Here is the executive summary of this node: I met radlab0 and claypenny and they are utterly charming, as is claypenny's young son Michael (though the top-secret nature of his work may require him to keep silent about certain activities of his). If you ever find yourself in their company consider yourself very fortunate. They rock.
So: I have to ask myself, why the HELL does anyone pay attention to me? I don't mean in general (though that is a very compelling question), but specifically when it comes to planning and leading the day's activities when people come to visit me in San Diego. At the first noder get-together here we ended up wandering through La Jolla looking for a karaoke bar that turned out to no longer exist, and I was woefully uninformed about places to get hammered. Then when Roninspoon and his SO visited, I lost my car in the Balboa Park parking lot for something like two hours. And now this.
See, radlab0 flew into town for an academia-related thingy and had a night free, and claypenny revealed that she just recently moved here, and I thought hey! Why don't the three of us get together in La Jolla where radlab0 is staying and hang out? We met at 8:30 P.M. in the lobby of the Empress Hotel where I, sure that I had an idiot-proof plan of action for once, suggested we eat at local Mexican hole-in-the-wall Porkyland. We got there just in time to admire the big CLOSED sign in the window. I sent up a silent prayer of thanks that mean-spirited and unforgiving mocker-types like Roninspoon and Chihuahua Grub weren't around and collared someone to ask where one DOES find sustenance in the Village after 9:00.
We ended up at a decent place called "The Spot" where we had chocolate malteds and french fries and potatoes layered with some sort of unbreakable super-cheese, and cracked each other up for the next two and a half hours. claypenny and radlab0 and Michael are very warm, smart, funny people with excellent taste in Stuff. I really couldn't have asked for a better evening, or better companions.
I do have to share My Lamest Moment with you, though. As part of my hurried attempt to familiarize myself with everyone else who was showing up I went to claypenny's sister witchiepoo's home node -- only I didn't type "witchiepoo" in the search box, I typed "wuukiee". Right, I thought, college student, neo-pagan, no kids. Remember that. WHY did I do this? I'm not sure. They both start with "w", and I think I became aware of them both as noders at around the same time, and frankly I'm just not that bright. Ennyway, this led to me saying things like "She's your older sister? But she looks so young on her home node pic!" and "Wow, I had no idea she had kids!". I am SO dang smooth sometimes.
Today was my wife Angela's birthday. She was scheduled for the night shift so I took the day off and we had breakfast at the Mission Cafe, browsed through the Sumner and Dean gallery where she got nifty green-and-silver earrings, did some window shopping at the Mitsuwa Japanese department store, and opened presents at home. While she was at work a co-worker bought, wrapped, and gave her a copy of her favorite movie on video, Wings of Desire. Yay for birthdays.