You know, it’s sad. I’ve just finished up the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, and here I am wishing I had a couple more days off. It’s not that I’m not ready to get back to work… I’ve just been enjoying the time off and wish I could enjoy a bit more. :-) Ah, well… it could always be worse. At least I got the four days off, more or less. :-)

Thursday and Friday were more or less unremarkable; I had Thanksgiving dinner, I slept, I played on my Xbox 360 (which may earn its own post at some point… stay tuned), and I finally got around to watching 28 Days Later, which I thought was a damn good movie. All in all, those two days were quite relaxing and a quite needed break from things. Yesterday was the day that Louie and Dave decided to come up… heh. Right around lunchtime, Louie made his way up and I showed him the Xbox 360 while we waited for Dave to arrive. Once Dave arrived, we headed on over to Quizno’s for lunch, and followed that up with a visit over at Specs to stock up on liquor (well, in my case Shiner Light and Coca-Cola Zero). Once we got back to the house we started watching the OU vs OSU game, only to switch over to the Bayou Classic with Southern playing against Grambling State. We found that watching the Bayou Classic was more entertaining, in a bad football trainwreck kind of way. :-) Also, this was one of the very few games where they showed the marching bands playing at half-time. Though, it WAS funny… the first one to march had their own announcer talking throughout the performance. It annoyed me, until I realized it was successfully distracting me from how bad the band was. :-) Anyway… once the game was over, at Louie’s request I set the entertainment system over to the GameCube and started up Midway Arcade Treasures 3 for a couple rounds of San Francisco Rush 2049. Once we got done with that, we decided to head out for dinner. During the game Louie had received an SMS saying some of his friends were meeting at Club Tropicana for salsa dancing, and neither Dave nor I were up to it. So, we went in two separate cars over to the Greenspoint TGI Friday’s. Well, that was the plan anyway, until we actually got there and Louie called me…

“Uh, I guess I don’t remember this area as well as I thought,” he said.
“No, you do. They’ve closed it down!” I replied.

We ended up making our way over to the Willowbrook Friday’s instead. While there, I asked the waitress what happened to the Greenspoint Friday’s, and it turned out that the lease was up and the owners of the building were raising the rent to a rate that Friday’s found unacceptable. Fortunately a lot of the people from that restaurant found their way over to the Willowbrook one, so few (if any) jobs were lost. Once we finished at Friday’s, Louie left for Tropicana while Dave and I went over to GameStop and then CompUSA so he could find From Russia With Love for his PS2. Once done there we hit Starbucks for a bit, and then made our way back to my house. I showed Dave the 360 and let him play some Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run, and then he headed home, borrowing my copy of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.

As for today, well… most of my day was spent doing cleaning-type stuff. I cleaned off most of my computer desk (which was obscured by various papers and whatnot), and ended up trashing most of it (mostly in the shredder). I’ll probably end up shutting down the main PC tonight and using this as an opportunity to dust out its insides, plus dust the cubbyhole it sits in. Now I just have to keep the desk clean… which those people who know me well will know won’t last long. Ah, well. Now I just have to worry about the bookshelves and my closet… heh.

As for this week, I don’t have that much planned other than the usual. I’ll likely play some Gears of War and Texas Hold Em online, plus whatever MK Online stuff that happens to come up. I also have to send off packages to ~Crow~, Jenn, and CCShadow at some point; unfortunately, Jenn’s will likely have to wait until I can find a padded envelope big enough for the game I’m sending her. Otherwise, it’s looking to be a usual week.

As for now, though, I’m just going to take this dessert plate down, restock the fridge with water, and do some more cleaning of this desk. Fun fun…

Well, here I stand at the end of the first day of a three-day work week. Today was not fun for reasons I REALLY don’t want to get into, but at least the day is over and done with. Of course, it didn’t help either that today was the first day back after a long three day weekend… heh.

I actually spent this past weekend in Jackson, MS, visiting my old old friend Misty. She and I have known each other for eleven years and I figured it was about time I finally made my way out there and met her. (That and she was getting tired of me making excuses for not coming out there.) I arrived in Jackson at around noon, and made my way to the hotel in Clinton (not too far from where Misty lives). She came on over, and we ended up hitting this nearby BBQ place for lunch. Afterwards, we hung out in the hotel room, and that evening we made our way over to Hooters, where her friend Dani was doing an event for the radio station she works for, Rock 93.9. After dinner there, we made our way over to Tinseltown, where we ended up watching Casino Royale. I have to say that Casino Royale is probably the best Bond film I’ve seen since For Your Eyes Only. After that was done, she dropped me back off at the hotel, and I headed on to bed.

Saturday was spent having breakfast at the hotel, and then I accompanied Misty over to Home Depot while she got some stuff for her father. We also ended up over at Burger King for dinner; I tried to see if I could pick up a copy of Sneak King, but they weren’t selling the games yet for some reason. After that, she dropped me back off at the hotel while she took the stuff for her father. Later she returned, and we hung out at the hotel for a while again. When dinnertime came, we decided to look for a place to eat. We looked… and looked… we started at Applebee’s, then went to Ruby Tuesday’s, then headed over to Olive Garden, and then Chili’s. Every place had a HUGE crowd and/or a minimum hour and a half wait. (Apparently some big high school rivalry game had been played that night.) We ended up driving down Lakeland Drive to Flowood, and ate at Logan’s Roadhouse there. Never been to Logan’s, but the food was actually pretty good. After we got done in there, we walked over to Border’s and browsed for a bit. From there, I drove us back to the hotel, where she picked up her car and went home.

The next morning, after I had breakfast, packed, and checked out of the hotel, she came around and we headed over to North Park Mall off of County Line Rd. We browsed the mall for a bit, and had lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s in the mall. After we finished eating, we wandered down to the food court at the opposite end of the mall, where the Rock 93.9 folks (including Dani) had set up a turkey bowl to benefit the Stewpot. (I assume the Stewpot is a local food bank in Jackson.) Turkey bowling is just what it sounds like: you take a frozen turkey, and bowl it down the lane to hit the bowling pins. Misty and I both made donations, and both tried our luck… and both scored strikes. (Amazing in my case, considering how badly I bowl.) We talked to the DJs for a while, and watched people try their luck. By the time it ended, it was time for me to head to the airport. We went to our cars, and we bid each other goodbye (which wasn’t fun, mind you)… and then I made my way to the airport.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip. I hadn’t even considered this until after I got home, but this was the first non-working vacation I had taken since spring of 2003. (Other vacations I had taken since then were almost all to do with MK Online related events.) It was great to see Misty, and I’m sure it won’t be another 11 years before I go back and visit her. :-)

As for this coming weekend, well… it’s the typical four day Thanksgiving vacation. I won’t be travelling, of course, but I do hope to put some time in on my Xbox 360 and watch some movies. It’ll be good to just relax at home for a few days.

And speaking of relaxing, a cold Shiner Bock sounds good right about now, so I’m going to just post this and go grab one. Fun fun… :-)

This comes courtesy of Leonard Pitts Jr., in his latest column in the Houston Chronicle.

Wouldn’t you much rather be Neil Patrick Harris than Ted Haggard just now? In other words, wouldn’t you rather be a content gay man living life to the fullest, than a closeted gay hypocrite living lies to the fullest? Especially since lies are so frequently found out.

That’s the fallacy social conservatives miss. In a culture that allows gay people room to be gay people, there is no need of lies. In a culture that does not — i.e., theirs — lies are rampant. And that’s unfortunate, not simply for the person in question, but for all the people in his or her life.

Yes, leave it to both me and Lhadatt to come up with the perfect caption for one of the Chicago pics. :-)

Well, Aaron came through for me and sent me all of the pics he and Justin took while we were at Chicago. I went ahead and picked what I thought were the best of the best, and uploaded them into my online gallery. They’re not exactly in order; they’re Aaron’s and Justin’s pics from Chicago first, followed by my cell phone pics, and ending with the Fight Night pics at Midway.

If you want to go ahead and take a look, you can see Chicago pic gallery here.

My friend Lindsey pointed this out to me a few minutes ago…

I think my brain broke after watching that. :-/