My Amazing Birthday Weeked... in review...

[mrlich]

First things first: At the risk of sending you all into diabetic shock I would like to thank my lovely and talented xtingu for being... Well... the amazing woman that she is. She practically got off the plane and started taking the reigns in order to make sure my birthday was celebrated with panache. I am consistently thankful for her presence in my life.

Ok. You can stop making gagging sounds now.

1. Friday: after getting done with work, we both realized that there was nothing 'on our plates'. This was genuinely not a big deal, because I normally don't think to do much (read as: anything) for my birthday. We tossed around a couple of ideas, landing on sushi at Mikimoto's with Quito and jeremym. I LOVE sushi at Mikimoto's. Add the company of people that good and it's a huge score. She was just getting warmed up. :)

After sushi, we headed back to her place where she gave me my presents and a card that turned this 'big tough biker' into a complete mushball.

It was a really good day.

2. Saturday: We woke up a little early for a Saturday, but for good reason. Llij had a singing gig for a local charity hockey event. You want to know pride? Watch and listen as your girl sings the National Anthem for a bunch of hockey players. Watch them all look dumbfounded as they realize that someone got a PRO just for them, and then watch them go nuts when she wraps it up. Yeah it was really good.

Next, we hit the Golden Monkey (a.k.a. the Golden Castle Diner for those who aren't local diner rats) for some breakfast. While we were there, we took note of one of the coolest vehicles I've ever seen on the road. This thing made rust into art. I know that sounds like I'm being snarky, but I actually mean it.

After breakfast, we had side-by-side full body massages. The only massage work I've ever had was one deep-tissue massage done on my back before I chiropractic visit. While delightful, that couldn't have prepared me for the hedonistic lerv that my girl heaped on me on this occasion. Soooo good. I can easily see a large portion of future earnings going in this singular direction.

On the way back to her place after the massages, we stopped at this awesome little local bakery. You know the one. There's two old ladies behind the counter in exactly the same spot they've been for about the past 4 decades. With them is the 15 year old girl who's clearly bored to tears and is only there because one of the two older ladies is her grandmother and they have convinced her that she needs to 'hold down a job at 15'. We got chocolate filled croissants which we took back to her place to consume with the delightfully rich flavor of Phil's coffee. (I can't thank you enough drjohn for introducing her to that joy.)

What next you ask? Well, we did what any young couple full of vim and vigor would do. We climbed into her giant ultra-comfy pillow top bed and drifted into la-la (not to be confused with lala.com - an xtingu discovery)  land almost immediately. There's just something about taking a nice nap (after full massages and croissants) in the middle of the afternoon. It's easy to understand why I was feeling like a king.

After we woke and dragged ourselves (though we were deeply refreshed) out to the Bangkok House for the best Thai cuisine in the region. (I'm taking her word for it because my uneducated taste buds think of pretty much anything above 'diner slop' as 'fine dining'.) I will say this - the food was amazing. What's more, it's not far from my place. That, my friends, is a good combination.

While out and about, we were invited to join some of the theater crowd for some bowling, which we hastened to agree to. Nick D., Kathy B., and Steve W. all were present and accounted for - and managed to add their own brand of funky fun to the day. Such a good group of peeps. They do an amazing job of making me feel like I'm instantly one of their own. I love that.

Right about the time we were wrapping things up at the bowling alley Matt C. showed up and joined us at the Iron Hill Brew Pub for some drinks and laughter galore. He'd brought copies of his newest cd which contains a wide spectrum of great stuff including one song which xtingu sang backup for and an utterly awesome 'bonus track' which makes me pee myself regularly.

Feeling tired yet? We were, so we headed home to bed.

3. Sunday: I've already forgotten where we went, but we grabbed ourselves some brunch before heading to the Lehigh Valley to celebrate both my little brother's birthday and my own with my folks. (Josh's is the 5th.) We went to the Sunset Grille where the food is always (at least) good and the atmosphere warm. Afterwords we headed back to my folks' place where Mom had not one but two cakes waiting for us to gorge ourselves on (we had all saved room because if you've ever had my Mom's cooking - you know that you had better do just that).

Next was the presents. I got a couple of excellent shirts which are a huge step up from the 'crappy t-shirts' I tend to buy myself. (I'm pretty sure that Mom was thinking at least as much of xtingu as she was of me when she bought them ;) ) I also got several great cards, some (always awesome) cayshola from my brother Ben and his wife Trina, and Josh gave me an awesome atlas put out by Harley Davidson and (as one can imagine) designed with bikers in mind. Yeah - I made out like a bandit.

As the final present of the weekend, xtingu drove us home from the Valley so that my food-coma-ing ass could sleep. She really is the best.