Overdue Catch-Up, Part I: My Birthday

I had a great one. I was treated to a fantastic date night the night before, because it was a tailgating weekend. Dinner at a really nice new place, and then he gave me my present over dessert and coffee at one of our favorite places. I was stunned by my present: I'd been kinda vaguely wishfully looking at a camera (the last one I owned was a Kodak Advantex), and I had mentioned that I thought it would be really cool to own a nice one someday- He gave me a Nikon Coolpix 80p!!!! It is amazing... I'm pretty sure I creeped out a few customers at the restaurant of all the pictures I was taking of the table, walls, lights, food, etc. WoW.

That night was chilly, and I had been pretty sick lately, so we ended the night earlyish... When we pulled up in the driveway, James said that if I hadn't been sick, he had planned to take me to a spot fairly far out of town to give me "the other part of my present"... I thought, "MORE???" He got out of the car, came around to my side of the car, and put a GIANT box in my lap. Before I tell you what was in the box, rewind a couple of weeks... While we were at the State Fair (see "Texas/ OU Weekend"), we visited the planetarium, and James learned what a dweeb I am about the stars. For years (probably 4th grade through about my sophomore year of high school), I wanted to be an astronomer. I've visited planetariums and observatories, taken classes, etc, and although I realized that a career in the area was not in the stars for me (hardyharhar...), I've never stopped loving them. I opened the box, and inside was an 80 x 800 mm (about 4"x 32") Galileo TELESCOPE!!! I haven't had a chance to really get to use it much yet (Austin is too bright to properly stargaze), but I am sooo incredibly excited about it. James is the best :) Actually, tonight would have been perfect: we're in Pleasanton, and we just watched the most spectacular moonrise, but I didn't know we'd be staying the night, so I didn't bring it. Poo.

The next day, my actual birthday, I got a manicure, pedicure, haircut/wash/blowdry, and took a nap. All in all, a great day. At the tailgate, my roommate Marcie brought me a cake! Saturday, Gameday, I had lunch with JR, and only had to be at the tailgate for a couple of hours! YaY!!!

Below are a few pictures taken with my supercool new camera :)

My Birthday cake, complete with poker chips... how apropos. :)


A nighttime view of the Texas State (Bob Bullock) Museum from the tailgate spot. ISN'T MY CAMERA AWESOME???


The birthday. You can't tell from the picture, but I'm COVERED in glitter :)