El Cielo Party
Mood:  party time!
Topic: R&R
Last night Stefan threw a party at the rooftop (El Cielo) of the new Andalucia Hotel in downtown Santa Barbara.

There were a LOT of people there, the majority of whom I didn't recognize. I saw a few whom I remembered as undergrads when I first arrived at UCSB, all graduated long ago. The "Norwegian group" was also present: Gustavo, Jorgen, Eirik and Christian. Even Bob C. was there, looking different without his usual sidekick pug, Beaulieu :-)

Allan, Bob G. and I went to Ruby's Diner halfway through the party, since we hadn't really eaten before, and by the time we got back at 10:00pm, all our CS friends were there-- Ingrid, Golnaz, Sara, Steve and Matthew. We hung out in the downstairs bar (the rooftop bars closed at 10:00) for a while, where JK and Justin joined us.

We made our way to Elsie's after a while, and had a good time hanging out there. I actually found a beer that I -- surprise, surprise! -- liked! It was a Belgian beer called Stella Artois, and though it was somewhat bitter, I could stand it and managed to down 2 glasses of the stuff while we were at Elsie's. I'm happy to have finally found something I can actually drink at Elsie's, considering that all they serve is beer and wine :-D

It was interesting to see everyone so jolly and drunk, including me, I suppose :-) We ended up staying there until we were kicked out at closing time, 2:00am. Some party-goers made their way to Stefan's house, but Bob and Allan and I decided it was time to call it a night.

Once we got home, it took me about another hour to sober up. Allan fixed me some Ramen noodles, I drank lots of water and we watched Nick at Nite until I was sober enough to go to bed.

All in all it was a pretty fun night. I never did get any pictures taken, too bad :-( And I brought my new bikini on the off-chance that I might hit the jacuzzi at the hotel, but that didn't happen. Still, a good time was had by all, and it was nice to enjoy myself and not have to worry about driving, hehe :-)

NMSL BBQ
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: R&R
Today was Allan's lab's party, at a park on Cathedral Oaks and Turnpike. Elizabeth's lab got there early, and the graduates were painting wooden plaques to commemorate their graduation. Elizabeth told us she put them up on the wall, and it reminded me of parents putting up their kindergartners' watercolor painting on the refrigerator door.

The rest of the lab trickled in, and most of the boys tossed around a Nerf football and frisbees. I was initially wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt, but the bugs were just about eating me alive, so I had to go home and change into long pants and long sleeves, so I could survive. Just as well, as the day was a little windy and I was getting chilly, especially sitting in the shade.

By the time I got back, everyone was finishing up eating Chinese food that Kevin had brought, and a soccer match promptly ensued. Kevin wasn't "allowed" to play, as he was too competitive, so he sat on the sidelines, pulling loose fur from one of his dogs and throwing it in the wind at the players. Before long, the grass was literally covered in dog fur-- ick! I spent the afternoon petting Flynn, Janet's dog, who was so soft and furry and friendly! :)

Before Allan and I left, Elizabeth wanted to start up a water balloon fight against Kevin-- everyone was on board, but she changed her mind about throwing the first balloon, for fear of retaliation, so nothing actually happened before we went home, darn it. Ah well-- there's always next time, and we have the CS BBQ pics/memories as well :-D

Lab party
Topic: R&R
Today, Memorial Day, was the annual iLab party at Matthew's house. He lives right at the edge of where Goleta turns into Santa Barbara, in a gated community. And his house was gigantic! Plenty of room for a 4-person family, in fact, I half-expected to see a maid or butler, the house was so big. Well, maybe that was an exaggeration, but it was definitely a big, airy, roomy and beautiful house.

The Turks have a pool table in their dining room, and most of us hung around there all afternoon, playing game after game of pool :-) They also had a trampoline with a surrounding safety net, too bad I didn't get a chance to hop on it :-D

All in all, a nice afternoon. Good food-- especially the desserts, since several of us brought cookies and cakes and whatnot, I was stuffed for the rest of the night!

Neat party at the geekhouse
Mood:  party time!
Topic: R&R
Tonight was the neat party at the geekhouse. The premise is basically: everyone brings a bottle of liquor, and then we all sit around and drink the alcohol straight. (I guess calling it a "straight party" makes it sound like it means "not gay party" :-P)

About half the attendees were UCSB people, the other half was Steve and Jason's friends from undergrad. We remained pretty much divided the entire evening :-|

Alcohol straight is too strong for me, so I ended up eating snacks and drinking water. I think I had about two swallows of liquor total all evening. At least there was no question about which of us was driving home!

The evening ended up with a little relaxing in the hot tub, where Allan promptly proved Steve's claim that getting into a hot tub drunk makes you even more inebriated, and where we learned that plastic cigarette lighters dropped into water will float.

Anyway, here's some pictures of the evening's festivities:

http://whistler.cs.ucsb.edu/linpha/third_stage_album.php?prev_path=albums%2FUCSB%2FNeat+Party+May+2005&name=Neat+Party+May+2005&first_name=UCSB

CS Spring BBQ
Mood:  on fire
Topic: R&R
The pseudo-annual CS spring barbecue took place today. The fall one is definitely annual, and I guess if there's money enough in the pot come Spring, we can have a spring BBQ :-)

This past Fall the big craze was on a water balloon toss that degraded into a free-for-all, with Giovanni being the instigator (and he quickly turned into the primary target!).

So of course, there was a nice big tub full of water balloons ready for another showdown at this BBQ! Pictures of the ensuing melee are posted:

http://whistler.cs.ucsb.edu/linpha/third_stage_album.php?prev_path=albums%2FUCSB%2FSpring+05+BBQ&name=Spring+05+BBQ&first_name=UCSB