In my last post i neglected to mention my recent completion of the epic Half Life 2. It was the first game in quite a while where i was actually saddened by its conclusion, as it meant there were no challenges left to face. I was excited to get my hands on the organic gravity gun in the last level, and to gleefully begin tossing my enemies about. The physics engine is absolutely unreal ... so impressive that a recent industry publication reported that physics, not graphics, will be the foundation of the next generation of games. Hopefully it won't take another four years for Valve to unleash Gordon Freeman's next adventure.

Veronica and i began our weekend with dinner and Halo 2 with Geoff, keeping him company while Naomi was off cavorting in Hawaii. The night's climax came while i was babbling lines from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Predator in the Halo pre-match lobby to our opponents. After dishing out an accent-heavy rendition of "Do it, i'm here! Kill me now!", one of our opponents responded, in perfect rhythm, "Get to chopper!". I was barely able to shoot straight after that, i was laughing so hard. After G absconded to his weekend work Saturday morning, i took V to get some lunch and dropped her off for a manicure and pedicure. I used my alone time to write up some materials for the radiation biology program project grant renewal, being submitted as i type. After collecting a newly styled V, we took the dogs to the park for some fun. They were less docile than last time, opting instead to wander aimlessly sniffing everything and barking at any other four-legged creature within twenty yards. The rest of the evening was spent in front of the TV, watching the very funny SNL "Best of Alec Baldwin", and polishing off my imaging write-up for the PPG.

On Sunday morning i resolved to do something about our overgrown lawn in the backyard. The dogs wouldn't go near it anymore as the weeds now towered over them. The rotary mower was now useless as it just pushed down the long stalks, so i headed to Home Depot and picked up an electric edger/trimmer. Five short hours later the lawn was back to a reasonable height. Some of it is still matted down, so i need to go over it with a rake and trim again, but it's far better now than what it was. Despite being completely drained from that task, i also managed to finish attaching the fence to the dog kennel, clean up the kitchen, and tidy the living room and bedroom a bit.

Our Memorial Day got off to a rude start when V and i heard a loud explosion outside while getting dressed. With the dogs startled and barking, i ran outside to see what was up. One of the workers across the street, in the middle of chopping down a large tree and therefore about 30 feet off the ground, let my neighbors and i know that a cannon had been fired as part of a Memorial Day ceremony at the old Civil War cemetary one block over. Phew. V and i finished our readying and then drove up to V's uncle's house in Sacramento for a day of relaxing by the pool with George, Geoff, Lynda, Marissa, Jessie, and fresh-from-vacation Naomi. After a few hours of swimming, i had a burger and couple of dogs then promptly passed out while Jessie watched Cinderella 2. At 5:45pm V woke me up so we could return home to release the dogs from their cell. We took a brief jaunt through Berkeley for some coffee, momentarily soaking up the atmosphere of our college days. It's a unique aura, and certainly not for all, but for me it feels completely comfortable.

My long weekend came to a close with an unexpectedly long game of Lumines in which i bettered the high score of V, N, and G by about 100,000 points. Mwah ha ha.