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Perfectly good 3-day weekend totally wasted

That about sums up my weekend, but I’ll go ahead and hit the highlights: Friday, I did nothing but watch a couple movies. Saturday, I went to Outback Steakhouse for the first time in over six months and then watched Dodge Ball: A True Underdog story. Sunday, more sitting around and watching movies. Today, more of the same along with some grocery shopping and a good workout. Also, I’m pretty close to finishing Mario Kart: Double Dash as I’ve only got Star and Special Cups left for Gold at the 150cc level.

I need to start scrounging around eBay and lookin’ for a life.

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Gainesville trip: Day 7

This should be the shortest and least interesting post of all. Basically, I woke up, went and ate lunch at a local Chicago-style pizza joint called Leonardo’s, watched a little of the NFL Draft, packed up my stuff, drove to Jacksonville, hopped on a plane, drove home, ate dinner and watched a bunch of TV. Nothing exciting, nothing extraordinary, just me trying to assimilate myself back into my new reality.

Tomorrow, I’ll relax, try to rest up and do my best to be mentally prepared to return to work at 8 am on Monday. It’s really nice to be home, sleeping in my own bed and surrounded by my things, but I am already missing Gainesville and thinking of the next time I’ll be able to make a trip home. It was a fantastic week and a well-timed vacation and I can’t wait to do it again.

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Gainesville trip: Day 6

Today was pretty good and I got to see a lot of people. First thing, I went and got lunch with a couple friends (yeah, my sleeping hours have slipped to the 4 am to noon window). Then, we played some Spades until we went to play basketball. Basketball was definitely the low-point of my day as I played very badly and didn’t score any points in two games. My assist to turnover ratio was far less than 1 and I missed plenty of wide open 5-foot shots. It was very frustrating.

Later, we went to Hops for dinner and then went to a friend’s place and hung out for a bit. We played croquet for a while (I won the first game in spite of having never played before and playing horribly), but got blasted the second game. It was a good time. Now, I think we’re about to play some more Spades or something, then I’m off to bed. I have a long day of traveling and packing tomorrow.

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Gainesville trip: Day 4

I spent most of the morning sleeping and watching TV. Then, I went to lunch with a couple friends at the Chicken Kitchen and went over to see their new place where they will be living this fall. It’s a pretty nice place, but it reminded me that, for some reason, architecture here in Gainesville is really strange. There was one place in the living room where the previous owners had cut a hole in the carpet in the middle of the floor, so they could run a phone wire up to an end table or something. I guess they were pretty certain they’d never move that end table.

Frisbee golf

Then, we went and played a round of frisbee golf at the old course. My best score there when I was playing a few times a week was 3 over par. I shot a 13 yesterday. Most of that was just general rustiness–I hadn’t played in about 9 months or so–and some bad luck–if there was a tree, even if I made a good throw, I found it. Anyway, it was fun and we all had a good time.

Newberry Backyard BBQ

This place has some of the best baby back ribs I’ve ever had and I’d been looking forward to going there since I started planning this vacation. Of course, they didn’t disappoint and I had a great time with about 7 of my friends. I hope I can make a trip out there every time I visit Gainesville.

Kill Bill Vol. 2

Even better than the first. I don’t want to do an all-out review or analysis, but I’ll say that I’m seriously impressed with Trenton ability to mix various genres of film from different eras into a seamless, solid movie. Also, Uma was spectacular and I was very surprised by her performance. I could see that she took direction very well and that she was a great fit for the role. I can’t wait to see the DVD with special features and “making of…” kinda’ stuff.

Funnier ’cause we were tired

As we were all startin’ to go to bed about 4 am, I was walking through the kitchen when the phone started ringing. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was one of the other guys in the house calling in on his cell phone. I decided not to answer, but my roommate did and this is what he heard at the other end of the line: “Hey. What’re you doin’?” Then, the same guy called about five other people around the city and did the same thing. That delayed our getting to sleep by about an hour because we were just laughing too hard to realize we were tired.

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Gainesville trip: Day 3

Yesterday’s support appointment went well and I’m not officially on three peoples’ MDPs (I think that’s right and I think it’s “Ministry Development Plan”; it’s a TLA–Three Letter Acronym). I’m excited to be giving to Crusade beginning in July and I think it’s awesome that I can help out three staff people.

Basketball… again

I played some more basketball yesterday and I’m really feelin’ it today. I think I ran seven games in two days. That’s not outrageous except I haven’t played that much basketball in that little time since some time last year. I’m pretty sore, but it’s good to be in good enough shape that I can at least run the games. I hope to play at least once more before the week’s out.

Gators Dockside

Last night was all-you-can-eat (AYCE) wings at Dockside, so about six of us went over there to try and break ’em. Between us, we probably ate over 200 wings, but I can’t say that I contributed too much. I think I only had 20 or so because I’m just not used to eating that much grub in one sitting. At least it wasn’t AYCE pasta or pizza or something; I’m pretty sure I’d feel awful today. It was only wings and they were grilled, not breaded or fried, so I’m good to go for some more eatin’ today.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Man, what a strange movie. Of course, if I felt any differently after watching a QT creation, I’d have to check my senses. The guy just knows how to create interesting, strange violent stuff. It’s bizarre how he maintains an irony of violence without believable gore. I mean, there’re people gettin’ limbs lopped off and whatnot, but it looks so fake it’s hardly even so disturbing as odd. I’m not talking about being desensitized, I’m talking about recognizing what parts of the film QT wants the view to feel are real.

Anyway, I think we’re going to see Vol. 2 some time this week, so I wanted to make sure I’d seen the first part, first. Now, I’m off to lunch with some friends, so I’ll have to pause for a bit.