Walked to Giant Eagle with Emily after work to get some groceries in preparation for her parents to visit this weekend. After I had some embarrassing trouble finding the taco shells we gathered everything up and walked home.
Finally finished Mass Effect 2. The final mission is truly epic, and I like how they got around the whole “you have a team of 12 but can only take two with you in this really hard mission” problem that seems to pop up in a lot of RPGs. My favorite thing, however, is that you can get Mordin to sing. Wonderful.
Only question now is whether to move on to the next game in my stack or take a break.
Had some trouble keeping focused. I’ll just go ahead and blame the jet lag.
For dinner Emily made a tasty meal of pork loin and quinoa with dried cherries. I believe this was in celebration of Ramadan.
Emily’s really gotten into Dragon Age 2 recently so we have to use the Playstation in shifts. She took the first shift this evening and I took the second for Mass Effect. I’m so close to finishing this game that I can taste it.
Made spaghetti with ground turkey and Newman’s Own Sockarooni sauce for dinner. Delicious, if I do say so myself.
Worked a little on a hobby project. One of the things I like least about application programming is how you don’t have much to show off before you write the UI. And I don’t like writing UIs.
Finished off the evening with some Mass Effect. Only a couple of missions left. Then I don’t know what I’ll do with myself.
Up early; to church. Today’s “sermon” was about a new “behavioral covenant” proposed for adoption by the congregation (The quotes aren’t ironic. The Unitarian Universalists tend to use very specific terms). There were seven proposed rules which are inspired by the seven guiding principles of the congregation, essentially meaning (to me, anyway) that they are things that the congregation should be doing already. They were also very specific that these were not meant to be enforceable rules but guidelines for a self-governing congregation. I’m not sure what the point is, then. They’re basically saying that you should abide by the principles of the church or excuse yourself from it, but most members of the church were drawn to it by those principles, so they will have already made their choice. This sort of thing (rules designed by committee, which aren’t enforceable, and don’t really add anything to the discussion) is why I’m reluctant to become a full member of the church, and is an example of why I find organized religion in general unappealing.
After church we went to the Gypsy Cafe Geek Brunch. Today’s theme was “Joss Whedon”, which meant dishes inspired by and named after Whedon creations like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. I had the “Serenity Scramble”, which is steak and eggs scrambled together with home fries, while Emily had the “Captain Hammer Crepes”, which were… crepes. Very tasty all around, especially with a little Frank’s Red Hot thrown in.
Stopped by Costco and signed ourselves up for a membership. Our first purchase will likely be a new set of tires for my car. Our second will likely be a pallet of peanut butter.
For dinner we made our way out to Wings, Suds, & Spuds in Moon and met up with Greg and Jim. The teryaki wings are still delicious, as are the fries. We ended up BSing for a couple of hours after eating, until the place started filling up and we finally freed up our table.
Home for some Mass Effect (really really almost done now!) and bed.
Finished the evening with some Mass Effect (almost done!) and a bottle of Mother Earth Endless River which one of Emily’s coworkers sent over. I have to admit I wasn’t crazy about this one. Maybe it’s the fruit, or perhaps it’s because it was paired with Goldfish crackers.
Humming along on some research regarding one of my tasks when I found out I Broke The Build™ yesterday. Never a good thing to hear, especially when you’re the new guy. Spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out what went wrong, but came up empty. Perhaps sleep will bring clarity.
Fermenter is still bubbling.
After work it fell to me to finish installing the plumbing for the bathroom sink while Emily went to folk orchestra rehearsal. I trimmed about a quarter-inch off of a pipe and after some blood, sweat, tears, and a bit of plumber’s tape everything is in place and carrying water where it needs to go. A rare successful plumbing project.
Rewarded myself with a grilled cheese sandwich and some Mass Effect before bed.
Hacked away at stuff for work. Ended up with two merge proposals. Not bad for the new guy.
Lunch was a sandwich along with the last of the broccoli salad. Great stuff.
Later in the afternoon, stomach ache made me suspect that the dressing in the broccoli salad had not aged well. Pity, but I say it was worth it.
Went to Home Depot with Emily to buy a new bathroom sink. The old one leaks and we only have a few dozen other projects for this weekend, so what the hell, right?
Finished up the evening with some more Mass Effect.
Up early; more leftover fruit salad for breakfast. Sadly that was the last of it.
Got some nice concrete tasks to perform at work. Performed them.
Made myself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, paired with some of my mother’s broccoli salad. The post-Memorial Day week is good for eating.
Emily made a fancy flatbread pizza with peaches and gorgonzola cheese for dinner. Yum.
We went for a bike ride after dinner. Nothing too epic, just down to Regent Square and back. Stopped at Tutti Frutti and tried to make use of Emily’s Groupon, but it turns out we don’t have a large enough appetite for frozen yogurt to make it worthwhile.
At home, relaxed with some more Mass Effect 2. I seem to be getting re-addicted to this game.
Up early; leftover fruit salad for breakfast. Mmmmm.
Spent most of the day researching an issue for work that I later found out was not an issue. Mildly annoying, but so was the issue. Glad to be rid of it.
Took a crowbar and a hand saw to the little wooden platform next to the downstairs toilet. There must be 50 nails in this thing and at least a dozen screws HOLDING IT TO THE WALL. It’s supposed to be a foot rest since the toilet is sitting up on a tank. Two hours of effort and I only got half of the thing dismantled. I have no idea what the person who built this was thinking but I’d like to give them a piece of my mind some time.
Took the edge off of my frustration with some pierogi with seasoned salt, some Flying Dog IPA, and some Mass Effect.
