First of all, I'd like to thanks my friends and my wife for vastly improving my birthday tenfold - they wished me a happy birthday and gave me some pretty cool stuff, a "Cowboy Bebop" DVD, an Elvis CD, and movie passes that will no doubt be used for Kill Bill. And I got a cool handmade card from my wife, and she got me an ice cream cake too! And that's all I really wanted, something simple and says, we know you, man. And that's what you'll probably enjoy. I know, I'm being a slight brat about the whole thing, whining about something that seemingly, a lot of people wouldn't mind having. I'm sorry if I come across that way - it's just not expected that my birthday present has to turn into a conflict with my family, about hurting other people's feelings and pride. It's all so moot and stupid. But anyway, now I have a partial gym so if anyone wanted to make me watch them sweat, they're welcome to come over and pedal away. Of course, I still have to get it home from Sears. Amazingly low priority for me.

Complete lack of sleep has made me slightly dazed, and hopefully I'll be just fine driving down to Redmond. My wife and I are more worried about Alex adapting to this environment, and us being visitors for two whole days. I myself have never really been a fan of going home, mostly because it's not that. Having never stayed there for more than a few days and having absolutely no memories about growing up there, it's just like a bed and breakfast. And my mom's place is always so cold. I won't be surprised if the baby shrinks due to the frosty tempertures.

Well, just gonna pack and off we go. And then after that, it's back to work. Might as well, I'm not making hardly any money staying home.