Thursday I made it to the airport in fair time to get through security. The girl in line behind me seemed to want to strike up a conversation, but we just didn't have a whole lot to say beyond where were going.
They weren't x-raying, so there was nothing to "opt out" of, but my flight was slightly delayed due to weather, so my modest layover in Atlanta turned into a very tight window. So when I arrived at the gate for the second leg, and there was nobody there, and the board (with my proper flight number) said flight not flying until 4PM instead of 3:15 or w/e, I was like well, hey, guess I can go mosey around a little. Then when I came back the departure time was rolled back to 3:35 and I realized, duh, the gate is empty because everybody's BOARDED. So I hastened to do the same and patted myself on the back for not missing a flight.
I finished Foucault's Pendulum while waiting at the gate for my plane at FLL. I had started this back in May of 2008, on the trip for Chris's graduation from SUNY-Albany. Actually the backstory traces even further, to the end of 2007, when Nurse Girl had suggested we read a book together. The Da Vinci Code had received its film treatment and captured the bourgeois popular imagination, I had heard it was a pale shadow of 'Pendulum, and I reckoned Gravity's Rainbow (still time to get in on the "Death Pact") wouldn't go over well, so I bought us each a copy of 'Pendulum for Xmas. And then within about 3 weeks, that affair sputtered and died, so I didn't pick it up until the graduation trip. And then I left my copy behind, half-read, at Pam and Mike's, and I didn't pick it up again until D.- and I visited them this past New Year's. Anyway, having finished it, I promptly started over, and after this much time and such dense reading, it's all good as new to me. It helps immensely that I read a lot of occult crap in my youth, and that I can get a fair bit of the sense of the foreign-language quotes without resorting to Google Language Tools... because these days, if I have access to Google, I'm internetting, not reading a book.
Dogfish Head for an early birthday dinner. Shared a calamari appetizer, YUM, and I ordered the jambalaya, also YUM and as usual we just couldn't do justice to dessert.
Friday was relaxed. Beef stew for dinner. Met D.- and A.-'s newest roommate. Saturday we headed over to the 'rents for a second birthday dinner at the Crab Shanty. I had the daily special, salmon/crab wellington with a basil cream sauce :Q It was like seafood valhalla, even if it was farm-raised and not wild salmon.
Speaking of Valhalla... - back at the 'rents we watched Thor before early bedtime. I had seen it (alone) in the theater, and enjoyed it just as much the second time around. Masterful effects, sympathetic characters, a solid plot that portends an expansive storyline. I would kill and eat Chris Hemsworth if I thought it would grant me his physique. Guess I'll have to settle for exercising instead.
Early bedtime turned around to early wake-up for Sunday's Great Prostate Cancer Challenge 5K at Towson U. We finished in ~53 minutes, with a whole 9 people behind us; but finish we did, easily compared to my early cardio training where 55 minutes was a bit of a wall. Weather was perfect, a hint of fog but comfortably cool and a little overcast, so no sunburning. Somewhere, perhaps at Dunkin's, I lost my hand towel. I guess I'm just not a man who knows where his towel is. After the 5K we had a cookout by the pool, and D.-'s friends Cynthia and Mike came by for a bit. Then it was time to head back to Chantilly.
Monday D.- had to work in the office so I just hung out with the cats all day, and in the evening we went to Sichuan Village for dinner. It was not what I expected; not bad, but I was hoping for an authentic little Szechuan experience and this was merely Asian-American buffet standard. Inexpensive, clean, shabby decor, with a Tsingtao. Next time I'll look at reviews on Urbanspoon or something, not just Google reviews.
Tuesday... it was work-from-home day for D.- so I just sat by and fiddled with my FV farm and Overlord-ed my Dungeons. A few days before I left, Zynga rolled out the new "Lighthouse Cove" FV content and a barrage of quests. Big surprise (not) following the Zynga IPO: more and more pressure to do things with farmbucks. Lighthouse Cove content is the first time we've seen quest series that simply can't be finished without spending farmbucks. Maybe I overestimate the FV fan base but I think Zynga is losing touch with the essence of Farmville's attraction.
It always sucks having to say goodbye, so instead I like to say things like "try to keep out of trouble". Again at IAD, there was no x-raying to opt out of, so I had ample time to get a burger at Five Guys (cheeseburger, all the way plus hot sauce) and I just happened to have a gift card with enough credit left to cover most of that. And more ample time to return Dad's birthday call. I'm hoping he has his certificate of occupancy by Christmas. To hear him tell it, it's like well maybe next week the stairs will be done, but the "stair guy" was hospitalized last week because of suicidal ideation so whothefucknose.
Again a layover in Atlanta, and thank goodness I had a generous window because we didn't get off the ground in IAD until almost an hour late, so by the time we reached ATL that generous window was not so generous anymore, and it was a long walk from our arrival at terminal B to my next departure from terminal T. The 757 I was on for the second leg had an onboard multiplayer trivia game through the seat-back TV system. I'd never seen such a thing before. That kept me amused for most of the flight.
I got in to FLL shortly after midnight, but didn't actually go to bed until maybe 3:30AM. I had tucked away my fortune cookie fortune from Sichuan Village, because I wanted to post it with the traditional "in bed" addendum, but somewhere between IAD and FLL I lost my fortune.