Can I have a do-over?
Some
Star Trek fans think that all the odd numbered movies are the bad ones and the even-numbered movies are the good ones. I’m beginning to suspect something similar is going on with my birthdays, only the other way around. What is it with my even-numbered birthdays? And when did this start? Thirty was pretty good, although a little weird since I’d recently gotten together with Ken and our first SCA event after that was on my birthday and a friend of mine won Crown, but somewhere after that…?
Friday night, our garage was burglarized. The fuckers came into our backyard and through the side door into the garage sometime after Ken finished loading the car with SCA stuff for Saturday’s event, and stole one of the remotes. They then sat somewhere nearby and played with the remote on and off through the evening to see if anyone would react. Our tenant did hear the garage door go up and down at one point, and she went down to investigate, saw the door was closed, and assumed we’d just come home from somewhere. (We have a detached garage with an apartment above it.) Then, around 12:30 a.m., she was still awake and in her living room right above the doors when she heard it again, and stomped around putting on her coat and going down the stairs to discover the door was
open. She’d scared them off. She got us, and we called the cops, and were basically up until 3 a.m. dealing with the shit.
They made off with a bike bag full of Ken’s heated gear and some bike tools; the organizer that goes in my trunk (Ken had taken it out to pack the car), which contained the GPS cradle/plug for my Palm; and several electric drills/screwdrivers and their charging stands.
On the plus side, nobody was hurt, they didn’t steal anything that was irreplaceable (that we’ve noticed, anyway), and if our tenant hadn’t been home, we wouldn’t’ve found out until the next morning.
Bastards. Karma will get ‘em in the end, but it sucks that we won’t be able to watch.
Anyway. We got little sleep because we were carpooling to the event with Thomasina and we had to pick her up. The event itself was quite fun. It was great to see our friends, and I foisted cake on everyone, and everyone patiently put up with me being a great swirling sucking mass of “the world revolves around me.” After all, I
am the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything now! :-)
I spent my birthday money from my parents on a purple and white felted hat made by
our friend Collette (there are no actual hats at that link, but go see her stunning glassware and stained glass! We have soooo many of the glasses!), and there will be pictures once Ken takes one of me that I don’t hate. I’m extremely tempted to sew six big pearls on the top… The feast was wonderful (there was pasta! and succulent roast chicken! and tasty salad!), too.
On the other hand, I managed not to step in any giant ground squirrel holes, but instead twisted my foot in a hole in the cement floor of the feast pavilion. No, the other ankle. I was approaching the table, and managed to catch myself on Ken, but my food all sloshed to the side of my plate and I proceeded to shower the table, the floor, and Ken with peas.
On the plus side, it’s not really that bad. It’s mostly the outside of my foot that hurts, and I was able to work out with my trainer today without any problems.
Given our state of exhaustion, we decided to stay home and have a quiet day Sunday. We went out to dinner with Morgana and Brian to
Café Bariloche, a Latin American restaurant in Ventura. They love the place, but we’d never managed to actually get there before. Oh. My. Gods. I had shrimp (
giant tiger prawns) in a basic lemon and garlic sauce, but the sauce was thick and clung to the shrimp, and I wanted to lick my plate it was so good. The rice was nicely seasoned. The vegetable had been sautéed in a bit too much oil, though, and I’m not greatly fond of string beans, so I decided, it was my birthday, dammit, and I didn’t have to eat my vegetables.
For dessert, M&B recommended the crème brûlée, and since we were all pretty full, we ordered one to share. If I’d thought my meal was good… They put dark chocolate in the crème brûlée, and when they caramelized the top it made the chocolate bits get soft, and it was so good I wanted private time with it.
Unfortunately, Monday morning we had to get up hideously early for our tax appointment, and then I my annual gyn exam in the afternoon… On the plus side, my hoohoo looks quite healthy and we’re getting a boatload of money back on our taxes. (Most of it will go to paying off our home equity loan, but I think we may also splurge on the sofa we want for the media room.)
I dunno. After all that, do I get a do-over? There was some really fabulous stuff in there, and all told, it could’ve been a lot worse.
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Today I got my page proofs for “Some Old Lover’s Ghost,” which is spiffy. They’re due this weekend, but I’ll probably read them tomorrow. I also received rejections from
Clarkesworld for “Matchmaker” and
ASIM for “The Rising”; both are back in circulation, poof! A couple of other rejections came through recently as well, but I’ve already turned the stories around, so there, neener neener.
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I’ve scheduled my tattoo! April 25th. Yay!
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The
otter cam continues to delight me to no end, except at night when it’s dark and I can’t see the otters. On the other hand, that means I can actually get some work done.
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I have lots more I could ramble about, but it’s getting late and I’m still trying to catch up on sleep from the weekend. More tomorrow!
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Currently Reading: The Chase, Clive Cussler (for the workshop)
Lately Listened To: Fellini Days, Fish
Recently Watched: Medium
