truly giant second-hand clothes store, which J had been unwilling to drive to, and so I MSNed Troy and he was into going. I had to watch Troy play Fantasy Star for Sega for an hour until he finished it and we could leave. Then he drank a Diet Pepsi Max (aspartame, and the caffeine of a Red Bull) and we went shopping.
I got a Club Monaco neon light blue t-shirt and a grey speckly blazer with huge shoulders and a nubbly pattern to it for my 80s outfit. Also, I got some other shirts, including a kind of Hawaiian one. We also ate at a food court in a huge mall (I went to a cajun place called Bourbon Chicken which we seldom see around here) and got some courdoroys. Brown. I wanted tan, but they only had brown and black. The majority of things I own are black, so what I really need are things that go with black, so I went with the brown.
Then Troy and I returned to his place, he fixed my Nintendo (NES) cartridge loading mechanism (which now works perfectly in terms of mechanics, but the games don't play anymore, so we should look at that), and we jammed. I played a lot of songs, and he had his Line 6 guitar hooked through a port into his computer, playing through his powerful computer speaker setup, picking guitar, amp and effect emulation to suit each one. We played until we were exhausted. Walking up the stairs, I managed to step on his cat, which tried to run under my foot as I was stepping down onto the next step. It was like stepping on a football. I fell rather than hurt the cat, but am ok. Just some bruises to my wrist and thigh. The cat was scared but not hurt, as she bolted out from under my foot and smacked headfirst into a step. Troy also fixed my Starfox 64 cartridge by cleaning it, so I tried that out when I got home, and it worked.
I haven't had such a happy, optimistic weekend in a long time.
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