I had a brilliant weekend, a perfect mix of work and fun.

Kris threw herself a birthday party on Friday night. Mac, Pam, Joel, Aimee, Jeremy and Jennifer all joined us for cocktails and fondue. Everyone was cheerful and talkative. In fact, we were positively effervescent (especially after a couple of Midori Sours).

Kris and I aren't big alcohol drinkers -- we dislike mind-altering substances on general moral principles -- but we recognize its function as a social lubricant. Friday's alcohol consumption seemed about right (though we're still not going to allow it at game nights).

The fondue was great. Kris made both cheese and broth-based dips and Pam provided an array of edibles: salmon, shrimp, potatoes, bread, etc. No fondue party is complete without a chocolate dessert, and Kris created a fantastic chocolate sauce. Pam contributed a caramel sauce. I gorged myself on marshmallows slathered in chocolate while Joel horded the bananas. Poor Mac was seated at the far end of the table and didn't have good access to either sauce.

The food was fantastic, the conversation sharp and witty. We bubbled and glowed.

Mac and Pam stayed over Friday night so they could help us install our floor on Saturday. This, too, went well. Though we had to tear apart the floor and restart after two hours of work, the installation went smoothly except around the edges of the room. Even the edges were easy after a while.

Mac and Kris retired from the project after deeming that two heads were better than four. They're probably right. Pam and I hit a groove and were working well together (well, I think we were - I don't know what Pam thinks) and there wasn't much that two more people could have done. Mac and Kris had a good conversation while watching baseball, so they weren't left just twiddling their thumbs.

The floor looks great (pictures tomorrow?), though the molding is rather sloppy. That's my fault. Pam is all about precision and perfection while I'm all about brute force and momentum. The balance of our traits worked well for the floor itself, but I did most of the molding on my own. Without the presence of the precision and perfection component, the finished molding has too much of the brute force in its look.

On Saturday afternoon Joel and Aimee called to invite themselves over, but none of us heard the phone ring. We didn't know there was voicemail to check so we couldn't have the Mirons come sit around and watch us work. Ah well. We made up for it Sunday.

I still have to trim the bottom of three doors and then rehang them. The transitional molding is too tall and prevents the doors from opening. We'll move many of our things back into the room (now dubbed "the study") later today.

I was awakened at 7:30 Sunday morning by a call from Dane, who had forgotten there's a two-hour difference between Minneapolis and Portland. He managed to pick up Warcraft III already, and was already finished with the single-player Human campaign. He called to gloat. Bastard!

Rather than go back to sleep, I got up to do some much-needed work for Computer Resources. But first I decided to finish the molding. And then I hauled the trash to Custom Box. And then I set up my computer so I could actually do the work. But then I heard the voice mail from Joel so I called him and he said "Hey, how about a movie?" and I said "Sure." Which meant I needed to shower. And then I decided to leave early to look for Warcraft III. And bookcases. And a table. Essentially, I didn't get any of my Computer Resources work finished. Or started.

I did, however, have a great time at Joel and Aimee's. Mac and Pam came over, too, and the five of us walked a mile to the Bagdad theater where we watched the laughably bad The Scorpion King. We knew going in that the film was bad and that actually made the experience fun. (I now have to revise my review of Attack of the Clones, though -- Clones isn't the worst movie I've seen this year, The Scorpion King is. I had more fun at The Scorpion King, though.)

(Incidentally, Attack of the Clones and The Scorpion King share Jonathan Hales as a writer. David Hayter, who wrote the not-so-good X-Men screenplay, gets screenplay credit here. These two writers aren't very good. Not as bad as Roland Emmerich perhaps, but bad nonetheless.)

The Bagdad Theater is a great place to see a film. It's glorious old movie palace that has been purchased by the McMenamin family. They've removed every second row of seats, replacing them with low, narrow tables on which patrons can place their beer, wine, and pizza. (Good pizza, too.) Great fun. I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to see a film there; I've avoided it (despite recommendations from trusted sources) because I envisioned it as some sort of brew-pub with a projection television showing video-taped movies and drunken patrons laughing and shouting. I was wrong.

After The Scorpion King we headed back to Mirons' Lab where we watched Spinal Tap on DVD. Amusing as always (though I'm not sure that Mac found it as amusing as the rest of us did). We spent some time chatting (and setting off a single firework) before heading home. A great finish to a great weekend.

Kris and I have begun to discuss the optimal configuration of space in the study. The room has two primary functions: computer room and library. Most of our bookcases will be moved to the study and we may add more.

Our primary source of shelving is cheap-ass Bush Universal Bookcases (made from "engineered wood"!) purchased from Home Depot and Office Depot. We have six large units, two medium units, and four small units. Each unit is thirty inches wide. The large units each have six shelves (they come with five, but I bought and extra unit in order to get extra shelves - clever, huh?). The medium units each have four shelves. The small units each have two shelves. Between all ten bookcases we have a total of 1560 inches of shelving. (We have other bookcases, but they are designated for special uses and not included in this shelving count.) Our goal is to have ten of the tall bookcases in the study, giving us a total of 1800 inches of shelving.

By weeding some books (the pain! the pain!) and adding some shelving, we hope to create plenty of room our library's future growth.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — War of the Worlds   The new War of the Worlds is not a great film, but it is a very, very good one. As an adaptation of the book, it is nearly perfect.

2004 — Pocket Bikes   This afternoon's hotly debated topic here at Custom Box Service is the rising popularity of those miniature motorcycles, Pocket Rockets (or Pocket Bikes). Actually, debate isn't the right word. We all hate them.

2003 — Doctor Zhivago   One day at work, shortly before he died, my father and I had an awful row. I came home and, uncharacteristically, began to drink. I drank straight vodka shots. I watched Doctor Zhivago.