Get out of the house and do something every weekend

And therefore a good time to try to get a new start on some of the things that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I think I’ve actually been doing this goal pretty much straight for the past year, but I’ve just been slack on updating it much of the time. But I figure I want to definitely get out and do something each weekend and have updates on it for all of 2012 before I mark it as complete. So, without further ado…

Yesterday, the girlfriend and I went down to Lewisville to a friend’s house for a New Year’s Eve party. It was a pretty fun get-together, about a dozen or so people.

Then today, we took the dog down to Petsmart to get a couple of things and then over to the dog park for an hour or so. So, one weekend so far this year, one weekend getting out into the world and doing some stuff…

Oh, and the picture is of Ernie, our corgi, all harnessed up and ready to head out to the car…

The girlfriend and I went out to dinner with a couple of friends. We went to the Gobi Grill, a Mongolian style barbecue here in town. The food was good, the company was good, and it was generally quite a nice evening despite the rain and the cold temperatures outside.

Today the girlfriend and I took Ernie down to Lowe’s to get some sandpaper. Not that Ernie really needed the sandpaper, but the girlfriend did, and Ernie needed to get out of the house for a bit. He’s been feeling a little sick for the past couple of days, and we think the heat might have something to do with it. But we still wanted to at least get him a little activity in a somewhat cool place, and Lowe’s allows us to take him in on a leash. So, although we didn’t exactly run him ragged, he at least got a little adventure.

After getting him back home and cooling down a little ourselves, we also went down to Half-Price Books in Lewisville. I had a few boxes of books that I was hoping to get rid of, and also hoping to get a little extra money for. I did get rid of them, although I certainly did not make nearly as much money as I would have liked. Three Xerox paper boxes full of books, and I got $14 for the whole mess. I guess I’ll probably take the rest of the books and see if I can sell them at a garage sale or something…

...with this goal, but certainly not with the entries. In any case, I did get out this weekend and drove down to Roanoke to play with the still-evolving band. I actually had to drive down there twice, because I forgot my bass sitting outside of my apartment door. It was kind of an odd situation. I left a little bag of garbage outside of the door last night so it wouldn’t stink up the place, and I was just going to take it to the dumpster this morning. So I put my bass down and picked up the bag of garbage, walked back to the dumpster and tossed it out, and then proceeded to walk to my car and drive down the road. When I got to the drummer’s house, I realized I had forgotten my bass, but I had to think back through the whole process that I went through in the morning, but then I suddenly realized that my bass was sitting outside the door. I drove back and fortunately it was still sitting right where I left it. So, an odd adventure, but it got me out of the house…

This weekend, the girlfriend and I took Ernie down to the dog park on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. That was most of our time out of the house. We probably spent a little too much time there Sunday morning, because the girlfriend got herself quite a bad sunburn. She used a new sun block lotion, and evidently it didn’t work nearly as well as her old stuff. I guess spending that extra money is worth it in this case.

On Sunday, after the dog park, we had a little shopping to do, so we headed down to the shopping centers on the Loop. We stopped at Best Buy to get a new battery for the girlfriend’s netbook. Fortunately, we got the extended warranty when we bought it, so they’re going to ship it to us at no cost. After Best Buy, it was right up the strip to Michael’s to get some craft stuff for the girlfriend. She still has quite a bit of money left on one of her gift cards, so it was a budget-friendly way to get some stuff for her to do.

The final stop was just at Kroger to do our grocery shopping. We stuck mostly to the basic staples, although we did make an exception for the ice cream that was on sale. You’ve got to have a few little splurges, even if you’re trying to stick to a budget…

The weekend of March 5-6, 2011, I got up on Saturday and drove down the freeway to practice with the band. We had a decent practice, going through the whole setlist at once before going back to try to fine tune some of the songs that still need work. I’m trying to keep us on that sort of track until we get to the point where we can play through the current set without any serious issues nearly every time before we start adding more new material.

After band practice, the girlfriend and I took Ernie down to the dog park and played with some of his little friends there. It was so nice at the park, in fact, that we took him back on Sunday. That was about all we did on Sunday, although I did take Ernie on a walk by myself that evening. I went up around the Square in Denton, a longer walk than usual. We met up with a few drunk people there, who thought that Ernie was just the cutest thing. One girl said it was her birthday, and I should give Ernie to her as a present, but I politely declined before heading back home.

The next weekend, that of the 12th and 13th, began on a bum note for me. It was the Saturday that I worked in April. While those weeks always get me a little overtime, which is nice, I don’t particularly care to spend about a quarter of my normal time off dealing with getting ready for work, doing the mind-numbing tasks, and then coming back home and trying to unwind.

After work, the girlfriend and I took Ernie down to the dog park again. That’s become something of a weekend ritual for us now, unless we have something else major going on or the weather is nasty. Ernie had a fun time playing with all of his little furry friends, and I had fun taking pictures of the cute little dogs.

After returning from the dog park, we were sitting around during the evening, and I was looking at the free stuff listed on Craigslist. Someone up the road from us listed some free wood and other construction materials they had removed from a garage they were refurbishing. We decided that free was good, so we packed Ernie back into the car and headed up the road a couple of miles. Unfortunately the stuff was already gone, but since we were out anyway, we did drive down to see what shops and such were out in the newly-built shopping area on the northwest side of town. It turns out that there really isn’t very much that we would consider worth the trip.

On Sunday, we had to go to Lowe’s and pick up a couple of things that we needed for the house. We took Ernie along, since he’s welcomed at Lowe’s. We picked up a couple of little things we needed around the house, then headed down to the dog park. Another few hours there wore the little man out, and then it was back home to recover for the work week.

On Saturday the 19th, I drove down the highway to play some music with the guys. After a decent band practice, we took the little man down to the dog park again. That definitely seems to be one of our somewhat traditional places to go on the weekends now. Ernie had fun playing with all of his furry little friends again, and we wore him out yet again.

That evening, the girlfriend and I decided to treat ourselves to a somewhat inexpensive dinner out. We initially tried to eat at the Chaparral Grille, a little locally-owned Mexican restaurant that does pretty good fajitas. Despite the fact that their window sign said they were open Saturday evenings, their door was locked. We’re not sure if they’re even still in business now, which is kind of disappointing.

So we drove around the block to Ramen Republic, a new restaurant here in town. As their name suggests, they specialize in ramen, with various types of noodles, broths, and add-ons that you can put together in nearly any combination. Overall, it was pretty decent, but I’m not sure that it was worth the money we paid. I’d rather spend the same money and go to one of the local Asian markets and just buy the ingredients. You could probably make about five meals for the cost of each of the ones we purchased.

After we ate, the girlfriend wanted to stop at Hastings to rent a movie. We picked up a couple of things that were on our watch list, then headed home.

All we really did on Sunday was take the little man down to the dog park again, as usual. Another hour and a half of him running around with his little furry friends, and we came home to recover for work.

On Saturday the 26th, I drove down to practice with the band again, then took Ernie to the dog park. I went to the park by myself on this particular occasion, because the girlfriend was feeling a bit under the weather. After I returned to the house, we got ready to head down the highway to a birthday party for one of the girlfriend’s nephews. We had a bit of a debacle finding the iced tea for the party, but we still weren’t the last people there for a change. It was the usual kind of party for a child’s birthday, although fortunately it wasn’t the actual kids’ party. Instead, it was the get-together for the parents and relatives and such. It went well enough, although certainly those kinds of things aren’t always my cup of tea.

On Sunday, we saw some of the girlfriends’ relatives again. She went to Ikea with her mom, and afterward they wanted to take us out for dinner. So we stopped at Texas Roadhouse and had a nice meal with them. For me, it was a pretty uneventful Sunday, and that was about the only exit I made from the house.

So March was fairly eventful, and I got out not only every weekend, but both days on every weekend. It was a good month for this goal…

It’s the 9th weekend of the year. Yesterday we went shopping down in Lewisville. The girlfriend had to stop at DSW (shoe store) and Avenue (for new jeans), but fortunately for me, Half Price Books is right next door to DSW and Conn’s Electronics is in the same shopping center as Avenue.

I have a Half Price Books gift card that I got for Christmas, so I was pretty much set for that half of the shopping trip. I bought a couple of books about Java programming which were on clearance, a book about web usability design, a book about how to stop procrastinating, and a Cliff’s Notes sort of book about algebra and trigonometry. I’m hoping to start doing some more Java programming in the near future, and the math book will hopefully help me out when I go back to college (which will hopefully be this summer).

After the book store, we drove across the freeway and she went to her clothing store while I walked down to Conn’s. One of the first things that struck me about the store was how obnoxiously in your face the salespeople seem to be there. During the half hour or so that I was in there, I was asked by four different people if I needed help finding something. One of them actually asked me if I was sure that I didn’t need help. I realize these people are trying to do their job and be helpful, but come on! At some point it just becomes obnoxious and drives the customer out of the store.

In any case, after that stop, we were both a bit hungry, so we stopped at Chili’s on the way back home. The girlfriend had a gift card that her boss gave to her a few weeks ago, when she came in every day despite the snow and ice on the roads. We each had a bowl of soup and a burger and fries. The food was decent and the service was good. The young lady who served us was nice and kind of funny. But I probably wouldn’t go again any time soon if we didn’t have the gift card.

After we got home, both of us were in a bit of a food coma, but we decided that Ernie really had to get out of the house a bit. He’s been staring out the windows longingly, and woofing at any little sound outside. Every time one of us would get up, he’d try to get us to chase him around the room. So we thought it would be good to get him down to the dog park.

There were more people and dogs at the dog park than I can recall having seen there in the past six months. It was a gorgeous day out, so it’s no real surprise that there were so many there. We met three other corgis down there, which was quite a few. We met several people we’ve seen before, but some of our favorites weren’t there. It was still a fun day for the little man, and he tired himself out fairly well.

This morning, we took him down to the park again, and Conchita, one of our favorite little corgis, was there. We hadn’t seen her or her parents, Chris and Linda, for several months. I think it was before Thanksgiving since they were last there. It was good to see them again. We also met several of the other regular people there. Again, there were several other corgis aside from Conchita and Ernie, and there were a ton of other cute little dogs running around. Ernie slept a fair amount of the drive home, which is rather unusual. I think he tired himself out pretty well.

So, that’s it for this weekend…

Yesterday, I drove about 20 minutes to play music with the prospective band. We had a good practice, going through the entire set of music fairly quickly before tinkering around with some new stuff and going over the problem areas. I find that to be a lot more productive than what we had been doing, where we’d pick a song and just hammer it to death, then not get to several songs for a couple of weeks. Despite the fact that I’m never going to be the front person of a band, I’m trying to sort of steer this one in the direction that I think is best. Egotistical? Maybe. But I’ve been there before, and I think I have a pretty good grasp on what will make us somewhat successful.

Today, the girlfriend and I went down to the dog park here in town and let our little man run around with his furry little friends. We didn’t see any of the people who we’ve met before, but we did meet a couple that we know from work. This was the first time they brought their dog to the park, and they seemed happy to see some friendly faces. Ernie tired himself out running around for an hour and a half or so.

We were going to go to Ikea with the girlfriend’s mom, but she was sick, so we’re going to postpone that shopping trip until some other time. Nevertheless, we did make it out of the house a couple of times, so we’re calling it a successful weekend…

Today, the girlfriend and I drove down to the dog park in Lewisville. I don’t think it’s as nice a park as the one here in Denton. It was apparently only built a couple of years ago, so the trees are still saplings. It was also pretty muddy, but I don’t really know if the Denton one would have been any better in that regard today. With the snow last week, I think a lot of the parks and such are probably pretty muddy right about now.

In any case, Ernie had a good time at the park and seemed to make a lot of new, if temporary, friends. Everyone always thinks that he’s just the prettiest thing, even though his belly was covered with grass and mud. Now he’s tired out and sleeping on the couch. Not sure what we’ll do tomorrow, but at least we’ve done something for the weekend…

It was a snowy, miserable sort of day on Saturday. I had to work in the morning, and the girlfriend had to work at the same time, so we rode in together. After work, we stopped at Hobby Lobby and I picked up a couple of things for my sister and a few other items that were on sale. I got some seed beads that I’m hoping to use for some cross stitch work. I know I should use the stuff I already have on hand, but they were half off. I’m weak. After spending more money than I should have, we pretty much just came home and chilled out the rest of Saturday afternoon and evening.

Sunday we did get out and do a few things. We stopped at Hastings and I spent the rest of the money on my gift card, and then some. I got the Rush: Classic Albums DVD about the making of 2112 and Moving Pictures, and I got the whole original Star Wars trilogy on DVD. It’s the limited edition version which includes the original version of the movies, as well as the remastered versions. The girlfriend doesn’t care for the new versions of them, but we’ll probably watch the old versions sometime in the next few weeks.

After Hastings, we went to Best Buy. She got a case for the Kindle which she purchased with some of her tax refund. She also got me a new memory card for my phone, so I can download some of my music onto it and listen to it at work.

Next we stopped at Michaels Crafts and I picked up a little miter box saw designed for cutting moldings. I’m hoping to start making some wood boxes with frames on the top to mount some of my small cross stitch projects, and I hope I can use that saw to help make the frames.

Last stop of the day was the grocery store. It was mostly just staples and a few little extras. I’ve been trying to cut back on spending money on groceries that won’t get used. I did buy some fruit that I’m going to cut up to make breakfast fruit bowls. Now I just need to get busy and do that little task.

Overall, it wasn’t the most active weekend, but at least we did get out and not just camp in front of the TV…