Happy Birthday To Me...
Actually, it was Tuesday (April 19th), but the celebration has more or less been extended through the week.
Took Monday off (it was actually a state holiday here in Massachusetts) and caught the Red Sox (vs. Toronto) at Fenway with Jon, Jen, Heather, Joe, and a few others. Unique thing about this particular game is that it's the only morning start (11:00AM) in all of Major League Baseball (MLB), and is always held on the same day as the Boston Marathon. That means, bars open at 8:00AM, and I kid you not when I say there are lines outside most that are located in immediate proximity to the ballpark.
We all decided to meet at Who’s On First.To be honest, it's a real pit, but it's right across the street from Fenway.
For the record, the first beer was tasted about 8:03AM :-).
Hung out there for a few hours, and eventually made it over to our seats (in the bleachers) about 10:30 or so. Weather was f*cking fantastic, with bright sunshine, no clouds, and about 70 degrees. To make a long story short: the Sox won, the game was long, and I have a bit of a sunburn that's just a bit uncomfortable.
On my birthday itself, my co-worker Alanna put together a small gathering just a few blocks from work at Daedalus.Spent a couple hours there munching on apps while enjoying a few drinks, and was happy to be joined by Alanna, Lauren and her husband, Hayden, Bob, John, Georgia, and Marelsa. Couldn't lay claim to the couch and lounge-area however (see below:):
Didn't stay too late, and eventually made it home about 10:00PM.
Made out pretty well in terms of gifts, but surprisingly didn't hear or receive cards from a few friends; I honestly think a number of them forgot the date, but that happens. Big "thank you" to Aimercat for her lovely birthday wishes (and who's dead-on about her comments re: the Cookie Monster!)I managed to get a couple hundred dollars from my parents, a gift certificate to Amazon.com, and another from Overstock.com, which combined I part, have gone towards my major b-day purchase of this:
It's compact, is of pretty good quality, but I realy like the video options on it. The long and skinny is this: at 30 frames per second, and with a large capacity memory card, I can get all sorts of good clips I can go on to burn to a CD and store. That'll come in handy on trips to see my niece, or soccer matches. In any event, I just had to cave into the convenience of not having to buy film, develop, and scan.
Probably going to put the rest of money into savings with the hope of making it to Germany next summer for the World Cup. At present, the group I might be going with numbers about 20 or so, and it seems we already have a base of operations picked out.: a 1200 year-old mill in Diebach, Germany. It's in the heart of the country, and is about 4 km from the town of Hammelburg. From what I know, the mill's located on a river where people can go swimming, has about three renovated apartments, with the region being well-known for their winemaking. Get this though: provided we max out the room in each apartment, the cost per person should only be about $25 a night. No kidding. At present, I should have enough to stay the whole tournament, but it remains to be seen how many people we can commit, and how long we have until we need to confirm a reservation.
Anyway...
Kinda rainy here in Boston today, and spending a low-key afternoon watching some of the NFL draft. Will probably head down to Boston Beanstock (amazing coffee place if you're ever in Boston) to grab a sandwich or soup... and to check out/chat up Claire again; who says you can't have crushed after you reach (and go past) 30 ;-).
Took Monday off (it was actually a state holiday here in Massachusetts) and caught the Red Sox (vs. Toronto) at Fenway with Jon, Jen, Heather, Joe, and a few others. Unique thing about this particular game is that it's the only morning start (11:00AM) in all of Major League Baseball (MLB), and is always held on the same day as the Boston Marathon. That means, bars open at 8:00AM, and I kid you not when I say there are lines outside most that are located in immediate proximity to the ballpark.
We all decided to meet at Who’s On First.To be honest, it's a real pit, but it's right across the street from Fenway.
For the record, the first beer was tasted about 8:03AM :-).
Hung out there for a few hours, and eventually made it over to our seats (in the bleachers) about 10:30 or so. Weather was f*cking fantastic, with bright sunshine, no clouds, and about 70 degrees. To make a long story short: the Sox won, the game was long, and I have a bit of a sunburn that's just a bit uncomfortable.
On my birthday itself, my co-worker Alanna put together a small gathering just a few blocks from work at Daedalus.Spent a couple hours there munching on apps while enjoying a few drinks, and was happy to be joined by Alanna, Lauren and her husband, Hayden, Bob, John, Georgia, and Marelsa. Couldn't lay claim to the couch and lounge-area however (see below:):
Didn't stay too late, and eventually made it home about 10:00PM.
Made out pretty well in terms of gifts, but surprisingly didn't hear or receive cards from a few friends; I honestly think a number of them forgot the date, but that happens. Big "thank you" to Aimercat for her lovely birthday wishes (and who's dead-on about her comments re: the Cookie Monster!)I managed to get a couple hundred dollars from my parents, a gift certificate to Amazon.com, and another from Overstock.com, which combined I part, have gone towards my major b-day purchase of this:
It's compact, is of pretty good quality, but I realy like the video options on it. The long and skinny is this: at 30 frames per second, and with a large capacity memory card, I can get all sorts of good clips I can go on to burn to a CD and store. That'll come in handy on trips to see my niece, or soccer matches. In any event, I just had to cave into the convenience of not having to buy film, develop, and scan.
Probably going to put the rest of money into savings with the hope of making it to Germany next summer for the World Cup. At present, the group I might be going with numbers about 20 or so, and it seems we already have a base of operations picked out.: a 1200 year-old mill in Diebach, Germany. It's in the heart of the country, and is about 4 km from the town of Hammelburg. From what I know, the mill's located on a river where people can go swimming, has about three renovated apartments, with the region being well-known for their winemaking. Get this though: provided we max out the room in each apartment, the cost per person should only be about $25 a night. No kidding. At present, I should have enough to stay the whole tournament, but it remains to be seen how many people we can commit, and how long we have until we need to confirm a reservation.
Anyway...
Kinda rainy here in Boston today, and spending a low-key afternoon watching some of the NFL draft. Will probably head down to Boston Beanstock (amazing coffee place if you're ever in Boston) to grab a sandwich or soup... and to check out/chat up Claire again; who says you can't have crushed after you reach (and go past) 30 ;-).