Well... birthday plans didn't work out, but that's ok. I guess it's a school night and a responsible 29-year-old wouldn't go out anyway. But who wants to be responsible? ;)

Had a pretty good day. Typical work day, but I brought donuts to my class. And after 2 hours, no one had moved to eat one, so I started sending emails to all of my phone bank "loved" ones to come up and share a birthday donut with me.

Almost every single one of them was working today and stopped up to my training room, so that was fun. Brightened my day a little bit.

Other than that, it was more or less a normal day.

I suppose after a certain age birthdays tend to lose their excitement. They don't for me, though. I still view them as a big deal and I want to celebrate them.

My sister took me out to Lonestar Steakhouse to celebrate my promotion to consultant. It was a lovely gesture from her, I thought.


But now, I'm about to have a food baby!!!

Not that we ate it all, by any means, but this what we ordered:

Me: 9 oz sirloin, medium rare, steamed broccoli, skin-on red mashed potatos
Beth: 9 oz sirloin, medium, salad and baked potato
To share: Texas Rose (like a bloomin' onion) and fresh buns w/honey butter

Not to mention that Sheridan also had food.

We have SO SO SO much food left over in our fridge, it's awesome. I have to babysit Sheridan alone tomorrow while Beth and Mike work, so it's great that I don't have to cook. :D

Also stopped by Barnes and Noble and purchased Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski, which is Oprah's new bookclub book that she announced today.

Say what you will or might about Oprah and her show, but her book selections tend to be exceedingly good.

I'm going to go buy the first book in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I want to see what all the fuss is about.

I feel like I'm a sucker.

Anyone read it?

I just found out I got a promotion at work. It's not the Minneapolis job that I applied for, haven't heard anything on that. I've written it off that nothing is going to come of it at this time.

I'm essentially doing the same job that I am now, but I have a title change and a pay change.

I am now a Learning and Development Consultant and it came with a 10% pay raise, so that's nice, especially right now when the financial sector is taking it up the butt.

Great thing is, in 6 more months comes our annual raises (though I probably won't get much because this one was so big).

YAY!!!

I've been feeling really crappy for the past few days, cough that keeps getting worse, fever of up to 102, and almost constantly over 100.

I've also been incredibly tired, sleeping about 10 hours at night and needing a nap immediately after work and wanting to sleep all day while at work.

Finally went to the doctor last night and they think I have viral bronchitus, for which there is no real treatment. They gave me some pills to help with the cough, but otherwise just Tylenol for the fever, fluids and rest. JOY.

I hate getting viral sick because it's just a waiting game.

So it's hard to breath, i start coughing contantly. The cough is one of those burning, body wracking coughs that last 15 seconds at a time.

AND, to top it off, I'm leaving town in about 5 minutes for another wedding out of town. Will be back Sunday.

Will talk more about this weekend's wedding festivities later, but wanted to post a few quick photos from the night:

( here comes the bride!Collapse )

The Minneapolis job posting was supposed to close today. I went out there to make sure it was still listed before I started me resume.

It's still there, and has been extended through Wednesday. I wonder if they didn't get the response they wanted!?!

Maybe that will bode well for me.

There's a similar position also available in Oregon, but I'm not sure I'm ready to move that far away. If it's only Minneapolis, I can still come back once a month or more to visit.

Don't know how adventurous any of you are with music, but if you are, you should check out Sigur Ros, specifically their albums Agaetis Byrjun and ( ) (yes, it's parenthesis).

They're from Iceland, and sing in either Icelandic or Hopelandic, which is a language that they made up. Essentially, they're using their voices as instruments, not always to portray lyrics. They also play their electric guitars with cello and violin bows: how cool is that?!?

I made a copy of Agaetis Byrjun for a friend recently after not listening to it for a while, and I forgot just how gorgeous it is. Their music frequently moves me, sometimes to overwhelming joy, othertimes to tears.

I can't say that everyone will love it; some of it is a bit out there. But if you can just open your mind, chill out and really listen, it's pretty kick ass.

Feel free to check out my MySpace page for a video/audio of one of my personal favorites.

Just went to Boston's for dinner. Will not be returning.

The person who sat us wasn't very friendly, but we got our drinks and ordered our food.

It took about 10 minutes to get our salads. No biggie. Mike got a bowl of soup instead of a cup, but at least it was too much soup, not too little. I got the wrong salad dressing, but it was on the side, so also not a big deal.

We wait w/o drinks for 10 minutes, then a different waiter got us refills, then we waited another 20 minutes w/o drinks.

After waiting an HOUR with no food and no one stopping by, we finally got the manager. Turns out the waiter was on his first night; he entered our order, but the printer didn't work in the kitchen (so they say), so they had only just realized our food wasn't coming.

The manager said our food would be out shortly and would be free.

30 minutes later, still no food, and no manager in sight. 5 more minutes and the food got there. Sheridan's pizza was burnt, my sister's pasta had been sitting for so long the sauce was all absorbed into the noodles and it was cold and dry.

We got the manager again. He approached us saying, "Wow, you must really hate me right now." Pretty much. Then he puts his hands in the air, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I got nothing."

So we had them make most of the food again, in to go boxes, we got the appetizer we had ordered but didn't receive with the other food, and ordered a dessert to go as well.

We estimate our free order cost the restaurant about $75.

I'm never happy when I go there, but it's one of Mike's favorite places, so occasionally I'll cave in and go. It won't be happening again.

So, for those of you living in SooFoo, if you're going to drink and sit in the bar, it's really pretty good. Their bartender is really good. However, do not sit in the restaurant side and expect service of any mentionable sort.


Oh, and because our dinner took so long, I didn't get a chance to go tan. AND, I was going to go pick up my refill of birth control pills. However, I'm not going to be able to do that. If I get pregnant because I couldn't start them today as planned, I'm suing Boston's for child support!