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I have been celebrating my birthday for about half of April. It is tradition in my family to try to drag it out as long as possible.
It all started on the 18th with a night in the City. After I got off work I met Josh at the train station, and he drove me up to San Francisco. He took me out to dinner at Baghdad Nights where we met up with Jason, Iris, Evelyn, Gregg, Sena, and Doug. Of course, I got to open presents. I got a beautiful heart shaped necklace, a quilted bookmark, and cards with birthday wishes. Then we headed to the Punchline to see Josh’s and my favorite comedian, Jake Johannsen. He was just as funny as always.
I took the week of my birthday off from Bed Bath and Beyond. I got to finish a book, relax, cook, do a little homework, and work a little extra at Yavneh. The day of my birthday I woke up with presents piled around me! Josh made me Banana Fosters with waffles and ice cream. Then I opened my presents while watching “Ugly Betty.” I got tickets to Shen Yun, dancing lessons, scrapbook scissors, and a night gown. Josh bought me Starbucks before we headed to the Science Academy in San Francisco.
We stopped by his work so he could show me around. The building is boring on the outside, but has a modern inside with a little creek in the middle of the building. The offices are divided by group, so I got to meet most everyone that was on his team. He has quite a hike every time he goes to work.
We headed to Golden Gate Park afterwards, and had no problem finding parking. We strolled to the Science Academy taking pictures of the building and the statues around the park. We started with the African exhibit. They have a huge tank and rock area at the back of the African hall where you can see the cutest penguins. We then went through the natural history area. We got to see lots of bugs and other gross stuff. The natural history area flowed naturally into the aquarium. An intimidating albino alligator is the first thing you see before you descend down the stairs to the aquarium. The aquarium was filled with exotic aquatic life. I got a great picture of Josh in front of the Coral Reef tank.
We then stopped for a bite to eat. They have a nice little eating area where you can pick from a wide cultural variety of food. I wasn’t too hungry so didn’t take advantage of it, but Josh got some kind of duck dish. After eating we headed for the rainforest. There is always a long line for the rainforest, but it is worth it. The area is in a sphere for climate control, and inside are butterflies, birds, little frogs, bugs, and all sorts of stuff. The rainforest even has a basement underneath where you can see up through the glass bottom pond at the bottom of the rainforest.
The last stop we made was the roof. On the roof they have hills with windows to light the insides. We didn’t stay out there too long because it was real windy that day. On the top of the building the cold wind shows no mercy.
Next stop was the Botanical Garden. Upon entering we were attacked by squirrels that practically crawl up your leg. We walked around for a while enjoying the vegetation. We snapped shots of pretty flowers and water retreats hidden in the park. Before we left we saw a sign that said the plants had GPS tracking devices to keep people from stealing them. We thought this was hilarious!
We avoided traffic by going to see “Monsters vs. Aliens” in IMAX 3D. It was a cute movie, and the IMAX 3D action really brought it to life. The IMAX wouldn’t have been worth it if there wasn’t 3D too. Afterwards we stopped off for a Starbucks befor the drive home.
The next day I went hiking with my Dad, and shopping with my mom. I enjoyed spending one on one time with them. The last day of my birthday weekend was Foxy Lady Day, where all the ladies got together to exchange gifts and hang out. We all got cool stuff, but I got scrapbook stuff, and Fox shirts. Then I did two scrapbook pages of my nieces. I also got to play with Miranda, making the day perfect. I had an awesome birthday that I will get to celebrate more with my tickets and dance lessons.

When Vista was just coming out, I bagged on it.  Badly.  I kept Vista off our computers for a very long time.  I let Shanin give it a shot on her HP laptop (it came installed with Vista Home Premium), but we both remained unconvinced that this OS was ready for the primetime, and I “upgraded” to XP SP2. I know that there are plenty of arguments for Vista (the programs weren’t out for it yet, the drivers weren’t out for it yet, etc.), but I kept hating Vista.

But when faced with getting a new laptop, I didn’t really want to deal with uninstalling Vista, finding XP drivers, and installing XP.  Plus, I knew that Vista was now into Service Pack 1, so I figured I’d give it a sporting chance.  It took a bit of preparation, as the laptop I was receiving was Home Premium (same as Shanin’s), so I wouldn’t be able to use domain names.  This was unfortunate as I had a Windows domain (based on a Linux box running Samba) and everything was set up well and was working mostly fine.  But after lots of reconfiguring, transferring files, setting up options, etc., I have to say that I’m mostly glad I made the transition to Vista. (more…)

But so are other operating systems. Of course, it would help if there was a way for you to turn on your computer and it loads a web browser instead of an OS, but while I’m wishing, I’d like a pony.

I was browsing around and found a great blog posting outlining how to get rid of most of your desktop applications. Further, as long as you have an internet connection, you can access your documents and everything from any computer. Also, since websites regularly back up their data (some do it hourly!) and use best practices to reduce failure and file corruption, you pretty much don’t have to worry about problems with your data.

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We arrived at Iris, Jason, Claire, and Maya’s house after way too many hours in the car. We were hungry and grumpy, but as we walked up to the house we could hear the kids shout, “They’re here, they’re here,” over and over again. The door opened and my nieces crowded around, shouting and jumping up and down for hugs and kisses. All the frustration from driving melted away replaced with the feeling of Christmas spirit. The kids were dying to open the presents. They had already been allowed to open a couple to control the chaos. Iris got us started on some food, so Josh and I fed our faces as fast as we could so the girls could rip into their loot. When we finished, a maddened frenzy of ripping and tearing of presents ensued for a few minutes. Then the adults took turns opening their Secret Santa gifts. I was lucky enough to be Josh’s Santa, so I got to buy him ski gear. I was super excited Jason got me the camera I wanted, especially since we (by that, I mean Josh) had left the memory card to the old one at home. I didn’t even want to wait for it it to charge!

Next we ate a wonderful dinner with all the fixings; Iris really out did herself. I loved the glazed ham. Iris wisked away the plates once the nibbling and talking died down. We then headed to the fireplace to break open our stockings (we upgraded to decorated grocery bags since we had so much loot). Muff got the best gift; Mom made Muff a scrapbook of her and Rick. I got mostly scrapbook stuff, an 8gb memory card, chico bags, energy saving light bulbs, a necklace, and the list goes on. Mostly I was playing with my camera that now had a little bit of charge. After everyone tired of showing off their gifts, the girls began their ritualized attacking of Josh while the rest of us looked on in amusement (I had to rescue his glasses). The girls were finally distracted with decorating gingerbread houses that Iris made. I think they shoved more decorations in their mouth than onto the houses. Next they set up cookies and milk for the big guy. Then we read to them, tucked them in with kisses and hugs, and sent them to bed so we could talk into the night.

Well, another year older, another day wiser, or something like that. I never believed that I would ever just not really care that it’s my birthday, but I’m starting to understand the sentiment. Sure, I love the “treat Josh like he’s special and give him presents and stuff” thing, but 31 is not that different from 30, I don’t imagine. But, I got Legos for my birthday, so I’m definitely cool with the “getting presents” bit!

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