Share and Enjoy

Today is my lovely wife’s birthday.  We had her birthday dinner at The Mad Greek (her request), one of our favorite restaurants in Lawrence.

My Beautiful Wife

Happy birthday, gorgeous.  I love you.

Today was almost a kid free Friday (we still had Charlie).  I took Brae and Hannah to their mother’s for the weekend, and Kaity spent the night with a friend.  Kris and Charlie and I enjoyed the evening by going out to eat at Encore.  It’s one of our favorite places in Lawrence.  After dinner, we went for a walk on campus.  It was hot but breezy, so it didn’t seem too bad.

On Charlie’s birthday, she received a card from Poppy and Callista which contained some cryptic statement about hoping she “enjoys her new ride.”  Well, her new ride arrived by mail, finally.  It’s pretty cool.

Charlie's new ride

I figured since even Charlie has done a project 365, it was high time for me to get by butt in gear and be like the cool kids.  The timing was pretty good, too, since Charlie’s project 365 ended two days ago.  Oh, and today happens to be my birthday.  Happy birthday to me!  To start things off, I’ll throw in a self portrait.

Me at the end of a long day

My baby turned 15 today.

Kaity, November 1997

She had her toes painted, after a full spa pedicure including an hour in a massage chair.

Purple toes

She had her hands basted, as part of a manicure.

Soft hands, coming up!

We had drunken pork chops (brined in burbon) for dinner, along with artichokes and mashed potatoes, at her request.

Yummy

And then it was off to Sylas and Maddy’s for a 5 flavor sampler, with gummy bears, for dessert.

Chocolate, Cookies & Cream, Chocolate Chip, Reese's, and Mint Chip Ice Creams

Happy Birthday, baby!

• Live Long and Prosper Tee
• Mr. Spock Tee
• Dark Spock Tee
• Spock Shadows Tee
• Star Trek Tin Lunchbox
• Spock Action Figure
• Spock Dog Tag
• Gift Certificate for Knit Picks
• Joker Tee
• Red Petticoat
• Slytherin Necklace
• Pride and Prejudice (book)
• Sense and Sensibility  (book)

‘Tis the season for birthdays in Lawrence.  Auggie turned three last weekend (on May Day), and we celebrated his birthday at Googols of Learning this morning.

There was cake:

Happy Birthday!

Candles:

Technically more than three candles....

Climbing:

Yay climbing!

Fun in the science room:

Whee!

Smush, smush...

And Miles and Kaity both wore mismatched socks; Kaity by choice, and Miles because he was dressed by his father this morning.

Kaity's normal choice for fashionable footwear

Little Mismatched Socks

There were also plenty of presents, though Auggie was distressed when his friends said a particular gift was from them, his reply was, “No, they’re mine!”

Presents for the birthday boy

We celebrated Himu’s birthday today at Googols of Learning (used to be Googols of Fun, but they moved and changed their business model to a daycare, which means they basically got rid of all their arcade games).

They still have their science room, though, so before the party started, we played with all the experiments.

Brandon playing structural engineer

The party was in Mendel’s Munchkins room.  Made my inner science geek smile.

Where else would you have a party for the son of a physical anthropologist?

There was pizza and a Star Wars cake.  Himu has been bugging his mom for a light saber for ages.

Birthday Cake

The kids had an enormous climbing structure to play on.  Kaity waited until all the others went to play outside before braving it:

Blackmail - it's apparently uncool to play in these if you're a teenager.

Say cheese!

Himu had fun opening presents and hanging out with the kids.  We got him a bubble glider, and when Geetha noted that it was something he could use to get the house dirty, I told her it was an outside toy.

Himu's "outside toy"

“Did you hear that, Himu?  Kris said that toy is for outside!” Geetha said.

Sidenote: Anne brought Lily-Mae to the party, too.

So cute!

It doesn’t quite seem possible, but our little Hannah turns 7 today.  Next thing you know, she’ll be driving.

This is the end of Project 365 (+2).  I had to finish it on my birthday, and 2008 was a leap year, so it’s technically Day 367.  It went by very quickly, but you can see the Year in Review in the Project 365 Gallery.  Which image is your favorite?

Birthday facts:

• Julian Calendar birthdate: 2441162.5.
• Apollo 15 landed on the moon, carrying the first lunar rover.

• Famous July 30 birthdays:
  • Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1548)
  • Emily Bronte (1818)
  • Henry Ford (1863)
  • Buddy Guy (1936)
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947)
  • Lisa Kudrow (1963)
  • Tom Green (1971)

I spent my birthday at the lab, running an amplification gel so I can get some samples off to be sequenced while we’re gone.

We had dinner at ingredient, then went birthday shopping for a new camera for our trip, and ended the evening at Mad Greek for dessert. Triple chocolate cheesecake.

My new camera

Brandon turns 34 today. He got some nice cards, a Tandoori oven from Nana & Poohpah, and the promise of some new sound isolating headphones for his iPod, when he can figure out exactly which ones he wants (too many choices!).

We had tickets to the first showing of The Dark Knight, dinner at Kokoro (Brandon’s choice), and dessert at the new iBar — chocolate fondue.  Happy Birthday!