Oh What a Week! Pt. 1

Apparently if we don't use our paid time off at work, they go away after a year. As I am closing in on my first anniversary, it was brought to my attention that I had taken no official time off yet since I started my job. So about a month ago I planned to take all of Thanksgiving week off (unfortunately we only get Thanksgiving day off, so I had to use four days). I had been hoarding my PTO in case any sort of fun trip or event came along, but with nothing in sight I started thinking of these as staycations.

From Downtown! Saturday, Nov. 21
I started my vacation off by watching Brian play in the consolation finals of his basketball league and though I was late getting there, I still managed to see #44 drain four three pointers. He had more production in the half game plus two minutes that I saw than in his other two games I've seen combined. The best players shine during crunch time, right?

Brian's team, the Nimrods, won handedly.

Later that night it was decided that sushi would be the meal for dinner, and instead of my usual Sushiland stop I was dragged to Sushi Maru [edit: not Sushi Yama, but Sushi Maru. Thanks Jason]in Bellevue. I was promised much fancier sushi at only a slight bump up in price. As someone who had never gotten anything more expensive than the $1.50 orange plate at Sushiland, you can imagine my disgust when I saw that the cheapest plate at Sushi Maru was $2. After I got past that, I would have to agree that the rolls at Sushiland flounder when compared to those of Maru. We polished off the night with some good 'ol Cranium at Jason's place.

You won't see this at Sushiland...

I Answered the Call Sunday, Nov. 22

Brian and Trevor came over. Call of Duty: MW 2. Nothing else needs to be said.

Keepin' It Rolling Monday, Nov. 23
I had never been to the L.A. Fitness during "traditional work hours", and there is something disconcerting about doing pushups with a whole wall of office windows facing you, complete with people sitting at their desks and/or in meetings. This gym trip was followed by me trying to find replacement boot laces for my Clark's (they had snapped apart (and snapped apart again after I was already using the larger half of the first snap)). The store in Bellevue Square didn't have any, and through a long series of events I ended up at a cobbler's shop inside Northgate Mall to find appropriate laces. While there I also bought a shirt and a new pair of pants, ooh!

This was followed by Brian calling me and seeing if I wanted to go bowling that night. None of our usual bowling crew was available, so we managed to get twelve games in. Definitely got our money's worth that night.

Nice setup Brian (those are definetely the back three pins).

Baby-sized Burritos, Baby! Tuesday, Nov. 24
Have you ever been to Gorditos? If yes, then you've seen the picture of one of their Burrito Grande's next to a baby for a size comparison. If you haven't, then go and check out the picture. And their food is pretty good also. Am I wrong to think that I'm glad it wasn't the Gorditos' side of the block that got burned down in last month's Greenwood arson? G, Brian, Jason, and I ventured down there (it was Jason's first time) and feasted.

G feasting. A fork isn't a choice -- it's a requirement.

Hrm... this post is already much larger than I thought it would be (and I need to get to sleep). So while it would have been logical for me to post these things as they happened each day, it's too late for that so I'm going to break this up into a two parter. Check back tomorrow for the conclusion of this riveting tale!