It's Wednesday and I'm sitting at home (another day off - what are the odds?!?) taking a brief break from gaming.

I haven't told you guys about the highlights of my weekend (too busy to blog - Alan's fault), but my weekend was wonderful. Saturday night Alan took me out to Michaelangelo, a local restaurant whose fabulosity is without parallel. I started with snails - er, I mean, escargots bourguignon, but Alan didn't want to share even though I offered. Some ill-spirited comments about slimy mollusks only served to make me smack my garlic-butter-laden lips all the more as he enjoyed his plebian bruschetta. We both had salads with the house dressing, a creamy Italian peppercorn, before moving on to the entree: rack of lamb for Alan and for me, the house specialty: Veal Michaelangelo, tiny cutlets stuffed with a drool-inducing blend of white cheeses, covered in the most savory gravy imaginable with tasty mushrooms floating abundantly throughout. I shall now pause that you might wipe off your keyboards. [pause] For dessert, Alan ordered chocolate torte and while I did eat a couple of bites of his, I restrained myself enough to keep my engorged tummy from rupturing.

The fantastic gastric endeavor which was our dinner was a celebration of sorts: our first official date was July 3, 2004. A year ago, I was fussing with my hair and calling Cheryl about 600 times to approve/veto potential outfits! He was detailing his car and checking directions. We did the traditional first-date requirement, dinner and a movie. Although we upgraded our dinner quite a bit, we nonetheless made it a point to watch our DVD of Shrek 2, the movie we saw on Date #1. (Awwwww...)

So, the next morning, the actual 1st date anniversary, I woke up to this. Right there on my nightstand, where I'd see it when I awoke - from the guy who says he's not romantic, is afraid of messing things up and isn't good at chick-relations. Moreover, he proved that he really understands one chick, at least, because my gift was a sweet card, Spongebob stickers and a video game which I'd been coveting.

I was hesitant to play the game, which made Alan wonder if I liked it. I tried to explain that I DID, I wanted this game, I'd been quite engrossed in the first one and that I didn't want to start because if I did, I wouldn't stop. He underestimates my video-game geekiness, I think; at his urging, I plugged in the game and, allowing pauses for restroom breaks, beverage obtainment and the occasional taking of nourishment, I didn't stop until he forced me to accompany him to the grocery store on Monday afternoon, as the Diet Coke supply was running dangerously low. After that, I stopped only long enough to blow up some fireworks, including the regrettably named Golden Shower firework that gave me much amusement. He was able to download and install a whole new OS for one of his several computers in the meantime. Yeah, I liked that game just a wee little bit. Ooooh, I have new wireless controllers, too!

Yesterday (as well as Monday) we were both off from work and enjoyed a wonderful lazy day doing, as Alan says, "a whole bunch of not much". We slept in, lunched at our favorite Mexican place and dawdled around Border's for an hour or so. I bought Hollis Gillespie's older book, which is out in paperback. She has another, but I'll probably buy it in paperback as well. It's hilarious but because I read most of it already, in the form of her Creative Loafing columns, I'm not inclined to part with hardback-level ducats. Bought a few others, too, which looked interesting - I'll let you know once I read them, which make take a while because, did I mention, I have this new video game that's keeping me totally enthralled? I took an extra day off today just to game; rose when Alan got up for work so instead of sleeping in, I could game ALL DAY. Yes, I'm sure there are places from which I could seek help, but I'm busy. I'm only at Level 15 with 177 defense and 192 magic, and I need to be AT LEAST 17/190/215 for this next boss so I gotta jet --