Last Week

It's good to be home. As much fun as we've had last week -- visiting Eileen, car hunting, and hanging out with Will and Ari -- there's just nothing quite like sleeping in your own bed. We had flown down to Burbank last Sunday morning.

We left Intruder Cat in the care of robots for the week. An automatic feeder and an automatic watering dish, since she's bad at portion control. However even with the robots, I was a little anxious about leaving her. What if their batteries, even though brand new, mysteriously died? What if they became sentient and took over the house?

At the airport we got a couple of slices of pizza for lunch. Just to see me stuff my face like a child raised by wolves, Aaron tricks me into thinking that we were missing the boarding of our flight... So I'm haphazardly shoving pizza into my head as we walk hastily back toward our gate. His amusement about the situation raises my suspicion and he confesses that we've still got a whole 40 minutes remaining!

When we landed we hit the grocery store for some supplies, where I finally (after some week of craving) got an actual cupcake. To make it even better, it was decorated with a frosting frog on top. Like that cupcake had been hand crafted with my arrival in mind. Just for me. I almost felt guilty eating him. Almost.

For dinner we tried Five Guys Burgers with Eileen. It was tasty, but no In n' Out. Don't get me wrong. It was delicious. I simply prefer burgers from In n' Out. The nice hot beef, melty cheese and crisp fresh veggies... damn it. Now I'm hungry.

Monday we went searching high and low for a quality vehicle to call our own. Unsuccessfully, as the asking price for the only decent car we found was preposterous. We managed to barter over a grand off, but even then it was over-priced. It would be another handful of days until we found something both attractive and reasonable.

Tuesday we were inducted into Trashy Tuesday. The night of the week Eileen and her best friend Jeri get together to watch reality TV and the like. We had fresh seared Ahi for dinner with asparagus, which admittedly seems too fancy for Trashy Tuesday, but boy was it good. I had never had Ahi before.

Wednesday evening we took Will and Ari out to dinner for their birthday. Their birthdays are only a day apart -- how cool is that? Their choice was Studio Cafe, a nearby place with a friendly atmosphere, yummy food, and one dollar beers. Hard to beat that. Afterward we returned to their place for hot mead and socialization.

Thursday evening we returned to help Will set up for their party on Saturday. Ari was out with a friend, so her cousin Orry, Will, Aaron, and I hit Aroma Cafe around the corner for dinner. Having ate just before we left, like a fatty fat-fat who couldn't wait, I instead had a giant Red Velvet cupcake and a hot cocoa. Nom.

Friday is the day we finally found our car. After visiting a couple of places asking too much, we discovered a Mitsubishi Montero in remarkable condition. It was a deep, vibrant forest green color. Most other cars we'd seen were plain boring old white, so it had a leg-up on any other contenders right from the get go. Its miles were a little high, but records show that it had been cared for lovingly by its previous owner so we decided to go for it.

Complete with new car smell!

After managing to wrangle some insurance on Easter weekend, we were able to happily drive our new car to the party on Saturday night. We got to meet some corp mates from Eve Online and generally just had a ton of fun. Drinking, partying, and being merry. Responsible as we are, we decided to crash at Will and Ari's rather than risk driving anywhere. Sunday morning we went out and nabbed some Starbucks for breakfast and then headed back to Eileen's to load up the Montero and hit the road.

Leaving Eileen's house is always difficult, because she makes you feel so welcome and at home that leaving just seems wrong somehow. Add in the fact that she had just bought us our car as a wedding gift and you can understand at least a fraction of how hard it is to hug her and say goodbye.

We managed to get on the road early afternoon and headed back North to Sacramento. In our car. I just like saying it, because we walked or rode bikes everywhere previously. Which we'll continue to do since most places we need to go are within such a distance -- but it will certainly be awesome to never have to take a bus or cab again when we want to go someplace beyond walking distance.

When we got home, Intruder was extremely excited to see us. I don't think she thought we'd be coming back. The robots had taken good care of her, sure, but she clearly missed human interaction. Before we left, she would only get up into the bed with us in the morning, when she was trying to wake us up to fill her food dish. Last night we couldn't get her out of the bed. She was sleeping all over us and purring and 'making biscuits' nonstop until morning. It was adorable. Disruptive to sleep, but adorable.

Unfortunately in our absence there was a flea-splosion! Nothing a bath, a vacuum, and some Advantage won't fix though. It was just a really weird thing to return to, since she didn't have a problem before we left. Magic fleas.

Edit: It has been brought to my attention that there was a cupcake prior to the frogcake, which I had forgotten completely about. Somehow. While at another store, there was a misfit cupcake on sale for 49 cents because it had tipped over and its frosting had slid partly off. Still tasted just as delightful! Also, it was wearing a football helmet. Why? I don't know.