Monday, August 30, 2004

The Weekend Update


Saturday morning- woke up with a sunny disposition and the resolve to go teach my aerobics class, eat a little lunch, take a care of a few errands, pick up Dianaverse at the airport at 3:00 (she's bringing ScaryKittie on the plane with her), and then go for a long bike ride. Sticking to the diet should be a snap.


Taught the aerobics class- we had fun, it was step, and we listened to some classic scary-disco.


Ate some lunch


Did some laundry


Cleaned up the old house


Ate a big snack because we were taking a long bike ride later.


Waited for the airplane to arrive. Find out D is rebooked on a different flt out of Chicago because the first one was cancelled. No biggie, she'll arrive an hour later. We'll ride after 4:00.


Snack. You know, fuel for the ride later.


Flt #2 is delayed. Well, of course it's delayed, this is O'Tortoise airport. We'll take a nighttime ride in the state park instead (Breakin' the Law!!!)


Flt #2 has departed! Yay! But poor D- you know how much O'Tortoise sucks. You can NEVER.LEAVE.ON.TIME.OR.FROM.YOUR.SCHEDULED.GATE.OR.ON.YOUR.SCHEDULED.AIRCRAFT.

Um, if Flt2 has departed, why did the arrival time move back again?


Again?


Again?


Hey, she's still on the runway! How dare the airline say that they've departed already when they are obviously still on the runway? D is going to be in a crappy mood if she ever gets home. Did I mention she's traveling with a Balrog? I hope the cockpit security door is in good working order.


Departure time has stabilized. They must have departed at last.


Go to Whole Wallet and get a bouquet of flowers and some chocolates-- after that kind of day, the Keeper Of The Balrog will need to be placated.


Go to the airport for D and B (aka SK). How is this flight delayed further? Did they decide to stop at a McDonald's on the way?


D finally arrives at 7:15, in a daze. SNG and I take D and TimebombInAPetbag home and look at some of her Marquette pictures.


Carboloaded for Sunday's long ride.


Sunday morning- 3 1/2 hour, 55 mile bike ride with SNG and KiltGuy. Big lunch afterwards.


Snack. Hey, it was a long ride!


Snack.

Snack.


It's D's birthday today! BBQ and chocolate cake at D's. The balrog seems to be in a tender mood. As in, "Your hand looks tender and juicy. So does your throat. And your eyes. Come closer. c'mon." But D has cable, and BBC America is on. I.Am.Entranced.


This morning we woke up to the leftovers of tropical storm Gaston. I like hurricanes and tropical storms. They're so cleansing. But they're not as nice in Raleigh as they were in New Orleans. Here, the pine trees are quite tall and they flex in the wind, and after a good hard storm there are dead squirrels everywhere. I suppose they run up the trees to escape the water, but then the trees send them catapulting through the air to their deaths. Now that you've got this shining image in your mind, allow me to sing for a you a selection from the broadway production of Schindler's List. Aah, isn't that nice?


But I still like big tropical storms. It's easy to like hurricanes if you've always lived above sea level. Our house in New Orleans was about 3 feet above sea level, so unlike much of the city, we didn't get flooded. The bayou would rise up enough that we could go canoeing down our street, but the water never quite got up to the front door. Afterwards the yard was full of nifty turtles and frogs.


Um, yeah, tangent.


Anyway, it hasn't stopped raining yet but I don't care because I'll be on my way to Irvine/southern CA tomorrow morning. :-) I will tell you how it goes. Hopefully there will be a bike for me to rent and a place to ride it.





3 comments:

Some Guy said...

What is a balrog?

alphagal said...

A Balrog is a big, scary creature from Tolkein's novels, and if you saw the Lord Of The Rings (1st or 2nd movie) it was a Balrog that whooped up on Gandalf in the mines at Moria and fell with him into the firepit. Balrogs are an old monster dating back, as I recall, to the 1st age, according to the Silmarillion.

alphagal said...

Oh Jeez I just admitted that I've read the Silmarillion. I swear I've never been to a LOTR convention. (*backpedal, backpedal, backpedal*)