weekend roundup

happy monday! even though today is cold, wet, rainy, and nasty out, i am in a MUCH better mood. yay!

i had a lovely weekend. friday actually improved significantly after that wee rant of mine, and i ended the workday with a department happy hour outside in the sun at a bar next to our office. sun + beer + leaving work early = good way to start the weekend, in my opinion.

on saturday, i turned once again to my dear friend craigslist, and located myself a sleeper sofa. i don't have a real couch right now and my living room was looking awfully sad with a futon as the main seating choice. i wanted the sofa to be a pullout, though, because even a sleeper sofa is better than the floor if i have people stay over. so i found one in excellent condition being sold by a girl out in reston, rounded up a nice strong guy friend and a pick up truck, and headed over.

so i'm sure you're aware of this, but sleeper sofas weigh like 48,000 pounds. on average. which, i mean, i've been doing yoga and all? but HOLY CRAP that's still awfully heavy. so i show up, decide the couch will work fine, also agree to take her coffee table and an end table, then my buddy paul and i take the cushions off the couch and lift it up. YIKES, say my forearms. i tell them to shut up and deal. at this point, the girl who sold me the couch and her larger-than-my-friend, very capable-appearing male companion note they'll have to make sure the loading dock door is open so we can get the couch out that way. so paul and i are struggling to get the couch out of their apartment, while they... stand there. then accompany us out to the elevators. both of them. just... standing there. while paul and i hold a 48,000 lb couch. paul asked if maybe they wanted to carry the cushions down for us. they ignored him. and kept watching us hold a 48,000 lb couch. now, i know, i agreed to get the couch, and picking it up was part of the deal BLAH BLAH BLAH. but seriously? you're going to ACCOMPANY US out the door, down the hall, down the elevator, out the loading dock, then watch while we try and load the thing? and not even bring down cushions? i sound sort of bratty, don't i. i don't know, it would have been fine if they both stayed up in the apartment, but to have them walk us out, while watching us kill ourselves with exertion - and not even help bring down cushions - was sort of weird.

ANYWAY. it all worked out fine, obviously, and now i have a big girl couch, AND a nice big coffee table, and all for under $200 (plus the sacrifice of my forearms. i'm hoping they stop burning sometime soon). once i recovered from the couch-hauling (read: stopped sweating so much) i spent saturday night drinking wine and playing guitar hero and mario party with some friends i hadn't seen in nearly a year, which was pretty much awesome. i've never owned a video game system in my life, but i'd seriously consider buying one just for guitar hero. i didn't know until last night that you could BATTLE someone else in guitar hero, AT THE SAME TIME, and have a rock-off. a ROCK-OFF. AMAZING. also, a note to the ladies: when two guys compete in this, they apparently feel the need to do a lot of pelvic thrusting with their wii guitars to increase their rock out quotient. it's... disturbing. i counsel you to avert your eyes.