disjointedOn Saturday, lunch was Dim Sum to celebrate
sanguinity’s birthday. It was fun, and tasty, although I took the outermost seat when I arrived, not realizing that meant I’d be the one targeted by the serving people to make decisions. “You want [unintelligible] with [unintelligible]? It’s very good!” * At first I’d look at sanguinity and grrlpup for guidance, but it was too noisy for them to have any idea what was being offered. So I just started saying “Yes” to everything. That seemed to work out just fine. I stopped by sanguinity & grrlpup’s place to see one of sanguinity’s presents; the Squid Book. (Well, technically "Animals of the Ocean, in Particular the Giant Squid") I wasn’t sure what to expect. I do have a fondness for cephalopods, but sanguinity spoke of this book in glowing terms far beyond what one would expect of a volume of information on our tentacled friends. I found that her admiration of it was well justified. It’s a book for fans of both squid and absurdist humor. And it really works. I’ve read books that assume all their weird non-sequitur is automatically funny, which isn’t always true. I read several pages of this, and all the bizarre tangents were amusing. Very funny stuff, but like eating rich chocolate cake. Sure, one is tempted to wolf it down all at once, but it’s best to savor it in small bites at a time.
When I left, I thought I’d swing by Laurelhurst Park and get some photographs for a future comic. The day up to that point had been mild and dry, but as I parked my car, the first drops of rain started to fall. Of course, I’m an Oregonian, and had no concern about ambling about in a drizzle. Well, the intensity only increased as I crossed the park, and as I finished the first set of shots, it was raining vigorously. I moved to another spot, and as I snapped pictures, the rain advanced to “Pouring.” I briefly considered quitting, but figured I might as well just finish. I was soaked by the time I got back to the car. I know getting caught in the rain isn’t uncommon in Oregon, but If I’d managed to actually leave sanguinity & grrlpup’s house at any one of the first handful of times I said I should go, I would have been done shooting well before the rain started. But most of my visits end with me standing by the door for a while; on my way out, but not wanting to leave while the conversation is still interesting.
Sunday – I may have mentioned that
drarwenchicken loves playing games. She found the Train Game (ticket2ridegame.com) online, and signed up so she could have private game tables. So I spent a while playing with her and some of her friends from around the country. I have gone on before about the Glory of the Internets, but I think it’s way cool to be able to play games with people anywhere in the world. I usually don’t play online games with others; I prefer single-player games, so if I get bored, I can just quit. But it was fun playing with familiar people. It’s a pretty good game, too.*Apparently they use a quality standard similar to Starbucks’s size guide, but the range went from “Very Good” to “Very Very Good.” Fortunately, “Very Good” was consistently accurate.
