3-Day Weekend: Board Games, Masquerade, Kickball, Etc.

Today I took a random vacation day from the rigors of the office mostly because I found out I still had 64 hours of use-it-or-lose-it PTO before the 20th. I almost feel like that total is somehow in error. I’ve already used 24 hours of PTO and I’ve only been a full-time employee since late July. But, I won’t complain. The day was spent doing unproductive things, mostly, aside from taking Baxter for a much-needed hike through the woods (video below). I felt like doing something worthwhile but it turned out there was little that needed doing, so I spent the day finishing out The Wonder Years on Netflix and cruising through a few Simpsons from season 7.

Come to think of it, the rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed too. Friday after work we went to Moonshine, one of our favorite Austin food establishments so far. Afterwards, we stopped off for a drink at the much-recommended wine bar Uncorked, where I tried a glass of wine from Uruguay, my favorite country to pretend to consider one day visiting. I was sitting next to a retired neurologist who ordered some fancy looking cut of meat. I was caught salivating at it and he offered me the first bite, which I accepted. Saturday, I played kickball with friend Rob and a bunch of local randoms for the second time. The new ball proved to be ineffective and very few people were able to get on base. I did manage to kick an opposite-field home run in our team’s 6-5 extra-inning win though.

That night Lauren and I hosted a crazy board game party with a very odd assortment of guests. When I first moved here alone, I made some new chums on a website designed to introduce newcomers to Austin to each other, so a few of them were on-hand, including a new couple who just moved here from Minneapolis–just mere blocks away from where we had lived in Uptown! And it was quite a small world moment when it took us less than twenty seconds to deduce that we knew people in common–Justin and Libby Springer from my Valleyfair days! How bizarre. All told, 11 of us were on hand for the night. Lauren prepared plenty of snacks and even some hot Christmassy cocktails… she certainly is a well-prepared hostess. The night was a success as the final guests departed around 3am after the final round of Loaded Questions was complete.

Sunday night we attended Lauren’s knitting friend Kristin’s 30th birthday party. As far as the 30th birthday bashes I’ve attended in my life have gone, this was a rather unusual setting–an apartment community center room with masquerade masks, capes, formal wear, and soda… but again, it was a Sunday night. The party really took off with a rousing round of Kristin and her husband Brian’s homemade party game Urban Improv, which is an adult wordplay game that can get quite perverse quite quickly!

Now that all the fun of the weekend is over, it’s back to reality Tuesday with work. It should be an interesting day back as I destroyed my boss in the first round of the company fantasy football playoffs over the weekend, and now must go up against my boss’s boss in the second round with a trip to the championship and $380 cash on the line. There has also been talk of a company poker game Wednesday after work in the IT department. Yes, this office environment is pretty cool.