Great Birthday

Today is my birthday, and I had a great time at it! Garrett went all out and did a fantastic job of making sure my day was great, but it's easy to have a great day when he's around! In any case, I opened some of my presents this morning, including a card from my Granny and Grandpa, chocolates and a cute shirt from Amanda and Ray (see pictures below), an angel figurine (and some money) from Mom and Dad, and chocolate and a spa package from Garrett. That's right, a spa package! And not just any spa package, but a chocolate spa package (sense a theme here? I might be a teensy bit chocolate crazy). I get a chocolate pedicure and a chocolate bath! Sounds absolutely awesome and I plan to use it the day after my candidacy exam, to finish unwinding from that stressful event.

Today I worked at home most of the day. Even though it's my birthday, I still did a bit of work, although not that much because I was on the phone or msn with family and friends a lot. I talked to my Mom, Dad, sister, brother and brother-in-law. I msned with several friends and also got a ton of birthday wishes on Facebook. It was really nice!

In the late afternoon, I met a bunch of friends at Avenue, where we meet every Thursday for a beer or two (convenient that my birthday fell on a Thursday), then we went to a sushi place where I'd made reservations for ten people. We filled up on sushi and then cut up the wonderful cake that Garrett had picked up and brought along for me. Here are the pictures:Me cutting the cake (note the shirt I am wearing, it is the one my sister and brother-in-law gave me:We were only given 9 plates, so I ate my piece off the cake itself:Great face!It seems we only took pictures of me at the dinner, but I swear other people were there too - you can see for sure that Bonnie was there and someone else (Garrett) had to take the pictures.
My friends gave me some great gifts too: Bonnie got me a couple books I wanted, plus a sippy cup (you know, it won't spill in bed so I can have water while laying down. It may seem weird, but every night I wake up and have to sit up to drink water from my mug, so now with the sippy cup, I don't have to sit up), a gift certificate to a salon and a ticket to a concert with my friends next week. Plus I got a bunch of cat birthday cards (big surprise? I think not) that I will use for a blog entry sometime soon.
So, thank you to everyone who called, mailed, ate with, emailed, msned or texted me today! You've all made it so special!