My Birthday

[liralen]

Hm... I think I like being middle-aged.   I had a really great day on my birthday and a good day after, too...


The day itself was pretty quiet.  I got up in time to get Jet to the bus, had a little breakfast, did a little writing, saw some Samurai Champloo (rewatched chapter 11 and 12, watched 13 and 14 today, it's good having borrowed the DVDs from r0ck3tsci3ntist because I can rewatch whatever intrigued me to get more of the detailing), had a nap, had some lunch, answered comments, wrote a drabble, rode my bike to Target to get more medications and a credit card for the 10% off, to King Soopers for butter, and then went to get Jet from the bus.

I'd gotten several gifts in the morning.  amberley got me caught up on xxxHolic, Tsubasa RC, and he also sent the latest Neil Gaiman novel, The Graveyard Book. Jet and I took a look inside, and Jet said, "Woah... pictures in a chapter book?  Cool... but those are kinda creepy..."  Yes.  They are.  Beautiful, though.  Gives me more ideas on what I might want to do with a book if I could, though.  That's neat.

John and Jet bought me the Klutz Lego Crazy Contraptions book as well as the Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures.  So as soon as Jet was home, we were playing Indiana Jones.  It's even more clever than either set of Star Wars games, lots more that any character can do with the right tools in the area, and I like the expansion of abilities.  That was fun.

John took over, and I got ten minutes on IM with stark_black to stage some "Silver and Black", time for a shower, and a few more words with her before the boys rambled up from the basement and took me out to dinner.  We went to Thai Kitchen and I got pineapple fried rice, which I adore as well as Tom Yum Gai, the coconut milk based soup.  John got a green curry and Jet got flat side rice noodles cooked with soy and eggs, broccoli and tofu.  He really likes tofu, so he orders it whenever he can.  It's interesting.  We all enjoyed our meal and then hit the White Mountain Creamery.

It's our local ice cream shop that makes all their gelatos and ice creams in their own kitchen, including a fresh strawberry ice cream and fresh peach gelato that are to die for.  I got medium, with the peach gelato under a scoop of the creme brulee with the burnt sugar crust.  The creme brulee gelato was dense, rich with eggs, not too sweet, but the crust lent a sweet, crisp texture to each bite.  When I hit the peach gelato, it had warmed just enough to be creamy, easy to scoop, and thick with peach puree.  I could see the peaches roughing the texture of the cream, and there was none of the cooked fruit flavor to it that bad peach ice creams have, this was nearly like just having a bowlful of fresh fruit with cream poured over it.  Nearly no sweetness other than that of the ripe fruit itself.

Wow.

Jet did homework and went to bed, and I got a couple of hours with stark and the RP was really fun, but oddly... confusing for me, as after a certain point David (my char) just refused to touch Chris again.  And I couldn't figure out why.

Until I slept last night for a good ten hours, the most I've had since probably camping, between my cold and how busy life has been, it was good to finally get a whole night's rest.  And in the morning, in a dream David showed me exactly why he was holding back and I nearly cried at the intensity of it.  So I wrote a long email about it to stark and we'll see how it goes.  But that letter beat my head in all morning, even through cinnamon rolls with the boys and getting Jet to the bus, until I finally go it out.

Then I dealt with fun comments from the drabble, and putzed around doing next to nothing for way too long.  Then I got a package in the mail from John's brother David along with four birthday cards.  I figure it's birthday week... as calm_isolation and hartofthewud gave me lovely virtual gifts today for my birthday!  Thank you so much!  And mysocalledhell gave me a chunk of a fic and ginnyvos offered to do a prompt for me that I'll love seeing from her.  David sent me Roses, Origami, and Math by Toshikazu Kawasaki.  I'd seen neko_san make roses and I wanted to know how.  Now I know, of course, when Jet saw the book he said, "Hey!  It's like Legos with paper!"  And he's right.  Lots of it is modular model building... beautiful stuff... 

The other book from David was Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run.  I'll admit to some surprise, as I thought I'd put the DVD on my wishlist, not a book... but OH What A Book!!  Anyone that loves Alton Brown should get it.  It's basically his journal during the filming of the River Run, and it has most of the details that were left out of the TV series, including a bunch of recipes that are just astonishing, including a recreation for a home kitchen of the apple fritters at that one donut stand that I was just dying to have.  Now I can make apple fritters for myself.  Watch out waistline!!

My cold is just killing my writing motivations.  And I'm sick and tired of stalling on all my long stuff.... but I did another drabble for a Y!Gallery participant for her OTP and an autumn setting.  Someone told me that the beauty of not doing fanfic is not having to just write whatever favorite pairing someone has, but I kinda like stretching myself now and again, even if it's to write something I don't think I would ever have on my own.  Other times I think I'm just wasting my time, but... it's all writing, and I learn something each time I just get words out and find that they delight someone.

Confidence, perhaps, most of all.

Again, when Jet came home, we played and played Indiana Jones.  John was great and made our dinner on a moment's notice, and after homework, Jet and I went at it until his bedtime.  I need to go to sleep soon.

But it's been a couple of good days.  Thank you, everyone that left a wish for me on their LJ, I believe I've commented on them all, but if I've missed, please comment here?  I didn't mean to.