Ups and Downs Birthday
Dec. 27th, 2019 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI mean, I've had worse (birthdays where I've been actively sick come to mind), but I've also had better. Let me sum up the day as follows:
-->Presents: I got a very nice abalone necklace (shiny!), $100 to put toward my Dave & Busters PowerCard (O.O), and two desk calendars -- one with brain teasers, the other with funny stupid quotes. My parents wanted to get me a calendar, decided maybe I'd prefer a page-a-day one, then decided to do two so I'd have one for home and one for work. Which -- I appreciate the thought, and I know which one I want to bring to work and where to put it, but. . .not sure where to keep the home one, if I'm honest? Hmm, unless I put it by my clock. . . I'll figure it out.
-->Lunch: We tried a restaurant we've been meaning to go to for a while called Tumblesalts. It has a very nice-looking building, and reviews online ranged from 3.5 to 4 stars (out of 5) online, so we figured, even if it wasn't perfect, it would be good enough for my birthday.
Yeaaaaaaaah, we were disabused of that notion pretty fast. The waitstaff were some of the most inattentive we've ever had; the food was horrible (both my parents got super-dry turkey sandwiches, and my Chicken Parmesan was toasted to the point of being burnt; and we all had the same horribly tasteless french fries. Not to mention Mom asked for a diet soda, and got something -- we're not sure what it was, but when we complained, the waiter admitted the soda was out, sooo. . .), and we had to ask for EVERYTHING -- they didn't have ketchup or salt and pepper at the table (despite ALL of their sandwiches coming with fries), and didn't even offer WATER. Not to mention the booth seat I was in was filthy, and -- yeah. Very unpleasant experience, and we made sure to leave a bad review. :(
-->Dave & Buster's: As usual, getting in and out of the place was a task and a half (there are reasons I won't DRIVE myself to the mall), but the actual games were fun. The place was more crowded than I'm used to, but we got to play a couple rounds of Mario Kart (I won one game, Mom won the other), some Dirty Driving, take a trip on the Typhoon motion ride thing (I like it a lot, but it's a "two people price" game, so I don't get to go on it unless I'm with the family), and Mom and I both got on the high score board on Giant Pac-Man. XD And had a very successful run on the giant Space Invaders too. :) So that was all great.
-->Cake: Since our oven is still out of action, we decided to pick up some cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory instead. Took us a bit to find our way over there (it's not accessible from directly inside the mall -- you either have to go out and down the street a bit, or through a parking garage), but it was worth it! I got an Oreo Dream Extreme slice, which -- DECADENT. Om nom NOM. Mom and Dad were very happy with their slices too (Key Lime and Mango Key Lime, respectively). Would definitely get dessert there again!
-->Other:
A) We ended up spending most of the rest of the afternoon, once we got home, finishing up the puzzle Mom got Dad for Christmas -- yes, we actually completed it! Took some doing, and for a moment it looked like we were missing one last piece (fortunately it had just fallen on the floor), but we did it! And now Mom's all gung-ho for more puzzles. XD Fortunately she's also saying we need to set an hour time limit on working on them, which -- yeah, we ALL get WAY too into trying to get these things completed. At least now I know where I get it from!
B) Despite this, I was bound and determined to actually play some Bloodlines today, so after some Big Fat Quiz Of The Year (w000), cheesecake, and a shower, that's exactly what I did! Finally got my butt down to Chinatown and started the main story quests there. Introduced myself to Ming-Xiao, who is a passive-aggressive bitch (though I happily was able to get my own back via the special Malk dialogue option regarding the Yama Kings), then completed the "Kikinapped" quest via killing some Tong assholes. I'm currently parked outside of Zhao's warehouse, preparing to complete his mini quest after picking up some new armor and ammo from Tseng's. I'll probably get the main story stuff sorted next time I play, then pick up some side quests before heading to "Italian Dinner." Or maybe do that and THEN pick up the side quests? Hmmmm. . .I'll figure out something.
C) Only two YouTube vids tonight as a result of all this -- one from Outstar, with tips on how to better roleplay a V:tM vampire (not really relevant to me as I'm not that interested in the RP side of things, but still fun to watch), and a new "Fun With Shorts" featuring the awful Lone Ranger cartoon (Tonto solo adventure which involved a crack in time itself and Tonto fighting both cavemen and dinosaurs)! So that was all good, at least. :)
And now I've got the usual queuing and such to get to, as well as the Friday Night/Saturday Morning Writing Thing. Going back to normal this weekend -- well, at least a little. :p Gotta get some cleaning done tomorrow since I kept it light last Saturday (and the Saturday after New Year's, we're either having my aunt and uncle over, or going to see them for belated Christmas/birthday stuff), plus watch some videos and play some Sims. And get back into the habit of writing REGULAR fics again. XD Night all!
-->Presents: I got a very nice abalone necklace (shiny!), $100 to put toward my Dave & Busters PowerCard (O.O), and two desk calendars -- one with brain teasers, the other with funny stupid quotes. My parents wanted to get me a calendar, decided maybe I'd prefer a page-a-day one, then decided to do two so I'd have one for home and one for work. Which -- I appreciate the thought, and I know which one I want to bring to work and where to put it, but. . .not sure where to keep the home one, if I'm honest? Hmm, unless I put it by my clock. . . I'll figure it out.
-->Lunch: We tried a restaurant we've been meaning to go to for a while called Tumblesalts. It has a very nice-looking building, and reviews online ranged from 3.5 to 4 stars (out of 5) online, so we figured, even if it wasn't perfect, it would be good enough for my birthday.
Yeaaaaaaaah, we were disabused of that notion pretty fast. The waitstaff were some of the most inattentive we've ever had; the food was horrible (both my parents got super-dry turkey sandwiches, and my Chicken Parmesan was toasted to the point of being burnt; and we all had the same horribly tasteless french fries. Not to mention Mom asked for a diet soda, and got something -- we're not sure what it was, but when we complained, the waiter admitted the soda was out, sooo. . .), and we had to ask for EVERYTHING -- they didn't have ketchup or salt and pepper at the table (despite ALL of their sandwiches coming with fries), and didn't even offer WATER. Not to mention the booth seat I was in was filthy, and -- yeah. Very unpleasant experience, and we made sure to leave a bad review. :(
-->Dave & Buster's: As usual, getting in and out of the place was a task and a half (there are reasons I won't DRIVE myself to the mall), but the actual games were fun. The place was more crowded than I'm used to, but we got to play a couple rounds of Mario Kart (I won one game, Mom won the other), some Dirty Driving, take a trip on the Typhoon motion ride thing (I like it a lot, but it's a "two people price" game, so I don't get to go on it unless I'm with the family), and Mom and I both got on the high score board on Giant Pac-Man. XD And had a very successful run on the giant Space Invaders too. :) So that was all great.
-->Cake: Since our oven is still out of action, we decided to pick up some cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory instead. Took us a bit to find our way over there (it's not accessible from directly inside the mall -- you either have to go out and down the street a bit, or through a parking garage), but it was worth it! I got an Oreo Dream Extreme slice, which -- DECADENT. Om nom NOM. Mom and Dad were very happy with their slices too (Key Lime and Mango Key Lime, respectively). Would definitely get dessert there again!
-->Other:
A) We ended up spending most of the rest of the afternoon, once we got home, finishing up the puzzle Mom got Dad for Christmas -- yes, we actually completed it! Took some doing, and for a moment it looked like we were missing one last piece (fortunately it had just fallen on the floor), but we did it! And now Mom's all gung-ho for more puzzles. XD Fortunately she's also saying we need to set an hour time limit on working on them, which -- yeah, we ALL get WAY too into trying to get these things completed. At least now I know where I get it from!
B) Despite this, I was bound and determined to actually play some Bloodlines today, so after some Big Fat Quiz Of The Year (w000), cheesecake, and a shower, that's exactly what I did! Finally got my butt down to Chinatown and started the main story quests there. Introduced myself to Ming-Xiao, who is a passive-aggressive bitch (though I happily was able to get my own back via the special Malk dialogue option regarding the Yama Kings), then completed the "Kikinapped" quest via killing some Tong assholes. I'm currently parked outside of Zhao's warehouse, preparing to complete his mini quest after picking up some new armor and ammo from Tseng's. I'll probably get the main story stuff sorted next time I play, then pick up some side quests before heading to "Italian Dinner." Or maybe do that and THEN pick up the side quests? Hmmmm. . .I'll figure out something.
C) Only two YouTube vids tonight as a result of all this -- one from Outstar, with tips on how to better roleplay a V:tM vampire (not really relevant to me as I'm not that interested in the RP side of things, but still fun to watch), and a new "Fun With Shorts" featuring the awful Lone Ranger cartoon (Tonto solo adventure which involved a crack in time itself and Tonto fighting both cavemen and dinosaurs)! So that was all good, at least. :)
And now I've got the usual queuing and such to get to, as well as the Friday Night/Saturday Morning Writing Thing. Going back to normal this weekend -- well, at least a little. :p Gotta get some cleaning done tomorrow since I kept it light last Saturday (and the Saturday after New Year's, we're either having my aunt and uncle over, or going to see them for belated Christmas/birthday stuff), plus watch some videos and play some Sims. And get back into the habit of writing REGULAR fics again. XD Night all!
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Date: 2019-12-28 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-29 03:04 am (UTC)