VERY happy birthday!!!

I've been entirely decadent and taken the whole darned weekend off, for my birthday. But consequently, it's been the nicest birthday I've had in years!

When you're a graduate student -- as I've been for around ten years -- even when you're not working, you're supposed to be working! So in the past, when it was my birthday, The Lady would take me out to lunch or dinner, and she'd give me my presents, and the rest of my family would give me my presents -- and that would be it. But in part because I'd been gone the whole week, so my schedule was already out of whack -- and partly because I haven't truly had a day off in a loooonnng time -- I just took the whole weekend off.

Due to the timings of international postages, I received birthday cards and gifts on Friday; plus I received other gifts from my in-laws all weekend as well. So Friday thru Sunday was really celebrated as my birthday. The Lady took me (and The Bub!) out to dinner. Got a CD from Tall Guy; Season four of M.A.S.H. from The Bub (when it started getting good, i.e. when B.J. and Col. Potter both arrive); the white guitar with purple and clear bits of glass glued to the front (looks like a disco ball!!!) that I found on E-bay a while back, from The Lady; Season Two of Scrubs(''Scrubs!!!!'') from my parents-in-law; Season One of Scrubs from next-door-brother-in-law and his family; and a groovy Thai two-string bowed intstrument from my sister-in-law and her family (essentially like a Chinese er-hu).

And from my parents, they deposited some money into my U.S. bank account and told The Lady to take me out to dinner (which she did) -- and any extra I should spend on myself. So, I bought a 13'' tom (for my bits-and-pieces assembled drum kit) thru the local classifieds for AU$45, and also a box of misc. tools from the classifieds for AU$20 (includes a brace [the crank component in brace-and-bit], a weird hammer (I think for shaping metal thru pounding), two nice wooden-handled cabinetmaker's screwdrivers, and a good many cold chisels.

So, I spent part of Saturday and part of Sunday running around getting the classified ads goodies; part of Sunday fighting with the grove of bamboo which is invasively trying to attack Ralphie's fenced doggie area; part of Saturday and Sunday running errands with The Lady; several segments of hanging around with The Bub; and a whole lotta time just sitting around watching my new Knight Rider, M.A.S.H., and Scrubs DVDs. I don't think I've ever watched that much t.v. in one block! (It helps if you've pre-selected the content, though -- as opposed to the ''pot luck'' of whatever comes on the air.) A lovely bonding session with The Lady, The Bub, and Tall Guy.


Oh: For the month or so before I went to Cranberry, I'd sometimes hand The Bub my harmonica from my belt, and she'd try to blow on it. Now that I've come back, I think she gets the concept. While running errands at the mall on Sunday, she was being pushed around the stroller while breathing in and out on my harmonica, grinning away. Sooooo cute!!! :)


--GG