This weekend was a full and good one. Friday was my birthday, and I can't count the number of birthday wishes I received. At lunch, Amy took me out to Panera. In the afternoon, our office had the March birthdays party with plenty of tasty treats. In the evening, my family went out to dinner at Rutabegorz and I had spinach and mushroom crepes and a gooood coffe ice cream drink. We retired to my parents' place for cake and gifts. I was bombarded with clothes and kitchen things, as well as the long-awaited Twin Peaks Gold Set!

Saturday was an all-day event with Ric's parents. We all went to see the Kings play the Montreal Canadiens. We lost, but had a good time anyway. By the way, Hutchinses, I should have taken a photo of the completed art on the buildings down there. The Horton Hears a Who advertisement is huge and much more detailed than I expected it to be! After the game, we had a scrumptious fish dinner at Ric's parents' house, and then gifts and cake. I got a Cure DVD, a Disney rarities collection, season 3 of News Radio, and big fat hardbound copies of Martin Chuzzlewit and Bleak House. I really struck gold this year (thank you, Amazon wish lists)! After all that, we went to see The Star-Spangled Girl at the university. I am so behind on reviews that I'll just say if you missed it, you missed out.

Sunday we slept in and went to the 11 service at church because of the time change, and just because we needed some rest. After that we had lunch at Ruby's and headed home to start working on the condo. Since we had a few days off, I felt like I really needed to get a lot accomplished. I emptied all of the kitchen boxes, which was quite a feat! I actually found places for everything (of course, half of it is stored in the shelves of our washer/dryer closet). It was frustrating and I'm sure I'll be challenged by the set up, but I just need to think outside the box, as well as always have my trusty little step-stool handy, since most things are stored well out of my reach. Ric mounted the TV above the fireplace with a wall mount we got on Amazon, then constructed our DVD storage unit. Neither came out exactly as I imagined, but they are both pretty nice. We had a break for some Hong Kong Express in the evening, but basically worked the whole day.

I think all of the boxes have been opened, except for books, and I'd say there are only about 10 that still need to be unpacked in all. I think that's pretty good, since the ones that still have stuff in them right now are mostly holding decorative stuff that can't be put up until we have everything else settled first. I had a painting hiatus all weekend, and I think I needed that.

Up this week: painting, organizing, movies with the Agadonis, Ric's going to learn about making beer with Rob, and hopefully we'll get some taxes started! Yikes!

I finished reading The Road today. I can't remember the last time I found a book this engaging. For the last two days I've spent nearly every spare moment reading.

I know the book was a huge bestseller, won the Pulitzer Prize, and was even given the official endorsement of Oprah's little book club, so I doubt I have anything to say about it that hasn't already been said. All I'm going to point out is that Cormac McCarthy simultaneously writes some of the most horrible scenes I've ever read and the most tender, in a way that reminds me of John Steinbeck.

I'm going to have to read some of McCarthy's other books now. Thank you to Melanie and Andrew for turning me on to him.

The Sandman: Book of Dreams edited by Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer

"True Blood" (2007)

A new HBO series created by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) that stars Anna Paquin and is about vampires in the South? The show will begin airing in the fall. I'm definitely in.

brendoman's Xbox 360 can blog

Thanks to 360Voice my Xbox can blog on its own. Pretty cool. I really love how connected the 360 is. Now I need to work on that gamer score so I don't look like such a chump.

Hey,

Is there anyone here in this area that wants to see Wicked? My mom had me buy her two tickets, one for her and one for my sister, and then realized that she had a church retreat on that day. It's on Saturday, April 5th.

Let me know ASAP if interested!

Maybe he's on to something with that Total Gym thing. Maybe it's the 72 chromosomes. I don't know. He's definitely giving Bob Barker a run for his money in the Toughest Senior Citizen contest.

In other random news of the day, this is my new favorite site. Thanks Jon and Justin.