I give up on the previous weekend updates. Maybe I’ll do a really quick stream-of-consciousness review later.
16 DEC 2005 : FRIDAY
Amanda works. I walk downtown and look about as it is a nice day. I buy Amanda another gift: a coffee grinder. I have actually bought her many gifts already that she has already received. I also meditate a bit on life and what I need to accomplish before the end of the year.
I catch a bus home and pick up the new hard drive I ordered. I then laboriously start backing stuff up again to it and downloading/obtaining various stuff I used to have. I consider my resume again with the slant that everything on it is fair game to ask on a interview and twiddle with it. It is still too long and not really formatted. I had a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.
Later I go to pick up Amanda, but I misunderstood where she was (she was at the hospital at UW and went to the clinic. Eventually I realized my probable mistake and got her. She was only slightly angry (I think she should have had her cell phone with her). I had actually been stopped very near where she was waiting… a 43 bus’s electrical lines had gotten messed up and it was stalled… but she and I did not see each other. Amanda did not find this amusing either.
She was hungry, so we went to the Elysian for dinner. It is one of the few places that I have found “reasonable” for the money in Seattle. I have had a lot of good food here in town, but I find it on the expensive side. I ran into a guy whose company runs a website that I frequent quite a bit.
We watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith later that evening. Amanda, as usual, fell asleep during the middle of it. It was alright… not great, but entertaining. We had considered going out to see a current movie, but it is good that we didn’t.
17 DEC 2005 : SATURDAY
Amanda got up later than normal today, but did clinic work at home. She was supposed to only let me sleep for another twenty minutes, but let me doze for a couple more hours because I “seemed to be having fun snoring.” We had bfast strips and homemde granola for bfast.
We hopped on a bus downtown to walk about; Amanda has not done so nearly as much as I. Downtown has completely mobbed wth holiday shoppers (and tourists, too) due to the holidays and the sunny clear weather. It was still a bit nippy though. Amanda had a burrito for lunch while I had nothing but diet pepsi as I was not really hungry.
We had to find an inexpensive present for a gift exchange thing at a work holiday party that we would be going to later. It had to cost less than $5 according to the rules. We eventually bought a dark and white chocolate representation of downtown seattle. It was actually kinda nice.
I had wanted to go to Archie McPhee’s for this gift, but due to various time constraints we decided to look for the present downtown.
We did some idle shopping. Amanda eventually wanted to do some more serious clothes trying-on at Anne Taylor Loft, so I went off elsewhere to look about. I went in the City Centre Mall; it turned out to be way to upscale for me. I went into a Barney’s and did find a nice jacket… too bad it was over $1000 (on sale too!). I think my typical five white tshirts for $11 are a much more economical choice.
I met back up with Amanda; she did not find anything she liked/wanted. She had a hair appointment at the Aveda Institute, so we started walking back. Amanda wanted to catch the bus, but I thought that was kinda silly since walking is fun! I also do not have a bus pass and would have had to pay for it. She went off to her appointment, and I walked the rest of the way back home.
A couple of hours later (I dozed), I met her at Trader Joe’s. We bought some random things, but the main item was a little potted pine tree for the holidays. Piglet was fascinated with it when we got it home.
Amanda went on a cleaning/organizing binge. We also got ready for the holiday party.
The party was for the Harborview staff. It was at Amanda’s advisor’s house. They had a placid doggie and a little fantail goldfish. They were also taking care of a cool bearded lizard.
The party was fun. I talked with a lot of people. There was Indian food (buffet style). Amanda may have finally gotten over her dislike of Indian food as she had avoided it since getting really sick in India earlier this year.
They had one of those white elephant gift exchanges (hence our need to get a gift). Basically everyone draws a number. Each person in order then gets to either open a new gift to be “theirs” or take someone else’s gift that had already been opened. If a person gets their gift taken they also get to replace their lost gift via a new one or they can take someone elses. It was pretty funny. Amanda got a cool gift of these stuffed monkeys, but someone took them from her (“Miranda was my friend!”). She decided to open a new gift and got a cermanic dish thing in the shape of a dog. Unfortunately, we could not convince anyone to take it from us.
There were a few extra gifts, so I got to choose one (we had only brought one for both of us). I took someone’s Nunzilla. I have actually wanted one of these for a long time! Muwhahahaha!
Back at home, Amanda watched the rest of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but then feel asleep while watching select scenes of it again. I typed out this entry. Now it is time for bed.