batskeets | "Is... is that a student?" "Technically, it's a ferret."

::deep inhale::

RENT COMES OUT THIS WEEK AAAAAHHHHHHH!!

WHO'S COMING WITH ME?? :D I'm rather ticked that it's opening right before Thanksgiving, because getting a group together for the movie will be a bitch. But, I've been seeing commercials for it on TV periodically, and just... gah!! I can't wait. I think I'll be playing my RENT soundtrack in the car all week to get myself pumped.

--------------------------

Weekend was so freaking busy, but totally awesome.

The Chen Zheng-Lei workshop on Friday night/Saturday morning was excellent. I never quite know what to expect from these traditional martial arts masters. I kind of expect them to be very intense people, but maybe that's because I've watched too many cheesy martial arts movies. ;p Grandmaster Chen was this very mellow, low-key guy who just seemed happy to be sharing his wisdom and experience with us.

He spoke in Chinese the whole time (PK and Sifu were trading off the translating duties) but occasionally he'd say a small bit of English, like, "very good," and he'd crack a big smile. He was also, apparently, impressed at how quickly we were picking up the form. I find that I like the flavor of Chen style, so I might change up my schedule, *yet* again, and take up the Chen style class that Sifu offers.

After workshopping on Friday night, I got to have dinner with my posse at Red Robin! It was

craftyran's birthday, but we didn't make the poor Red Robin waitstaff sing at her, heh. They had already sung for four other birthdays, so I guess they had plenty to worry about. :)

Saturday evening at

nidaba's was much fun. They stuffed me full of food--pumpkin curry soup, turkey, salad, and lots of bread and chocolate cake with amaretto and fruit bits--and we played Settlers of Catan, which is always fun. I had fairly good placement for my starting settlements, but the dice were just not going in my favor until the game was almost over. Hopefully next time, I'll have enough time in advance to start some bread, so I can bring some homemade stuff instead of store-bought.

After that, I decided to head over for another party, which turned out fairly small, but still good. A lot of it was just me, Ben, David, and Sarah playing games. We spent a lot of time playing Cranium Hoopla, which was a little confusing at first, but ultimately fun. Ben was apparently reading my mind or somesuch, because he made some insanely accurate guesses when I had barely even started my given activity... like figuring out my "Tyrannosaurus Rex" charade, when all I had done was stand up and make my arms really short. ::rotfl:: It was pretty crazy. :) Also, David was squeeing about as much as a guy *can* squee over his boxed set of the entire Buffy series. (which, incidentally, has really cool package design) I'm kind of surprised at times about how well I jive with these people, but it's very cool.

Sunday was the appointed Harry Potter expedition. We didn't leave quite early enough, so we had to park ourselves in one of the first three rows, but the movie was very cool. I think I've liked the last couple of HP movies a bit better, maybe just because they seem darker, but yeah, it was worth seeing, even if you've never read the books before. One of these days, maybe I'll actually remember to ask one of my friends to borrow the books, at a time when they actually have them on hand to loan to me.

Also: I finally dinged! Fiz hit 60 and then went to Arathi Basin, where I got thoroughly pwned 6 times. Stupid Alliance kiddies couldn't cooperate if their lives depended on it, apparently. :p

The rest of the evening was spent watching Veronica Mars and playing with computer parts. I managed to cut myself twice, this time, without even noticing it until I suddenly saw blood on my hand. Apparently, the computer gods now require a sacrifice in blood, in order for me to get a box working.

Anyhoo, that's all I've got, and there's work to be done, so I go poof.