Daily Journal: Day 20 of 365

It was cold again this morning, with snow still on the ground out in the back yard. Fortunately the roads were all pretty clear, though. There were just a couple of slick areas still left where the sun hasn’t hit for the past couple of days. It was fortunate because we were going to go do some shopping this morning.

The girlfriend had a whole little list of stores we wanted to go to. We started at Hobby Lobby, mostly so she could look for good deals on wrapping paper and such, which we figured they’d likely have at very good prices. Unfortunately, things seem to have been picked over pretty well already, so she just got a few little things. I didn’t find anything I really wanted. There were actually quite a few things I wouldn’t have minded getting, but I just figured that I could live without more kitchen stuff. We already have a shortage of cabinet space, and I should use more of the stuff I already have without buying more.

After Hobby Lobby, it was off to the mall. She had a bunch of stores to go to, but I just headed off to Barnes & Noble, so I didn’t throw off her shopping mojo. They had a lot of stuff in the discount section of B&N, but I once again decided that most of the stuff I could live without. I did buy the unabridged Conan the Barbarian, which includes most of the short stories originally done by Robert E. Howard. It doesn’t have most of the novel series, which were completed by other authors from notes and manuscripts begun by Howard but left incomplete at his death. I probably could have lived without that, too, but I gave away all of my Conan novels when I moved down here to Texas, and I sometimes miss the shallow swordplay-and-sorcery fantasy that I used to have in my collection.

Next stop was Hastings, where we found a couple of DVD collections of Christmas shows at steep discounts. She got the Charlie Brown holiday collection, and I got a collection of the old animated classics including Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. We’ll definitely have Christmas shows to watch next year. I also got a Christmas swing CD, which wound up being only 25 cents. We thought about going back and getting more once we found out how cheap things were, but we decided to move on.

Old Navy had jeans on sale for $15, but I couldn’t find a pair that fit me and didn’t look way too big. So I settled for getting a few T-shirts, also on sale, and the girlfriend got some sweaters and some wrapping paper. We cut the trip short after that because we were both tired and hungry.

Once at home, I turned on the brisket, filling the house with a lovely smoky beefy aroma. It took a while to finish, but it was well worth the wait. Her friend Jason came up for her birthday, and we had dinner and watched some TV with him. Now he’s off to bed, and I’m about to head the same way…

See more progress on: write in my journal daily for a year

Finally back on my horse...

So, I haven’t updated anything on here for quite a long time, but I figured I’d crawl out from under my rock and get myself doing things again.

Last weekend, the girlfriend and I went to see the Dallas Stars play the New Jersey Devils down at American Airlines Center. It was a good game, although it was a bit more crowded than it has been when we’ve gone before. Dallas gave up the first goal, but then came storming back to a 3-1 first period lead. They gave up the lead over the subsequent two periods, but then scored two to end the game for a 5-3 victory.

On Sunday, we drove over to Tyler to see her dad, who unfortunately has to spend this Thanksgiving in the hospital because of a persistent leg infection. He’s doing better now, thankfully, but it will still be a while before he gets to come home. We’re hoping he’ll be out by Christmas.

This weekend, we have more social events on the schedule than we’ve had for the past couple of months combined. On Thanksgiving, we went down and spent the afternoon with the other side of her family. That was all right. A lot of people who I don’t really know all that well at all, and a few that I’ve never met before. But in general, it was a good meal and nice company, so I can’t complain.

Yesterday, I had to work on my birthday for the first time in almost 20 years. It was a boring day of work, but afterward we went to a party with some of her friends down in Dallas. There were even less people who I knew there than at the Thanksgiving dinner, but we had a good time anyway.

Tonight, we’re going to go celebrate the birthday of one of the members of our book club. We’re going out to eat at a tepanyaki (sp.?) restaurant down in Lewisville, and then go back to their place to play some Wii and enjoy some adult beverages. A good time will hopefully be had by all. We’ll see a bit later, though…

See more progress on: Get out of the house and do something every weekend

Quasi-birthday party

The last half of work yesterday was pretty uneventful. I basically sat around and read Napalm and Silly Putty for most of the time. I had a whopping total of one person to pick up, and that was about a 10-mile round trip. I left a little early, because I figured losing half an hour's pay was better than just falling asleep there in the little spare office cubicle.

I stopped at the liquor store on the way home and picked up a fifth of rum and a bottle of Pepsi. I got home and got changed and the girlfriend and I headed off to go to a party. Wasn't a birthday party or anything, but it was still kind of fun. We actually stopped and grabbed a bite to eat at Chik-Fil-A before we got there, because I was pretty starved and she was a bit hungry, too. I'm glad we did stop. She had told me that there would probably be finger foods and such at the party, but it turns out that Will, one of the hosts, has gone fully vegan, and his cooking is not exactly to either of our likings any longer.

We were introduced to a variety of people at the party. Seems that Will meets a lot of folks, and he introduced quite a little cross section of society. Quite a few of them were native Spanish speakers, and we didn't really talk with the a lot, but everyone was nice and friendly. The girlfriend and I hadn't really been getting a lot of sleep lately, though, and we wound up bailing out at around 10:30. We got home around 11:30 and went to bed shortly afterward.

It kind of sucks getting old...

Another year older...

So, this has pretty much been about the most crappy birthday I've had in the last two decades. I don't seem to do well with those ages that are even multiples of 21, I guess. Went to work this morning, have had a dull day doing the filing so far, and it looks like there's not going to be much business for me driving the courtesy shuttle around town, because there just aren't that many people coming in to get their cars fixed today. And, of course, most of them have other options for rides today, since they have spouses or kids who have the day off. Anyway, I should get ready to head back and see how things are going. No sense getting myself fired on my "special day." Heh...