The Epic Outing (stripped of the locked details, now with more other random trivia)

pyrogenic picked me up yesterday afternoon in the pouring-down rain. We went through massive traffic to his workplace. I got to see the Electronic Arts headquarters, and got a brief tour of the Sims department. (It feels so weird to be able to say that.) Far from being a detriment to the entire experience, the rain made me rather excessively cheerful. I've had a little too much Arizona sun and a little not-too-much rain.

Plans for the Exploratorium were called off, because we were running late between traffic and the rain. The "Sophistication" phase of civilization set in, and a good location for dinner was determined from the given parameters. pyrogenic was somewhat confused by my giggling over a comment on one of my text message updates, as when I said "amberfox," his brain heard tyrsalvia + metaphorge.

Dinner was at Andalu.We met up with ataniell93 there, and a great time was had by all. The food was great; service was not dreadfully communicative, and was sometimes inattentive. We got someone else's calamari, but the crispy macaroni and cheese didn't arrive. "...No, no one summoned a Deep One." The mistake eventually got ironed out, with good humor all around.

We wound up back at pyrogenic's place, and the music-geekery and suchlike went on late, late into the night. Around about eleven I suddenly realized I'd better call Guide Dog Aunt to let her know that yes, I was all right, and I'd probably be out quite late, so she wouldn't worry and stay up waiting for me or anything. pyrogenic had been dissatisfied with his Halloween costume (he'd gone in drag), and I'd said over dinner that I could probably do his makeup better than he could, so the dare was on. This rapidly devolved into something approximating two young girls with a Real Live Doll, one with gorgeous long hair. Ahhh, how the spirit of CTY never leaves us. A camera added to the situation made the comparison all the stronger. George R.R. Martin books were swapped. I was introduced to the first Song of Ice and Fire book, and so far am enjoying it. (I have to get my own copy.)

I was home by one.


raranax pointed out that the addition of a green diamond over the head of the dressed-up Sims programmer would make the photo all the better. I, after minimal deliberation, agreed. I've been poking at it with the GIMP for a while. So far it looks crappy.


There wasn't half the awkwardness I expected with pyrogenic. We went through too much together at CTY to really stay strangers, even though it's been ten and a half years between then and now. There wasn't much awkwardness with ataniell93 either. She sounds very much like amberfox on the phone. pyrogenic was at first thinking us sisters, though he knew that couldn't be right. I eventually traced it to me referring to her as "Az-the-Elder", as it's easy to get confused between Azalais-called-Az and Azure Lunatic-called-Azz on a forum such as the List.

Dracaena Malfoy and Ariane Emory (especially Ari-elder) have a lot in common, being neither of them quite human. (Ari's scary flux is her trying to prove to herself that she is human, I decided.)

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Dinner out with some extended family. The poodle is here too. He is behaving himself like a good guide dog trainee.

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We leave for Tahoe tomorrow morning at eight. I pack tonight. The connectivity should be better. We return tuesday.