Sunday, February 22, 2009

Week 8

It was Valentine's Day, so Darien thought I should finally get a tattoo. Love makes one do strange things, but I went ahead with it anyway, in spite of my intense aversion to pain. Given my piratical tendencies, an appropriate icon was selected. Darien also decided on a pirate tat, but she chose to apply it to her face rather than her arm. The legendary ability of women to tolerate pain was once again demonstrated.

Darien, with some effort, scrubbed her's off that evening. One week later, and I'm still a pirate. Aaarrrrrghhhhh!

In another first, I ate filet mignon for Valentine's Day. (OK, that's not a first, but it has been so long it feels like it was a first.)

The counter is not much cleaner, but at least it is neatly stacked. And there is no overflow in another room, which is definitely a plus. Yayyyy!!!!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Week 7

Darien convinced me to go out and hear music on a Tuesday evening. I never go out on a work night for music, so it required a concerted mental effort on my part to overcome my resistance. I prevailed.

We went to the Capital Alehouse to see Ban Caribe, which was celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. We went with a bunch of choristers from St. James, since the leader, Kevin Davis, plays percussion with Darien and her crew sometimes at the church. I remember seeing Ban Caribe when we first came to Richmond. They played at VCU. We've seen them several times since. They are a fun group.

Way to go on cleaning the counter this week, Darien. Oh, wait. What is that upstairs on the desk?

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Week 6

Darien and I rode our bikes to Cafe Coturra, in partial fulfillment of one of my Christmas present to her. I had given her a half dozen Google maps with bicycling routes to different places around Richmond. In all of them, I tried to avoid riding for long on major traffic areas. This was one of the easier routes. The weather was quite warm for February in Richmond.

Having a map did not deter us from coloring outside the lines. We went off-map several times. We came out near the Lowe's, so we stopped at Best Buy to see if we could get a cable to connect the Bose to the digital line of my computer. No luck. I will need to hunt around some more.

I won't share the pictures I took of Darien falling off of her bicycle. No sense in humiliating her.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Week 5

I spent the night in Cincinnati, although not by choice. It was snowing when I left Denver, and the plane sat on the runway for an interminable time. When I walked off the plane to transfer in Cincinnati, I had about eleven minutes before the Richmond flight left. I may have made it if it weren't leaving from another concourse. Not completely hopeful, I ran through the airport with my laptop, including double-timing it up the escalator. To no avail.

I put up at the beautiful, romantic Baymont Inn and Suites. The picture is an adequate representation, although you need to add the snow. In the morning you have to add more snow, since it came down most of the night and was still snowing when I left at 7:30. I was nervous about missing my flight again, particularly since the weather people were saying parts of the Ohio Valley could be shut down for several days. With much relief after sitting through de-icing and waiting an hour on the runway, the plane took off and brought me home. I'm going to try to wait a while before I visit Cincinnati again.

Nice job on the counter this week, Darien. But wait! ... what is this pile of stuff in the spare room? Isn't this like, uhm, cheating or something?