The Doings Report

I'm sick. That's the big news in *my* world. And I'm feeling quite pouty about it, because I had thought I was being successful fighting off this cold with Emergen-C. Of course, there's no telling how awful I'd feel without the Emergen-C.

We had a pretty quiet week. MJ and Chloe finished off "Buffy." I watched most of the last episode with them, so I, too, know how it all ends. It's pretty nervewracking watching a Joss Whedon finale, because he does not hesitate to kill off the characters we love most. And Mal (Nathan Fillion, beloved captain of the Firefly Serenity) made a brief appearance as a very bad man entity. Evidently a few of the actors from "Firefly" had roles in "Buffy;" the girls filled me in on all the connections. The word (?) "religiosity" is used in both series, too.

Frank got the house caught up after whatever it was that was our most recent excuse for not tidying up after ourselves. And then on Friday I didn't have to work much, so I puttered around "helping" him (not really very much).

On Saturday, we had our lovely dinner and egg-dyeing party. Frank outdid himself with the menu. We had some Cajun boiled shrimp as an appetizer, French onion soup, chicken breats with a yummy mushroom-and-pâté sauce, sides of bread and mashed potatoes and sautéed carrots, and then bread pudding in whiskey-rum-amaretto sauce for dessert. We kind of forgot to have salad between dinner and dessert. And, needless to say, none of the Easter eggs got eaten that night.

We had a very fun night. Lori and Brian went to Italy for their honeymoon a few years back, so we picked their brains a bit. Also, Brian is really into fantasy novels and D&D, so he and Frank and the girls had a lot to discuss. And we covered a lot of cinematic territory, debating the relative merits of various films, secret girl- and boyfriends, and so on.

We also traded some brainteasers. Here's the one that Chloe figured out much faster than the Dungeon Master was prepared for a week ago:

The chamber you're in is filling with water, and there's an alphabet on the wall that you can use to enter your answer. There's no escape. If you don't figure out the riddle, your entire party will drown. The riddle is:

I live in fear but not in light,
I dwell in darkness but not in spite.
What am I?

And here's one Lori actually had presented to her (and solved) during her job interview at Microsoft many years ago:

You're on a deserted island and you're bitten by something poisonous. A witch doctor *poof* appears and gives you two bottles of pills. He tells you, you will die unless you take one pill from each bottle every day for 50 days. Then he *poof* disappears. You do as he says, but on the 48th day, you remove a pill from the first bottle, then accidentally shake two pills from the second bottle onto your hand. Now all three pills are in the palm of your hand. You can't tell them apart; they are identical in every way. If you take the wrong pills, you will die. What do you do?

I got the first one, but I wouldn't have gotten the job, or at least not after three glasses of wine. If you know the answers, put them in a Comment and save me some typing!

On Sunday, we woke the girls up to find eggs (there's a switch), and then they thoroughly explored their Easter baskets (after being testily informed that of course the Easter Bunny wouldn't have forgotten their Cadbury Eggs). Then we went out to Grandma and Papa's for Easter dinner (pesto!) and a rousing game of Cranium.

Then we came home and collapsed.

Happy Monday!