Trip!

So this weekend I went to Knoxville!

I left Saturday morning and had the best drive ever (hardly had to brake through Nashville). There was the thrilling combination on the radio; Weekend Edition to Car Talk to part of What Do You Know and, once the Knoxville NPR was accessible (WUOT), Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. It was a dream.

After arriving early for a lunch with Laura, a friend from Morristown, I went hunting for Wiis. I was going to Taste of Thai, and so I walked over to the nearby Circuit City. After five minutes of looking, I see boxes! Wii boxes! Then I call Diana excitedly, and get no answer. Drat. I hang around for a little while longer, and get a call back. Thus empowered by her approval, I ask if they have any Wiis, the polite hint to please please please get one or two from the back. "Ah, no, sorry." My eyes narrow. Lesson learned: displays lie. At least they got one later on that day.

Then lunch! A Taste of Thai was more disappointing than normal. I ordered a 4 on the spicy scale, but it wasn't spicy at all. Ginger chicken, too! Ah well. We talked a lot about school, and her going to Morocco in a couple of weeks to study Arabic. Afterward, I was restless, so I went to Best Buy all wistful-eyed. No Wiis there either.

Then, as I was leaving the parking lot, I saw Leslie in her car, coming off of work from Firehouse. That was basically what I was waiting for, so I went to the apartment. Becky and Derek were starting to set up for the party on Sunday. Leslie came back (she went to the bank), and we pitched in, helping set up a game for tonight, preparing the vegetables and meat for shish kebabs on Sunday, and so on. I believe I was a good assistant chef anyhow, even though those onions made me cry a whole bunch.

Aftiel (Derek's friend) and Sarah (Becky's sister) eventually showed up, both bundles of sarcasm in their ways. We ended up playing a game of Heroscape (a miniature game that Scott actually has). We were playing in teams, but I was pretty much controlling Leslie and mine's; she was too tired to do anything but watch. I ended up decimating Becky and Sarah's team down to three or four people in one turn. But the glory was short lived, and Aftiel/Derek weedled the win out of it. I thought I might manage a stalemate, but my dragon died.

Sunday came along, and with that, pirate party!

It started with a scavenger hunt. There were about thirty pictures of things around the apartment and the building, closeups. It was like I Spy, going around trying to find them. I ended up on the two-person team with Jessica, but we still made a good effort. Leslie and her team, with their better division of labor and her acuity, won. We got honorary second because, though we missed more than the others, we made up creative places for the ones we couldn't find. ^_^ On the moon! In the underground gnome cave! They may as well have been... I think I learned where all of the things were except for the metal vent.

After that, we went to this park in front of a church. They had a pavillion and everything. Robbie brought his awesome grill, and we charcoaled the heck out of those kebabs. Pork, beef, and chicken were in an amazing marinade Leslie prepared, and we had mushrooms (I cut them!), onions (both me and Aftiel I think), bell peppers, and pineapple (Leslie again!). There was a man hanging around that wanted to eat too. We were probably too xenophobic about it and uneasy, but he had his share too, and now I'm glad we did it. He seemed out of his luck.

Next came the s'mores, and then relocation. Sadly, most of the people had to leave then, but we still had a decent enough group, so we watched Muppet Treasure Island, internet movies, and Ernest Goes to Camp while eating pizza and drinking some rum (it was a pirate party). And no, I didn't get drunk. I may've gotten giddy, but I could hardly tell a difference, probably because of the Coke.

Monday was a more relaxed day. Leslie and I went to the Lost Savant, a cafe in northern Knoxville. They had mainly sandwiches with disagreeable ingredients, but I managed to find a good lasagna that suited me. She seemed well-suited with her sandwich too. The teas were excellent, if chosen correctly. She got a kind of green tea that was sweet in a gentle way, while I got Earl Grey, and drank it like Captain Picard. (She won.)

The atmosphere was good, like an extended dining room, with agreeable art on the wall (though not quite generic). The service was good at the start, and decent in the middle, but the server came by less often as the meal progressed, which would've been fine if Leslie hadn't wanted a Coke to balance out the tea.

Then came a pleasant stroll and frisbee toss in Fountain City Park. They had top-notch playground equipment, enough to where we had to try the monkey bars and slides once, just to say we could. They had some plastic stuff, but enough was still that good metal that would scald the skin. Mmmm. Luckily we were wearing pants.

As we went to UT to take care of a couple of things there, Leslie's mom called. We knew she would be visiting, but didn't know when she'd get done with work. Well, it was earlier than we expected. So we soon met her, went around the mall (I found a present for Diana), and then headed over to the apartment to play Rummy and decide where to eat. We originally decided on Kalamata, but Leslie suggested Peerless instead perhaps. But the atmosphere and prices weren't suiting what we were looking for, so Kalamata it was, Leslie's mom's treat!

It was a Greek and Japanese restaurant blended into one. Warning sirens? No need. We didn't try any of the sushi, but instead stuck with the souvlaki and other Greek fare (well, I assume). Souvlaki is tenderloin on skewers (wait, I've had this recently). They didn't do it as well as Leslie, but it was still good. And the vegetables were actually quite satisfying, not overcooked or underwrought.

And Tuesday morning I left. Sarah, Becky, and Leslie were going camping, and I might've gone, if Angelica wasn't having a graduation. They were going to Cades Cove, so I bet they're having a blast.

After this, there's Angelica's graduation on Thursday (and Diana's birthday, and Taylor's late birthday). And then Friday Leslie is coming up. Quite soon, right? Never too soon. We'll be heading to the Ren Fest either all day Saturday or Sunday, for sure, as well as spending time together in general. After that, it will be a while before I see her sometime in June.

And now that Scott's out of school (and Mom), that means I won't have a quiet house part of the day. I'll find a way around that at least a day or two a week. Need to find a coffee shop to grow roots in. Suggestions?