As I began to say, I guess I should begin with Wednesday night.  I agreed to meet NBDS for a Wednesday meeting Dennis called since he was in town.  I left early since my shiftmate gave me the okay to meet them at a "decent" hour.  By the time I reached Route 1, it was diverted to a single lane just after Exit 130 on the Parkway.  For many, many miles... past Oak Tree Road almost up to Skylark Diner.  Feels like many, many miles even at 11pm.  But what really got my goat was that a giant traffic truck with one of those arrow signs on the back took up the right lane on the bridge that leads to Loew's New Brunswick.  Sitting on the line between the middle and left lanes was a cop car pacing this truck holding traffic to a brisk 15 miles per hour over this bridge all the way to the exits for Route 18.  Surprise, surprise, that's where both STOP allowing on the LEFT lane to pass onwards to Route 1 South.  Fucking bastards, why didn't they leave the left lane open for us the whole time if they were only intending to block off the two right lanes heading towards Route 18?????  So I had to wait for some reasonably light traffic to continue passing, then I could drive AROUND to the left lane and through On The Border/Houlihan's/Sears' parking lot to Ryder's Lane and take George Street into New Brunswick.  Got to see my friends for an hour; by then the Yankees had lost Game One 6-1.  Still was nice to see them while I could.

Wished I had the chance to see them again Friday since Gopi and his wife came out for a group dinner that Cindy and Kate organized but I remembered that it was Kirsten's birthday and I said I'd do a drink with her to celebrate.  I got to see her and her husband (along with lots of other friends I don't see very much of anymore) at the Gonzalez house for the back end of a Halloween party.  I dressed up as an impression of Japanese JPop Pop stars donning the famous red leather pants.  Mine was not the scariest costume, believe it or not.  A couple of my friends were really tired so I gave them a ride home; they left a credit card and a tray of dessert in my car, though, in their rush to get to bed (they had a family gathering in NYC on Sunday morning).

Sunday I didn't do much of anything.  Watched Slumdog Millionnaire; pretty good.  Rested up.  Today I rested up, gave my friend back her credit card, and thought while I was in town I might redeem one of my two remaining free sandwich coupons at White Castle.  I instead opted to finally hit Pizza Hut for their $5.99 lunch buffet.  Turns out, that's really a $3.99 lunch buffet.  Price was reduced.  It's actually $5.98, though, if you buy a drink ($1.99) which I did.  Totally recommend it; all the pizza you can eat along with a simple spiral pasta in red sauce if you want, bread sticks (also unlimited), and even an apple crumb pizza dessert.  I'm still full.  They just keep constantly restocking a bunch of medium sized pies on a set of hot plates.  A dollar more also gets you a small salad bar; no room for that.