This has been a really busy week. I suspect (no, i actually have verbal proof) that Veronica is ready to wring my neck after my increasingly frequent stress-induced outbursts. But it hasn't been all bad. Let me explain. No, there is too much ... let me sum up.

Last Thursday V and i met up with Danny in the city (our first trip to SF since returning to California) and caught up with each other over dinner at Veronica's favorite Thai restaurant, the aptly-named Thailand Restaurant in the Castro. Come Friday morning i was feeling pretty crummy, so i took a day off of our errands to nap. That evening we went with my parents for dinner and a movie, catching Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl which was great. As Roger Ebert put it, Johnny Depp channels a drunken drag queen fabulously, creating an entertaining and original pirate captain. It's a fun two hour summer movie.

As Saturday dawned (1:30pm on my clock), we scrambled into Veronica's 1991 Tercel, cranked up the air conditioning, and putted down the 5 towards Los Angeles. By 7:30pm we had arrived in Downey and met up with soon-to-be-bride-and-groom Michelle and Sean. We had a laid back dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (CPK for those of us in the know, wink wink, nudge nudge), then headed back to Michelle's apartment where I managed to consume a six pack of Guinness by 2:30am. That got me so drunk i was even able to fall asleep on Michelle's living room floor.

I had sufficiently regained my senses by Sunday to head off to the L.A. Coliseum to see Manchester United take on Mexico's Club America as part of United's four game publicity tour of the United States. Although i was expecting a wealth of Mexican fans given the game's location, the crowd was predominantly United supporters. I had to bite my tongue on several occasions, and on several others i let loose with a couple of jabs at my mortal enemies. The first half saw few real goal chances, with play dominated oddly enough by C.A. However, Ruud van Nistelrooy opened the scoring for United in the first minute of the second half with an excellent strike from the top of the penalty area. Manchester doubled their lead two minutes later on a Diego Forlan header, and that was basically it. Forlan added another and C.A. got a consolation goal late to make the final score 3-1. Coming out of the game we had to wade past a number of singing United fans ("Number 1, was Georgie Best, and number 2, was Georgie Best, and number 3, was Georgie Best, ..." ad nauseum). Walking along Figueroa to the car, we were passed by a procession of red English-style double decker tour buses containing yet more enthusiastic Manchester supporters. As the last one passed, i couldn't help myself and shouted a nice anti-United euphemism. The contents of the bus stared at me as they drove on, as Veronica and Michelle prepared to distance themselves in case i was accosted. They were probably wondering why i was walking with Sean, who had on his United kit.

That night we had dinner with Michelle and V's cousin Naomi at Luminarias, the site of Michelle's wedding reception next month, before collapsing. The next morning V and i grabbed a quick lunch with Michelle before heading back up the 5. Around Livermore i began to feel decidedly unpleasant, and when we arrived home i ran in the house to bathroom. Dunno if it was Luminarias or the lunch at Mimi's (my suspicion is the latter, for even as i write this thoughts of that chicken caesar salad are making me nauseous). I really do hate puking. I'd rather have horrible stomach pains all night long than go through it.

So this week i've slowly recovered from the flu as i ready for my go-date at Stanford (tomorrow morning, bright and early). I've picked up some swanky new digs appropriate for my new job, and V and i are now ready to move into our new house in San Mateo on Saturday.

Oh so much we've done in the last few weeks. Oh so much still to be done. But i can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.