This weekend did not turn out as planned.

We did go to the company picnic, as planned. It was fairly innocuous - went down the inflatable slide a few times, did some willwrightspotting, etc.

The flyer for the picnic advertised "mini golf", and we were all very excited about the idea. Unfortunately, "mini golf" translated to "ghetto golf". 9 ramshackle holes, all above-ground, only a few of which were parallel to the ground - the rest tilted, causing all balls to rest in the same square inch of turf.

Cute.

At least it had water traps - well, OK, it had sunken areas of blue astroturf - but that variety really made the experience.

Right.

There was a raffle at 1:30, and we were all given raffle tickets at work. Unfortunately, my ticket was in my bag in the car, and I couldn't find Hunter. Minutes before the raffle, we reconnected and ran to the car - but try as I might, I could not find my ticket.

Oh well, I thought. There's no way I would win.

Then they called a ticket number - winners of a dinner for 2 on the Napa Valley Wine Train.

Hunter turns to me and says "Um... the number they called is 376. Mine is 375."

We got our tickets at the same time - and so there's a very good chance that damned lost ticket was good for a trip to Napa.

Damn it all!

I went home early - opting not to return to work after the picnic - and this gave me a chance to do some shopping. I purchased some new scaffolding (read: new 34C strapless bra) and some other trinkets from Victoria's Secret. Let me tell you, this bra appears to be a marvel of modern engineering. It's light as air, and the back is a complicated network of hidden elastics and stabilizers.

It's actually quite amazing. (And it works, too!)

I got some new shirts, and even contemplated the purchase of a pair of Gap jeans - but decided against it because my J.Lo booty and quadruplet-bearing hips still don't fit into anything resembling denim.

Sigh.

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But I didn't end up getting to go to the party with Larn, and now she's miffed. The ride she arranged pulled out on Saturday morning, and a complicated plan was devised that involved EVERYONE driving out - the whole West Coast grad school crew, plus Larn and Obi and our weekend houseguests - but that didn't fly with Hunter, and I can't blame him.

So once our houseguest FINALLY arrived, I sort of committed to dinner plans - and then at 4PM LArn calls and says the ride is back.

Rarrgh. No-win situation for me here.

So I picked the easiest route, which was to go with the plans from home. I guess that was a bad choice. Who knows.

When our houseguest Ira arrived, I found out that he had invited a friend from Chicago of his to come out. This was extremely awkward, because a) we didn't know her and b) our apartment is NOT suited for entertaining strangers. We still have but an end table, a few chairs, a mattress, and a TV + stand to our name. Ira's guest certainly made it lear that she wanted nothing less than to sit on our floor all afternoon.

Ugh.

But then she said she was a Pikachu fan, and I was honestly torn - she was being annoying, but she liked Pika. What to do?? Well, just talk about Pikachu until otherwise distracted.

We had a good dinner, but poker afterwards was downright painful. The girl from Chicago sat directly to my left, and her "poker pro" attitude and extremely loud voice gave me a fast headache when combined with the margheritas from dinner. Meanwhile, Ray's girlfriend was playing poker for the first time and was completely playing the dumb blonde about it (except she is a brunette.) If Gail from Chicago wasn't whining about the low stakes, Laura was asking if a pair had to be from the same suit. [Please take a moment to ponder the feasibility of such a thing.]

Oddly enough, at the end of the night, Gail asked for our phone numbers so she could come out and play games with us again. [Oh boy oh boy.]

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The only real highlight of the weekend - well, there were 2.

1) CREPES. Oh god. The taste delights. Ira, Hunter and I had crepes both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, we each ordered a crepe - 2 savory, 1 sweet - and shared. Everything was delicious. The sweet crepe - Nutella, rasperries, caramel, and chocolate topping with whipped cream - was divine.

When we awoke Sunday morning, we all had the simultaneous desire to go back for yet more crepes. This time we split 4 between the 3 of us. Mr. Crepe Maker, in his infinite wisdom, withheld the second sweet crepe - the special - for last. Our nutella-strawberries-bananas crepe was a lovely starting course along with a chicken and roasted peppers/turkey, egg and cheddar pair of crepes.

That last special came out specially prepared, with 3 dollops of whipped cream and 3 rasperries as garnish along with the caramel and chocolate drizzle. HEAVEN. So good. Mr. Crepe Man, you are one of my personal heroes.

2) A Christmas in July. I received a mostly unmarked envelope in the mail Saturday - with a Florida return address. Curious, I opened the envelope to see the familiar Mickey global logo - a letter from Disney World.

Dear Cast Member: Enclosed are your two complimentary theme park tickets, along with our thanks for the magic you make every day.

Apparently someone forgot to tell Disney that I don't work there anymore. :) (I mean, I am technically "makin' magic" at my new job - but how do they know that?) It's not like I was entitled to these from last summer - it's an annual cast member gift, but I gave my 2 passes last summer to Hunter to use when he came to visit me.

So now I have 2 super awesome 1-day park hopper tickets for free. Merry Christmas to me!! I can also use them at California and Paris, but I will save them for Orlando because you can't buy 1-day park hoppers, and I'm planning on a weekend trip there this fall.

Now, if Disney World could just send me a full-time JOB in the mail, we'd be all good. "Dear Cast Member: Get the hell back here already!"

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Today has been... interesting. I won't say more about that, and I'm afraid that's all you'll get. Things are not good in the land of Athena, though, and I'm going to need every ounce of emotional strength to make it through August.

We are so not out of the woods yet.