Big geeky weekend

Hey there everyone. I'm sure you're all very excited to get another recap of my weekend activities. No? Well too bad!

Friday Jenna and I met our friends Derek and jenny for sushi and a movie. It was a really good time, and very cool to get to hang out with them again. The sushi place we went was crazy busy, which I took as a good sign. Now, to be clear, I'm not big on sushi. I don't get grossed out by it at all, it just isn't really my thing. We wanted to go with them because it sounded like they really love sushi and I also wanted to give it another chance with some people who know enough about it to be able to give me some pointers and whatnot. It was really fun and we tried a ton of different things. The place we went (Samurai Sushi on Arapahoe Rd.) has an All-You-Can-Eat thing for $20 which was also very nice. You can get as much food as you want, but anything you don't finish is charged at full price. Kinda lame, but I totally understand why they have to do that. The AYCE format is great for trying a ton of different types of sushi, since you can just order one piece of a given type and try it, then order more of it if you like it. I tried just about everything Derek and Jenny ordered, with very few exceptions. I tried squid and didn't like the texture, so I didn't eat the octopus since I figured it was very similar. However, I did have a few big winners. I still like the California roll, but now i think I know why. The seaweed wrap around most rolls is too much for me. I understand they need something to hold everything otgether, but the stuff is all tough and chewy and it really throws off the texture of the rest of the sushi for me. California rolls have the seaweed on the inside of the rice, so there's a lot less of it. They also have cream cheese, which I really like. I also very much enjoyed the freshwater eel they had. it came with some sauce already on it, and it was just extremely good. It was a roll, but it had a little bit of seaweed wrapped around it like a present (rice on bottom, eel on top, seaweed vertically around both) to keep the rice and eel together, but the seaweed wasn't enough to throw off the texture. It was really really good.

The rest of the sushi wasn't bad, and I liked most of it, but I think I determined why I'm not as into sushi as a lot of people are. I like sushi, but I don't love it. I don't appreciate the subtle differencies in taste between the tuna sashimi and the albacore sashimi. I also really can't tell the difference between the half dozen or more different types of fish we had once I dipped the piece into the soy sauce (which it seems like most people do on every bite, so I'm not just a freak for doing it). I tasted soy sauce and it was good, but not great. I think another issue is that sushi costs a lot. We paid $20 for our dinner and I got way more food for that amount of money than I ever have at any other sushi place ever. Without the AYCE factor, our meal could've easily cost twice as much, maybe more. So if I do eat sushi again, which I'd imagine I will, knowing that I do enjoy some of it and having friends who also really enjoy it, it will only be AYCE at this place, most likely. I just can't help but think about the fact that I can get a pretty nice steak, drink and dessert for $20 at many other restaurants. I'm something of a cheapskate, though I can set that aside and enjoy a good meal now and again. I'm just also a man with a simple, ignorant, miserably American palate, and a vaguely charred slab of meat is about the pinnacle of my eating enjoyment.

After sushi, we went to see Watchmen again at the Landmark. That was awesome. I love that theatre so hard. The popcorn and drinks flow freely, they're very tasty and the seats are very comfy indeed. We also found out that the first show of the day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday is only $9 instead of $12, which is freakin' sweet. We also enjoy the $5 AMC morning movies (anything before noon, Fri-Sun) but if you want popcorn and a drink, you're easily getting up to $12 or $13. And the AMC theatre is a lot farther away from us, to boot.

The movie was still good the second time, though I was bored for some of it. It's very visually interesting, but that isn't nearly as meaningful the second time. I did notice some things that I hadn't noticed the first run through, and still very much enjoyed the movie overall. I still don't think Ozymandias was cast well, but I am becoming more and more a fan of the Comedian and Rorschach. I didn't like the Comedian as much in the book as I do in the movie. The actor really brought the character to life and gave him incredible depth, even though he's far from being someone you admire.

Saturday was our Supers game, and that was extremely fun. I always enjoy that game, and I look forward to it for the full two weeks between sessions. Adj can attest that every Monday after we play I spend a fair amount of time pestering him about things I want to do with my character and seeing what he thinks will work and all that. I'm sure it's annoying, but it's all based in the fact that I really enjoy the game, so he can't complain too much.

Sunday I woke up early, played some Fable (I've actually been playing that instead of Fallout for the past few days) until Jenna woke up, then she started playing and I went down to do some work in the garage. I got a fair amount done, with organizing things better, putting stuff into bins, throwing away old stuff we don't need, making a big pile for Goodwill, etc. I also figured out how to change the height of the cutting bit on my router, which is freaking awesome. That was a huge problem I was having with it before, and now I can do a lot more with it. I'm still not sure exactly how to do quite everything that I need to, but I think I can get it working well enough for the project I want to work on next. I've got so many tools and no real way to organize them. I'm thinking pegboard. In order to make a cool pegboard with enough air space behind the board so hooks can hooks through without hitting the wall I have to build a frame around the pegboard. Rather than doubling up 1x2 boards all around the edge and sandwiching the peg board between them (which is a big waste of wood, to my mind) I'm going to rout a groove into the wide side of a 1x2 and just slide that onto the pegboard. The should give me exactly what I need without wasting any wood, without wasting space on the pegboard, and with giving me a chance to use my router. Sweet!

I also got a book on cabinetry from the used book store in CA, so I've been itching to try a few of those projects. The main thing I really want to learn is dovetails. I think those are awesome, and they just really make a piece look so cool. Apparently they actually aren't all that tough, either. We'll see.

Sunday we also went to several stores and got some great stuff. We got another box of the world's greatest food storage (http://www.rubbermaid.com/rubbermaid/premier/index.jhtml) from Costco for an excellent price. We also found a cast iron griddle/grill thing at Ross for a great price, so I'm going to start using that in the oven. I'm thinking of trying burgers on the cast iron instead of just the steak. If the principles all hold true, it should work just fine. I also found a really nice glass dish with big deep sides that will work perfectly for lasagna for just Jenna and me. That was always a major issue, so it's really cool that we don't have to do a giant freaking batch every time. I'll have to rework some of my amounts, I'm sure, but I'll figure it out.

overall, a fun, productive and entirely satisfying weekend. Huzzah!