Although the weather was a bit cold (it snowed a little bit today!
argh!), standing around in a coat and chatting with friends was worth
it. I defrosted the patties in a microwave, put one away, and grilled
the other patty under the guidance of Brian and Trevor. The potatoes I
wrapped in foil and started grilling were nowhere near done by the
time the burgers, porkchop and steak were done, so I took the potatoes
off the grill. Brian thoughtfully anticipated that and included me in
his calculations for rice. Awwww. =) (The man cooks rice with a pot!
_Proper_ rice, too, not instant rice! Coolness. =) )

Keynan dropped by with a platter of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.
She found the cookie recipe on the Net. I wonder if I can share
Kathy's Top Secret Cookie Recipe with her – but then it wouldn't be
Top Secret, would it?

I washed a number of their dishes to thank them for hosting me and
teaching me how to grill, following the strange rules of my
dinner-party etiquette. Also, it's kinda fun. Eventually Trevor took
the sponge away from me and put it on the other side of the room.
Spoilsport.

Keynan brought a DVD of Terminator. I finally got to watch the thing.
=)

After the movie, Brian pulled a scary face to stop me from finishing
the rest of their dishes. I couldn't help but laugh, which made him
laugh, and then no amount of coaxing could get him to do the scary
face again.

It's nice to have friends.

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

I showed him the opening notes of “Speak Softly, Love” based on the
arrangement my sister learned when we were kids. I knew the opening
part because I annotated the notes with letters for her. We had a lot
of fun chatting about his piano teacher's style. I thought the
emphasis on learning the feel of the music made much more sense than
the exercises my piano teacher made me do when I took lessons, and I
wish my piano teacher had been like his. Still, maybe I can work on my
ear, just as I've worked on my coordination and grace. <laugh>

We talked about computers, too. It turned out to be the first
computer-related conversation he'd had in a long time, and he enjoyed
being able to rant about the brokenness of Java and other geeky
topics.

I didn't end up reading any more papers, though. <laugh>
Tomorrow, I'm really going to have to work on my questions for the
class and my summary paper. After my FIS requirements are done, I can
throw myself into the reading paper…

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

Emily was impressed with my outfit. “You have legs today,” she said. I
had decided to wear The Miniskirt today because I just find it _so_
much fun to shop for computer stuff all dressed up. It confuses
salespeople, particularly when I ask for Linux-supported wireless
cards. ;)

Anyway, Emily told me that she almost always saw me in very pretty
skirts, but this was the first time she saw me with a skirt that
short. (Yes, yes, thank you Kathy for getting me a skirt I'd never
have dared get myself. Come to think of it, where _are_ those barkada
pics? Hmm…)

After most people finished dinner and left, I played billiards with
Stairos (sp?) and Tarun. I'm still not very consistent in billiards,
but I managed to sink a few good shots. After Tarun left, Stairos and
I played table tennis. He likes smashing, and whenever he does that I
tease him about being such a bully. I'm happy to report that I managed
to make contact with the ball a couple of times – probably more by
accident than reflex. Lusine joined us and we practiced for a while.

I'm not very good at table tennis yet, but I find it a lot of fun. My
coordination used to be absolutely terrible, but after a while I
realized that I didn't have to be able to think about how to intercept
the ball, I just had to actually do it. For some strange reason,
playing table tennis makes me feel like a character in a Japanese
animation.

And yes, I did manage to get some writing done. Not much, though. I'll
have to wake up early tomorrow to do some more work on it before the
cooking workshop…

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

After the party, Steve, Mike, Calum and I headed out to Mel's Diner
for a late-night snack. We had a lot of fun talking about different
things. Afterwards, Steve and Mike played chess with me. We were all
almost falling asleep at the table, but we managed to play a good
game.

Random Japanese sentence:

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.