so, about the Weekend...

Ostensibly, there was to be a "gathering" Friday night to honor Chris's birthday (Chris being a friend of Tad's from High Schhol, a guy who went to Western, and one of Tad's Many former roommates). A few of Tad's other friends, namely Kris (another guy altogether) and Marcus, both guys I had spent time hanging out with before, were also heading over soemtime Friday.

Tad had been bugging me about heading out to visit for a while, so I decided to hitch a ride with Chris at noon on Friday.

I don't know much about the Tri-Cities -- I've been there a couple times, but that's it. I've been to Eastern WA plenty of times, so the remarkable climate change on the Eastern Slopes isn't much of a shock to me anymore, but it's still a little surprising to experience the (relatively) flat terrain and paucity of trees in the Tri-Shitties area.

Tad's "neighborhood" is a dense subdivision lying amidst empty fields, some of them looked to be irrigated or agricultural purposes, some of them were just... empty, but for the low lying semi-arid brushy vegetation. The most notable feature of Tad's immediate surroundings was a tall water tower, which was actually visible for miles around.

As I began to get my feel for the "lay of the land," I realized that each of the Tri-Cities has it's own distinct "downtown" area, and the outskirts sort of belnd into each other. I began to realize that Tad lived in the "outskirts" of Pasco, on the east side of the river (Kennewick and Richland being on the West side) which is why his neighborhood seemed so isolated. It didn't take long to drive into "downtown" Richland or Pasco, however.

Anyway... Friday night didn't turn out all that exciting. We went to Costco and bought a bunch of beer, then proceeded back to the House to drink it and eat the dinnner Tad had cooked. Tad's roommate is only 20, and he had a few of his friends over, but I wasn't vibing off the atmosphere. Neither did Chris, aparently, who just wasn't feeling it that night, and sort of pussied out, considering it was His b-day.

Saturday, after some morning recovery and coffee acquisition, we roamed around most of the day, hitting an Excellent Chinese buffet (why don't we have any of those around here?) for lunch, and a very mediocre Mexican buffet for dinner. At some point in the afternoon we stopped into the Atomic Ale Brewpub and Eatery (sorry, no website) where I had a Pint of their IPPA, and also sampled their Blackberry Porter (!).

Sat night, after Marcus left to go home because he had to work Sunday morn, we, as mentioned below, went out and got fitshaced. If I had any singing ability whatsoever, i woulda been karaoke-ing up a storm. But, frankly, I Know how horrible I am, and when it comes to Karaoke, it's not that I'm sacred to do it (hey, after a couple beers, who cares?) but that I am such an awful singer it isn't fair to put the other fine bar patrons through the hell of having to listen to me.

Sunday we pretty much got up, cured our hangovers with coffee, Lots of water and some great breakfast, then Chris and I headed for home...

I don't know much about th