Himelf's birthday wrapup.
Yesterday was a very nice birthday for Himself. I spaced the cake (making it tonight, he just wants a plain cherry-chocolate cake) but we had a fun day and used the end of our funds earmarked for last month's vacation.
We hung around the house all morning before deciding to go to Raleigh, so it was pouring by the time we left. On the way out, we went through the Sonic drive-through and the cherry Coke float I ordered arrived as a cherry slush with ice cream on it. I spoke clearly and slowly, so it was really fixed this time, unlike early May's watermelon Coke float.
The antenna we picked up on vacation (Dad's auto salvage knowledge rules) got Public Radio East darn near into Smithfield, after which we picked up an AM talk station out of Chapel Hill and laughed ourselves sick at Mike Gallagher. He's not quite as funny as Michael "No Relation" Savage, but his railing about how he doesn't understand how things like opening and closing school board meetings with the Lord's Prayer would make Jews feel uncomfortable made me proud to be an agnostic queer brown girl born in America!
We bought a bunch of snacks -- sesame dried squid, cuttlefish, pocky, milk candy (not so good Chinese stuff, I like my Japanese Milky!), and fruit beef jerky -- at the Asian market on Capital Boulevard (by Sawasdee Thai Restaurant) and found out the nearby Edward McKay used bookstore in Raleigh moved a few blocks north. This is a Good Thing, as the old location was a few storefronts from a Chuck E. Cheese, which on a Saturday in May had people double-parked at the curb to spare children walking. Gah.
I'm glad to report that the new Edward McKay location rocks -- way more space, loveseat in the kids' section, easier to find bathroom -- and as usual, we came home with a full shopping bag. This visit's free rack gem is a a lovely piece of Nestle formula propaganda in some Scandinavian language with many pictures of breasts. The illustrations are hysterical!
We had dinner at the Kanki's off Old Wake Forest Road, which Himself prefers to the Crabtree Valley location. You'd be very proud to know I actually managed to eat with chopsticks (I'd been practicing for several months without his knowledge), although the cranky woman to my left made a few snide comments about my taking a couple tries at every bite. I think there was something in her ranch dressing (we usually eat at Hikari's here in town and salad there comes with ginger or sesame, period) because she also complained about a server not giving her sweet enough tea, a girl across the table from her wearing a v-neck top (it didn't show that much), and a bunch of other things. But we had a fun time, Laurel behaved very well, and she loved the tableside chef.
Laurel slept most of the way home, so I just have a little backstitching to finish on her second cross-stitched Pooh shirt. In town, we got a few things and hit Lowe's and Michael's in search of aluminum bronzing powder for our 4th of July plans; we'll be blowing sh*t up until the police make us stop. The clearance rack at Michael's yielded some beautiful things -- a few archival document things I'd been wanting at <$2 per item, a reel of gold Krenik blending filament for fifty cents, and the real coup: 24 Prismacolor double-ended art markers for $40. No paper is safe now, and I have the incentive I need to ink out the Wonder Bread Wendy character sketch and the Rosie Ring-Around (my family's clowning business) coloring sheets for their website.
In case you're wondering what his purchased-ahead-of-time birthday gift was, it was UHF (Weird Al's 1989 movie) on DVD. His purchased-too-close-to-arrive-in-time gift is the Subgenius video Arise! on DVD, and he'll be getting some shaving supplies (he uses a straight razor) for Father's Day.
Speaking of Father's Day, I hope ajayen doesn't take it the wrong way that Laurel and I sent him a Father's Day card. When I was picking out cards for my dad, grandfather and Himself, it only seemed right to get one for him while I was at it.
We hung around the house all morning before deciding to go to Raleigh, so it was pouring by the time we left. On the way out, we went through the Sonic drive-through and the cherry Coke float I ordered arrived as a cherry slush with ice cream on it. I spoke clearly and slowly, so it was really fixed this time, unlike early May's watermelon Coke float.
The antenna we picked up on vacation (Dad's auto salvage knowledge rules) got Public Radio East darn near into Smithfield, after which we picked up an AM talk station out of Chapel Hill and laughed ourselves sick at Mike Gallagher. He's not quite as funny as Michael "No Relation" Savage, but his railing about how he doesn't understand how things like opening and closing school board meetings with the Lord's Prayer would make Jews feel uncomfortable made me proud to be an agnostic queer brown girl born in America!
We bought a bunch of snacks -- sesame dried squid, cuttlefish, pocky, milk candy (not so good Chinese stuff, I like my Japanese Milky!), and fruit beef jerky -- at the Asian market on Capital Boulevard (by Sawasdee Thai Restaurant) and found out the nearby Edward McKay used bookstore in Raleigh moved a few blocks north. This is a Good Thing, as the old location was a few storefronts from a Chuck E. Cheese, which on a Saturday in May had people double-parked at the curb to spare children walking. Gah.
I'm glad to report that the new Edward McKay location rocks -- way more space, loveseat in the kids' section, easier to find bathroom -- and as usual, we came home with a full shopping bag. This visit's free rack gem is a a lovely piece of Nestle formula propaganda in some Scandinavian language with many pictures of breasts. The illustrations are hysterical!
We had dinner at the Kanki's off Old Wake Forest Road, which Himself prefers to the Crabtree Valley location. You'd be very proud to know I actually managed to eat with chopsticks (I'd been practicing for several months without his knowledge), although the cranky woman to my left made a few snide comments about my taking a couple tries at every bite. I think there was something in her ranch dressing (we usually eat at Hikari's here in town and salad there comes with ginger or sesame, period) because she also complained about a server not giving her sweet enough tea, a girl across the table from her wearing a v-neck top (it didn't show that much), and a bunch of other things. But we had a fun time, Laurel behaved very well, and she loved the tableside chef.
Laurel slept most of the way home, so I just have a little backstitching to finish on her second cross-stitched Pooh shirt. In town, we got a few things and hit Lowe's and Michael's in search of aluminum bronzing powder for our 4th of July plans; we'll be blowing sh*t up until the police make us stop. The clearance rack at Michael's yielded some beautiful things -- a few archival document things I'd been wanting at <$2 per item, a reel of gold Krenik blending filament for fifty cents, and the real coup: 24 Prismacolor double-ended art markers for $40. No paper is safe now, and I have the incentive I need to ink out the Wonder Bread Wendy character sketch and the Rosie Ring-Around (my family's clowning business) coloring sheets for their website.
In case you're wondering what his purchased-ahead-of-time birthday gift was, it was UHF (Weird Al's 1989 movie) on DVD. His purchased-too-close-to-arrive-in-time gift is the Subgenius video Arise! on DVD, and he'll be getting some shaving supplies (he uses a straight razor) for Father's Day.
Speaking of Father's Day, I hope ajayen doesn't take it the wrong way that Laurel and I sent him a Father's Day card. When I was picking out cards for my dad, grandfather and Himself, it only seemed right to get one for him while I was at it.