Saturday I got up early (for me) so we could go to SeaWorld for Daniel's birthday. I had a free pass that I dug up, which was good because I was only there for about 3 hours. We met up with Jon and Gary and headed straight for the bar, and then to "Journey to Atlantis." Once we got there Myke John decided they didn't want to get wet (which it turns out you really don't on that ride), so they met up with Tom and they went to have lunch while we waited in line.

Neat ride! The elevator part of it was very interesting (although they could have themed and camoflauged it better), and being a combo rollercoaster and log flume ride was pretty innovative. Very cool. On the way out you pass by a tank of Commerson's dolphins, which I immediately fell in love with. (Cow spots - squee!) I agonized over getting a little plush for a minute, but the boys were ready to move on.

We made a stop off so Daniel could feed the bat rays. When I was there a few years ago you were supposed to hold the food in the palm of your hand underwater and they'd skim over your hand and suck the food up. Evidently hordes of squeamish youngsters holding the food over the water (as if feeding a dolphin) have given the rays a new learned behavior - they now come up out of the water to eat the dangling food. The sucking noise they make is most unnatural, which pleased Daniel to no end. (He's a sick puppy, if you didn't already know.) While we were there we met up with Robbie and his sister and brother and his family.

Logically we followed up that little side trip by eating lunch at the Shipwreck Reef Cafe which was pretty good (and Daniel told us he worked there for a whole two weeks once). When we finished we met back up with Myke, John and Tom, but it was almost time for me to take off so we Daniel, Jon and Gary went on Shipwreck Rapids and the rest of us headed off to see the penguins. After that Myke, John and Tom went to see the manatees but I had to leave... but not before giving in and stopping to buy a plush Commerson's dolphin. :) (Squee!)

Then it was off to LYC coffee at our new locale. We had about 12 people at our inaugural Saturday, including 2 new people. Unfortunately, Joe was already complaining about the music. He wanted calming, Zen-like music, and the barista was playing some alterna-rock stuff, very low key, we could all still hear each other, but Joe complained anyway. (He also reportedly was very snappish with a few people at the car wash, so we get to talk about that at the meeting Thursday. Fun. NOT.) Yudi actually showed up, which lead to another round of "are you quitting the committee or not?", and for some reason he chose that time to start complaining (yet again) about the club's name. Oy. (He's also mad at me because I referred to him as a blond Asian, and he refuses to admit he's an airhead.) On the plus side, Chris has been updating the website events page, so we're all happy about that.

So while they trotted off to dinner, I went to Dave & Buster's for Daniel's birthday dinner. All the folks from SeaWorld came, and we were joined by Ben and CeeJay. Daniel of course made out with a cornucopia of gifts, which you can read about in his LJ entry. Then of course it was off to gamble our lives away, and I once again spent WAY TOO MUCH MONEY in that godforsaken place. Ugh. I did end up getting a cheesy little remote control car and a gun that shoots foam discs, plus a little something for the Q-man, but I saved about 3,000 points on the card. Maybe at some point I'll get something useful instead of more crap. Bah. BAH! (I did luck out at one point, though - the machine I was playing didn't give me any tickets, and when an operator came by it had run out, but when he refilled it it automatically spit out all the tickets it should have, including from anyone before me who didn't wait around for the machine to get fixed, so I probably got four times the amount of tickets I was supposed to, which was good for me.)

I was the last one to leave, so I came home, took a quick shower, and texted Q. He was on his way back from dropping off his brother in Norfolk so he could head back to Italy, and he and Darwin were heading to DC to go to a foam party.

Sunday I set my alarm to go to a picnic at First UU to meet the new ministers, but I hit snooze and that was the end of that. When I finally did get up I made breakfast and basically bummed the whole day - watched some TV, did a little laundry, but that was about it. Tom and Ben came over later and the whole house went to Chevy's for dinner. I thought it odd that Quincy hadn't replied to any of my several text messages, but I figured he was busy having a good time so I didn't worry too much (yet).

Monday I slept in again, but while Daniel was at work and Myke, John, Ben and Tom went to see Hero I decided to get busy and keep at my room. I cleaned off the very large bookcase that I've been borrowing from John and Myke since I moved in, moved some furniture around, threw some stuff away, and eventually managed to wrangle the bookshelf back down the stairs and back into the garage from whence it came (even found a spot behind the other bookshelves where it wouldn't be in the way). Very happy to have done that, as my room feels much bigger now. I also finished my last load of post-Pennsic laundry, which is good because now I can put my garb back into the tubs under my bed.

Unfortunately as the day wore on I was getting more and more concerned that I wasn't hearing from Quincy. I texted him many times, and called about a half dozen times, all to no avail. By about 11:00 I was really worried, and then I finally got around to checking my e-mail where I found one from him saying all was well but his phone had died. Unfortunately I didn't have his roommate's land line number to call, but he e-mailed me again today from work and we're planning to talk tonight. Yay! I really missed talking to him.

The weekend, by the way, was exceedingly hot by southern California standards - in the 80's the entire weekend. Very icky since we have no A/C, but at least it was relatively cool at night, so I had my fan on. Unfortunately it might have done me in, because I woke up this morning with a very sore throat, and have been drinking tea, eating soup and taking vitamins all day trying to stave it off. Bleargh.

Work was ok today. Rebecca was out but will be back tomorrow. Another unit seems to think we're supposed to do their job just because we helped them plan a trip, but thankfully those higher up than me are telling them no dice. At lunch I finally got around to dropping off film from Pride and Pennsic, so hopefully I'll have those up in my online photo album soon. Annamarie comes back Monday, which means I have a few things to do this week to help her get back into the swing of things.

And, of course, tonight was gaming. :) Hans and Bill came over and while I spent time finally catching up with Quincy (poor lad had to end up buying a new, more expensive, albeit cooler phone, but otherwise was ok and had a fun weekend, even though he had to work) they played Tongiaki, then I joined them for a rousing round of Settlers of Catan. Unfortunatley, I can feel the illness creeping up on me, so I'm hoping all the tea, vitamin C and some decent rest will help me stave it off. BAH!

This week isn't too bad. We have an LYC Executive Committee meeting Thursday night, Yudi is throwing Travis (his ex) a surprise birthday party on Saturday night, and we have the LYC new member BBQ in Balboa Park on Sunday (alas, I'll miss the Conjecture staff meeting, but I'll send in a report). A few things coming up, but nothing I can't handle. :) Hopefully I'll stay well enough to enjoy it all!