Even though we went to bed before midnight, we sat up reading for a while, and as a result didn’t wake up until after noon. Ack. I really should try to get back on a normal sleep schedule at some point.

Opened e-mail to find, not the 70 spams of recent days, but a number of birthday party RSVPs (I sent a reminder out yesterday). More people have said yes! Yay! I figured we’d lose a lot of people to Easter weekend, and that was fine. It’ll be a smaller party than usual, but that’s okay. It’ll also be an interesting mix of people—some Darach, some Gyldenholt, some family, some writers…

My goals today are to review the synopsis one more time and send it out to the kind folks who are willing to read it, finish writing at least two scenes to add to the book, send out stories that have been returned, continue whomping through e-mail, and a few other clean-up-type things. Together, Ken and I need to vacuum the living room, do laundry, and scrub the master bathroom.

I ate like a major pig while Sarah was here, so today we’re back on the healthy eating plan again. I need to start exercising, but that may wait for a day or to while I get back into the overall groove of life.

<><><>

Why is it, at 11 o’clock at night, I suddenly have energy? I was dragging through sewing studio (although I hauled the inkle loom out and did a fair amount of weaving, which rocked), and now I’m ready to rebound off walls. Ack.

<><><>

I realised something. I asked the folks in the sewing room (one couple, one father and daughter, and one single woman) what I should do tomorrow. “Sleep ‘til noon” and “get a massage” were shot down for being, of all things, too normal/average. “Go to the mall” and “get a manicure” held no interest. “Go to the movies” was an option, but I was looking at what’s out and although there are a few things I’m interested in, none are birthday-important enough. There were some really good suggestions, like hot air ballooning or a gondola ride in Newport Harbor or going to Catalina. Ken had already suggested Knotts Berry Farm; the Grand Canyon or Vegas was tossed out (bike trips!).

But what I realised is this: While all of those things are very neat, they almost don’t seem birthday-neat. And that’s because these are neat things we’re apt to do at any time. My whole _life_ is awesome. Oh, day-to-day can drag (witness today…) but overall, wow. I have the greatest husband in the world, a nice house, a pool, great cats, the best roommate, awesome friends. I get to travel often and follow my favourite band around (and sometimes meet them).

That feels like the best birthday present: a wonderful life. Happy Birthday to me (well, 2:16 a.m. East Coast time).

<><><>

I did get the synopsis done and out, and one person has already returned a critique—Vera, take a bow! I wrote a bit on one of the scenes, but then stopped because I couldn’t decide where it goes in the book. In the process of writing Sarah an e-mail to discuss this, I came up with a third option I hadn’t previously thought of, which I think will work best. I’ll wait to hear from her before I do the final bits.

I have very little e-mail left to deal with, the house is vacuumed, and we have to put away the second load of laundry. I’ll send out stories tomorrow, or whenever. (We’re leaning towards Knotts Berry Farm and good Italian food for tomorrow, actually.)

<><><>

So, last Friday. We didn’t get a lot of writing done, alas. We finally hunkered down and started working, and then I asked Ken to call and check the hours of the art gallery we wanted to go to in Santa Monica. At which point I realised, given the Friday afternoon LA traffic, we needed to leave soon.

First we went to Every Picture Tells a Story, which is an art gallery of mostly kids’ art. I’d heard they had a decent amount of Brian Froud art. As it turned out, they had only three pieces (despite what their website said), but there was a lot of neat stuff: Charles Schultz, the artist who did the _Charlotte’s Web_ edition I read as a kid, even some Tim Burton. Sarah bought a few books for Fiona and I drooled over the Brian Froud and Wendy Froud/Terri Windling books, but restrained myself.

Then we went to the Santa Monica Pier and wandered around. We were going to stay for the sunset, but it was overcast and we were hungry, so we didn’t wait around that long. We headed off to Manhattan Beach and Versailles, our favourite Cuban restaurant (order the #6 meal, and don’t argue with me on that). Sarah had never had Cuban food, and she loved it. We had tons to take home.

After that, we headed to our main destination for the night: Pancho’s Restaurant and Bar, where a band called Day After Daze was playing, as they do most weekends. Thing is, when Styx isn’t on the road, their drummer, Todd Sucherman plays with Day After Daze.

We got there stupidly early, because we’d been advised to, and hung out, making friends with some drunken career women at the table near us so we could take over their table when we staggered out. When Todd came in, we chatted briefly with his wife, Taylor (who sings/tours with Brian Wilson), and we watched him set up his drums.

The band was fantastic. The first set was fun, but I didn’t know a lot of the songs. The second set blew us all away. Great songs, and, most impressively, Todd’s 20-minute drum solo. It was a thing of beauty to watch. Just amazing. After that set, we chatted with Todd for a bit (got a picture of him with Sarah and I, but he and Sarah have major red-eye, so I’ve got to play with Photoshop…), which was fun. The third set was short, with Taylor singing one song. Extremely cool all ‘round. Then we staggered home, and I don’t remember much else of that evening.

But yeah, that’s right. We hung with Styx’s drummer. Southern California has its negative aspects, but we got to hang with Styx’s drummer—in a smoke-free bar.

Saturday night, after Sarah and I finished ALNM, we tried to talk Ken into taking us back to Pancho’s (because the band was playing there again), but he was wiped out (and we’d been drinking). He and I (and maybe Cat) will probably go back on the 16th.

<><><>

Foamy the Squirrel. I had to share. Especially see “5 More Minutes” and “Small, Medium, Large”.