Birthday Blowout

This week was quiet. I recently replaced the faucets in the bathroom. The downstairs bathroom faucet was a pain. I ended up having to remove the sink just to disconnect the water lines. After spending a few hours cleaning off the old plumber’s putty, removing the old faucet and drain, putting on new putty, and installing the new faucet and drain, I was exhausted. I wish I were finished. But, the new drainpipe had a small crack that continued to leak. Fortunately, a plumber friend came by with a better drainpipe. The upstairs faucet went a lot quicker. I was done within fifteen minutes.

With the new photo gallery, I can have pictures printed by a printing company. So, I decided to test it out. I chose to print a picture of Emily. About a week later, I received an 8x10 and a few wallet sizes. In addition, I received a deck of playing cards and a puzzle, both with metal tins, which had her picture on it. They turned out nice.

After a change in insurance, I figured I needed to catch up on my dental work. On Thursday, I had a bunch of x-rays taken. The first x-ray was a panoramic x-ray. They had me stand still while the machine rotated around my head. Then, I had six or eight more x-rays done.

Yesterday, I had my teeth cleaned and examined. The process was fairly quick and painless. Unfortunately, they told me that I had to replace a number of my fillings.

Today, I celebrated my thirtieth birthday. Actually, “celebrate” is an exaggeration. Rachel, her mom Pam, and I went out to breakfast (for an early Mother’s Day celebration). The waitress put a candle in my omelet. As the omelet was significantly warmer than the cake, the candle melted from the bottom up. Fortunately, most of the wax came out when I removed the candle.

Since Rachel had to work that afternoon/evening, I spend the rest of the day alone. Before going to work, Rachel gave me two presents. The first was a set of two metal puzzles. To solve the puzzles, you had to manipulate the objects in such a way to free one of the objects. The puzzles only took about ten minutes to solve.

The other present was a Thanksgiving dinner in the form of Jones Soda. There were five different flavors: Brussels Sprout with Prosciutto, Cranberry Sauce, Turkey & Gravy, Wild Herb Stuffing, and Pumpkin Pie. The package even included a serving spoon, a moistened towelette, and a wine list. The Wild Herb Stuffing soda tasted nasty, but I rather enjoyed the remaining ones. My favorite was the Cranberry Sauce soda.

I knew that we were going to celebrate on a different date, but I wanted to do something “special” on the actual date. With Rachel at work, I decided to throw a party for myself. I already had a liquid dinner handy. But, I wanted something a bit more substantial. So, I made a batch of kettle corn. I learned an important lesson: Kettle corn is flammable.

As I was pouring the popcorn out of the pot and into a bowl, a single piece missed the bowl and hit one of the burners on the stove. The burner was already off. However, it still had enough residual hit to ignite the popcorn. I was not worried about causing a major fire or anything. I was more worried about setting of the smoke alarm, especially now that it will call the fire department if it goes off. Fortunately, there was not enough smoke and the only problem I had to deal with was the smell of burnt popcorn for a while.

Tagline for today: “I made a chocolate cake with white chocolate. Then I took it to a potluck. I stood in line for some cake. They said, ‘Do you want white cake or chocolate cake?’ I said, ‘yes.’” - Steven Wright