what a great day (i’m writing saturday night, at the end of a full day of birthday celebration with my family).

i woke up at 7:30, came down and made coffee (a private blend we bought at a nice restaurant in guatemala), and watched an episode of lost. then, about 8:45, max took me out to breakfast. we went to one of my favorite little breakfast places, called janet’s cafe, and i had my favorite breakfast item, eggs benedict. over breakfast, max gave me a great handmade birthday card (complete with a pop-up thing inside), $20, and a 25% off coupon for border’s books.

so, after breakfast, we headed up to borders. it wasn’t quite open yet, so we hung out in best buy for a bit, and i picked up the new death cab for cutie cd, and a couple old muse cds. at borders, i shopped the new releases tables and shelves, and ended up picking out four books — none of which i’d previously heard of:

The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (an exploration of chaos, randomness, and the rules that guide them)

The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine (non-fiction story of a mysterious bottle of wine that sold for $150,000 in the mid-80s, despite lots of controversy surrounding its origin, and the 20 year trail of intrigue that followed)

The Book of General Ignorance (an exploration of things we commonly hold to be true, but aren’t)

God is Dead (this little book of fiction caught my eye, and i read the back cover description. sounds like a potentially interesting exploration of life on earth after word gets out that god, who was temporarily incarnate in an african woman, was gunned down and is dead)

by the way, my little parenthetical descriptions are only what i think the books are about!

max and i came home and read in the backyard for a couple hours (i’m still reading christ the lord: road to cana, and max was voraciously reading a book he found at borders, called diary of a wimpy kid). then, about 1-ish, the whole fam loaded into the car, and off we went to my favorite sushi place for lunch (this was a big deal for the kids to plan, as neither like sushi – liesl had some sort of rice bowl, and max just had rice). over lunch, jeannie and the kids each shared things they love about me.
sushi was followed by a stop at “candy expo” before going to see the new indiana jones movie. (short review: speilberg, what the heck, dude? why, after the pattern of indy movies was set, did you feel the need to have the potential paranormal weird stuff actually be paranormal weird stuff? why did you combine indiana jones and close encounters of the third kind? we all enjoyed the first 1:45, but the last 15 minutes was just too weird).

after the movie, and a couple errand stops (i take liesl to the airport at 4am for her class trip to vancouver island, where they’re going on a french-immersion outback camping thingy), we drove to downtown san diego, and went to a place i’d heard of, but not been to: extraordinary desserts. it’s an uber-hip place with over-the-top desserts and other goodies. it was a marko-favorite-food-fest. i started with an appetizer of homemade kettle chips with the most amazing onion dip of my life (chips and dip are my single biggest food craving). i washed this down with a shocking homemade ginger ale. so… much… ginger (which is a good thing to me). we were only doing appetizers and desserts, since we’d already eaten so much today, so for the dessert round, i had a salted caramel creme brule, and a mug of hot white chocolate.

i also got presents during dessert. liesl gave me a dvd of the a&e biography of johnny cash. and jeannie gave me my next tattoo (a celtic tree i’ve been wanting for over a year).

now we’re home, and everyone is in bed. i’m in the backyard again, and have a glass of bushmill’s 12 year (available only from the bushmill’s factory store in bushmill’s, northern ireland), and a gorgeous rocky patel figurado.

i’m still not sure about being 45, but i’m pretty content at the moment!