Catching up...

Thursday, picked up the girl, went and had dinner at La Chiquita (also known as Joe's. Darn good hole-in-the-wall Mexican food, and just around the corner from her apartment.) She'd never been, and even having passed by it a number of times, it never registered. Other than a few issues of me having completely forgotten the protocols (it's been at least 5 years since I've been there, possibly closer to 10), the food still stood up (R.I.P., Joe) and good times were had. Did a drive-by of a party supply store to stock up on some more kazoos. Ended up also buying myself the Ben Franklin Instant Disguise Kit because I'm an idiot for that sort of thing. Chided the girl for encouraging me (or at least not stopping me) Went back to her apartment, helped her make a batch of christmas cookies (Cognac Sugarplums with Bourbon in place of the Cognac)

Friday, the slowest workday of the year. Figured I was already going to take some vacation days in early January anyhow, so I flipped a couple hours onto other days, and got out around 2:30. Drove home, changed clothes in anticipation of the evening's events, went to go pick up the girl for the Kazoo Deathmatch. Went to dinner (I forgot the name. I'm sure she'll give me crap later. I think it was the hollenshead, but my addled brain isn't certain right now.) I guess it's a deli. There's a slight convenience store vibe (maybe it was all the fluorescent lights), but either way, there were two quick observations. At a little after 5pm on a friday, they were packed, and the whole vibe was very friendly. After prompting from the proprietor, we ended up sharing a table with a gent in the fastener industry while we consumed our sandwiches and respective pints (I went with the Harvest Ale, she chose the Smoked Porter) A brief stop later and her work stuff was deposited at her apartment, clothes were changed, and off to the Block for the main event. Stay tuned for a more full accounting of the Kazoo Deathmatch, possibly with video.

Saturday, she treated me to lunch at a nice family-owned Lebanese cafe. Tasty Shawarma plate. After some idle puttering about dealing with sundry errands, I made her dinner (broke out my old family meatball recipe, some generic jarred sauce, and rotini pasta) (ok, sure, nothing fancy, but I did insist on making the meatballs, which she really seemed to like.) Watched some Doctor Who. (I know, I know, there's a trend here, but when I asked her if she minded the repetition, her response (which I won't post here due to your sensitivities, dear readers) gave me cause to believe that as trends go, it's not a bad one.

Keep an eye out for an end-of-year-spectacular post in the next few days. With as strange and wonderful a year this has been, it would be a disservice to not try to recognize it somehow.

-transiit