Then Jeff took the stage. K.T. has pictures that I'll post as soon as she downloads them from her camera and sends them to me. Jeff took one mighty swing and broke the piñata in half, spilling candy and toys on the ground.12 November 2001
I'm glad I took Friday off, because the weekend seemed too short as it was. But I had a simply fantastic birthday weekend.
I slept in Friday, then spent most of the day alternating between lazing around and cleaning up for the party on Saturday. I met Matt and Jeremy and Elizabeth for lunch at the Silver Maple - a house converted to a restaurant not far from where Matt and Elizabeth work. They had marvelous burgers and even better desserts.
Friday evening, I opened Matt's presents (which, if you missed it, I wrote about on Saturday) and then we drove down to my parents' house for dinner. Steak and baked potatoes and peach melba over poundcake for dessert! Yum!
After we'd visited with my folks for a while, we headed over to K.T. and Kevin's - Ashby had been due into town that evening, and we wanted to visit.
I was in the middle of unwrapping a coffee mug from K.T. when someone knocked on the door. It turned out to be Colleen... And Jeff, who had been telling me for two weeks how upset he was that he wasn't going to be able to make it to my party.
It turned out that he and Colleen and Matt had been planning that surprise all along. Jeff told me later, "The look on your face was worth six hours of driving." What a wonderful birthday surprise!
Saturday, Jeff came over early, and he and Matt trooped out to the mall to get their ears pierced. Both of them look pretty good with pierced ears, though I think Matt was a little miffed at the guy doing the piercing, who told him he had "fat earlobes."
Then people started showing up for the party. Most of the people who tried my salsa said they liked it, which made me happy, of course. Braz and Kris brought Emma with them, and she was quite naturally a focal point of attention. She was remarkably well-behaved, considering they were over for a good five hours. She slept for most of the afternoon, waking once to eat.
Around four, we got set up outside for the piñata, and explained the rules. As the "birthday girl" I went first. We were using what we call the "Thump Stick" to swing at the piñata - a broom handle, essentially, with a piece of foam rubber over one end.
My first swing flung the foam off the stick, missing Matt's ear by only inches. (I was told about this later, as I was blindfolded at the time.) Blindfolded and a little dizzy, all three of my swings missed.
Then Jeff took the stage. K.T. has pictures that I'll post as soon as she downloads them from her camera and sends them to me. Jeff took one mighty swing and broke the piñata in half, spilling candy and toys on the ground.
So much for that party game! Next time, I guess, we'll use a lighter stick. And make Jeff stand at the back of the swinging line.
Eventually, the mass of us trooped down to Second Street for dinner, where most of us went hoarse trying to talk over each other and - crazily - Emma slept right on through.
We went back to the house, slightly diminished in numbers, and listened to the CDs K.T. had made for me - the #1 hit for the week of my birthday for each year that I was alive. A neat concept and some really great songs.
Sunday, we met up again with K.T., Kevin, Ashby, Colleen, and Jeff, and we all went out to lunch at a Chinese buffet / mongolian barbeque place in town. They had a screen on one wall which was running a karaoke DVD - specifically, Christmas carols sprinkled with holiday cheer in the form on mis-spelled and mis-translated words. When we got to, O Christmas Tree and the screen proclaimed, "God gave us you / to light the glue," we decided we couldn't take it any longer, and fled.
It was, in all ways, a wonderful weekend, and I'm sorry to be back at work. Especially since I was up until nearly 1:30 last night Halling.
Here are a few more assorted pictures from the party...
 It doesn't show as well in this picture as I'd hoped, but while Emma was awake, she was giving her father an extremely dubious look. |
 You have to introduce them to the Old Ones when they're young. |
 Poor Jeff. He left South Carolina to come visit because his research advisor has been riding him, and he gets up here only to have Cthulu ride him instead... |
 Shbee spent a good portion of the night petting my hair, and then switched to petting the cat - who in this shot is so relaxed he's about to fall off the chair. I hope I didn't look quite that silly. |
 Ah, the perils of falling asleep around one's friends. Under instruction from Carl, Ashby carefully placed that gummy worm in the sleeping Colleen's mouth to make it look like she'd fallen asleep mid-chew. |
Word of the Day:
scarify - 1: to make scratches or small cuts in (as skin); also: to lacerate the feelings of; 2: to break up and loosen the surface of (as a field or road); 3: to cut or soften the wall of (a hard seed) to hasten germination