Thu Sep 15 - My co-workers celebrate weekend birthdays on Fridays in the office, but since I'm out of the office tomorrow, they threw my birthday today. And although we usually have cake at 3:00, they surprised me by having it at 1:00, when we are allowed to have lunch leftovers when there are students/classes in our building. So besides getting free lunch, there was a chocolate cake with a strawberries and banana cream filling, plus a carrot cake. And I got to take home the leftover cake, which I plan to take to the tournament on Saturday.

They also buy some kind of gift card, according to your personal interests. I received a $30 card to Barnes & Noble. I've been putting off some DVD and CD purchases for a long time now, so I double-checked on line whether they carried the titles I was looking for, and got the address of the nearest B&N to my home. I picked up "Firefly" (the TV show that was the pre-cursor or basis of the upcoming movied "Serenity") so that I can loan the DVDs to Saul and Ben and Erika, and I picked up Poe's CD "Haunting." Kristin has a Drive-Mix CD that we used to listen to in her convertible BMW, zipping around the Bay Area, and I've always wanted several of the songs from that mix. Poe's "Hey Pretty (Drive-By 2001 Mix)" has always lurked in my head, so I just had to own it. I'm really glad I bought it, because it's going to be in my "Now Playing" for weeks and weeks to come, I just know it. I'm looking forward to listening to it on my head-phones at work, too, since there's only so much I can hear over the road noise in my car.

Dinner last night was wonderfully fun, and I'm truly daily thankful for all the new friends in my life lately. I imagine that I could stay isolated and be bummed that I only see my shire friends occasionally. But between the two households I've been hanging out with and the locals near my new apartment, I really am finding whole new sets of friends that I adore spending time with.

Adrienne & Jeff are definitely in the class of "my favorite new friends." One of Jeff's high school friends, Emily, is also in town and staying with them until she finds a place to live. The four of us had a great time over chicken, yams, green beans, and salad, then sent Jeff straight to sleep (he'd been running on about two hours sleep but didn't want to miss dinner). Then us three gals stayed up, engaging in what can only be called Girl Talk (with a tiny bit of self-gossip thrown in for fun).

I also finished a significant number of lucet cords for Saturday while we chatted until almost midnight, for which I was very thankful. Having dedicated time to just do hand-crafts is something I need to add back into my "normal" life.

Band tonight was much better than Tuesday, not nearly as frustrating. We did more work on the newer music, and that always lifts my spirits. Just as I prefer live versions of our recorded music, I prefer the "upcoming third CD" better than CDs one and two. I wonder how true that is for other musicians and bands?

I was hoping to catch coffee with Saul before driving home, but he's also house-sitting for one of the law partners, so he must have forgotten. Fortunately Kristin was still awake and gave me a call on my drive home, which helped keep me awake as I drove.

I really wanted to stay up late and get more done for this weekend, but for now I'll have to save that for tomorrow. I'm taking Friday off to prepare for Saturday, and first thing I need to go have the oil leak repaired on my car. I've needed to save up for what will probably be a $300 repair (um, let's see, car words: oil gasket or head gasket, not sure which, plus pcv valve and distributor o-ring). Then I can finish packing and prepping for Crown Tourney.

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Recently Listening to: Barenaked Ladies "Maroon"