Sunday, October 7, 2007
Drove to Chris and Nate's. We drove in their car to Ryan and Jason's. We all went to brunch at Slow Club. Basic breakfasts all around except Ryan who had french toast. Coffees all around except me who had a pineapple-strawberry agua fresca which was fantastic. Afterwards we took photos of The Shell Car—a car covered with seashells, sand dollars, and other objects you find at the beach. Nate drove us all to San Rafael to the Marin County Civic Center Exhibit Hall where we visited the 1st Annual Pacific Pinball Exposition. You pay $20 and get to play about 250 pinball machines and other mechanical arcade games for free all day long. We stayed about 3 hours before deciding we'd had our fill. They had my favorite pinball machine—Bally's Xenon—which was one of the first talking pinball machines. I also played Gorgar, Fish Tales, Twilight Zone, Penny Pitch, Crossroads, Chinatown, Terminator 3, Dale Jr., Ultrapin (Black Knight 2000 and Xenon), The Getaway, FunHouse, New York, Medieval Madness, Addams Family, Star Trek The Next Generation, Scared Stiff (with Elvira), Family Guy, Viper Night Driving, and Harley Davidson. My favorites were Xenon, Dale Jr., Fish Tales, Family Guy, Viper Night Driving, and Harley Davidson. I especially liked any game that had multiball play. Family Guy gets extra points for the miniature pinball game within your pinball game—brilliant! We caught some traffic on the way back. Everything was happening in San Francisco this weekend: Castro Street Fair, Fleet Week, some Burning Man party. If you have a dull moment in SF, it's your own fault, I'm convinced. After about 2 hours of driving we finally made it home. Chris needed to sleep, but the rest of the guys and I had dinner at my place: herb and mushroom risotto, steamed broccoli, and oven-baked, bread-crumbed chicken boobs. Dessert: fruit bars (me and Jason). We had the longest-sustained computergeeky conversation I've had in years. I gave them a Cyberguys catalog. A very fun, very draining day. Dishes, left a voicemail for Tina, journal, e-mail, bed.