Looking back at the weekend…

Well, it’s been a long Thanksgiving weekend, but tonight it all comes to an end. I go back to work in the morning and the usual cycle begins again. Ah, well, it was fun while it lasted… when I wasn’t doing database maintenance for work, that is.

I did manage to get out and about yesterday, meeting up with Dave and Louie. Louie had declared the day a day of Japanese food, which neither Dave nor I were about to dispute. When I got to Louie’s apartment, I presented Dave with a sort-of gift: when he had called Thursday night, he had mentioned that he needed an A/V switchbox. As it so happened, I had one I was no longer using (I had replaced it with one that supported component jacks), so I brought it to him so that he could use it. Dave had a birthday present for me, making it even more of a Doctor Who birthday: the movie Dr. Who and the Daleks. From there, we all headed to a sushi restaurant Louie knew of off Richmond called Oishii. We had a very delicious meal of sushi there, though Dave and I both agreed when Louie said, “Now, as good as that was… can you understand why after four days of this [in Japan] I went and got donuts?” From there we went to Border’s so Dave could look for a particular DVD, which he ended up not finding. As soon as we left Border’s, we went back to Louie’s apartment.

Once we got to Louie’s apartment, Dave and Louie sat down and watched the Family Guy episode that parodied Star Wars, while I got on Louie’s computer and did some stuff for work. (I have to admit, I’ve never gotten into either Family Guy or American Dad, so when Dave and Louie sit down to watch I generally go into the next room). Once my work was done and Family Guy was finished, we sat down and flipped between different football games until 7:30 PM came around, at which point we left for the dinner portion of our “Japan food day”; Louie had made reservations for us at Benihana. Once again, the food at Benihana was superb. :-) We all had the Benihana Yakisoba dinner, which consists of noodles with chicken and vegetables. After dinner (which was interrupted by a power outage at one point), we went back to the apartment, and watched some more football, and had drinks as well. Fortunately I had left a bottle of Jose Cuervo margarita there from a bit back, and it was still good. :-) At 11:30 PM or so, I made my farewells as I had some stuff to do for work before bed, and made my way home.

It was a good thing I had no problems on my way home. The one big issue with my cell phone is that because it’s a 3G device, it’s a pig for battery power. When I left the house around 11:30 AM, the device was fully charged. Before we left for Benihana, I plugged it into Louie’s PC to give it a bit of a boost, and got 8% out of it. As I left Louie’s, I noticed the low battery warning. The device died on the way home. Looks like I’ll need to start carrying my old car charger (which will work with this phone) in the car’s central console…

As for today, it’s been relatively uneventful. I finished all of the database maintenance I needed to do for work, and also got to sit down and watch Dr. Who and the Daleks. It’s certainly different from the original TV series, but I rather liked it. For those not familiar, the movie is an adaptation of the second serial of the TV series. The main differences are that “Dr. Who” (played by Peter Cushing) is an eccentric human inventor who just invented TARDIS, and both Susan and Barbara are his granddaughters. Dave actually put it best: it’s a good way of watching the original story without having to see the entire original seven-part serial. In my experience you can’t watch the original serial all in one go.

As for this week, I don’t have much planned outside of work. I’m hoping to get some videoconferencing time in with Misty now that my webcam is operational, but I may have to coax her into it. Otherwise… we’ll see what happens this week. :-)