Get out of the house and do something every weekend

This is the third weekend since I kind of re-entered the 43Things universe. And yes, I did get out of the house and do something today. I went down to the city landfill and dropped off the old TV which quit working a while ago, and then the girlfriend and I did a bunch of shopping.

We stopped at Hobby Lobby, where I picked up an N-scale railroad turnout and some beading stuff for my sister for Christmas. Then to the mall. I got some new shoes and some long-sleeved shirts for work. The girlfriend found a couple of things to get for Christmas presents for her sister in law, so we got those. And then I got a couple of books at Barnes & Noble with the gift card which the girlfriend’s mom got me for my birthday. I got a Mapsco atlas of the county, which is also mostly for work use, and the two-volume complete Sherlock Holmes. The girlfriend was wondering if I had any Sherlock Holmes after reading a new Holmes story which was authorized by Doyle’s estate. I didn’t previously have much except on my computer, but now I do.

After the mall, we went across the street to Party City to try to find something for her nephews. She’s got one, Oliver, who simply loves to dress up in costumes. When we went over to their place a month or so ago, he must have changed outfits three or four times in the couple of hours we were there. There was a ninja costume and his karate outfit, as well as the regular clothes he was wearing when we showed up. So, the girlfriend wanted to get him something else to mix it up a little. She was looking for a pirate outfit, and we found one for his little brother, but not really anything for him. But when we talked to the checkers, one of the young ladies said we could go back to the storeroom where they keep all the old Halloween costumes from last season and she would show us some of the costumes they had there. We found a neat little Star Wars outfit for him. It’s Jango Fett, complete with mask, and we’re pretty sure he’s going to dig it.

After Party City, we were going to head to Petsmart and Michael’s, but I wanted to eat first. I was thinking Mexican food, but we discussed it and decided that we’d just go to the Long John Silver’s that reopened recently on the Loop. So, we went there and got our greasy food at the drive-through, but by the time we were done with that, we were pretty much getting tired and decided to head back home. We’re going to probably go back out tomorrow and continue the Christmas shopping…

So, I haven’t updated anything on here for quite a long time, but I figured I’d crawl out from under my rock and get myself doing things again.

Last weekend, the girlfriend and I went to see the Dallas Stars play the New Jersey Devils down at American Airlines Center. It was a good game, although it was a bit more crowded than it has been when we’ve gone before. Dallas gave up the first goal, but then came storming back to a 3-1 first period lead. They gave up the lead over the subsequent two periods, but then scored two to end the game for a 5-3 victory.

On Sunday, we drove over to Tyler to see her dad, who unfortunately has to spend this Thanksgiving in the hospital because of a persistent leg infection. He’s doing better now, thankfully, but it will still be a while before he gets to come home. We’re hoping he’ll be out by Christmas.

This weekend, we have more social events on the schedule than we’ve had for the past couple of months combined. On Thanksgiving, we went down and spent the afternoon with the other side of her family. That was all right. A lot of people who I don’t really know all that well at all, and a few that I’ve never met before. But in general, it was a good meal and nice company, so I can’t complain.

Yesterday, I had to work on my birthday for the first time in almost 20 years. It was a boring day of work, but afterward we went to a party with some of her friends down in Dallas. There were even less people who I knew there than at the Thanksgiving dinner, but we had a good time anyway.

Tonight, we’re going to go celebrate the birthday of one of the members of our book club. We’re going out to eat at a tepanyaki (sp.?) restaurant down in Lewisville, and then go back to their place to play some Wii and enjoy some adult beverages. A good time will hopefully be had by all. We’ll see a bit later, though…

And I’d definitely say that I’ve been out of the house for the past few. The weekend of the 5th and 6th, I picked up my rental truck from Budget, loaded up the contents of my storage unit, and then spent a fair amount of time loading some of the contents of the house into the little beastie. Not necessarily a fun way to get out of the house, but definitely out and productive, at least.

The weekend of the 12th and 13th, I was mostly doing the exact opposite. I got to Texas in the wee early hours of the morning of the 12th, and we spent a fair amount of the 12th loading stuff from the rental truck into the new storage unit here in Denton. On Sunday, we finished unloading the stuff that was staying here at the house, and I returned the truck to the Budget place here in town. After all the driving across the country and such, I didn’t really have enough energy left to do much else that weekend.

This past weekend, my GF and I drove down to Lewisville after she got off work, so she could feed her mom’s fish and check their mail and such. She was hungry after her day at work, so we stopped at the Sweetwater downtown and had dinner. I had the shrimp and bacon sandwich with fries, which wasn’t bad. She had breaded fried fish of some kind, although I now forget exactly what. She said it was also not bad. Service was okay, and the atmosphere was loud, but not terribly obnoxious. Not the kind of place you’d want to stop to have a quiet conversation, but decent food at a decent price.

After our dinner, we headed over to Dan’s Silverleaf to watch a couple of bands. Those were definitely much louder than the ambiance at the Sweetwater, but I’ll wrote those up under the “Attend 12 Music Events” goal…

Like several of my other ongoing goals, I’ve decided to give this one a new lease on life here in 2008. So this past weekend, of course, I wound up being rather sick with a cold, so I cut myself a little slack. I did make it out to a couple of grocery stores to pick up some cold medicine and a few needed groceries and such, and I’m going to count that as good. Next week, I’m going to try to make sure I go do something a little more entertaining…

So, I haven’t really been a hermit for these past 8 months. I’ve just not really been a very sociable sort of blogger. So, just to update for the July:

Weekend of July 7-8, I didn’t really get out all that much. I went down to the restaurant supply store and picked up a couple of sleeves of storage containers so I can give away some of the extra food I always seem to be making lately, and I stopped at Target on the way home and picked up some T-shirts. I also dropped off a couple loaves of bread at the downstairs neighbors’ apartment. Sunday, I pretty much just sat around and watched TV and did a bit more cooking.

Weekend of July 14-15, I went over to Mom’s place on Saturday. I bought a new ice cream maker a while ago, and I decided to put it to use. She made dinner, which was corned beef and cabbage, and we made chocolate ice cream for dessert. Took a bit longer than I expected for the ice cream to freeze, but it came out pretty well. Sunday, I don’t think I did a whole lot. I may have gone to the grocery store to pick up some more baking supplies, but I don’t recall precisely.

Hopefully I’ll keep a few of my goals, including this one, more up to date from here on…

I did walk down to the store and pick up a few things. It was a lovely, sunny day outside. I spent most of it, however, working on some of my music. I did get quite a bit accomplished, so it wasn’t like it was a wasted weekend. But I really should spend more time out in the world…

I went to Fred Meyer and bought new wiper blades for the car. I also got the DVDThe Gods Must Be Crazy, since it was on sale. Then I went to Guitar Center and bought a microphone cable so I can double mike my vocals or use my direct box and a mike at the same time. Nothing terribly exciting, but at least I didn’t just sit in my room in front of the computer the whole weekend…

So, let’s see. I have managed to get out and do something every weekend, although it wasn’t always all that much fun.

Labor Day weekend, I just walked down to the store and got some things to make dinner for the week. Unfortunately, the Tuesday following, I had a bicycle accident, nearly getting hit by a car that cut me off, and the rest of my weekend outings since then have been much more based on need than on enjoyment.

The next three weekends, I basically went to the store for what food I needed, and once I also stopped at the diner next to the grocery store, but mostly it was just getting what I needed and getting back home.

I took Friday Sept. 29th off and went shopping for a car, since my ankle was having some problems and even walking to work was getting to be a literal pain. Riding my bike had been something out of the question for several weeks since my accident, since every little bump jolted the injury in my ribs and made me wince in pain. Of course, I wound up walking to the car lot, then back home, then back to the lot before I got the financing and stuff all taken care of. Then I drove off the lot in my new (to me) Pontiac Grand Prix, went to the insurance company and paid way too much for the full coverage I needed, then drove to the bank to get the down payment. So, now I can drive, but I didn’t do any more driving that weekend.

Last weekend, I got to spend Friday night and Saturday morning in the hospital for a blood clot in the back of my leg, then I went to the pharmacy and picked up the prescription blood thinners that I will be on for a while. After that, I pretty much holed up in the apartment for the next couple of days.

So, technically, yes, I’ve been out of the house and done something every weekend. Unfortunately, most of it was just doing chores or other not-too-enjoyable things. sigh

Weekend of the 12th and 13th: This was a backslide. We were supposed to do a network upgrade at work, but we ran into problems. So it turned out that I had my weekend pretty much planned around something that didn’t end up taking place. So I slept in and was lazy. I didn’t even walk out the front door all weekend. I did do some baking and read a bit. I also spent far too much time playing around on the internet.

Weekend of the 19th and 20th: I rode my bike to several different stores this weekend. I bought a little cargo rack for the bike, so I don’t have to haul everything on my back when I go to work. I also got a couple of Rubbermaid totes to haul baked goods to work, since I’ve been baking stuff almost every night for the past couple of weeks.

Weekend of the 26th and 27th: Again, several bike rides and walks down to the local grocery stores. I also bought a new food processor and a little personal-sized crockpot. I wound up not baking anything, though, even though I bought all of the necessary stuff to make several things. I did break in the crockpot with a pot roast, however.

That’s it for now. 3 out of 4 weekends: Not that bad…

I feel like I pretty much quit doing this when Carol and I separated, which is when I should have been doing this most. Instead, I was spending too much time just sitting here in front of the computer, moping and whining. So, with a renewed sense of purpose, I bring my first new entry:

Saturday, I walked down to the nearest of the several local sporting goods stores to buy a new tube for my bike tire. Guess what one single size they did not have? Yes, the one I need. So, I walked further on, to the liquor store, and replenished my rum and pepsi supply. Walked back home and checked the mail and found the official papers from the court sitting in a nice little manila folder. So, I’m single again. Whoop-de-doo.

Sunday, late morning-ish, I laced up my sneakers and strapped on my CD player and headed out to the other place relatively nearby that sells bike supplies. I stopped at the grocery store on the way. They sell a few car supplies and such, so I thought I’d at least look and see if they might have bike tubes. That would have saved me about half a mile of walking. But, no, no such luck. So I continued on. While I was there, I went ahead and bought two tubes, plus another cookie sheet and a better wire whisk than the one I have (I’ve been baking a bit lately). I walked back home eating a Butterfinger ice cream bar which I also bought there. Fortunately the weather has cooled down a bit lately. It was hot enough that the ice cream was a treat, but not so hot that it all melted before I could eat it.

Also, not that it’s really “going out”, but I did also sit out on the porch and watch the thunderstorm that rolled over town last night. About half an hour of lightning and thunder, with a tiny, tiny bit of rain. I wanted it to just open up and pour down buckets, but no such luck. So I went back inside and made some more cookies.