This is a few days after the fact at this point but I wanted to do a shout-out post on behalf of a couple of very nice encounters I had last week.

First, I had lunch with two of my old coworkers from the Times, Kathy and Adila, and that was great. Conversation and tasty sushi were had by all, and we vowed to do this again. For general reference, local-to-Seattle peeps, Sam’s Sushi in Queen Anne is good tasty lunch-type sushi.

Second, and I had the pleasure of a visit from the Schrams ( and ), two friends from the East Coast we hadn’t seen in ages, who were traveling through these parts with their daughter to visit their other daughter Fiona (whose LJ, if she’s on LJ, I’m forgetting). We had very tasty Thai food on Friday night and then adjourned to the Murk to play Mah Jongg. Dara and I hadn’t played Mah Jongg in AGES, and despite the fact that I completely lost track of where our cheat sheets were, I managed to remember enough to still keep score. Amy nudged me about how much various tile combinations were worth, and that was more than enough to get us through an entire set.

It was great fun, and Dara and I quickly decided we really need to play more Mah Jongg again. If any local peeps want in, let us know!

Meanwhile, it was wonderful to see the Schrams again. Amy and Erin and Sharayah are on the way back East again, and get to stop at Mt. St. Helens and at other nifty spots on the way. I envy them the whole Traveling Across the Country thing.

On Saturday, the Murkworks descended en masse to The Burninghand, where and were hosting a “yay is having a baby!” party. Lots of tasty snacks and lovely conversation were had, and most notably, tasty cupcakes! Lillian and Moira were very, very three years old and four years old, respectively. And were quite adamant about asking Dara and me to come into the backyard and play with them. This was to involve pretending to be on the bus going to Disneyland, although I apparently weighed too much and was to get off the bus before they got there! (Gee, thanks a lot, Moira, I’m down 25 pounds, whaddya want, kid? 😉 )

This week has been kind of crazy-making at work, but in the sort of challenging “trying to solve particularly thorny QA problems that are driving QA, Dev, and IT collectively crazy” kind of way rather than anything really, y’know, bad. So it’s nice to have had some relaxing social encounters.

And there definitely needs to be more Mah Jongg. Especially since on Saturday morning, produced the cheat sheets!