Liz, Tricia, Darryl

Spent a lot of the day today, hanging out with Liz’s sister Tricia, and her husband Darryl. I showed up around 11 and Liz made me a nice breakfast (blueberry muffins and coffee and eggs). We then lazed around a bit, and started a movie while waiting for Tricia and Darryl to arrive.

They showed up at Liz’s place around 1 or 2PM, and we all lounged around the apartment for a bit, talking and catching up. Darryl and I hit it off again, and started talking up a blue streak. Later, I think I found out from Liz that the two of us got engrossed in our own little conversation for about an hour, straight. I really didn’t notice, but I take that as a good sign – he and I seem to get along really, really well.

Later (after we all nibbled on some cheesecake), we got situated over in the living room. We were talking about Liz’s movies, and she pulls out this old Disney film called Watcher in the Woods. This was a movie that both Tricia and Liz used to watch, and I think it used to scare them when they were kids. We decided to throw it in, and had a pretty fun time laughing at how un-scary it all seems now, so many years later.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this movie – but the ending (and the alternate endings on the DVD) is something else. Check out the notes on IMDB. Out of nowhere, in the last 10 minutes… a creepy alien from another dimension appears, totally out of the blue. Weirdest thing ever.

After the movie, the four of us made our way over to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba. To date, I’ve only ever been to one tapas place – Cafe Iberico. Ba-Ba-Reeba was pretty awesome, and I’m glad I got to sample their menu a bit.

I think, due to the cheesecake and popcorn we had earlier in the day… we didn’t order all that much food. We got maybe four small tapas items to share, and an order of paella to split. The garlic potatoes here were also delicious (just like Iberico’s); next time, I’ll have to make sure to try the octopus.

Nearby, they also had a small room where folks were eating and watching some Flamenco dancing. We took turns sneaking over, and checking it out.

After dinner, we swung by Caffe Gelato and hung out for a while, outside at the tables. We watched the crowds pass by, and talked about any number of things: online games, urban legends, snopes.com, the craziest things we’ve seen in Chicago. A wide range of topics, all night.

Tricia and Darryl are thinking about moving in to the area, at some point. Right now, they just returned to the states after living in Hawaii and are staying with Liz’s folks for the time being. Ultimately, I think the two of them are talking about getting a place somewhere in northern Indiana.

Next weekend, there’s a big festival in Frankfort that I’m attending. Should be a fairly big number of Liz’s relatives there, so I guess I’m running the gauntlet next weekend. On top of that, I’ll be hanging out more with Darryl, so that I’m definitely looking forward to (I promised him I’d bring down some of my DVD’s of Fmaily Guy). :)