January 19th

Like so many days of my life this one was a nice roller coaster. Fortunately it was a kiddie ride and not the Cedar Point Dragster. Due to a typo I stayed up all night reading an online fantasy comic called Looking for Group. Damn you Jonathan for suggesting it and damn me for misspelling Paula as Paul! As you know or have figured out audience I have a very addictive personality especially when it comes to stories. This one is wonderful and the character Richard is now my favorite dark mage of all time. Thus the night was spent reading page after page with a few pauses for laughter. I did sleep for about five hours and napped awhile as well before Kate (like my dear mother) entered my room to pry me from my bed. Kate was successful (just like my mom) and after thirty to forty minutes of grooming I was ready to seize the afternoon.

Kate and I took Jaimie on a small tour of Le Havre which included the public library, the mall, and les docks. Pretty solid day with lots of walking (just like in the Hobbit). All in all it was a good day, just keep that in mind audience. There were of course some bumps along the road (just like in the Hobbit). Onward to adventure!

Bump number one was when Jaimie lost the bracelet she had been wearing while we were at the mall. Apparently it was a rainbow pride bracelet and had some sentimental value. She does have an identical one back in the States, but it still is a craptastic situation. Fear not audience the crappiness continued right after, literally right after.

            

Welcome to the table bump number two! The three of us were eating at a restaurant that Kate and I often enjoy inside the mall. The food was its usual goodness and it soon dawned the time to pay. I didn't have a lot of cash on hand so I figured that I would use my LCL (French Bank) card to pay for the whole meal and Kate and Jaimie could pay me their shares in cash. Good plan, didn't work  (unlike in the Hobbit). The funtasticness of France's technology never seems to end. When I attempted to pay for the meal, all three of my bank cards did not go through, all three! Such gracious plights love to reserve themselves for me and Biblo, though he only had to deal with goblins and some giant spiders not social awkwardness in a restaurant. Kate gave me the signature "adult" look even though there wasn't much I could do in the situation; if the machine doesn't want to work it won't work. She then stepped in to use her card, rejected! Misery loves company cause no one wants to go down alone.. The man said that it was the machine (good job Sherlock) and not our faults. He suggested using the cash machine at the Monoprix when Jaimie came to the rescue. She has a fifty euro bill that easily covered the expenses and freed us of our constant "declined" receipts.

            

We left, in more or less so-so moods, and made our way to Les Docks. Jaimie and I discussed the charming and nerdy topics of Lord of the Rings as well as The Hobbit. Poor Kate, it is very easy to become lost in a conversation and be unaware of the exclusion of other party members. Happens to all of us, yet I have a feeling Kate and Jaimie have common grounds as well, just not Tolkien themed ones. Moving on, after I hit the ATM at Les Docks we did some much needed housing goods shopping, by “we” I mean Jaimie of course. She nabbed pillows, towels, soap, and more random living supplies. I was there to grab a couple candles, which I almost forgot to buy, and ended up with an armful of unexpected groceries. I simply cannot help myself when it comes to shopping; curse you materialistic society! 

Once home everything began to really wind down to a nice mellow level. At least for me it’s mellow, most likely the others feel the same. Time for a bottle of Cola and some candlelight whilst I read up on html coding. Oh it's going to be a wild Saturday night.