drwex | A weekend with fun and stuff

My weekends are generally Me vs. The Laundry Monster and other epic struggles. This weekend we did a couple different things.

Friday I went home early from work due to sick. Probably getting a flu shot while being sick was not the smartest move ever, but it was there so I did. Sleep helped.

Saturday I got my hairs cut by my favorite guys in Harvard Square. I've been going to these guys for a long time - they're a wonderful husband-husband couple and I've sent many of my friends there over the years. Their business is still down and if you tell them I sent you then you get a discount. Let me know if you want the details on going there.

Saturday night we had our annual Scotch-tasting. We had thought this would be a tiny affair, given how many people are out of town and how many other events were happening this weekend, but we got a bunch of last-minute RSVPs and people brought friends. It turned out to be just the right size, and Pygment managed to get the tub up and running before the party so that was a bonus. (*) When I prefaced a response in a conversation with "Given that it's one AM..." a whole bunch of people sort of startled. "Hey, I didn't realize it was that late." A sign of a good gathering, imo.

I also got to give a friend a present, which went just perfectly.
This was one of those things where I saw the item and immediately said "That would be perfect for so-and-so." And it was. The person receiving the gift was clearly pleased, said thanks, and went on enjoying the party. She kept the gift on her most of the evening, which really made me feel good. I realized (probably again) that I'm uncomfortable with effusive or emphatic expressions of thanks. I like people to let me know they enjoy gifts or things I've done but if they make a big deal out of it I get uncomfortable and am actually LESS likely to repeat it. How odd is that? Perhaps I distrust large overt expressions because part of me thinks the more effusive the thanks the more likely it is to be used to conceal insincerity?

Sunday was consumed by preparing for and attending the wedding of two friends. Again the event turned out smaller than some, but the smaller size made it easier to enjoy company and conversation and I'm shamelessly overjoyed to have been able to spend a little time socializing with the bride and groom. At large weddings it's really hard to do that, and often they're the people at the ceremony I know best. This time we got to have them stop by our table several times and enjoy a little time with their kid, who sort of randomly decided to sit at our table and be cute with our boys. Worth noting (for those who know our kids) that they behaved themselves really well, which was unexpected after some of the struggles earlier in the day.

Another of the odd highlight moments was the bride proving that yes, she did pass one of my very oldest tests for "would I date you?" much to the discomfort of

pierceheart. My biggest regret of this affair was that I happened to stand in a place for the ceremony that really limited the number of good pictures I could take. We'll see what comes of it, when I eventually get around to processing the images.

Also of note was that I managed to remain dry-eyed for most of the affair, but got totally sandbagged by the couple's choice of "Storybook Love" for their first-dance music. Pygment and I got exceedingly mushy - what can I say.

The test requires knowing all the lyrics to Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." I expect most of my readers know these lyrics, probably by heart, but in case you don't, http://www.qgm.com/meatloaf/lyrics/paradise.html
OK, so the question is: "Whose fault is it?"

I take answers "hers" or "both of them" to be a sign that we're probably compatible enough to date. People who automatically answer "his" are likely not compatible. (Note: I didn't say wrong; the question here isn't about right, but whether I probably will get along with someone I want to date.)

Reasoning: He's pressuring her for sex (fault) but when she demands commitment he asks to sleep on it (redeems). She's the one who insists on an immediate answer (fault) to a question I don't think most teens could possibly answer. Then he's willing to stick to his commitment even though he'd rather not (another point in his favor). In some interpretation she's committing the stereotypical error of trading sex for love, which I do not respect. I also don't respect pressuring your partner for sex, but the song lyrics don't support her being unwilling so I discount that somewhat.

Sunday night we had Annoying Computer Fail. Details not terribly interesting, but if you know what would cause a VoIP app to fail (lag, drop for several seconds) at the same time as ping/traceroute was showing no problems I'd like to hear it. My two theories are (a) I've got a virus/trojan or (b) our ancient router finally croaked - it's been sucking wind for a while now but I've been lame about it. Last night I updated and hand-ran both AVG and Spybot S&D to see if they'd pick up anything (no) so this AM I spent a couple hours swapping out the router. We'll see if that fixes things.

(*) We use a private email list for our party invites. If you're reading this and not on the list but would like to be then you should send me an email address I can use for you. @livejournal does NOT work for me, but you can send to $MYFIRSTINITIAL$MYLASTNAME@gmail.com