Working from St. Cloud for most of this week, wrangling errors and prodding people for our current big project. I'm sure to be burnt out by the end of it if I keep letting myself work the hours I have been, but I'm still getting over a very bad cough and in a weird way this feels like a sort of break, being away from my cube for a few days in a row.

This last Friday my mom came down from B-town and we went to dinner at Brasa with my brothers and their wives, as a belated birthday celebration for Our Bold Hero. And afterwards we reconvened (plus one BFAB) at my place for my family's traditional cardgame, Polish Pinochle, and a quick game of Dixit, which I was pleased to be able to introduce to another group of people. It was all pretty fun.

(Someone got offended last time I called it "a little something for the ladies" but Dixit has met with far more tolerance from the various non-gamer ladies I've played it with than any of my other boardgames. I actually bought it with my non-gamer ladyfriends in mind, and it's probably the only boardgame I own that I could have convinced this group to play.)

On Saturday after a quick breakfast, my mom and I went to the Mall of America, very spur of the moment, where I narrowly talked myself out of buying still more boardgames (when am I playing the ones I have?) but did find and purchase a fantastic kitchen rug.

Back at my place we spent the afternoon watching American Pickers and making cheese, which turned out pretty good actually — basil-thyme — then hit up this new-to-me Italian place, Scuzi, for a fantastic happy hour.

After my mom left I joined some friends at a party-already-in-progress at a bar in uptown and whether it was because I hadn't been drinking as much or because it was just such a tonal shift from the rest of my day, I don't think I ever really got into it. In retrospect I should have either drank more or ended my night prematurely.

But since I was d.d. the most memorable thing for me is the drive home, the unreal distracted-driving-commercial comedy of the various drunken personalities in my car. I think someone actually poked me at one point.

Sunday was predictably quiet, which is just as well considering that I had to work for five hours. I expect this week to be quiet too, or rather I'll pretend it is, since I'm not getting back to the Cities until after happy hour anyways.