The Weekend Edition

This was one of the best weekends in recent memory. I have been stuck in either Disney weekends or twenty something party comedy weekends lately, and while I like relaxing and I like parties, all of one and none of the other is a split I'm not particularly interested in. This weekend was an ideal mix of both, and for that reason amongst others was great. There was so much goodness, I'm even going to break down the whole weekend as opposed to just Cliff's Noting it up as per usual.

Lucky you!

Friday: This week sucked, to put it nicely. After a long hard week, I wasn't sure if I wanted to lock myself in my apartment and not let anything go wrong or go out and party myself into oblivion. Thankfully, I chose the middle ground.

To start the night, as planned Jason, Amy, Hannah, Nate, Jon, and I went out to dinner at a new sushi joint in Anchorage named Dish (contemplating starting to review Anchorage restaurants on here - if so, this will be the first one reviewed). It's a place that Amy and I have both went a couple times before and had recommended to the whole group for good reason. Everything was delicious.

Our group consumed a ton of delicious food (highlighted by Hannah's freakishly delectable EC Roll and the bizarre but alluring Kimchi Jon ordered) and had a great time doing it. Amy, Jason, Hannah and I hang out all the time, but I don't get to see Jon and Nate nearly as much as I used to so it was great having more of the Crewnit back together again.

After the dinner, Amy and I split off to meet up with Nick and then head to a birthday party (with beer pong...fun!) which would feature one of the most brilliant party inventions: the party bus. Legal vehicular mobility combined with consumption of booze and free entrance into any bar is one of the better ideas ever, and it was a really fun time, although it ended up being a really early night as Amy and I clearly started too early at night (we had a couple beers at Dish).

Regardless, any night featuring a great meal, great friends, and a party bus is hard to complain about.

Saturday: I woke in the morning on Amy's surprisingly comfy couch covered by a beyond warm feather comforter that hadn't been there when I went to sleep (thanks go out to Amy's roommate Arianna in this case - thanks!) in time for my 8 am conference call for work - booyah! After that's completed, Amy and I make the needlessly complex and entertaining journey to acquire some McDonald's breakfast and reacquire her car.

Even though I'm feeling pretty good considering the early hour and what I'd been doing the evening before, I decide to read a few comics and then nap for an hour or two that turns into a solid three or four. This leads to a mouthwatering meal at frequent haunt Middle Way Cafe with Hannah (her first time!) and then a few hours of reading at Kaladi's, as I finally finish Bill Bryson's travelogue Neither Here Nor There (7 months in the making!) and begin fresh on a new book.

By this time, it's nearly time to meet up with Brian for the grand selection process for bad movie night. Bad movie night, for those that are unaware of the intricacies of this glorious event, is a night where we sit around and watch a series of terrible movies and give them the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment by ridiculing every single event that transpires. Plus we drink beer and eat delicious foods (ranging from the occasional massive pot of mac and cheese as gloriously shared by Lorna, Brian, and I to the Moose's Tooth pizza we ate on Saturday night).

The Howling 3: the Marsupials

Bad movie night this time featured one good movie (the surprisingly haunting Right at Your Door) and two legendarily bad movies - the Howling 3: the Marsupials and Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland. The latter was watched just to complete our viewing of the "thrillogy", but the former we jumped in excitedly as the cover looked too promising to pass up.

Sure enough, it was about as good as you can get, earning a place in the Bad Movie Night Hall of Fame (along with Cyborg Cop, Sleepaway Camp, Bloodrayne, and Surf School) with such gems as a character named "Jerboa Jerboa," werewolf/marsupial crossbreeds, random chase scenes that develop into love stories, a teleporting aboriginal man, and the best werewolf transformation scenes ever.

In short, we laughed, we cried (because of the laughing), we kissed our troubles goodbye.

Thanks bad movie night!

Sunday: I got up bright and early to get to the crafting of breakfast burritos featuring eggs, hot Jimmy Dean sausage, green and red peppers, diced onions, and feta cheese for Jason, Hannah, and I. It was a big day, as we were making the sojourn to the Peanut Farm for football Sunday, as today featured only the Ravens/Eagles on cable and every game imaginable at Peanut Farm (they have NFL Sunday Ticket) and I had a big game with the Pats facing the Dolphins and Amy and Jason had a showdown between their teams (the Cowboys and Niners respectively).

To start: the Peanut Farm is heaven for football fans. You have loads of passionate and knowledgeable fans (i.e. the Buffalo Bills fans who chanted the Bills fight song after every score - which was often as they dropped 54 points on the Chiefs), everyone is dressed up so I don't feel weird in a Wes Welker jersey, and every game is playing. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go there every week from now on.

It was a great time, as my team dominated, so did Amy's, and Jason's team sadly got killed (but they're the Niners...it's kind of what they do at this point). I excitedly watched every down of the Pats game, with Matt Cassel continuing to grow up in front of our eyes. Gotta love it.

This led to us going back to my place after the early games and watching Wall-E on Blu Ray and the Shawshank Redemption as no one had seen the former besides me and Hannah had not seen the latter. Needless to say, they were both great.

One note: nothing shows the difference better between Blu Ray and standard DVD than those two DVD's, as one is a brilliant visual movie on next gen tech while the other is a stark drama and one of the earlier DVD's ever released. The difference between the two was huge. I love you Blu Ray!

That's pretty much it for the weekend. It was a great mix of lazy and party, and I love that. Plus, I ran two miles in 12 minutes and 47 seconds today with a belly full of McDonald's. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.