A hippo birdie

It has been a great Birthday run. Wednesday shortly after my last update, I met with Paul and Caesar for an amazing dinner at Trellis, the restaurant in my favorite hotel in Kirkland (Seattle), the Heathman. I had some steak, Caesar some Coq au Vin, and Paul had an increcible cassoulet with boar and duck meat. We felt very 17th century.

I did wind up finishing my big presentation for Thursday, about 3 hours prior to the presentation itself. I got it over to a Kinkos, picked it up (after discovering I had ordered it for the NEXT day accidentally - but they were quite accommodating), and made it out to the SeaTac conference center.

As it usually happens the actual attendance was a bit lower than expected - about 20 people, perhaps 1/3 were competitors/vendors, and 2/3 actually were interested. For some reason I was feeling VERY comfortable, and felt like it was a very smooth presentation. We had a lively Q&A afterwards, and then I was back to the hotel, having missed the last reasonable flight out of town.

I'm finally watching 30 Rock, which is a dream show, so I had some good laughs, then had another great dinner at Trellis, solo this time. Friday I flew home to a happy family, and had some great cuddles... Bella went off to a sleepover, so I put Isaac down and then my boys showed up for a birthday Avenging.

It was a wonderful line up of scotches - my new Glendronach 33 was a star, as was Ant's Bowmore 16 and Chicken's delightful Bunnahabin 12. We took a break to watch R.Kelly's flat out insane video on Youtube of "Real Talk" - oh my was that the most foul mouthed and hilarious video ever. Kids - no. DON'T LOOK AT IT KIDS. But dang. We finished the night watching Wall-E in Blu-Ray.

Saturday (the ACTUAL birthday) started with me and Isaac off to swimming: He was shivering again - that boy just has very little body fat, so I think he chills easily even though Foss keeps that pool at a comfortable 170 farenheit. (actually closer to 90). Then Pamela, Isaac, and I went and looked at some cars (the Jag is coming off lease in January, and we plan to get a dog in the spring, so we need a little more room... The Toyota Highlander is a strong contender right now.)

In the afternoon, Isaac forswore napping, and joined Bella and I in the basement for yes another Wall-E viewing. Everybody loves those robots. I could watch that movie every dang day. The new short at the end showing Burn-E, the one robot who was severely inconvenienced by Wall-E's exploits was just great.

After the movie (and waking Pamela from her long afternoon nap, which she deserved after 3 days of watching those kids while I galavanted around Seattle), I was off to Mae's: Yes, I went with 6 other moms to watch Twilight. After a drinkiepoo, we all piled into a minivan and went to the theater - arriving a full hour early so we could get the best seats.

Now you know I loved the books: Not the most challenging material in the world, but a ripping yarn (certain parts of book 2 notwithstanding). The movie was a very accurate translation of much of book 1: There were some details changed (Bella's caretaker role of her dad is not really there - they moved all meal scenes to a diner since the movie needed more than the 4 settings they cycled through in the book). But in all, it was a very rewarding experience: The budget was low low low - the SFX were definitely Sci-Fi channel quality, but the fireworks were there - Bella and Edward have some CHEMISTRY on screen, it cannot be denied. I also really liked the actor who played Jake... It's looking like the full series is greenlighted, so hopefully we'll have more of these movies pretty soon.

After the film, we all headed down to Wildfire for steaks and drinks. I decided that since I was an honorary girl for the evening (I don't believe there were ANY adult males in the audience who weren't chaperones), I'd have a proper girl drink - a Pomegranate Martini. We got home well before midnight, and sleep came quickly.

Today (which is still my birthday) I enjoyed an avalanche of facebook greetings, a lazy morning by the fire, and a lot of cuddles from the kids.

We pack up and head to Chicagoland tomorrow for the Turkeyday, after I teach my class at 6am, of course. While down there, Papa will be helping me test drive more cars, Lilli will be playing with the kiddos, Pamela will be chilling with her holiday entertaining magazines, and all will be well with the world. And Portillos will definitely get a visit. Or two.