Home again, home again, niggity nig

Boy being back here sure is weird after three and change days in Western NY. It's a different world out there . . .

I had a good time though. sundart's parents are always super nice to me, and it's nice to spend some time amidst and almost part of a family that's 90% sane and 95% functional, with no uncomfortable skeletons in the closet (nope, no skeletons in this closet, just me and sundart, ha ha). As opposed to the constant insanity and we-put-the-FUN-back-in-dysfunctional of my own blood peeps.

Friday night sundart and I armed ourselves with movies and holed up in zadnyl's room, intending to stay up all night and watch movie in solidarity with the youngun held prisoner by Project Graduation. We made it through two (George of the Jungle and Aladdin, neither of which I had seen in years and thoroughly enjoyed again) then sundart lost her steam and then so did I, as it is very hard to stay awake near a sleeping sundart. I would mention it was ridiculously early too - they keep early early hours over in Casa Zakahooga. At some point between the two movies we had to pitch in and help Dad Z hunt for his remote, which I had unwittingly misplaced and later found near zadnyl's hamster cage - no idea how it made it up there, but there it is, and I still feel a little bad as he was taping Stargate SG1 in sequence and I KNOW first hand how irritating it is when the sequence is broken, even if its due to things you can't control.

Saturday, zadnyl returned from Project Graduation only a little cranky, and in that half giddy, half unable to make complete sentences state you get into when you've had no sleep. After none of us were able to drag our carcasses out of bed long enough to make breakfast, it was decided that we should all go to Denny's for breakfast, and we did. Does Denny's have subliminal programming embedded in its menu to force you to order more food than is humanly possible to eat? anyway, after a very watatchawa-ooloo-Solo?-ho-ho-ho inducing breakfast and admiring the very shiny 1950's cars sitting out in the parking lot (the local Antique car club had come in for their weekly breakfast) we piled into zadnyl's big big wanger van (one of those 1985 executive traveler type things (ha like any executive would be caught dead in one of those things . . . mores the pity for them!) to go to the mall, except zadnyl backed into another car directly after sundart complemented her on her driving. Luckily not a mark was left on either vehicle, so we were able to pull away with impunity, but we made zadnyl do the driving equivelant of march-your-butt-home-and-get-your-wallet-young-lady after she revealed that she'd forgotten her license. So after a stop back at the house, we went to the Arnot mall which wasn't open yet, not even the Time Out which was why we had gone in the first place (sundart was feeling the skeeball itch) so we waited around for a little while until it was open, and then zadnyl and sundart played skeeball whilst I sunk nearly $10 wort of tokens into Cruisin' Exotica, which is probably one of my favorite car race games like ever (I also love its older sisters Cruisin' California and Cruisin' World) I had selected the Cruise Exotica option, intending to play until I got to the MARS track (which totally 0wnz and I totally 0wn it, thank you) unaware it was the last track in the series, but I had fun anyway, until this ten year old gamer pipsqueak shows up during my last three races, takes the other console, logs into the machine and calls up his custom rigged thing with afterburners and thinks he's all hot shit becuase he plays in manual mode (think simplified stickshift) instead of automatic. He's all hot shit and obnoxious for two games, gunning and flipping and coming out three cars ahead of me but then we get to the MARS track (did I mention I 0wn the MARS track?) and I not only beat the pants on him, but come in first (Free race, whoohoo.) He was not happy about that, he lurched out of the console and stalked off with all the rage a ten year old hardcore gamer can muster. How dare this female nigger beat his obviously superior ass? zadnyl, who had been watching the whole thing, agreed with me in thinking that was pretty funny. and also joined me in being happy I finally whupped his ass good.

Do not mess with me during the MARS track. You WILL not win.

As an aside - boy we have come a long way from Pole Position, eh? Doop doop doop deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee . . . god I loved that game.

We wandered round the mall a bit (it was a good sized one, not too big, about the size of the ones near darkling_dreams - about half the size of the Ingleside, basically small enough to wander completely around it in an afternoon and not get too tired, but big enough to hold interest) stopped at the pet store and pitied the animals stuck there. Our last stop was Meyers news stand, where the tree of us got more interesting magazines than you can shake a stick at - I got Realms of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Fantasy, EW (I have to have my celebrity trash fix) and Cat Fancy (cause I'm a fag, ladies and gentlemen) We went home after we were all getting tired and developing mall knees, stopped at the video store for copies of Heathers (Mom Z had never seen it) and Grosse Pointe Blank (zadnyl had never seen it) after which we all camped out in the living room, watched Heathers (an increasingly cranky zadnyl slept through it) and then sundart and I hung out on the porch for a while and chatted before wandering up to use her brothers' computer and watching him play Wario's World and The Simpsons Road Rage (darkling_dreams, see if you can rent this game - I don't think you'd like it enough to buy, but I think you'd have enough fun with it to rent for a weekend), and then to zadnyl's room to watch TV. Wound up watching Most Outrageous Game Show Moments, which sounds incredibly stupid, and yet sucks you in with its hilarity after a couple of minutes: case in point: someone is trying to get the other person to come up with the word "birkenstocks" and says by way of a clue "Ugly sandals that lesbians wear." The yawp of laughter sundart and I emitted at that point was unfortunately loud enough to wake up Mom Z, who was not amused.

Hmm, remind me, need to make the littlest Zakahooga a mix tape . . . actually, if you want to get technical about it, he's now the biggest Zakahooga and growing, has to have passed the 6'1" mark by now . . .

Sunday dawned sunny and sleepy, and we managed to get our carcasses out of bed early enough to say goodbye to Mom Z before she headed for the Jersey Shore. We gave zadnyl hugs, told her to behave herself, and arranged for her to come see us in August, and departed for our bus in the "pimp car" as Dad Z had dubbed the large 1980s era boat he was driving. We got hugs from him upon arriving at the bus stop, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy, as I've always wondered/worried if the guy liked me (guess so), and then set off for home. About seven hours a scenic tour of the Catskills and Northwestern Mass, and the entire prologue to my new story later, we arrived home to cats, impending electrician arriving tomorrow, going-to-work-tomorrow stress, too-hot crankiness, and the never ending stuff to do. And Soul II Soul sings "back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now . . . however do ya want me, however do ya need me boy, how-ever do ya want me, however do you need me . . ."

Damn it, I need to put that song on now, then I need to take out some trash. :)

By the way, this is pretty fucking awesome . . .

For anyone who hasn't already seen the British Honda Accord commercial, click here. Make sure you have something to scrape your jaw off the floor with handy.

(will probably take a bit for dialup users, and requires Flash)