I just realized that most of my birthday presents could sit on my head.



Post describing what my presents were:
http://madladyred.livejournal.com/269108.html

I got several cool gifts for my birthday. My parents and John gave me Beatles Rock Band for the Wii. We’ve played it twice so far – once at Thanksgiving and once at Gingerbread. One of John’s coworkers has promised to play with me next Saturday. It’s a lot of fun!! Toaster gave me a hat just like Paolo Garbonzo’s Renn Faire Rain Hat!!! I don’t know how she ran across one. McAmason gave me a gas mask! A real life, functional gas mask!! Of course, I made a lot of “Let me in Mommy, I’m afraid of the bombs” comments when he was explaining how it worked, so I will need a refresher course when I’m better able to pay attention. Magnet gave me an Ironsides DVD as a bday/Christmas gift because he remembered I had a huge crush on Ironsides when I was a kid. (When I was three I asked Mom for a wheelchair for Christmas so that I could be like Ironsides. Her response was something like God forbid you ever get one, but I didn’t understand her meaning at the time.) I also got taken out to Bombay Masala by Monkeys and my mom on Sunday. Mmmmmmm! At work my coworkers gave me a giant cookie, so I spent a lot of the day taking chunks of cookie to various offices partially to share and partially to prevent me from eating it all as I had weighin at the end of the week and still needed to lose from Thanksgiving.

What am I not doing that I ought to be doing?
I feel a shoe drop is looming...

TWO MORE DAYS OF REGISTRATION!!! SIX DAYS TO DRAGONCON!!!! TOMORROW IS FRIDAY!!!! SUNDAY IS MONKEY'S BIRTHDAY!!! MONDAY IS CHARLOTTE'S BIRTHDAY. MONDAY WE CLOSE OUT GRADUATION!!!! SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH GOING ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monkeys baked an amazing chocolate cherry cake for Charlotte's birthday. My coworker was the person who fixed us up AND baked our wedding cake AND catered our wedding as a wedding present to us. (After much arm twisting she finally agreed to accept $500 and a homemade quilt as a thank you for the amazing food she prepared for us because you just can't do that much work on catering a wedding for nothing.) Oh, she also did half the reception decorating. :) Yeah, she rocks. So anyway, tomorrow I'm attempting to bring the cake in w/o destroying it or eating any of it.

I am more disorganized this Dragoncon than any other in the past. I don't know what's up with me. I did just dig out my Rutles DVD on the off chance of having Neil Innes autograph it. I have done nothing else in prep for that. I need to take down the MST3K film reel - sooooo excited about them being there!!! Monkeys asked me today if I knew where my Dukes of Hazard lunchbox from 5th grade is - LOL!

I wore one of the Shalwar Kameez to work today! My mom usually refuses to take things, even things I've bought for her specifically. She won't even let us buy her dinner for her birthday!!! So today when I told her that now that I'd worn the yellow SK out, I was going to give it to her I fully expected her to protest ("Raven gave it to you, not me" "I don't need any more clothes" "You look so pretty in it, you need to keep it" and many other similar comments) and that I would have to arm wrestle her into agreeing to take it, pointing out that I can borrow it back at any time, so it wasn't a hardship. Nope. Her eyes lit up and she said "okay!" almost before I got the entire sentence out of my mouth. I was kind of stunned. I was actually silent for a bit afterwards. Then I giggled. So anyway, I'm giving it to her on Saturday. Ha!

Should I feel guilty that I have baked a cake or a brownie for like a million friends, family members, and coworkers, but I'm not doing anything for my husband this year? Monkeys and I talked about it, and with Dragoncon next week we have too much trip prep to worry about a party. We don't even have time to clean the house - there are clothes and suitcases and everything all over the diningroom table. I'm not sure what he's done in there, actually.

Oh, well. I threw a huge, awesome party for him last year. :)

And I'm going to get him a brownie and some coffee at BAM on Saturday.
And I'm going to see a movie I probably would not otherwise see but for his birthday.
So I don't suck totally.



Supernatural tonight is my favorite Misha episode. It is the one where I realized what an amazing actor he is.

Apropos of nothing...to quote John Lennon - I'm so tired.
I can't begin to describe how tired I am right now. :( I'm going to take a nap.
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(I wrote this a work today during a break - it's a description of last weekend)
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First of all, if you live in or near Panama City, Florida – go to Trigo Café. It’s on Harrison Street, and the food is outstanding and reasonably priced. If you do eat there, before you leave you must buy a loaf of his Bleu Cheese Pecan bread. It’s unbelievable.
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Ten months after I was born, friends of my parents gave birth to their own baby girl. To this day I tell Janey that after a month of playing with me they wanted one of their own. Yeah, I’m humble.
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I say “friends of my parents” but really they are family, and they always will be. I think of her parents as my spare set of parents and her brothers as my brothers. So last weekend I helped out with her dad’s 70th birthday party held at Janey’s brother’s restaurant, Trigo. It was a huge affair! Three of his sisters and his brother came, along with many of their children. Also attending, of course, were Janey and her two brothers, their spouses, all of their children, my parents, and my husband – so I’m guessing there were about forty of us in all. It was a surprise party and there is a really funny story about that which I cannot publish but would be glad to tell you in person… Jay and husband and son came over the Friday before, so we made a birthday banner, played Quiddler, and generally just enjoyed being together. We live in different cities and although we email almost daily, we don’t actually *see* each other that often, so it was sooooooo good to have her over. The next day, after yet another pancake breakfast, we kidnapped my parents and drove to Panama City. It was a gorgeous day – it couldn’t have been prettier, and the drive involves passing loads of beaches so the scenery was lovely. We got there early enough to hit some shops and check into the hotel where Jay and nearly her entire family were spending the night. Mom got in a *great* slam on one of her brothers. (Janey’s family is Catholic and her brother, who is truly crazy, was trying to put a claim on my converting because he said it would give him seven years. I asked, “Off purgatory?” and his wife snickered. Then Jimmy started quizzing me and telling me how I needed to go to daily mass because he goes to daily mass. Mom asked him “And what good has that done *you*?” which triggered applause. Ha!)
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We left them by the pool to decorate the restaurant while Johnny and one of his employees cooked dinner. Slowly, family began to arrive and mill about catching up with everyone. Some live in Tampa, some in Panama City, some in Tallahassee, some in Pennsylvania, etc. so it was great having everyone in one room. Someone finally spotted the birthday boy’s car – lured over to help with “an electrical problem Johnny seemed to be having with the restaurant” – and suddenly 35 people ran down a hallway and into a storeroom noisily trying to hide. How they couldn’t been seen and heard from the street I don’t know. Anyway, some of the smarter people hid behind the counter instead, and they jumped out and yelled a weak surprise while the bulk of the crown was still stuck in the storeroom, which was pretty funny. Then everyone else had to file out of the storeroom one by one because of space constraints, so from my vantage point it looked like the Marx Brothers (Night at the Opera?) where people kept falling out of the tiny ship cabin. It worked out great as a receiving line; however, because as each person filed by John he gave them a hug and thanked them for coming.
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The rest of the evening was awesome because it was filled with everyone talking. I had an absolute blast. Many people in their family ought to be comedians because they can be hysterically funny. Jimmy, who is the craziest one and who used to tie me to furniture when he was six and I was one because he wanted to play with me and I wouldn’t stop crawling, is full of outrageous and questionable stories from being a bail bondsman. He used to be a private investigator before that, so he lives a wild and occasionally dangerous lifestyle. Nearly everyone is easy to talk to, so conversation flowed nonstop. And the majority of the people there I knew since birth (theirs or mine!) so, it was just really comfortable and familiar.
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Unfortunately, I can’t share many of the stories told (even with names changed to protect the innocent).
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We left around nine and made the two hour trek home. I can’t begin to imagine what happened after we left… The hotel is still standing, however, so that’s a good sign.

Raven returned home from Canada two days before his birthday, so we had a welcome home/birthday party for him this Saturday. He said he was overexposed to Bollywood after two weeks visiting home. (Apparently his sister is a big fan? She rocks, cuz she picked out a bunch of movies for me!!!) To welcome him back from the freezing cold and in defiance of his overexposure, we decided to throw a Bollywood can Kiss My A$$ party in his honor. Friday disbandedtoastr helped us hang loads of Hollywood decorations (movie cameras, lights, film reels). To give it the Bollywood feel, reddheaded found a websites with decoration suggestions. Then, as luck would have it, my mother and I happened upon an Indian themed party set up at Target the day of the party. The living room and dining room were swathed in reds, oranges, yellows, and deep purples and loaded up with candles. It looked really pretty. I knew I wouldn’t be able to cook Indian/Pakistani food as good as his mom, plus he was tired of it anyway, so we didn’t do any special food for the party. Monkeys did make two killer cakes, however. One was a white cake with a Nutella frosting. The other was the ladyfinger/coffee/whipped cream portion of a tiramisu, because we thought that was Raven’s favorite part of the desert. Oh, and he made maple leaf cookies for Canada. We had planned to do a piñata he could bash that was filled with Bollywood and Canadian things to signify his return and symbolize the asskissing nature of the party, but I couldn’t find an appropriate piñata, so in reality it was just a Bollywood party. Tickmosis, Toaster, and I wore our Salwar Kamishes that Raven’s parents brought us from their last trip to the subcontinent. Redd wore a homemade Sari that looked FANTASTIC. Pictures posted below. After the opening of presents, we watched three episodes of Big Bang Theory, then we watched THIS:



Also, Raven brought me back a BUNCH of other Bollywood films, including some horror movies. He’s even willing to watch a few of them with us. Woot! Although, there are a few I’m under orders to watch without him.

( a few pictures )

I wish I had more time because I haven't had a chance yet to post about the Act4Murder show we saw last Thursday. Tickmosis's birthday is tomorrow, so as part of her birthday a group of us went to a dinner murder show. magnet5 and my best friend from high school have been in these shows before, and I have always wanted to go see one. Unfortunately, Magnet wasn't in this particular show, but he did attend with us which was awesome because our table got flirted with an awful lot, and I'm sure their knowing him had an impact on that attention.

It was at the Bombay Masala, so we were treated to an Indian food buffet. (Which is heaven for me, Raven.) I'm not saying that was the best part of the night because it was Tick's birthday and there was a play going on, but OMG I LOVE INDIAN FOOD.

The show was hysterical. Don Kashane (pronounce it like you are saying "thank you" in German) was throwing a benefit and somehow three competing divas all showed up to perform, each thinking they were to be the only artist. There was also a grumpy piano player who may or may not play piano and someone who at first seemed like a stalker, but blossomed into something completely different and wonderful. I don't want to give any more plot details just in case someone else sees the show, but I will brag that our table solved the mystery and won a bunch of cool prizes (coffee cups, coffee, chocolates). The table that came up with the worst solution won a DVD set of mysteries to watch before coming to another show in the hopes they would pick up some skills for next time. My favorite scene from the play I cannot repeat, but my other favorite moments are 1) all the terrible terrible piano jokes that Don Kashane threw out (after every joke he's say "Don Kashane!") and 2) the rewritten "I am beautiful" song that the younger diva sang. The three divas were wonderful. "Royal Payne" looked a lot like Brittany Spears and had the squeaky spoiled voice down pat. "Marion Haste" sang country songs and had the best jeans I have ever seen. "Augusta Wind" reminded me a lot of Celine Dion but was very New Age in a hysterical over-the-top sort of way. Magnet said she performed with Dean Martin as a back up singer and dancer!! I can believe it; she was striking! (Beautiful, poised, etc.)

Turns out the piano player (Stan Back) was played by one of the reporters from the Beachcomber who knew Toaster's band Ave. He's interviewed them on several occasions.

Oh, and there was yummy Indian food. DId I mention that?

Tonight there will be yummy Black Forrest cake, since Tick didn't really get a cake at the show. They did sing a dirge of a birthday song to her, which was very funny. All and all, a wonderful night. Now, I have to run and finish getting things set up for tonight. CAKE!

Oh, hey, is that the TARDIS materialized in my living room? Why, yes it is! (He's almost done building it.)



Wait, there's more? What are Monkeys and Toast looking at on that shelf there? Is it, is it ... MLR's birthday present??? The one from the most awesomest husband in the whole world?



OMG squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - it's the CONSOLE of the TARDIS and it fits perfectly IN OUR TARDIS. Thank goodness Raven and Libra gave me all those DW figures for Christmas and birthday last year. And thank goodness the inside is bigger than the outside, because otherwise there wouldn't be room to fit them all. Also, look in the second picture, as I tried to get a shot of the door to the outside. (While you are looking at the door please note how good a job Monkeys did with matching the font on the upper Police Box sign?? He's incredible.) The toy company even put a hat rack in the console set. Plus, it comes with little plastic mallets. Go ahead, Toast, you know you want to say it...



Yeah, I know it's a bunch of pictures and I really ought to put it behind a cut. Sorry! It's just too cool! It's my birthday, so I can clutter up bandwidth. :)

Good night!

I didn't get a chance to email S₂AK and wish her a happy birthday!!!

Hope you had an awesome day today! :)

If anyone wants to do a random stranger birthday wish - sarahtoalaksa
She's totally lovable!

I thought I would get a bit of a break now that Dragoncon, Monkey's bday, Pirate Palooza, and the shower are over, but it appears not! October seems like it will be a busy month after all. This Friday I'm excited because we're going over to my parents for dinner and spending the night. We're hoping to make S₂AK’s Nan bread on Thursday to contribute to dinner. My mom is trying out about eight different recipes from an Indian cookbook. There’s some green bean garlic dish, a potato and poppy seed dish, a cauliflower something, a chicken curry, a beef korma, a lentil/daal dish, and some kind of noodle/nut desert. I don't know. All the pictures looked really good! I'm trying to eat very healthily today through Thursday in preparation for going craaaaaaazy on Friday. I was really, really bad this weekend between the shower, Hooters, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream being two for one at Publix... so I'm not sure my self-control functionality is fully operational right now.

Then it's a birthday bonanza! Saturday is our friend's son's birthday party PLUS it's droidgirl's actual birthday. We're having cake at our house for her and for libras_art's upcoming birthday and in honor of soberchef, kwix, and sarahtoalaksa's recent/upcoming birthdays. They might not be able to be with us in person to celebrate, but that won't stop the singing and caking! The Saturday after that, we are going to another birthday party. (Jeez, people. Like February is that romantic a month…) The following Friday and Saturday we are going to Tammy's rehearsal dinner and her wedding. The 17th is also the actual birthday of my bestest friend since birth, so since I can't hang with her on her actual birthday I'm trying to arrange a road trip to take her out for a belated birthday lunch on the 25th instead. The weekend after that is HALLOWEEN!! Huzzah!! It's funny, because there are also about seven birthdays at work this month. I don't know if October really is a bigger month for birthdays or if it's just the crowd I run with.

( to do list )

Vogon Poetry Competition

I wish I’d thought to video tape this, because it was truly hysterical. Most of us had moments of fits of laughter from the various deliveries or lines, and everyone who wrote a poem did a fantastic job. The other funny part was in tying the judges to the poetry appreciation chairs. So here are pictures of the chairs and judges. Redd’s somewhat Swedish Chef inspired poem with her fabulous delivery won, but McAmason’s was a close second and generally agreed to being the most Vogon-like.

The judges tied to their chairs (see Raven's winning robe in the top picture & Trillian from the BBC show on the TV in the background of the second picture):


The winner (sitting between two of the judges):


The rules:
Rule one: the poem must be two verses long. (Really you can just bisect it.)
Rule two:The poem must contain at least three nonsense words.
Rule three:In honor of Monkeys, the poem must reference cheese, Apple computers, or 80's arcade games.
Rule four: The poem must be awful.
Rule five: The poem must be really awful.
(I gave some examples from the book on the back as a guide. The two verses references the Infocom game's instruction to use the second word from the second verse to open the lock.)

Some of the poems: I'm trying to make them be not as long by using / to show line breaks. :)

( The Winning Poem )

( Second Place Winner )

( Who What When Where? )

( Ode to Macintoshes that disrupt my movie viewing )

I have three more I can post, but I'm starting to get hungry, so I'm off to heat up leftover chocolate fondue! :)
Someone already put theirs up on their LJ (see magnet5's post http://magnet5.livejournal.com/230926.html

Decorations and Food

Check out my Nutrimatic Tea Dispenser! It’s a cardboard box with wrapping paper, a button, a tea cup, some of Monkey’s computer cables, and Toast stuck a knitting needle in the top for some reason.



Check out our Babelfish Vending machine! Toast wrapped a cardboard box. The tray is part of my cardboard box (I used the other half on the tea dispenser). I based this design on the Infocom puzzle, so there is a hook, a robe, a towel, some of Arthur Dent’s junk mail (why did PeelanderZ write to him?!?!?), a button. I didn’t have time to make the grate, a panel, a satchel, and some cleaning robots, but the idea is there.



Oh, and that's my winning towel they are sitting on. In front of the BabelFish Vending machine are the Gargleblaster decorations.



Food
I requested Monkey make a Miliways menu! See it on the food table along with some bulldozers and construction equipment. I’m afraid our dining room was about to be torn down to make a new bypass. I’m not sure for whom, I’m guessing Tweedlebugs by the size of the equipment. The cake is supposed to be Arthur Dent’s house just prior to being destroyed. Had we had more time there would be doors, windows, and a little man laid out in front of the bulldozer…



Closeup on the menu

I am so glad it worked out! Big thanks to everyone who helped.

My husband asked for a big Hitchhiker’s themed party for his 42nd birthday, and since this seemed more important to him than turning 40, I wanted to make sure it was special. In searching for ideas online, however, I was surprised by how few Hitchhikers party ideas and descriptions were out there, so I decided to post a lot of details of mine in case it helps anyone in the future. In the next few posts I'll be doing "short" reviews of pictures of the party possibly followed by a longer, more detailed description behind a cut for anyone who might be interested. Anyone know where the longer description should be posted for people searching for this kind of stuff?

Best Robe/Best Towel Competition.

Towels - Redd wore PJ’s and a robe, but didn’t have a towel, so she grabbed a hand towel from my kitchen that had a crab on it and announced people should vote for her because she had crabs. Toaster was also in PJ’s and robe but no towel, so she grabbed a monkey hand towel from my kitchen and said people should vote for hers because it matched her monkey robe. My husband argued that his towel was bought fifteen years ago with the express purpose of being his traveling hitchhiking towel and pointed all the frayed edges and damage it’s taken over the years in service to him. I pointed out my towel was not only prettiest, it was actually functioning as a tablecloth over on the punch table and should be voted for because it was the only towel being useful. I won!

Robes – Toaster and I were in really cute monkey robes that Redd had given us for Christmas a few years back. Redd had an awesome leopard print robe that looked really good on her. Monkeys, Tick, MB, and McAmason were also in robes, and I can post pictures if they give approval. The winner was Raven, in his Invisible Man robe that S2AK sewed for him for Dragoncon.

I have pictures of other towels/robes, but want to get permission from the people involved before posting.



Still to come:
Vogon Poetry Competition
Best Planet Competition
Decorations
Full details (fort those interested)

Force feeding a cat through a syringe sucks.
Forcing a cat to swallow two pills and a syringe of white fluid sucks.
Rehydrating a cat via tubes and IVs sucks.

At least my job is just to load the syringes, prep the food/pills, and distract while Monkeys inserts the IV. His job is much harder.


Meanwhile, I'm working on prize baggies for Monkey's b-day party. I'm kind of pleased with them so far... I'm afraid I'm more familiar with the Infocom game than I am with the books, radio show, tv shows, or movie, so my decorations and prize bags lead more toward that source. Still, I'm having fun. Monkeys wanted to make his own cake, so I asked him what ideas he had so far. I made a suggestion based on some items I purchased for decorations (thanks to Andrew from the Brobdinagian Bards!!), and now he's going to base his cake around my idea - yay!

Still open to suggestions if anyone has any.

As my husband *never* uses his Livejournal, I feel safe posting this here.

Keep September 13th free! In honor of his 42nd birthday I am doing a Hitchhikers theme, so if you don't already own a robe and pajamas you have a month to get something together. Yes, a prize will be given for best robe/towel/pajama combination.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to contribute. I have already made up some games (if you want to participate in the Vogon poetry writing competition let me know - I will get you the rules in advance so you can prepare) and started on creating decorations, but I welcome more ideas. I'm so excited!

EDIT: Since a couple of people have mentioned I'm baiting fate posting about the party... He knows it's a hitchhikers theme (he actually requested the theme) so don't worry if you accidently say anything vague about H2G2 to him. He even knows about towels and robes as that's an obvious thing. Just no specific details to him, please. :) :) :)

I didn't take enough pictures! But these are my favorites.

	We will make this pinata work if it kills us... The plastic loop that held the pinata came out on the first blow so Monkeys tried holding the pinata. This was kind of scary...
	Fine! We'll just rip it open then!!! How insanely cool is this picture?!?! You can see the yo-yo's and jacks and stars. I was really excited to see the Yorkie candy bar falling out toward the bottom. You have to know they are Milky Ways and Yorkies but when you do, you can actually tell what they are. And the stars look really cool. Ha! Lucky shot!
	It's Full of Stars Because he's BRILLIANT is why! When he saw all the glitter stars pouring from the pinata and fallen all over the floor McAmason paused for just a second and said "My God, It's full of stars." We lost it! Someone in the room didn't catch the 2001 reference and we explained it to her. Afterwards someone else, I don't know who, made a comment about how often do you get such a perfect opportunity to use that line. And that is why I love my friends. The end.
	Hats!! I was going to make him wear the giant sombrero we have but then I found the really cute headband with the birthday candles. Toastr decided to try to wear the little sombrero table decoration and I jumped in with the maracas. Ole!

In case you were wondering why there was tea and yoyo's - the stuff in the pinata was supposed to be Whovian. Yoyo's for Tom Baker, jacks for Captain Jack, tea for it's healing power for Ten, candy watches for time travel. There was also stars, Milky Ways and Starburst candies for space travel. There was one pterodactyl. I wanted question marks, little aliens, roses, handcuffs (spoilers), toy soldiers (for Unit), little slide whistles (for recorders for Two), and celery (for Five) but couldn't get my act together or just couldn't find them. I love pinatas!!! Thank you McAmason for being borned so that we could haves a pinata! Yayz!!!

Happy Birthday Beatles Buddy!!! Yay for dancerbydesign!!!

A couple of pictures from Raven's birthday party :)
Thank you Raven for being born!! We love you!! We love you best with a little BBQ sauce.

( zombies care not for dial-up )

The food was really good, too!! And we really did eat brains... chocolate brains with pistachio pudding filling and a whipped chocolate frosting. The best kind of brains!

Toaster had a really cool "just bitten" costume which I will post upon her okay. Girls always get to approve pictuers before posting. Boys don't. Sorry boys.

I had so much fun today!!!! Thank you thank you thank you :)

how amazing is my husband??