I love my friends

Ahhhh, this girl had a nice little weekend. After being sickly and yucky for a good part of last week, by Saturday, I was good and ready to expend some personal energy on searching for, and attaining joy. Friday night I went out to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Lindsey and Erin. It was a good remake. Not better than the first movie, but a nice updated version. Agustus Gloomp was perfect, as was Charlie. I was relieved to find out that Johnny Depp did a great job as Willy Wonka, and wasn’t the creepy Michael Jackson-esque character that the previews made him out to be. I was also pleased with the Charlie Bucket house, and the fact that the grandparents slept head-to-toe just like the first movie (and probably the book, but I haven’t read the book).

Saturday started with an unusually early trip to the gym for some swimming. “Unusually early” meaning 10AM. Apparently there is a water aerobics class every Saturday scheduled for 9:30AM. So I had to sit in the hot tub for 30 minutes and wait for the class to end until I could get in the pool for some laps. Then I had lunch with a couple of friends downtown, did some light shopping (as I was told that I didn’t have a high enough skank factor in my current wardrobe) and headed home for a quick power nap before hitting the town.

It was Lindsey’s roommate Amy’s birthday on Saturday, so the evening’s agenda was slightly more festive than an average Saturday night. First we went to Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar, and then to Cowgirl’s Inc, a Coyote Ugly themed bar that, despite being trashy by nature, has turned out to be incredibly fun each time I go there. I might add that since we were all part of a birthday party, we didn’t have to pay cover at either place, which just left more money in our pockets for liquid courage.

Here’s one of the pianos…


I had a bunch of birthday party favors that I bought a while ago with the intention of sending them all to a certain birthday boy earlier in the month. However, right as I was about to mail said decorations, we had…a bit of a falling out? So, I had all these dang birthday accoutrements that need a home. So I brought them for Amy. The dang noise makers were duds, making no noise at all (Dollar Store, I guess you get what you pay for?) but were still very fun to play with. And most of them shot straight down when blown. So I had to coach this poor thing along manually.

** okay, there was a photo here of me with the above referenced noise maker, and looking at it again, it is way too phalic for public posting.**


Here’s one of Tracey and Me. Apparently I forgot to eat dinner before heading out. (please note my gold bling)

Then we went to Cowgirls Inc. which was insanely crowded, yet very fun. There was lots of dancing going on there, so I didn’t get many pictures. But I managed to take one of Lindsey giving a thorough background check (and interrogation) to my new friend Chris from Canada who was just in Seattle for the weekend. I appreciate her taking the time to complete the background check. A girlfriend's approval is like the gold standard of safety and security.

Please note that he is showing her his driver’s license, as is the typical protocol for any applicants into my “Canadian Neighbors to the North Junior Ambassadors Academy.” It’s my latest nonprofit endeavor, encouraging cultural exchange between twenty-somethings of our two fine nations.

The next morning I was very sleepy, but it was my office summer picnic, which was actually a BBQ and Mariner game (so much more fun that the idea of petting zoos and hay rides a Remlinger Farms like usual…). I took Lindsey, my platonic life-partner as my date. It was a great day for Baseball in Seattle.

Ahhhh, Safeco…


Lindsey and I looking very blue-eyed.



After the 7th inning, we went out and had drinks at Sluggers, where the giant beers and mystery drinks were a’flowing. A great way to kill a Sunny Sunday afternoon. All this put me into fine form this morning at work. So after a full day at work, all I really managed to accomplish was determining the difference between Diet Coke and the new “Coke Zero.”

If you’re interested, here’s an article that explains the phenomenon. But be careful, even READING it might give you brain cancer!!

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/dining/drivethru/3235382