Haircut and Honeygrow (with a side of Computer Bluescreening)

My mom and I got our haircuts, and then stopped at a newish restaurant we never tried before: Honeygrow. It served Stir-Fry, Salads, and "Honeybars" (whatever that is), and we both ordered Stir-fry. Orders were done at a kiosk, and one could completely edit each order, which was very nice (and conducive for a kiosk and not a poor employee to take down). I ordered the Red Coconut Curry, keeping it mostly the same, but swapping the scallions for Tomatoes, and the Cilantro for Sesame Seeds. I also added Chili flakes, which were free. At first, I thought it was great, but I think by the end, it actually did have a bit too much spice, so maybe I'd sswap Jalapenos for Spinach next time, and have Jalapeno Flakes instead of Chili Flakes instead, to have some Jalapenos, but less.

We'll see. Either way, I took some home, since I couldn't quite finish it, and it was good the next day. I'm glad I kept the pineapples in; despite not being a huge pineapple fan, it added a nice bit of sweetness, as I had hoped. Pineapple is meh on its own, but can be nice when it's in other things.

This is also the first day my new (bought May 8th) laptop started bluescreening. I thought it was a one-time thing. It was very much not, as I'd learn in just three days.

Shinjuku Station (Restaurant)

A few months ago, we had heard from my Monday Dungeon Master that this "Shinjuku Station" plcae in Harrisburg was really good (she wrote a Facebook post about it), and from there, I've been interested in it, so we went there for my birthday. Everyone seemed to be pretty impressed. At $30, it's definitely not a "normal" place we'll go to, but people showed interest in going back for a special occasion—and to show it to my middle sister sometime, who couldn't make it.

We were lucky enough to be at the very front of the conveyor belt, so we got first dibs on everything. I had three spongecake-esque things from that, but perhaps that's it. My sister got an "Inari" (rice in a sweet pouch) from it and said it was good, but no others ever entered the conveyor belt...

As for orders, I tried the "Aloha" Sushi rolls (in: tempura sweet potato & cream cheese, out: avocado, sliced strawberry, sweet chili sauce), Vegetarian (tofu skin, lettuce, & carrot), and Sweet Potato. Out of those, no surprise, Aloha was best, so I'll just get that next time, but the others weren't bad. I also ordered french fries, just in case; for being a meal you can get almost anywhere, they were nice and crunchy and definitely in the top 20% or so of french fries, but given there are so many things here that we don't get anywhere else, I'd probably skip them next time, or at least just split it with the table. I also got Seseme Balls, which I was very interested in, since, searching them up, they tend to have red bean paste in them, and they did! After probably a decade or more of longing to try red bean paste, I've been able to, and it's very tasty, as I had hoped. Now, if only I could eat it more often. I ordered a second round of those, and took five home (only eating three at the restaurant, due to fullness).

Power Outage!

My mom and sisters went out to Palmerton for the big Family Reunion and also a Journey concert, which Uncle M had bought a box for (little sister hanged out with cousins instead).

Dad and I were home, since I couldn't take three days off for the reunion, which is fine. My dad went out to some talk one of his PAN people set up, while I stayed home, and at around 7:30, the power went out. It came back on—for a minute or so—then turned off again, and stayed off. Until 11:27. Due to a battery backup (and some "EGO" battery to replenish it), we had internet for most of the night, but it was a pretty uneventful night, outside of the lack of power. Still, I like power outages in a way, for being a change of pace.

It was also kind of a blessing because I often have a problem with going to bed when I should (always wanting to finish things up), but this made it easy to go to bed around 11:10 or so. The power coming back on got me out of bed for a few minutes just to acknowledge it was on, but I just went straight back to trying to sleep after that.

Thanks to this, I was pretty well-rested for the weekend reunion, which was good, because I tend to sleep pretty poorly when not in my own bed.

June 12: Barndoor & D&A's

I still had to work until noon on Friday, but after getting home, eating, and packing, we left for Palmerton around 1:30, the GPS sending us a different way, to the AirBnB. We later learned this is what the GPS always does, but my mom likes a different route, so we just always used that. This other route was scenic, but turny. My mom doesn't like it for the latter reason, but my dad didn't seem to mind, and used the same route to get home on Sunday, saying it was faster.

It was very hot and humid today (high 80s, but felt like high 90s), so we were happy to stop by the AirBnB first to drop stuff off instead of joining the others on this tour they were taking (Uncle M's cars, a one-room schoolhouse, the cemetary, Waldorf...). In the end, we only arrived by the time the tour was over and they were eating at Barndoor. I had the Jalapeno Poppers again. After that, we were invited to see Bailey's apartment, which was quite nice looking; very open. Her cat, sally, was very playful and cute.

Mom and I then headed back to the AirBnB to pick up some stuff, then joined everyone else at D&A's to chat. I saw a toad at night, and would see another tomorrow. Ah, I miss seeing animals like these, outdoors...

June 13: Barn Tour & Main Gathering

I was lucky the festivities didn't start until 12:30 or later, which meant I could sleep in until 11:00 or so. My mom and little sister had already left by that point, but the rest of us were still in the AirBnB by that point.

We arrived at D&A's around 12, and food wasn't actually out until 1 PM or so—catered. I had macaroni & cheese and cheesy potatoes; it was good, but I didn't eat too much, saving room for dessert. Sadly, in the end, desserts didn't really impress me, but the cake they bought was good as usual, so I had a slice of that, and some blueberry cobbler.

After that, Uncle Paul gave us a tour of the barn, which was interesting, but also very hot and mostly in the sun, so it was a tad long. Still, it was neat to hear about how life was way back then.

The results of the "silent auction" (everyone had 10 free slips, no money involved) was a little after that, and I won two things—though really, it was my mom winning one for me, and me winning another; they skipped people who won twice, overall, which is good, since I mainly bid because I felt bad there were no slips before (thankfully, more people put slips in after me). The things I put slips in for were at least minorly practical, so I don't feel too bad for adding more materialism into my ownership.

A bunch of people played volleyball throughout the rest of the day—three rounds—with my dad being the oldest player. I stayed with mom and mostly listened into conversations.

During one of the earlier volleyball games, Uncle R and D offered to take people up to the "field" in their UTV/ATV, so my mom and I did that, sitting in the back of Uncle D's UTV (or ATV; I don't know). It was really nice, and the highlight of the reunion. It was fun and fresh, and the sights were beautiful. We went to Uncle Paul's (and someone else's) old camping spot after that, and I got to see Uncle R's fabled trail cam that he showed us during Memorial Day. Due to the UTVs taking another group up, there wasn't enough room for mom and I to ride back, so we walked the forest path back to D&A's house, following D's vehicle, which was nice. We saw another trail cam, and some pretty foxgloves.

The rest of the day was more conversing (and volleyball, for others), numbers slowly thinning out as time went by. At one point, nearing nighttime, Aunt A saw a tree frog (or toad? Whatever) jump into the pool, but Devon was able to save it, with the help of Uncle D using his camera flashlight to find it.

At the very end, during the last volleyball game (done in the dark), Spencer fell and hurt his nose pretty badly, so we spent the rest of our time there with him sitting in a chair with tampons in his nose, him being very silly and loud. He might have a concussion, so hopefully he gets that checked out.

We got back to the AirBnB around 10:30 or so.

June 14: Leaving

I set my alarm for 9:30 today, but woke up closer to 8:17 due to the basement door being creaky, but I didn't get up until around 9. We packed up and left by 10:10 (checkout at 11). My dad left earlier, around 7:30, so he could play Disc Golf with his friends, so it's good we had two cars (three, with my middle sister).

Art Fight Theme Reveal

At 4 EDT, the themes were revealed, and me and Void watched together, in VC. Quite quickly, Void guessed the theme, and it was pretty obvious, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt for a bit, due to it starting with a Sun and Moon dancing (I thought maybe it was going to show a bunch of old themes as a buildup; sadly, no).

The Theme is Comedy versus Tragedy versus Mystery, the "surprise" being that there are three teams this year. I don't really care about the three team thing, but Comedy vs Tragedy was my favorite back when it was first on the polls, so it's nice to have it win! It wasn't even on the poll last year.

This means my Heroes/Villains typo theory was wrong, but it was never a strong theory to begin with (and I just try to make theories off of what little info I have). The background of the preview being a building did make me more sure it was Heroes/Villains, but I did say the slip of paper in the preview could've been someone inviting the guy to a Comedy Club, and while I was wrong about it being a Comedy Club, the slip was indeed a hint at Comedy/Tragedy (but a theater performance instead).

My only disappointment is that I think Heroes/Villans works better as an Anniversary Theme, and also that I had such a nice, even split for my characters being either Team Hero or Team Villain; I don't have that with Comedy/Tragedy, let alone Comedy/Tragedy/Mystery. But that's fine. I still love Comedy/Tragedy, as a huge fan of Tragecomedies.

I will be Team Comedy, of course, not because I prefer Comedies (I actually tend to dislike them, as a lover of plot and character development), but because almost all I draw are jokes. This is my team, 100%.

...But so far, four of the people tagged on my page are Comedy, while the other two teams only have one taker each. Oh no... Comedy is the most popular...

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