Happy 25th Birthday to my bff, and happy 6 years to "us" -- in a gen way, we swear!

[hermionesviolin]

Back when Ari was first talking about her weekend-long birthday party, and the sleepover component, I claimed dibs on sharing her bed. In the week or so leading up to the party, our expressions of "I will have a you!" and (because I was arriving Friday afternoon) "I will not have to share you for a whole day!" could totally have sounded like we were dating, which we realized, so we increasingly had fun with that, culminating with her saying, "In 3 nights, I will have you in my bed."

From her facebook on Friday evening: "has an Elizabeth. I'm fading 'cos I was out late last night getting an early start on my party, but apparently conversation perked up now that we're in front of the internet. This is why we are bff."

Saturday night, we four played Apples to Apples (one of TLGN's multiple Firsts that weekend), breaking in my Apples to Apples set and literally going through every single card in the set :) The last card was "Awesome" (with me as Judge) and none of the cards people had left to play were any good, so we took out the remaining red cards to see if there was anything (when TLGN was the Judge for Meek, she got Social Security, lobsters, and X-rays as her options and refused to choose, so we picked another green card and she picked a winner for that -- mayhap, though I forget what the second green card was) but ultimately we just called it a draw and then proceeded to count our cards (well, TLGN waited for us all to count and then subtracted from 245[?] to get hers). If we all counted correctly:
me: 54
mayhap: 62
Ari: 72
thelastgoodname: 56

We played such that all the blank green cards were Shiny and all the blank red cards were Kaylee. One time we actually got the real Shiny card right after playing a "Shiny," which was tres amusing.

TLGN was the Judge for Selfish -- Jupiter, Communists, Britney Spears -- which collection she said was the opposite problem of lobsters (see above). Jupiter ultimately won; arguments included: "Jupiter has all of the moons," and "When has it ever done anything for anyone?"

TLGN was the Judge for Revolutionary and read the listed adjectives (e.g., "rebellious") but said she would also accept "rotating" :)

Quoting from Ari's report:

I'm fairly confident that the most fannish play was "toasters" to "spiritual" which wasn't even intentional (no one in the room was a BSG fan), but I know enough about BSG to know it's trufax, and I was the judge, so it won.

Best unsuccessful argument: "warts" to "magical" because Anastasia Krupnik and Tom Sawyer both thought they were! (However, Kaylee won, which is fair enough, because she is also magical.)

Worst successful argument: "salads" to "European" because "they have salads in Europe."

Consensus: we need a fannish deck. (I think we should call it "Five By Five")

And Meryl Streep has already been played.

[Addendum: There is an Apples to Apples: Bible Edition! Okay, part of me is hesitant, but still... Possibly I will buy it as a Christmas present to myself so Ari and I can test-drive it when she visits next month?]

I won:
dead - zucchini ["a squashed vegetable" says the card]
misunderstood - feminists
juicy - gall bladder
fake - Garth Brooks
calm - Garrison Keillor
ordinary - diamonds ["The hard fact: they are just highly refractive crystalline allotropes."]
naive - chains [beating out: T-Rex, Glazed Donuts]
insane - Woodstock
industrious - Boy Scouts
important - cell phones
powerful - friction [beating out whips, despite the fact that Ari was the Judge -- though the card does also mention "any body will do" in its explanation]
idiotic - NASCAR
hostile - Darth Vader
exhausting - parenting
principled: Rosa Parks
horrifying: bumper stickers [mayhap was the judge and mentioned a bumper sticker she has seen -- on an actual driven car -- with a Confederate flag and the words "fighting terrorism since 1861"]
hopeless - fund raising
manly - Homer Simpson
hilarious - Kaylee
sappy - weddings
healthy - root beer float
speedy - online shopping
haunting: in a coma [beating out: JFK, a bad haircut]
hardworking - The Beatles
witty - my friends
scenic - the French Riviera
shocking - my first kiss [Ari]
glitzy - Martha Stewart
trustworthy - MLK Jr.
puffy - meatloaf
twisted - poison ivy [beating out the Pentagon]
neglected - my bathroom [Ari]
radical - my 16th birthday [Ari]
funky - my refrigerator
frivolous - daytime tv
unreal - men
stunning - the Challenger explosion
quiet - mud
squeaky clean - cocaine
fantastic - Dr. Seuss
fabulous - my hair [mayhap]
tame - worms
technological - barbed wire
sensual - Meryl Streep [Ari]
smooth - ninjas [TLGN played amputations -- she had warned us she was playing a card in poor taste, and I couldn't think of what that would be for this adjective ... and then the cards were turned over]
senseless - mudslides
eccentric - my family [mayhap]
sharp - my personality [beating out: icebergs, plane crashes]

I awarded (incomplete list):
frazzled: spontaneous combustion
innocent: Joan of Arc [Ari]
dangerous: school cafeteria
addictive: giving a hug [TLGN]
colorful - a cheap motel [beating out Vincent van Gogh]
courageous - babies
dirty - grave robbers
relaxing - handcuffs [beating out: sunset, penguins] edit: Ari points out in comments below that she might have awarded this one. /edit
ridiculous - clowns
dramatic - Stephen King
philosophical - mirrors [to Ani, who used The Mirror of Erised in her argument, though I think I had already decided to pick mirrors anyway] edit: Ari points out that I sang a bit of Ani (well, attempted anyway; I am bad under pressure -- "the bathroom mirror has not changed / the woman who lives there can tell / the truth from the stuff that they say / she says: would you prefer the easy way? / no, well okay, then..." -- which is "joyful girl" /vindicated) and she may be right that I was arguing for my own card (with TLGN judging) and Ari made the Erised argument. /edit
cranky - Count Dracula
chewy - Chinatown
awkward - my boss [mayhap]

other awarded:
intelligent - the Internet
melodramatic - Romeo and Juliet [mayhap]
unforgettable - the metric system
patriotic - Swiss chocolate
[Ari points out: unusual - Saturn; it is the ONLY one]

As mentioned, Sunday afternoon included theological discussion with All The Books.

I like the Lingonberry Hymnal #723: "Canticle of the Turning" (Rory Cooney, 1952 / Irish traditional / GIA Publications - Star of County Down)
#726 "O Holy City, Seen of John" is so Wesley :) [is actually Walter Russell Bowie, 1909 (Rev. 21:1-22:5)]
#274 "Woman in the Night" -- Brian Wren -- we couldn't figure out what verse 6, "Women on the road, welcomed and restored, travel far and wide; witness to the Lord!" is referencing...

At one point, Ari told the anecdote of the "When a guest comes, Christ comes" sign at a Lutheran retreat center.
me: "On that note, I have to go to the bathroom -- in a gen way, we swear."
Ari: "Elizabeth will be in my bunk." (You do literally pass through her bedroom to get to her bathroom.)