Breaktime.

This is an ex post facto notification of hiatus. (Apparently, it is also a Latin quiz.)

Initially, Ophelia had planned to visit family over the holiday, and took a five-day weekend. Soon though, it was clear that actually planning the trip itself would be enough of a stressful experience to make oneself crack, so Monkey convinced me to actually use my time off to REST, mygodwhatanovelthought.

It turned out for the best, I suppose, as Monkey and I got in some good quality time together – because little did we know that due to unforeseen circumstances, I’ll actually not be able to see him much this week.

We went a few places to eat, but none of much consequence – to the point that I really don’t remember, so I guess that means that none of it was bad, at least, so this update really has no culinary value, except to mention that I forgot how good it is staying in all day eating ramen and how I needneedneed a 24-oz cappuccino mug for microwaving that stuff. (I had a friend once who ate it RAW and sprinkled it with the seasoning packet. That is totally nasty.)

Despite the extended laziness, we did however, get in some serious gaming. (Oh god! She said it! She’s a gamer!) Stop right there, my friend. Don’t be so judgmental. You too know that you cannot deny the awesomeness that is Mario. (In fact, my term paper for my Japanese Culture class [back when I had an Asian Studies minor] was “My love affair with Nintendo.” [If you think that’s bad, my friend Josh wrote about the nihilism of Final Fantasy and how it was an emotional experience for him.])

We played through both Bros. 2 and 3, and now Monkey is working on FFV while I’m making some serious progress on FFII/IV-Easy, which I’ve been sitting on for a year and a half. After that, I may move on to another FF, but I think Monkey has this weekend’s sights set on playing through Bros. Lost Levels. Also, this should serve to remind me to get a copy of ChronoTrigger.

I think I am entitled to this interlude of dorkiness, since I really only get the video gaming bug but once or twice a year. If we had an arcade machine, it would be different, because I would so be up in Puzzle Bauble, Gem Fighter and MoneyIdolPuzzleExchanger ALL the time and never sleep, but as is currently, sometimes you get tired of opening boxes just to find: “Monsters!”

Really, though, gaming all day is the perfect thing for the winter up here, and especially for rainy days such as the weekend we just experienced. For one, it gets us out in the living room, where the windows have to stay wide open to sunlight – as opposed to moping all day in the bedroom where we might or might not get around to opening the blinds. Second, it’s something either of us can actively watch and play – as opposed to active playing and passive watching over Monkey’s shoulder when he plays on the computer, and last, the children, er, I mean, Chickens love it because we spend time with them too, even though we don’t really have to pay attention to them.

In fact, it’s rather a good option for a light-sensitive, rain-shy, inter-species family on a dreary weekend.

Also, on Monday, for the first time in AGES, I got Monkey out of the house to go to a museum with me. Actually, it was his idea. I took him to see Brown v. Board, and he wondered why he hadn’t bothered to see it earlier (I’ve been on his case to see it since the installation went in.) The rest of the museum is a waste of time though. History is really selective, and you can select any theater in which to tell your tale, but the Smithsonian somehow does a craptacular job of it. I mean, trains, Julia Child, dresses and toys? There are SO many better ways to couch history, and I honestly think that the American History museum is just the repository for all the “a serious donor just gave us this and wants it on display” acquisitions. That’s like, the first thing NOT to do that you learn at the beginning of ANY museology class. Get with it, Smithsonian.

Anyhow, after Bv.B, which is actually an exceptional exhibit (except on the last wall where it loses its focus and starts talking about women’s, Indian and migrant rights – these have their own seminal cases and because of that it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the exhibit and feels like a spastic afterthought), we headed over to Natural History. LocalJurisdiction and I were over there in the mammal hall a couple of weekends ago, so Monkey and I didn’t check that one, but we did check out the dinosaur hall, paid homage to our myriad mammal predecessors, marveled that the Giant Sloth is so freakin’ giant (Monkey only – apparently he skipped that room as a child), and then headed to the second floor. There was the obligatory ogling of the Hope Diamond (Monkey only – I don’t like it anyway, especially as it’s only bilaterally symmetric), and then attempted to begin the transit of Gems. I suspected that it would be too crowded, and it was. It was far too warm a day, meaning tourists were out in full force, so we agreed to come back on a bitter cold day to check the gems, especially considering that you can’t do gems without doing minerals, and when you add minerals, you’ve got an entire day’s worth of looking. Moving on, we decided to check the ORKIN insect zoo (Monkey got a kick out of this, and I, too, thought it was pretty funny) as well as the bone collection. Insect zoo was ok, except for the spiders. Monkey tried to make me look at a Brown Recluse, and I should have smacked him for that, but that would have meant turning around to see the thing. There was a Smithsonian employee holding some plump little caterpillars, and I wanted to hold one, but I realized that this insect zoo, where children reigned supreme, was not really interested in letting my adult self have some learning fun. The bone collection, though, was where I had the most fun. Of course.

Also, we got to see some parrot skeletons, and while this freaked Monkey out a bit, I wanted to keep looking, but we had to move on. Lots of awesomeness in there. Check it out. Also, Natural History has a free 25-cent coatcheck, which is always good to know.

Despite my raving about my days off, though, I really can’t wait to get back into a routine that allows for the eating of food other than ramen and seeing Monkey during lunches. Sadly, that also includes the reemergence of work routine. It can’t be helped.

On that note, this is now notice of a hiatus. Ophelia will again be out to lunch this Friday through Monday. Though posts might occur between now and Monday, don’t bank on it.

PS: Sunday night dinner was at Chinatown Garden. Had the shrimp in lobster sauce. Wicked good.