Thirty.

It has finally happened. I am now OLD.

I actually had my birthday party 2 weeks ago, as a joint affair with Matt Armstead and Tara. Pretty much we just hung out at our place and played games all day. The original idea was to get a game of kickball going, but the weather didn't end up being great for that.

This Saturday (my actual birthday) was interesting. Sarah's grandma got tickets to VeggieTales live at our church, so we took the kids and cousin Alex to see that (after spending an hour at Burger King first.) I enjoy the VeggieTales cartoon, but the live show was, in all honesty, pretty lame. The kids had fun, though. After that we headed down to Red Wing and played at a brand-new playground there. Then Sarah's parents took me to my birthday dinner at Fiest Mexicana, the best mexican restaurant there is. Just before we left, to my embarrassment, they had the waitstaff sing "Happy Birthday" to me, which I got wear a monstrous (and uncomfortable) sombrero through. The good part? Free flan. Tasty.

After that, we went back to Sarah's parents' house, and had cake and I opened my present from my parents: a Nintendo Wii. What? Wow. I was not expecting that at all. There goes all semblance of productivity at my house!

The rest of the birthday haul:

Games:
Go, from Matt & Becca
Alhambra: The Thief's Turn (expansion), from Lane & Sarah
Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries, from Matt Armstead
Catan: Traders & Barbarians (expansion), from Sarah & the kids

Books:
From Tara (via giftcard):
She Is the Darkness by Glen Cook
Water Sleeps by Glen Cook
Soldiers Live by Glen Cook
From Grandpa & Grandma Hawks (via cash):
Empire by Orson Scott Card
Star Wars: Allegiance by Timothy Zahn
Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
The Knight by Gene Wolfe

Other:
Transformers t-shirt, from Anita
Jelly Belly jelly beans, from Sam
Dead End, Meister, and Wheeljack Transformers Alternators toys, from Matt & Becca

10 Years!?

Scamper's Quest celebrates its 10th anniversary today. Wow. I have a hard time just thinking about it.

Swing by and drop a note in the guestbook, would you?

Out of the blue...

I remembered it!

The importance of writing stuff down.

So I realized the other day that my webcomic Scamper's Quest only has 2-3 more strips before the buffer I've been building up over the past couple years runs out. I'm not entirely worried; I think I can come up with a minimum of one strip a week, hopefully building my buffer up in the process.

No, my problem is that I went to the version of the website that resides on my hard drive, to view the strips that I've made that haven't gone online yet -- in particular, the upcoming story arc that I'm in the middle of writing. Wait, what's this? There's a strip title in the database with no strip associated with it? That's not unusual; often I put the title in as a placeholder until I get the strip actually made. But not this one; I have no idea what this strip is supposed to be about. None! I recognize the title, though; I thought it was clever when I came up with it, but I've completely forgotten what the strip was about. And I usually jot my strip ideas down, really I do, but in this case I figured I'd remember. Ha!

So remember, kids: write stuff down. Otherwise you'll forget and feel stupid.

The Juce is Luce.

We grilled hamburgers last night, and I decided to try making a Jucy Lucy. We've actually done this once before, but I added a twist this time. First I chopped up some onion (with our new Pampered Chef chopper!) and kneaded it into the ground beef, along with a handful of bacon bits (real bacon, not Bacos.) I made two large, flat patties, folded a piece of american cheese in between them, and then pinched the sides together to form one big, cheese-filled patty. A liberal coating of salt and pepper and Worchestershire sauce, followed by a sprinkling of McCormack's Grillmates hamburger seasoning, and then they were on the grill. A piece of melted american cheese on top, served on a grill-toasted bun. Wow.

The first bite was a bit of a mess, with the back side of the burger bursting open, pouring hot, beefy cheese sauce onto my plate. But it was soooooo tasty. I'm totally doing it again, but maybe next time I'll had some more toppings (lettuce, tomato, and the like.)