> 10:35 p.m.
>
> Sam and I just spent over an hour looking at his playing card collection. He's got nearly four drawers in a dresser filled with playing cards of all types, ranging from round to mummy-shaped ones, from Mountain Dew to famous artists, and many more. We found other things to look at, too, such as New Zealand money. The bills are quite colorful and feel very much like pieces of plastic. They all have a bit of clear in them, and of course I thought that was very cool.

LOL! Last night... RinkWorks playing cards were mentioned as a possibility. Which the South Park-esque pictures. :-D

> -Friday, July 27, 2001-
>
> I even got to meet the infamous Paul Sand, whom I've heard so much about from Sam that I really wanted to meet him. His computer had at least a dozen open UNIX windows on it, each one color-coded so that he can monitor various machines simultaneously. Students log into those machines from computers all over campus, and at any point, Paul Sand can look at one of the color-coded windows and see which students are logged into that particular machine. He didn't stand up, but I was still able to correct my distorted mental image of a short, skinny man that had been unwilling to leave my head.

Funny, I vaguely pictured a tall, skinny man...

> Next, I saw the Spaulding Life Science building, which appears to be the start of a river that runs through the campus. It's a joke that the water looks so disgusting because the chemistry classes dump substances in it. The river is not visible on the other side of the building, which makes the story even more believable.

Heh. Has this story reached the EPA?

> We then went and saw some ducks near a little pond, and I took some pictures. A woman and her little girl came along with bread, so we watched them feed the ducks for a while. It was so cute to watch a tiny blonde girl have so much fun.

AWWWWWWWWWWWWW. :-)

> For that matter, the ducks were fun to watch, too. They alternated between lounging in the grass, drinking from small puddles, and racing to be the first to get a piece of bread tossed by the little girl. One duck had a limp, and the other ducks used that to their advantage. Before the injured duck could get to the bread, the others rushed ahead of him. The mother and little girl also noticed this duck, so then they made sure the wounded duck got plenty of bread. Considering that his injury was probably painful, he was a determined little duck. Then we went to Durham landing, where I took a couple of pictures of boats reflecting on the water. After that, we headed for home, passing by stores called "Baldface Books" (which reminded me of Liface from RinkChat) and the "Shoe Hospital," both in Dover.

Hmm. I wonder if they play "Arsenic And Old Lace" in the waiting room...

> At about 6:30 we got to the Olive Garden, where we had an enjoyable dinner after a 20-minute wait for a table. While we were waiting to be seated, they gave us a pager-type of device with lights on it that would flash when our table was ready. I had made the mistake of saying that these devices always manage to startle me, so Sam and Leen were quite eager to see that happen. To Sam's extreme disappointment, I refused to hold the thing for 20 minutes, but I did let him set it on the table near me. Time ticked by, and when our table was ready, the device lit up, buzzed, and vibrated. Because it was sitting on the table, it also rattled, which added to the effect. In true form, I nearly jumped out of my own skin, and Sam and Leen dissolved into fits of laughter. The server knew immediately that we were the ones who were to be seated next, and I suspect it was because of my reaction. It wasn't the type of thing to make me mad, because I know it's funny. Even I can't help laughing at myself, although I wish I could be outside of myself sometime to see my own reaction.

Wow. Just... wow. I've never been to a restaurant with such devices.

> At my suggestion, Sam tried the Stuffed Chicken Parmiagiana. He'd never tried it, but he liked it. We talked, laughed a lot, and told wound stories, such as the time Darleen hit her knee in college. She and Sam were racing to open a door, and she got there first but wasn't able to stop in time to prevent slamming her knee into the door. She was also carrying an ice cream cone, and of course she lost it when she fell.

Only one thing to say to that... ICECEAM!

> I thought it was funny that she still remembered the loss of the ice cream cone. Another time, she and a friend were jumping over a tennis net, and Leen fell and hit her chin. It sounded so funny, ever though I'm quite sure that it was painful.

OW! I've slammed my chin on an air hockey table before. I shouldn't have been playing in roller skates, I guess...

Nyperold