errandses

Despite sleeping at my place, Charlie didn’t make it to bed til 8am so our schedules are no longer in sync.  I got up, did stuff around the house, went to the old navy to return a bunch of stuff and spent a little while at the B&N.  Bought Charlie a couple pairs of discount boxers.  Came home and dragged him out of bed so we could go to the bank, then he departed for basketball.  I had leftover thai for dinner and spent the evening writing xmas cards, shopping online, etc.  Charlie invited me over to watch basketball but I didn’t really care, he said he’d give me a call and come over later.  Later meant the middle of the night, our sleeping is getting really uncoordinated.  He came over as I was going to bed, we talked for a while and then made himself some food and worked.

 

Charlie slept at my place and despite going to sleep early, he wouldn’t get out of bed because he didn’t want to talk to the insurance people about the tragic state of his wrecked car. We both seemed to be having the winter blahs, where it’s barely daylight outside and cold and nothing interesting is going on and you spend too much time in bed because it’s warm, blah blah blah. We finally dragged ourselves out of the house to go eat dinner at tasty thai, which was nice. It was raining and cold so we went to the mall to walk. I find the mall to be ok as long as I don’t go there too often. We walked and walked and walked, for close to 2 hours. It was good to get some exercise. I went to the restroom while we were there and Charlie wandered into the jewelery store that’s right next to the restrooms and when the salesguy asked if he could provide assistance, Charlie told him no, my girlfriend is in the bathroom but she’s not worth more than $20. OK, I kid, he didn’t actually tell the guy that because he didn’t want to make an awkward, but we agreed it would have been funny if he had.

We came back to my place and Charlie got to work (he has taken to using my computer since his laptop screen is jacked, see here) and I baked mince pies and read a book. The mince pies turned out well, if a teeny bit overcooked. I didn’t burn the pastry or anything, I just like it a little softer than it turned out. Still delicious. I went to bed and Charlie worked all night long.

 

Charlie never made it over to my place, which I suppose can be forgiven since it was cold/rainy/icy and he no longer has a car.  I called him in the afternoon and he was still fast asleep, I offered to come over and cuddle him but when I got there he was still really asleep.  So I did his laundry and went to target/the joes to do grocery shopping for both of us instead.  I know, I am kind and thoughtful, what can I say.  After that he and I watched the international world cup of men’s volleyball for a little while and then he went to basketball.  He came over to my place after that and showered and we went to steaknshake for dinner #2 (we had shared a microwave meal earlier).

Before and after eating, we saw a bunch of fire/police vehicles heading east on Manchester and decided to go see what the spectacle was.  We’ve never seen a warehouse or the Schlafly brewery burn down, for example, and were curious as to what might be going on.  Sadly, despite our best efforts we could not find anything that would suggest a need for 6 firetrucks and several cop cars, other than a block in Maplewood that had no power.  Funnily enough the power came back on right as we were driving through it.  So instead we took a tour around town to look at xmas lights, down to Tower Grove and Grand and then back along Chippewa because I was still hungry and held out some absurd hope that maybe, just maybe Ted Drewes would be open at 11pm on a monday in December.  We came back to my place, got lucky, and passed out by 2am.

 

catching up on reading

Slept at Charlie’s, woke up and went home for a little while to get dressed and whatnot.  Went back to Charlie’s place in the middle of the afternoon for the football game, he and C. and M. and I ordered pizza and watched football and whatnot.  I finally finished Guns, Germs and Steel and caught up on a couple weeks of The Economist.  I really enjoy that magazine but it takes a long, long time to wade through it if I read all the articles.  I also played some random games on Charlie’s laptop, which is kind of fubar right now.  He dropped it on the couch last week and it bounced off and the screen is not cracked, exactly, but it looks like blobs of ink have been splodged all over it.  It’s still useable but kind of annoying.  Finally everyone else went home and Charlie and I did late night yoga and played some FIFA.  I headed home to bed and he said he’d come join me in a few hours when he was tired.

 

uh oh

Charlie came and slept over here after staying out really late doing man-stuff with the man-friends at the man-house. I believe homemade beer bottling was involved. We both slept in til 11 or so and then he departed in a frenzy to pick up friends and go to Chicago for an NBA game. I got myself going eventually and R. and I went to Global Foods in Kirkwood. Kirkwood seems like a weird location for an international grocery store in the St. Louis area but who knows, I guess it’s kind of central if you include the burbs. Anyway, the store was awesome, I hadn’t been there before, but it’s a regular size grocery store with food from pretty much every major country, including all sorts of exotic produce. We wandered around for a long time just checking things out, then went back around with baskets to actually make some purchases. The weather was horribly disgusting, heavy rain.

I dropped R. off and went home to do not much, and then Charlie called. I was expecting him to report that he was safely in Chicago, but instead he was letting me know he hit ice on a bridge and slid into a guardrail on the highway near my college town. Everyone was ok, but it was still not good news, especially since he suspected his car was totaled. We had some more phone calling to figure out how they would get home without a car, and I didn’t go out the rest of the evening due to a) not wanting to get in an accident of my own and b) wanting to be around in case Charlie needed logistical help. They took the train back and he and I ended up chatting for about an hour 1/2 en route. He got home around midnight and I went over to his place to watch the repeat of the basketball game he was supposed to attend and have a cuddle. I slept there.

 

tree time!

I lazed in bed a lot today and Charlie lazed even longer (he slept at my place).  I got up and got the xmas tree out of the basement and assembled it and dragged Charlie out of bed to help decorate it.  We did that, it was fun and rather festive to have the tree installed.  It adds a certain holiday je ne sais quoi to the living room and it’s my only xmas themed decoration.  Then we ordered indian food to go, got lucky, and went (slightly late) to pick it up.  Went to Charlie’s place to eat while watching a Celtics game and then he went to do beer making stuff with the man friends and I went to the B&N.  After that I watched TV and read some Guns, Germs and Steel (my current reading effort).  He came to sleep at my place verrrrry late at night, having been beer making and going for late night pancakes.

 

well, crap

OK, I don’t remember most of today because I didn’t write about it on time.  All I remember is that Charlie slept at my place, we both slept well into the afternoon, I tried to convince him to get out of bed and assemble/decorate the xmas tree and he remained firmly in bed.  He went to basketball and I don’t remember what I did, although it probably involved eating a microwave meal and reading.

 

tasty little chopses

Man, I was sore in the arms today because of rock climbing.  I did stuff around house, thought about playing disc golf, realized it was 32 degrees outside.  Called Charlie and invited myself over for cuddles.  We did, in fact, cuddle, as well as eat leftover noodles and get lucky.  Came back to my place where we had pork chops, trader joes stuffing and peas for dinner.  The chops were pretty good, great flavor but I overcooked them a wee bit.  The stuffing smelled SO GOOD in the pan, but upon eating it the flavor was not up to snuff.  A case of not enough seasoning packet to excessive breadcrumbs, perhaps?  Or maybe just not the right seasonings that I like in stuffing.  Charlie agreed it wasn’t up to stovetop standards.  Then we acquired C. and went to the gym, where they played basketball and I ellipticalled.  Then back to my place to shower, after which we were going to go to SnS but instead ended up at Mi Ranchito with Mac and CW.  I had chimichangas which were delicious, although I’m going to try to remember to order them without sour cream, because I don’t eat it and it just melts into a mess everywhere.  After that we went to Mac’s place to hang out, chat, watch a Phish tour DVD, and play mario cart.  That Phish DVD did an excellent job of convincing me the members of Phish are not people I’d ever want to hang out with.  Back to my place, where I did dishes and read and went to bed and Charlie worked.  A rather pleasant day, all in all.

 

climbing! climb on.

Charlie had been working last night and he came over here sometime in the wee hours of the morning. We were going to play disc golf before running errands, but I misunderstood what time I Was supposed to wake him up and we didn’t have enough time. We went to Noodles for lunch and way out to earth city to pick up a package and some other miscellaneous errands. On the way back from earth city, there was an enormous rainbow (despite it being a rain-free day) and a beautiful hot pink/lavendar/violet sunset with layered bands of clouds that made it look like a seascape. It took up more than the whole western sky and it was spectacular. After that we got changed right quick and headed downtown for an intro to rock climbing class. I’d done it before and knew pretty much everything they told us, but it got Charlie going and then we climbed for a couple hours. He really liked it and we both fared pretty well, I think we’re going to try to go on a regular basis during the cold months. Came home, Charlie said he was going to work and dropped me off but apparently changed his mind and called me a little later and wanted to hang out. I went over to his place, we chatted and whatnot and then did yoga. I was exhausted after that and went home to sleep. Charlie said he’d come join me later but he didn’t, that grubby little bastard. (I mean that in the nicest possible way).

 

putzing

Talked to Charlie in the apres midi, asked if he’d come over and help me sort out some problems with my phone/DSL.  He came and did that, I fed him some dinner before he went to basketball.  After basketball he picked me up on his way to get takeout dinner #2 and then we went to his place to watch football with C., M. and Mac.  I brought a frozen pie and we all had football and pie.  The game (Patriots v. Ravens) was a good one and I chatted with Mac a lot and looked up books online to request for xmas.  Fun evening.  Afterwards Charlie and I took everyone home and he came back to my place to cuddle before he went to work.  What a sweet boy.