14 January 2002

Rachel, K.T., Karen, and even Kevin have jumped in to play Neopets. Since Rachel was in town and visiting this weekend, she and K.T. and I devoted quite some time to talking about it.

Oh, this weekend; right. Some of it was definitely good, and some of it was... Well, it could definitely have been worse.

It was much worse for Colleen than the rest of us... Friday evening she called my cell phone to say her car had broken down on the interstate not far from our house. She'd called her insurance company's towing service, but had no idea when they'd show up and could we come and provide moral support?

So we went out and parked on the side of the highway and chatted with her and Carl for a while and admired the enormous puddle of transmission fluid under the front of her truck. The tow truck arrived not long afterwards, and we followed them to the shop. Then we piled them into my car to take them home.

By then, I was starving, so I suggested that we go get dinner. I'd wanted to call K.T. to invite her along - Kevin's wonky schedule is having a decidedly adverse reaction on her social life - but Matt and Colleen and Carl and I barely fit into my car as it was; and there was no other car to take. Alas.

Just when I'd decided that, they decided they could squeeze Richard into the back seat with them, since he was there listening to us plan anyway. It was like watching circus clowns, I swear...

Anyhow, we went to Olive Garden, only to discover there would be over an hour's wait for a table. We found my office-mate, Mike, in the lobby, along with his girlfriend Stacey. We chatted with them for half an hour or so until they were seated, then stood there making quietly snide comments about the other patrons as we waited.

Saturday, Matt and I slept in late, getting up only about an hour before Rachel was due to arrive. Fortunately for us, she'd gone the wrong way on the beltway, and wound up being an hour late. So we were showered and dressed when she arrived, albeit only barely.

Matt was in the midst of giving her the Grand Tour of the house when Colleen called - the owner of the house they rent wants to move back in, so they were being kicked out.

It wasn't quite as precipitate as she made it sound - they've got until the end of February to find another place and move - but on top of her truck breaking down (which leaves her and Carl and Richard without a car, you understand) it was not the best timing.

Matt got her calmed down a little, and then he and Rachel and I headed over to MarsCon. We got signed in, did a turn around the main areas, said hello to a few friends, and then promptly left again to go have lunch. Then we went and picked up our comics for the week.

Back at the Con, Rachel and I each bought a spinning ring - that is, a ring with a center band which spins loosely around the main part of the ring. The perfect jewelery for a fidgeter; and it cost only about half what I'd been expecting.

I toyed with buying a trilobyte fossil (I call them "froggy-bugs" for reasons even I don't understand) but decided it wasn't of very good quality, so I passed. We lingered over the novelty dice, but passed on those, too. I admired, but didn't buy, some very pretty period clothing.

I did buy a tiny little knife - about five inches long from pommel to point. It's meant to be a bodice-knife; I thought it would serve equally well as a hair ornament. And anyway, it was very cheap. (Purely decorative. I own a few knives that actually have sharp blades, but this isn't one of them. Probably just as well, since I'd be putting it in my hair.)

Then we left again; this time in two cars. I picked up Colleen, while Matt and Rachel picked up K.T. (I'd have really felt bad if we hadn't managed to get together with K.T. at some point) and we all went over to Ruby Tuesday's... for another hour's wait before dinner.

K.T. toyed with the idea of coming back up to MarsCon with us to see the evening show, but decided not to bother. So we dropped her off at home and the rest of us went back up.

We'd missed the filking (which is largely a hit-or-miss kind of thing, but this group is usually pretty good) and arrived shortly after the start of the charity auction. We sat around talking with friends for a while, then went in and found seats for the Women of Whimsey show, which for me at least is the prime attraction.

We finally got home shortly before midnight, sat up for another hour or so relaxing, and went to bed.

Sunday, we sat around relaxing some more - playing on the computers and reading, mostly. Eventually, Rachel decided she should head back toward home, around the same time Carl and Richard arrived (in a car borrowed from Richard's sister) to pick up Colleen. Not that Matt and I turned into party animals after everyone was gone, either.

Friday, Matt was offered some training for a system his company owns. The good news - with this training, the chances of Matt being laid off for at least the next two years gets much slimmer. The bad news - the training is up in the Washington area (Reston, specifically), for the next "four to eight" weeks. Starting tomorrow.

I spent the weekend waffling. It would be a good career move for him... but two months??? Like that. Finally, Sunday evening, Matt decided he should take the training. He's taking today off to go shopping (the office where he'll be training is business casual, and he only has two pairs of slacks) and helping Colleen acquire transportation.

It won't be as bad as it sounds, because Washington's only three hours away. He'll be home for the weekends. But I expect I'll be pretty bored during the weekday evenings for the next few weeks. We'll see.

Just as a side note... Several of you check this page in the mornings, right around the time I post it. It's happened several times now that someone has sent me a phone message to say this page or that won't load...

If it's before 9:30 in the morning, wait and check later. My internet connection at the office stinks, and it sometimes happens that my FTP connection will crap out in the middle of an upload. I'll get it all posted, I promise!

--Liz