Weekend Recap

This year Halloween fell on a weekend
Me and Geto Boys are trick-or-treatin'
Robbin' little kids for bags

Alright, so that Geto Boys quote is really a stretch, but I had to get Halloween in there somehow.

Here's a recap of my weekend:

Thursday night I flew from San Jose to Phoenix. My plane was delayed by 2 1/2 hours, so I got to sit around the airport for more than 3 hours. This was a real joy since I hadn't brought a book with me, as I thought I was short on time. To add insult to injury, the only food place near my gate that I could stomach did not have the tortilla soup that I wanted, and instead I had to settle for split pea and ham - yuck - I hate peas and don't like ham in soup.

Friday Ladan and I drove to Santa Monica and stayed with friends, a couple who have a 15-month old daughter. I've always liked the SM (B, made it out there yet?) as it has a distinctly southern California laid-back feel to it. We had fun with them and the kid is just incredibly cute. As usual, I enjoyed playing with her but felt zero need to have one of my own any time in the foreseeable future. Thank the almighty FSM, Ladan feels the same way.

Saturday we drove down to San Diego but stopped in Rancho Santa Margarita to see Bharath for a while. We discussed Halloween plans, with B explaining that he'd really hoped to play some sort of prank in his office rather than do the whole traditional costume thing. I helpfully suggested he buy some bloody severed hands and feet from a costume store, put them in a plastic bag, and then place the bag in the office freezer, with the hope that somebody during the day would go for ice and instead be greeted with a terrifying discovery.

We then headed to San Diego and attended a party thrown by a friend's aunt in the posh Rancho Sante Fe area. There were about fifty guests and most were in costume - lots of witches, Greeks/Romans, pirates, the usual, for the most part. I went in a simple Catholic priest garb - a pun of a costume, of sorts, as those who know me are very aware of my extreme distaste for religion in general; but as more than one person has in the past commented on how I actually look like a priest or preacher, the choice of costume was clear. And as I'd expected, it was a hit precisely because of the latter. As I wanted to fully role-play the costume, I made sure to always have a beer in my hand, as well as spend an inordinate amount of time talking to two young boys whose parents were at the party but off talking to other guests.

Sunday we had a late brunch and then got back on the road to drive back to Phoenix. I was supposed to fly back to San Jose Monday, but then felt like staying another day, and so suddenly came down with a vague "sickness" and took the day off. Tuesday morning I finally returned.

Halloween itself, last night, was pretty uneventful, with the notable exception that I finally got some time with Dark Messiah Might and Magic, a game I picked up last week after having followed it's development for the past year or so. I've got some screenshots up here.

Neverwinter Night 2 comes out today, and so between that and Dark Messiah, I foresee an entire blissful weekend of gaming this week, my first in a long, long time.