As I alluded to last time, I ended up spending my Memorial Day morning up on Tiger Mountain. Turns out there’s a hang-gliding launch point at the top, so we got to see some flights.
After that we grabbed lunch from a random restaurant out in the middle of nowhere, except it was super popular.
From there we drove back, then I chillaxed until it was time to hit up an Escape Room with some friends. We struggled quite a bit, ended up only finishing because the attendant was nice enough to give us an extra 15 minutes or so.
That Tuesday I picked up a free ticket to ‘Mormon Night’ at the Mariners baseball game the next Friday. They’d been running raffles each night for the past like 4-5 weeks. Of course they still didn’t manage to get them all dispersed, so at the end it was just, “Anyone want a ticket?”
So Friday night was my first time going to a sportsball game out here. Much fun.
If you look closely you can see someone holding up a “repent ye sinners”-style sign. Reminded me of Conference.
The smoky aftermath.
After the baseball game I walked with a couple friends to a nearby Krispy Kreme. It was National Doughnut Day after all. There was quite the line, and one of my friends started up a game of trivia that some other line-waiters got in on. Once we got in I saw they were handing out free doughnuts in honor of the day; I actually got the very last one of those, and there were still like 15 people behind us. Oops.
Saturday was pretty lazy. Got out and about at 2:30 to grab the fixings for Spicy Raisin Bars, which I made for a family history-themed potluck dinner we were putting on with a neighboring ward. Had a decent turnout.
I’m explaining the rules of ‘Countries’. It’s like ‘Signs’, but everyone picks a country name instead of a sign. And there’s no accepting phase, you say someone’s country and they’re immediately it.I fashioned the club together out of a toy bat, a roll of paper towels, and the elastic band from a funny little hat.Lookin’ like I’m contemplating who’s gonna get it next.
Today after church we had friends over for dinner. After we’d all et, we went out on a little walk, then chilled out by our apartment complex’s pool. Played some Mario Kart, laser chess, and magnet-checkers, then called it a night. All in all a good pair of weekends.
First I wanted to round out the report on last week’s Saturday evening. I was slated to be a blind date for the younger sister of a friend in the ward, who hadn’t been on a date before. My job was to convince her that dating is fun and worth doing. Pressure was on.
Before heading out to the restaurant, I hopped on my bike to go buy some milk from the store, and swung by this lake by my apartment. Somehow I’d gone eight months without ever visiting this thing. It’s pretty secluded, and riding along its edge I probably managed to snag like a thousand of those little flies in my facial/arm hair – lots of standing water.
The city has plans to really do a number on the place, but they’re expensive plans and probably won’t be put into effect for at least another five years. (Here’s a rendering.)
So I arrived at the restaurant. Basically every date I’ve been to dinner on since I’ve arrived here has been at Red Robin. I guess it’s that blend of down-to-earth-and-not-too-expensive burgers and the fact that you get actual waiters and such that makes it so popular. Anyways, we had great conversation, things went smoothly, until it was time to go to the dance afterwards. I really don’t like dancing. Getting better at it, but if it was this girl’s first dance-date-thing, I wasn’t looking forward to having that responsibility. But, luckily enough, she was feeling sick and didn’t want to dance, so she left in her own car, and I stuck around to say hi to some folks before heading back myself. All in all, mission accomplished. Got a glowing report from her sister on the whole thing.
Monday I biked in to work super early so I could get started setting up my desk at my new location. I’m loving it. At first I was just a tad jealous of a coworker who got a nice window seat, with my desk facing an adjacent wall. But turns out we had quite a bit of leeway in how to align our desks, and I was able to rotate mine 90 degrees, giving me a nice alcove against the wall and a perfect view out the windows.
Not much to report until the weekend. Still haven’t driven my car in to work since we moved office spaces, the weather is just gahrgeous.
Yesterday I went on a scenic drive with some friends, up to Whibdey Island. Here’s our route. We stopped in at Snow Goose Produce for some ice cream, Fort Casey to look around (forgot my phone in the car, so don’t have too many pics), and then at Coupeville for lunch. Coupville was basically a more temperate version of Grand Lake. It was awesome.
That evening I hosted a Conspiracy night at my place. First time in a long while I’ve had people over, it was really awesome. Even got an ovation at the end for my narrating. Some of the girls from the ward had met someone random in a park earlier that day and invited her along. She’s a nondenominational Christian, but super open to discussing religion. Got friended by most of the people there, we’ll see where it goes.
Tomorrow I have to decide between two hikes and a music festival. Then we’ve also got a group together to go to another escape room. If I couldn’t’ve been back home for the long weekend, at least this’ll be fun.
Well, where to begin. Had a blast in Europe; such glass, much architecture, wow. Last week on Thursday I was heading to meet up with some friends to play card games. Thought I’d stop in for a Subway first. Got distracted while getting out of the car, and wouldn’t’cha know it my keys were left on my passenger seat, with the door locked. Gee dangit. And my phone battery was on its last legs as well. Managed to have enough juice to call a locksmith to come out. Advertised a $15 service, but once you add in the various fees and such it was closer to $60. Ouch.
Made it to the party just as it was winding down. Decided to head to the movies for the after-party, to see Fate of the Furious. Very fun to watch, but c’mon, hacking was kinda done last movie. And someone really wanted to write the most clichéd hacker exchange ever when our heroine and antagonist were battling it out over keyboards. “Ooh, good one, betcha won’t expect THIS.” “Mmm, she’s good, but try and deal with THIS.” Repeated for like seven lines.
Anyways. That movie was much nicer than the one I saw later in the weekend, The Circle. Really not very good, couldn’t figure out what it was trying to say. It’s like it was rushing up to a cliffhanger, only to reveal that it was tricking us the whole time and it was just a plateau.
On Friday I took my car in for service, so I got to bike in to work for the first time in the year. Delightful. Soccer afterwards, then back to pick up my car and rush off to a Twin Falls hike.
Saturday I dropped my bike off to get serviced, then went off to meet up with friends at a pizza place, one of the best I’ve ever eaten at. From there we went to see the aforementioned ‘The Circle’.
Not much to report the rest of that week. Thursday was moving day at work, which is where the title of this post comes in. We’re moving from our building to the next one over. Essentially it’s a three-story reduction in altitude. Our view is diminished, but not as severely as it could have been, so I’m super grateful.
Bye bye, desk. It’s been good.Hello new space! Maybe one day I’ll have an office of my own. Won’t happen as long as I work here though, unless I get *really* high up. (My new desk is along the far-right wall, second from the end towards the back wall.)
On the way out I went exploring for a bit down in the lower levels, and came across the most remarkable discovery. I don’t wanna spoil it for those of you visiting later this summer though. Message me if you aren’t coming and want pics.
Friday was a work-from-home day. That night I helped a friend set up their backup drive, after they texted me in a panic; apparently the “This external hard drive will need to be reformatted” message got them a bit antsy, which was totally understandable.
After that was done I looked across their fence line at the forested area beyond, wondering for the Nth time what lay beyond. I decided this time to find out, and located the gate that led into the area. My gosh. It was like The Secret Garden. (I think; I’ve never seen the movie or read the book.) One of Anij’s “perfect moments” (ST: Insurrection reference).
If you click the image and the next and expand them you’ll see there’s a little bunny helpfully posing for the shot. There’s a lot of the little critters around these parts.
Today was the Day of Service around here (not sure how wide-spread it is). This morning I went to help clean up garbage people had tossed over the fence at an apartment complex. It was just ridiculous how many cans and bottles there were. “Washing clean the bottle and gin of this generation” as it were.
Had to leave before that was done (may still be there now otherwise) to help someone move out of their apartment. Tonight I’m heading out on a group dinner date and then off to a Sadie Hawkins dance. I got set up as a blind date, and my date is the sister of a friend in the ward. She’s 18 years old and has never been on a date. Should be interesting.
