Weekend Update and Stuff

Oh man, where to start.

Well, I guess it would make sense to touch on my birthday first, which was awesome by the way. Amy had been able to pull together about six of our "couples friends" to join us at one of our fave local places, Sato Sushi. We had the entire back area to ourselves, which was great because we could pretty much be as loud as we wanted and that comes in handy when you are also including three babies in tow! Everyone was so very generous with their gifts and I am pretty well-stocked on sake for quite some time to come! I was especially pleased to notice (actually Amy noticed it) that the bottle received from Heather and Pete came from True Sake in The City. The owner of this place has written a book that I am currently reading about educating one's self about the joys of all things sake related, so that was a very cool little thing to see. I have to admit that Amy did indeed surprise me on some levels, arranging for a cake and everything, and it was very very cool to see everybody. I plan on sending out "thank you" cards, but in the meantime please accept this entry as my heart-felt thanks for a truly lovely birthday dinner!

After dinner, most of us headed back over to our place to relax and have some more drinks, play some pool, which in turn evolved into a serious Rock Band/Rock Band II session, with everyone - even Amy! - getting involved at various points, singing, playing drums, bass, and guitars. It was great! There is nothing better than drunk - or at least somewhat buzzed adults - making fools out of themselves with a kid's interactive video game! But I think all would agree that my version of Mountain's "Mississippi Queen" was awe-inspiring, to say the least. There is even video of it somewhere....more of that to come later, perhaps.....

All in all, it was a very cool 42nd birthday. The day was full of well wishers calling, sending notes, and of course, dinner that night. The only bad thing? Literally about a half hour after our last guests took their leave of us, I started to feel sick. Amy had been sick with some sort of 24-hour flu bug or something on Friday, but was perfectly fine all day Saturday; me, not so lucky. It slammed into me, wracking me with uncontrollable chills and all of the fun aches and pains (and various bodily functions) associated with the flu. I spent all day Sunday on the couch, more or less, trying to recover as a fever stuck with me until around 6 or 7 at night. Today, Monday, I am better for the most part but still incredibly weak and wiped out, wanting nothing more than to curl up on the couch or in bed and sleep the day away (which I still may do tomorrow......).

This upcoming weekend will find us in Mo-Town, finally celebrating our belated Christmas and my birthday with my Mom and her husband Tom. That we will do up on Saturday, relaxing and just enjoying the day since we will be spending the night (a rare thing for us). Sunday will be a very interesting lunch as we plan on seeing the Fagan side of the family (or at least Keith, his wife, along with Randy and his significant other). This will be a first-time meeting for Amy to meet my real father - whom I only met a short time ago for the first time in almost 40 years. This will also be the first time he will be meeting his grandchildren, Sloan and Devlin. So....."interesting" is perhaps the best word I can come up with at the moment. But don't take that as being a bad thing.....its just going to be.....interesting.

So, again, thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes on my birthday and to those who joined us that evening! You all made it a very cool birthday celebration!