Busy Weekend

I had a few friends from work over this weekend for game night. Dave, Brian and Cindy came as well as the friend-who-must-not-be-named. Dave brought his wife, Edie, and Brian brought his girlfriend, Rachel. I ordered pizza and had some veggies and fruit, too. Since our family is LDS and we don't drink, I also had a large bowl full of chocolate candy. I gained a couple of pounds from the food, but I had a great time.

We played Fluxx and Cranium, both of which are pretty freewheeling types of games. With Fluxx you start with only one rule and no goal, but you add new rules and goals as the game progresses. It's confusing the first time through, but it gets to be a lot of fun once you get used to it. Cranium, as you probably know, is a game that combines every other board game known to man... Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Scrabble, etc... into one.

We split up the couples and Brian and I took on Dave and Rachel on one team and f-w-m-n-b-n with Edie and Cindy. Brian and I kinda won, but there was some argument about whether or not we cheated. I was ready to keep going until we got a definitive winner, but it was getting late, so we let it go. I think everyone had fun, I know I did.

The only downside was that I had already been feeling ill and I spent way too many hours cleaning and getting ready for the game night, so that on Sunday I was too sick to do much. We postponed celebrating Mom's birthday until next week and I called in sick to work today. I got out of bed long enough to check email and call in sick and then went back to bed until noon. This afternoon the winds knocked out our power so we went to Chipotle's at the Annapolis mall and did a tiny bit of shopping.

I am still sick, but the two days of rest helped a lot and I'm going back to work tomorrow. I hate to be out at all right now with all that is going on. I definitely can't take two days off. I should be ok tomorrow, I handled the mall just fine tonight. I think that five hour nap this morning helped a lot. Sometimes when I get too exhausted my body just shuts down on me. I don't know which comes first - getting sick and then feeling tired or getting tired and then feeling sick. It's one reason I try not to overdo it, though, because I always end up sick. Speaking of which, I need to get to bed. I've been up for a full nine hours!

HTML Class

I'm teaching an HTML class at work, starting tomorrow. I have 17 coworkers who have signed up. That means there are at least 17 people who are willing to give up their lunch hours to listen to me talk. That's kind of humbling. Of course, I'm a great teacher, and they're lucky to have me, but even so....

When I put up the sign up sheet I expected at most 6 people to sign up. I knew Dave would, he tried to take it the first time and had to drop out. You remember Dave... the one who likes to sit on Tinker Bell? I figured Cindy would take the class just to support me. She's a good friend like that. Adam kinda has to since he has to start doing HTML stuff at work and he dropped out of the first class because I gave too much homework.

Starr is the one for whom we developed the ice cream website. Did I mention that at the time? She and her husband own Carousels Ice Cream, a shop in Southern Maryland. She needs to learn how to fix and change her own website so she can take care of it in the future.

I never thought I would get 17 people in this class, though. I am a good teacher, even if it is not very modest of me to admit it. I look forward to teaching and speaking in public in the same way that other people look forward to a scary roller coaster ride. I've got those flutters in my stomach and I'm a little nervous, but it's a good thing.

They say there is no physical difference between fear and excitement. The only difference lies in your attitude. My attitude is that the more people I can get to listen to me about any subject, the better!

TinkTerra

I bought a 2006 Nissan XTerra just before Christmas. It had everything I wanted except for the color, which is dark gray. Yuck. I looked into getting it painted, but that ran into thousands of dollars. Instead I looked for, and found, every imaginable auto accessory featuring Tinker Bell.

I have the Tinker Bell Steering Wheel Cover, the Tinker Bell Seat Covers, the Tinker Bell "I'm No Princess!" Floor Mats in front and the Tinker Bell "Trust Me!" and Tinker Bell "Perfect Little Flirt" floor mats in back. I got this decal, and this one and this one.

I found a couple of keychains, of course, and picked up a Tinker Bell lunch box from somewhere, although that does not technically have anything to do with the car.

But my favorite car accessory I found was the Tinker Bell trailer hitch cover! I can't find a picture of that for you tonight, but I'll try to get one posted here soon.

So, my XTerra is Tinked out... it looks like my ride was pimped by Disney. The guys at work won't ride in it, except for my friend Dave, but that's just cause he likes sitting on Tinker Bell. My dad refuses to drive it and my friend Kirby has warned me not to take it South if I don't want to get shot.

I think it's adorable, but it probably would have been cheaper to get the car painted bright green like I wanted in the first place.

You be the judge