Downtime with the Designers

The past week has been largely populated with dinners and playtime with the designers. And designers are more fun to play with anyways. It's the end of the quarter, and most of the designers are shipping out early for various summer gigs around the country (Colorado Shakes was this weekend's exodus).

Tuesday night was the weekly BBQ out with the horses. I think Tuesdays are the new Fridays, because Fives were dwindling, largely because everyone was in the theatre or totally wiped out. So there were a dozen people eating tacos and having appropriately inappropriate dinner conversation. And I was rendered speechless, which amused Smokin' Fairy to no end.

Wednesday we all headed out to Dash-M's gorgeous house for some jumbalaya and Rock Band. Smokin' Fairy set up the equipment, while the rest of us assembled the most amazing fresh fruit salad! 3 kinds of berries, kiwi, pineapple, watermelon. A veritable rainbow of fruit goodness. The jumbalaya was damn tasty too. Nothing overdressed. Just perfectly spiced rice, chicken and sausage. And Rock Band with all 5 players until our fingers fell off. Basically, we just determined if the volume or rock-out enthusiasm was too high if it freaked out the dog. And then I got to try MarioKart for Wii. Which is so going to be my graduation present to myself.

Thursday was the season finale of Grey's, so Smokin' Fairy and Ms. Smokin' Fairy headed over with pizza. And when the Honda commercial involving a guy encased in cement came on, she and I totally lost it.

Friday was a small Fives out near Albany. Which basically involved Riff's "extra crispy" hot dogs and Trivial Pursuit - Pop Culture edition. Riff, "Doug," G.Style and me coming from behind, once we really had the pie hunger. Oh, and there was this amazing chipotle hummus. We adjourned, and I headed out to the Gator to meet up with some different faces.

And last night, to avoid the speakers as big as me that were perched across the driveway, I got to have BW3 with Lil Sis and G.Style before heading out to see the new Indiana Jones. Which I was willing to let slide until the monkey scene. Oy!

But now that our numbers are dwindling, things will probably quiet down, letting me go back to work, the library and my loser evenings in front of the tube. It was a nice week after finishing an intense week of thesis.

on the Toob: SVU marathon!

Train wreck

It should really be the name of our little rockband. Well, at least when I play the drums.

Smokin' Fairy finally procured Rock Band, which has been the agenda since it was generally agreed that Guitar Hero 3 was meh. And to celebrate Spring Break and the fact that none of us had a Damoclean deadline, we busted out the Rockband. Smokin' Fairy is a video game pro, so he was rockin' pretty hard. I do decently on guitar after months of GH, but I am absolutely, comically pathetic at drums. Like, impressively bad. Somehow, you put me in front of the little drum pads with sticks and I lose all musicality and physical coordination. This became a prime source of entertainment for everyone else as I threatened to smack them with drumsticks. But since my Little had similar issues, we made a rocking MA team, with me on kick and crash, and her on the actual drums. How many dramaturgs does it take you ask? Shut it, says I.

I got a little practice time in before migrating to G.Style's house for Lost. Then got a call from my "little" who was still in town, to our surprise, and wanted to hang out. There was some coordinating of pickups and packups, and then we all rocked out till like 3AM. Blessing or curse, the microphone wouldn't work, but we had the drums, and two guitars, which Smokin' Fairy described as the Fisher Price rock set. Or the set up for a band of midgets. Or Mini-Kiss! The Rockband playlist is awesome, and possibly superior to GH. Although that might be because I have nearly all of the RB songs on my iPod, and had to download alot of GH. (Although "Elephant Bones" and "Who Was In My Room Last Night" were happy discoveries.)

Now I lust after an Xbox.

Wii!!

Now, you can't say it like "wee" as in Scottish for small ala "wee bairn". You have to say it like "Whee!!!" - the sound you make when you bike down a hill or through a huge puddle.

For graduation, I bought myself a Wii. Because nothing says higher education quite like video games. I paid for it using money I that is no longer designated as car payment in my ledger. Because as of May, I had paid off my Civic! I also bought this as consolation prize for not working Semester at Sea, instead opting to temp in Athens. Now, Athens is a lovely town, but damn is it dull! So it's just been me and Wii.

I am getting better at Wii tennis, even though I still haven't learned the scoring system. Baseball would be more fun if I could throw something other than a fastball. (Watching lots of Cubbie-ball has taught me terms like breaker, slider, split, etc). But I LOVE Boxing. I still haven't lost a match. Mostly because I am ferocious, with absolutely no strategy. And it's a great work-out that is way more entertaining than running.

I also found a cheap copy of Rayman's Raving Rabbids, which has me laughing out loud on a regular basis. "Bunnies like disco dancing" is totally my favorite - big surprise. I wish I could explain it, but really, it's delightfully silly, and that's about the best I can do.

(dude, it's a bunny with a plunger!)

Borrowed some of Smokin' Fairy's GameCube games, although really, I have only been playing MarioKart. Because I like nonsensical racing games, and the sound Paratrooper makes when he's happy.

Currently coveting Wii Fit and Rock Band. But these are expensive, impossible to find, and just more equipment to fit into MY Civic in September. But anything to alleviate the boredom.

on Pandora: "Missing" - Everything But the Girl

I rock!

I just fielded 4 calls AT THE SAME TIME. Literally, all 4 lines lit up at the same time. And even before I finished, I got 2 more. Woo!

I am really working for that iPod. I have decided that it will be 4GB refurb. Now I just have to pick a color! Green to match my bag? Red which is my new signature color? Blue as a pretty color? Pink as the oddly appealling wild card? Thoughts?

(courtesy of apple.com)

on Pandora: "Apparitions" - Matthew Good Band