Misc. weekend activities and sushi ramblings

The weekend started off very well. It started with sushi for lunch with Miki, which is always so much fun. Miki's one of those low-maintenance friends who I don't see very often, but when I do, it's like a breath of fresh air. She and I have many similarities as far as our outlook on life, and many similarities in our childhoods.
That evening, two friends who we only see every now and then suggested we go for sushi downtown at Uchi. I could eat sushi for every meal, so of course we went.
My thoughts on Uchi:
Uchi is ok if you like foofy and creative (and expensive) sushi. I'm a bit of a sushi purist, though. Although I can't eat the raw stuff right now, which limits me to pretty much Eel and rolls, my preference is for a place with simple and fresh Nigiri sushi, and a couple of rolls, such as a spicy tuna roll, or Sushi Sake's amazing Spicy Susan. Uchi is wasted on someone like me. I found myself looking at the menu and thinking "you're charging HOW MUCH for that tiny morsel of food?". While I won't deny that the food is well presented and tastes good, I would much rather get better value at a more traditional sushi bar where you can get full without breaking the bank. The one roll I got at Uchi was the Shag roll. It's basically a veggie roll that's dipped in tempura batter and deep fried. It's served with a splash of squid ink. Sure it's interesting, but was it better than the sushi at my usual place. Not even close. So after 2 experiences at Uchi, I think I'm crossing it off my list of places to eat from now on.
Don't get me wrong, we had a great time on Friday night. But not because of the food or venue, but because of the company. I find that to be true most times we go out.

On Saturday we discovered a cat problem that had been apparently happening over some time and has caused us to need to replace the carpet in our dining room. It's a behavioral problem, we think, because there's nothing wrong with the cat. She's just deathly afraid of the new Littermaid catbox and won't go near it. We made the mistake of thinking that if we put a regular and the automatic cat boxes in the cat's bathroom, the scaredy cat would simply use the manual one. But no. She chose to use the carpet in the dining room, instead. What's strange is she was fine with our old Littermaid box. Lesson learned. Manual catbox only from now on.

We shopped around for wood floors to match the floors in the rest of our downstairs and found several good options. One based on some recommendations by several friends. We were planning to get wood in the dining room anyway, just not right away, and of course the timing is awful given that the baby could arrive at any moment. But it has to be dealt with.

Saturday evening was spent with friends at Nutty Brown Cafe in Oak Hill where the very talented Brian Lee was opening for Monte Montgomery. We had a great table outside with a good view of the stage and close to Michelle who was working the merchandise booth. We had dinner and spent some quality time with friends. Again, venue and menu had nothing to do with the fun level. We have such great friends.

Saturday night, though, was awful for me. I spent the entire night sick to my stomach. The kind of nausea that won't let you actually throw up but is bad enough that it turns you fetal and groaning. This was followed by a visit from the poop fairy around 5am. Consequently, most of Sunday was spent on the couch groaning some more, trying to hydrate, and going stir crazy because I was a prisoner in the house. I did do some productive things, though, like laundry and changed the bed.
Sunday evening we had dinner with Tiffeni, whom we hadn't seen in many weeks! One of the few remaining unmarried friends in our circle these days, soon to be converted to old married lady in August!