It's been a while

Hey, I know I'm a slacker. I have all the usual reasons. Hopefully this will make up for it.

A couple of weekends ago now, we celebrated Sara's 30th birthday. We went to the Mexican karaoke bar and had birthday cake and wore Hawaiian leis. (It seemed fitting to me, I mean, what else would you wear at a Mexican karaoke bar?) I bought Sara a special birthday girl tiara, but she was having none of it. (She is very gifted at dishing out, but not so much at taking it.) That's OK, I'm sure we embarrassed her plenty throughout the evening.

Jon and Julie and a rotating round of folks (including me) ended up sitting right next to the DJ booth where the DJ must have been trying to wake the dead, because, damn, that was loud. I know I'm getting older and all, but jeez.

The first performer on stage was this chick who did the Catherine Zeta Jones version of "All that Jazz". She had choreography. It was horrifying. I mean, she sounded great, but what were the rest of us fools to do if we had to follow that?

Garth had the unfortunate luck to be that person. He did a pretty good job, considering, and he definitely took it like a man. Vowed never to come back.

Less than an hour into the singing, another group got on and did "Proud Mary" all over again. This time "Tina" had back up dancers. With choreography. What is the deal with this place?! I am never coming back again!

Another hour into it and one very painful rendition of "Reunited" later, I decided to call it a night. I hear that I missed Mike's standard of Jimmy Buffett songs, which I regret, but I'm sure I will see again with the next few glasses of whiskey.

The rest of the weekend was uneventful. It was beautiful weather and I spent it lazing about the house and going to the park. I got out the rollerblades and was painfully reminded just exactly why I keep those horridly ugly long socks, anyway.

The rest of that week also ran by in a blur. My friend from high school and college came to visit and I got to play tour guide for a couple of hours, which was fun. I really need more people to come out and visit. (See that everyone? Blatant plug for company.) I loved showing off my new town and seeing it all again for the first time.

I also did round 2 of dogsitting Heisman. I think I am breaking through to this dog- he actually let me sleep, and he's getting really good at fetch. He still went a little bit nuts when everyone came over Saturday though. Sara and Mike filled their kegerator with my favorite beer the last time I dog-sat, with the full understanding that I was to have our friends over to drink it. Well, I didn't quite get to it then, so we made up for it Saturday! We finished all the beer in their house by about 10 PM. I'd call it a success.

Up for this week- tomorrow I am giving a talk to Julie's 8th grade science club about how cool it is to be a hydrogeologist. I very well may crash and burn. I hope not. I really do need to start taking more cool photos at field jobs, because I suspect that core samples are not too exciting to junior high kids. I may be wrong. I'll let you know.