[Editor's (i.e. my) note: Apologies for the lateness of this post. Work has been super busy, so although I started this over a week ago, I'm just now getting to posting it.]

Birthdays amongst my friends are a funny thing. Each year as a person's birthday approaches, assuming they haven't planned anything themselves, the rest of us get together and plan a surprise for them. As you, dear reader, would expect, the "surprise" factor starts to wear after a couple years, so as my birthday approached, I knew that something was going to happen, I just didn't know what. This year, the "what" was a party at Chuck E. Cheese.

The afternoon of my birthday, I got a suspicious call from Walter, asking if he could come over to get "the ski trip pictures." This was suspicious because I didn't know what ski trip pictures he was talking about. Amanda was over at the time, so after I hung up, I told her that I was pretty sure I was going to be taken away. She feigned ignorance on the matter, though I remained wary. Walter came and left, and still nothing. I was starting to let my guard down, when Amanda announced she had to buy something at the grocery store.

As we walked out of my apartment, I heard Matt say in a non-whisper, "It's Sha!" And the jig, as they say, was up. When I got to the carport area of my complex, I found my friends huddled around the wrong door. When they noticed me, they threw some rope and me and sort of tried to tie me up. After I used my Hulk-like strength to get out of my bonds, they drove me to Chuck E. Cheese (after making mysterious references to buying cups at Target).

Apparently Chuck E. Cheese doesn't normally allow non-kid parties on the weekends, but Walter worked his voodoo (i.e. sexy) magic and convinced them to let us have my party. Perhaps this is because I, while technically 26 years old, act about 4.

When we entered, I was relieved to discover that they had gotten rid of the whole line of scary scary animatronic animals and replaced them with a video screen and a single scary scary animatronic animal. Though animatronic Chuck E. Cheese was still creepy as all hell, at least there was only one of him, and not the usual whole army.

I ended up getting the whole Chuck E. Cheese birthday shebang including pizza, stickers, a cake, arcade tokens, cotton candy, a sippy cup, a sweet Super Chuck shirt (which we bought with our collective tickets, supplemented with some cash), and The World's Longest Birthday Song. Seriously. Two Chuck E. Cheese employees came to our table and did a dance while a birthday music video played on the screen for like 10 minutes. It went on and on and on. It was 80% awesome and 20% embarrassing.

My friends got together and gave me Phoenix Wright, Animal Crossing, and Advance Wars for DS, a new camera bag, and a gift certificate to Timbuk2. Thank you so much to everyone who came, and all the well-wishes from everyone else. My friends rule!

If I ever get around to it (yeah right), I'll post pictures up from the party.

One more time:

Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
I should go eat some Rick's
'Cuz now I'm 26!

First off, I want to make a belated birthday shoutout (South Bay Style, word) to Amanda and Nova! Happy Birthday you crazy kids. Last weekend they had a joint birthday shindig in the city. It began with dinner at Alhamra (good food, spotty service), then we headed over to Zeitgeist for drinks and general merriment. And merriment was had, let me tell you.

Other interesting happenings over the past couple weeks include going to Nova's band Trashtronix's first show (which was awesome) at El Rio, finishing a knitting project (I won't say what it is or whom it is for because it's a suprise, but rest assured that if you're reading this page, it's not for you...sorry), and reaffirming my awesomeness at driving stick by taking Buddy's car out for a spin.

Finally, given the popularity of evite, I recently came up with a title for what would surely be the next hit single to storm the airwaves: "Let Me Be Your +1". This can be the chorus:

It's radio magic, I tell you. Just make sure to pay me royalties when you record it.

Edit: Forgot to mention that at dinner on Sunday, I saw a really small car. Good thing it parked in a compact parking space.

Last week at work, I moved up to my (hopefully) permanent cube on the 4th floor. I had previously been sitting in a conference room on the 2nd floor, so I never bothered to unpack my boxes from when I had moved down from the 3rd floor. (EA loves them moves!) As I was unpacking my boxes, I noticed that I was missing my collection of race bibs, (Bridge to Bridge, Bay to Breakers, Run to the Far Side, and most importantly, my marathon bib) which I had hanging up on the outside of my 3rd-floor cube. I tend to stick things like that inside books or folders, but I checked inside all of the books in my cube, with no luck. I'm also missing some photos I had on the outside of my cube, so I'm sure they're in the same place.

I keep telling myself that in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter; they're small pieces of coated paper and a few safety pins, but I'm actually really really sad about losing my marathon race bib. It was my first marathon, and if my crappy knee stays crappy, it could be my only marathon. Fortunately, I still have my finisher's medal, but there's something about the race bib that feels very personal, since it was with me the entire race. I've been looking for them for a good week, and I'm starting to accept that maybe they're just gone.

In happier news, last weekend Buddy, Marc, Erik and I went outdoor climbing at Summit Rock in Saratoga. It was a beautiful day, and we spent over 6 hours there. I did Wide Crack (5.7) twice, UC Santa Clara Practice Climb 2 (5.8) twice, and Ribbed for Comfort (5.9) once. Buddy and Marc also did Bolt Filcher (5.10d). It was really fun and I hope to do a lot more outdoor climbing once the weather clears up (for good). Pictures forthcoming (standard disclaimers apply).