Jill made thai peanut butter chicken for dinner. She rules the universe. :)

Bored out of my mind and sitting in the break room of a Wawa because you need 5 technicians to move an ATM 12 inches. You shouldn't, but apparently you do. One of the five is an electrician who was supposed to be here at 3. We should be done (our portion of the work is finished) but we can't leave until the JOB is finished. Kinda figures that this would happen on a Friday night. (I took off tomorrow.)

Friday Night - Company Party
Got to the party kinda late since I got back to town late from work. There's irony in there somewhere, I think. Got to see xtingu looking absolutely stunning. I get to see this more often than you poor mooks, but this was exceptional - even for her. Best part? I got to walk into the place with her on my arm and thumb my nose at all the other doods in the place. I soooo win at girlfriend.

Saturday - Got up at an ung-dly hour (6:45am) and led my coworker Larry to the Lehigh Valley to meet up with my brothers and some friends of theirs. Once the gang was all together, we made our way to Skirmish for a fun filled day of paintballing adventures. I had a complete blast and now I'm paying for it. My adventures at the base of the castle towers left me with a slightly wounded pride and welts on the very top of my skull, but it was totally worth the adrenaline rush.

After returning from paintball and bidding adieu to my coworker, I had a great sit-down meal that's about as manly as my day had been - meatloaf and potatoes with green beans. I know that jeremym would have gone ga-ga. After dinner, Mom (as always) spoiled us with an award worthy apple crumb bake a la mode.

Post chill-time with the family, I headed to metikulos and kar0na's for some festivities making. Got to see a lot of dear old friends that I don't get to see nearly enough. Stayed late and headed home surprisingly sober (what can I say? they bring out the hellion in me). They always do such a great job of making me feel at home (and the food's never shabby - which just does not hurt one little bit).

Sunday - Today I woke up (relatively) late (9:30) and headed to a great brunch at Perkins with my family. Still seems funny sometimes going with my family to the Perkins that I used to wait tables at so many moons ago. After breakfast, I headed back to the house, loaded up my stuff, talked with Josh about some X-Massy stuff, and headed home here to good ol' Smellaware.

As I arrived in town, xtingu found herself craving sustinance, so I joined her in a lunch at our beloved Golden Monkey. What can I say? I'm an eating machine. After lunch, I hit B&N for some more X-Mas presents and stuff, came home and got productive, and then headed to xtingu's place to lend a hand with some minor crapola, then back here to finish this post/my todo list.

Oh, and I got some laundry done.

Damn it feels good to get shit done.

Edit (again): Almost forgot - when xtingu and I were leaving the Monkey, we ran into a waitress there who wants a tattoo designed by Yours Truly. She and I made arrangements/discussed the design, and work has begun. Before long, I should have another tattoo cred. to show you all!

... and Philly's Finest just rescued a woman who fell off the dock at Penn's Landing.

Correction: read "fell in" as "attempted suicide". At a charity run. Tact meeter anyone? (According to PPD.)

You know something? I've always found it funny how deeply movies seem to affect me. Tonight, on the long ride home from Va., Jimmy let me watch movies on his laptop. Two, in fact. It had been a very long time (for me anyway) since I had just sat down and watch a movie. Or two.

The two in question for the evening? Well, the first, I had actually already seen, but knew to be fun - Hitch starring Will Smith and the ever stunning Eva Mendes. Corny? Yes. Hoaky even? Absolutely. But I enjoyed it immensely.

The second? Equally cheesy, and at least as 'bad' - but these are the things I love - Click starring Adam Sandler. It's basically a re-telling of It's a Wonderful Life, if you ask me, but it really kinda did move me. It caused me to start thinking about the changes that I've seen in myself since I moved to De. and to the direction of my life. Not in the catastrophic sense that the movie portends, but rather in a 'watch the pendulum doesn't swing too far there Capt. Extremist' way.

Yes, I realize that I wasn't really in any danger of becoming a 'workaholic' or anything like that. Perhaps it would be better to say that it was what I needed to re-focus on the plus side of my life and re-notice all the amazing gifts that I have been given. Every day.

If you are reading this? I want to thank you for being a part of that.

/end Cornball

Back in Philadelphia - tired, cranky, and yet pleased as punch that the adventure was such a success.

Beautiful mountains, vineyards, lush gardens, fine wine, sensuous roads, and good friends - this place is a slice of heaven.

15 minutes into the ride and I've had not one but two flat tires. :( we did about 6 miles total after repairs.

couple of things:
1. dreamt of werewolves last night. surprising as this may be to some of you who know me - this was not pleasant at all. I was trying to escape them, and just couldn't. somewhat traumatizing.
2. apparently my snoring/noise making is enough to annoy the guys. I can't express how sorry I am about this.
3. I failed to mention it before now, but I would like to apologize to anyone reading this because I am going to be posting mostly in super small chunks and possibly rapid fire since I have no real connection while out here (aside from right now) - so I'm posting via SMS and have to keep the posts under 160 characters. I will likely flesh out the posts when I get back. they're currently almost like notes for myself to refresh my memory when I return.
4. my life is exceptionally good.
5. my friends are even better.

Touchdown. We've landed safe and sound at SFO. :)