The Goldfish's Logbook

And another weekend bites the dust.
Saturday . . . I spent half the day at a training thing for work. 7 am to 1 pm. That blew chunks. Once I got back home I farted around until it came time for the Be-jewelled Sweater Spectacular (otherwise known as Cat's birthday party-thing). We all gathered at Mitch&Matt's place to work on cosplay and sweaters. Half the people took off to Goodwill to find the appropriate sweaters. The rest stayed behind to work. We popped "Rescuers Down Under" into the tv to have some background noise, and although I haven't seen that movie in nearly 20 years, I started quoting that thing verbatim. It freaked me out; it was as if Disney had programmed me ala the Manchurian Candidate. It wasn't as bad as when it happens to be "Aladdin," but still, it was a bit frightening.
After they got back from shopping we went to Razzoo's for Cat's B-day dinner. I'm not a big fan of Cajun food since I have a delicate, gentle, and fairy-like gastrointestinal tract but I figured I'd give it a go and I ordered the big-ass Cajun sampler. The best part about going there were the drinks. Beauty had the right idea of going straight to that menu. We got this huge-ass aquarium of a mixed drink that serves 4. It had punch and vodka and everclear and who-knows-what. We all sipped at it non-stop like parched gerbils at a water bottle. Then my food came and commenced to set my mouth on fire with it's unholy spices. And what did I have to drink to quench my thirst? Just the Gator Punch. . . . . Yeah, that was poor planning on my part.
Back at the apartment we had birthday cake and naughty bedtime stories and worked on stuff and watched a marathon of America's Next Top Model, etc etc etc. We didn't get out of there till 3.
Of course I slept in this morning. My plan had been to go over to Jenny's later to continue working on costume stuff. But I could no longer ignore how messy my house was, or how I was running low on groceries. So instead of cosplay, I just did chores most of the day. Boring stuff, but it feels good to be responsible once in a while.

Our super-awesome adult beverage.

Mmm boy, I'm having fun today. Woke up and got to working on vest, figuring out boot-covers, etc. Then headed to Jo-Ann's to buy one (and ONLY one) yard of fabric. For some reason that place was like an Artist's Alley today; there were a whole bunch of people with little folding tables set up for random craft-y stuff. If I had had my camera I would've taken a picture of this one lady's table that had a sign that said, "Need help with a costume? $1.50 per hour of help" Ha ha ha. I could just imagine some cosplayer coming in with armfuls of fabric and reference pictures: "I'm making a Trinity Blood costume. Help!" I don't think cosplayers are her target group, but it would be funny. While I was waiting my turn in the cutting line, I was standing next to the sewing machines when the voices in my head started talking. "Hey Cody, check out that machine. It's got those features you want. And all steel parts, OOooo. You're gonna be sewing leather for your TRF costume; no one's gonna want to lend you their sewing machine to sew leather with. You NEED your own sewing machine. And you've got that new credit card with no interest for 6 months. Now's the time. Pick up that box and put it in your cart. It's that easy. You need it in your life. Do it." I almost gave in. Buying a sewing machine with less than 5 minutes of thought put into it. But I resisted. Soon though, very soon.
After that I went next door to Spec's to get booze for tonight's costume gala. That got me excited too, all that happiness in those little cans, just waiting to be born. Then I went to Backstage Bazaar to get other costume-y stuff. The gay guy there showed me a simple technique for the make-up I want to do. Hopefully I can do it as well as he did; I'm gonna spend the rest of the afternoon practicing.
So yeah, I'm having a ball today. TRF costume, party costume, booze, learning new cosplay skills. I haven't been able to do this stuff for so long now. It's fun!

The punchline

That had been my plan all along, just so I could see the expression on Liz’s and her mom’s face when I pulled out that pink bag. "I picked this out just for you." And let me tell you, getting that pink bag was an adventure in itself.
( Cody’s Adventures in Wonderland )
Although I didn’t mention my plans to Liz so that the joke wouldn’t be ruined, as soon as I got home she quickly guessed what I was up to and vetoed the idea. She thought that even the bag would be too scandalous for her mother and then Liz would have to kill me with her bare hands for embarrassing her in front of her parents. I was kinda bummed by this turn of events, after what I’d gone through to get it, but not surprised. I’d suspected this idea might've gone too far.
Better safe than sorry I guess. But I'll always wonder, What If . . . ?

The weekend got off to an unexpectedly good start. Our drilling rig had major mechanical problems early Friday morning that shut us down for the whole day. While I waited for news about the repairs, I killed some time by going to watch "Slumdog Millionaire." I was disappointed with the movie; I thought it could've been much better, given it's unique premise. What could've been a gritty, unflinching look at poverty and struggle was instead a hokey, de-clawed, PG-rated fairy tale. The picture-perfect happy ending further ruined it for me. I'm surprised it won ANY Oscars.
Anyways, later that evening I headed up to Denton to hang out with Cindi, Crystal, and friends. We went out for pizza and bowling. While there, I was a stereotypical white guy. I could bowl well enough, but I couldn't dance for crap. Afterwards we went back to the house and watched "Repo! The Genetic Opera." Frankly, I'm not sure what that "movie" was. Was it the opera aspect that made it incomprehensible to me, was it so awful that it was good? I don't know. But I do know that by the time the movie was over, my eyeballs felt like they had been violated.
Saturday morning I received word that the drill rig had been towed to a mechanic's, but couldn't be looked at until Monday, which meant that I was free for the weekend. Weeee! So I hopped in my truck and raced back to Austin. Since we'd been talking about Venture Brothers the night before, for most of the drive back I was thinking of how I could do a Monarch cosplay. It's very tempting, as I already have black tights and enough fiberglass materials lying around to do the armor. I'm still undecided though. As I pulled into Austin around 11:30, I gave Liz a call to tell her I was coming home. Her reply was a blunt, "Well, FUCK."
. . . Ha ha ha. Not quite the response I was expecting. No, "Yay!" or "That's great!" Just, "Well fuck." Ha ha. Apparently she'd originally thought that I wouldn't be arriving till that evening and now she had just a matter of minutes to get ready before I showed up. Although she claimed that both she and the apartment were a mess, both were a welcome sight when I arrived.
That evening we headed to Cat's birthday gathering. The venue this time around was the Salt Lick, a barbecue place of legendary status down in Driftwood. The drive turned out to be a lot farther than I expected. Just as I was on the verge of stopping and asking for directions, we arrived. Holy crap, that place was huge. The place had cops directing traffic, there were that many people. It was a 40-minute wait to get in and then another 40-minutes for the food to arrive, but when it did, everyone turned into a hardcore carnivore. OMG, delicious beef and pork and turkey and other species that I didn't bother to identify before consuming. It seemed appropriate to call it a Texan Thanksgiving. Sooo much meat.
We waddled out of there about an hour or two later and re-convened at Cat's where we had some drinks and talked and watched some YouTube and (crazy-ass) Tyra. Of course we talked cosplay too. Jenny and Beauty and Cat are doing a Rayearth group and drafted me into their service, helping out with the props and armor and such. That should be fun to work on. Also, Jenny let slip that she's planning to do an Other Mother (black dress version) cosplay and as soon as I heard that I claimed Wybie for myself. And just like that, my cosplay dance card has been filled up in one fell swoop. Yay. That's good.
Anyways, I'm going to cut this post short. I have to pee.

Birthday was last weekend, went to Batman-IMAX, went to BatFest (saw no bats), got Transformers for my Bday (sweet).
Labor Day, worked on cosplay, tested the wings for 1st time, only got them up halfway :( Something's wrong with my math; I don't trust myself anymore.
I'm finally starting to warm up to the Pucca cartoon series; used to be I only liked the flash animations. Sad that Venture Bros is over till next year. Boo. But get to buy Season 3 dvds now. Yay.
Yesterday I got an email about Jim Gaffigan (comedian whose sold-out show I paid alot to get tickets for). Since I'm now on his email list, I'm invited to the pre-sale of the extra show they just added to his schedule. So I could've bought 6 good tickets today for the same amount of money I spent on those 2 mediocre seats. Lame
Tonight, at my apartment by myself. Don't need to tell you what that entails ;) Spent 5 hours to fix the wings and beef up the pulley system. Good news: now the wings open fully, with snap. Bad news: now I think the wings are too strong to be reloaded by just one assistant. Aw suckage. Dunno what to do.

Think I might go to bed tonight in the clothes I plan to wear tomorrow, that way I can sleep till the very last second. I'm pooped and sore.
Night!

uheartcc's birthday was yesterday. CC was abducted and blindfolded and brought to a Korean restaurant where we were waiting in ambush. Since it was her birthday, we all had to wear mustaches of course. If you know her, it makes sense. I was out in the parking lot putting on my mustache while amelie_ami_chan ordered an "appetizer," a $100 sushi boat. If I'd known that, I wouldn't have ordered anything. Ignorant, I ordered three rolls and an unagi-don. While we waited for the food we assaulted CC with gifts; I admit, I was kinda jealous of the shirt she got. Apparently I look like Ned Flanders with my mustache. Everyone else took off their mustaches pretty quickly, but as much trouble as it was to spirit-gum it onto my face, I wasn't about to take it off. Though maybe I should've; it was pretty tricky eating with it. I think most of my miso soup was absorbed by the 'stache before it got to my mouth. Then the sushi barge showed up. OMG. At first it was a feeding frenzy as everyone snatched their favorite rolls and fish and whatnot. Then the side dishes showed up and then the entrees and then more entrees. No longer were we a team focused on demolishing the sushi barge, it was every man for himself. Ami got a . . . platter than was the size of a sombrero (and had she finished it, I would've ordered her to wear it). CC got what I can only describe as an egg pancake that was the size of an extra large pizza. Sammi and ashuracastle got beem-bop-bips (?); I don't know if they tasted any good, I just liked saying that word over and over together. Yeah, there was an assload of food and I don't think any of us came anywhere close to finishing our food. There was a lot of moaning and groaning as each of us tapped out, one by one. For the first time in my life I actually caught myself thinking, "No more unagi," and I had to ask my former-unagi-rival, catspaws for help in getting rid of it. I've never eaten so much sushi in one sitting. OMG.
We waddled out of the restaurant and reconvened at j_buns's apartment. It took the girls about an hour to get spruced up to go to 6th Street to celebrate CC's 21st. Matt abused some hair care products while we waited. I would post the video, but it's not really family-friendly. By the time everyone was ready to go, both Star and I were ready to give birth to the sushi babies in our bellies. As much as I wanted to witness the ensuing fun downtown, we parted company and headed home.

Hmmm. I got an email today concerning my high school ten-year reunion. I had begun to think it had already passed; I mean, shouldn't the reunion be held on the anniversary of graduation, I thought? And wasn't that this month or something? But it seems they've decided to hold it on Labor Day weekend:

"The class of ’97 voted and the majority chose Labor Day weekend. Therefore, your presence is requested Friday, August 31st through Monday, September 3 in South Texas! Start making travel plans now so you can be there for the socializing and fun!"

When I first read that, I thought, "Cool! That happens to overlap my birthday! And it happens to include a holiday weekend! That'll be a great opportunity to go home before Christmas. That'd be nice." Then I realize that's the weekend of Dragon*Con, which I've already committed to. Not only that, but I've been wavering on my con plans for that weekend. Star's going to A-Fest in Dallas and that alone is a big enough draw for me to consider reneging on my commitments. Not to mention it'd be a lot cheaper and easier to do.
D*C is in the lead, of course. I just find it amusing and frustrating that all these things will be happening simultaneously. I have to choose between the big, wild out-of-state con or the cheaper Texas con with my girlfriend, or the once-a-decade reunion with my old friends (and birthday with my family).

Hmm.