Thirty-first birthday haul.

Another year, another "This is what I got for my birthday, thanks everyone!" post.

This is what I got for my birthday:

From my wife, Lane & Sarah, Matt & Becca, Tara, and my parents:
     A new grill!
From my kids:
     TMBG's "Here Comes Science" CD/DVD
From Matt Armstead:
     the Catan Dice Game
From Marc Baker:
     2 Wii wheels and Weird Al's "Poodle Hat" CD
With birthday money from Grandpa & Grandma Hawks: Books!
     Bitter Gold Hearts by Glen Cook
     A Cruel Wind by Glen Cook
     The Tower of Fear by Glen Cook
     Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen by Alan Dean Foster
     Free Live Free by Gene Wolfe
     Litany of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
     There Are Doors by Gene Wolfe

Thanks, everyone!

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

Birthday haul: the breakdown.

So here's the list of my birthday gifts for this year, and who gave what:

Anita: Ninja Burger (game)

Grandpa & Grandma Hawks: money spent on books: Star Wars: Jedi Shadow by Kevin J. Anderson, Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, King's Dragon and The Burning Stone by Kate Elliott

Lane & Sarah: Taluva (game), The X-Files theme on vinyl record

Matt Armstead: Lucca Città (game), Transformers 2-disc DVD with Best Buy exclusive Robot Heroes figures

Matt & Becca: card table

Sam: Cheesecake Factory giftcard

Sarah & kids: The Else (CD) by They Might Be Giants, The Tick 2nd season DVD set

Tara: Scrubs 6th season DVD set (forthcoming)

29.

Happy birthday to me!

Thanks to Elizabeth, I already know what I'm getting as presents. (Having a 3-year-old is fun.) The party'll be Saturday, a joint celebration with Matt Armstead. Presents and friends and Fuddrucker's and games. Y'know, the usual.

Sarah's making me a steak dinner tonight. (Yum!) Grandpa and Grandma Hawks sent me some birthday money, some of which is already earmarked for the 4th and 5th Malazan Empire paperbacks. (Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma!)

I'm sure I'll have more to report later.

28.

Happy belated birthday to me!

I turned 28 last Wednesday the 18th. Went out to dinner at Fuddrucker's with Sarah and the kids, and my parents and sister. The burgers were great, but everyone was done eating by the time the shakes finally arrived. We got a refund, but I didn't even bother asking for my free birthday sundae. Besides, there was awesome chocolate birthday cake back home.

My parents gave me a set of shirts, and 3 pairs of khakis that I had had problems finding in my size (apparently, only short fat men buy pants anymore.) Sam got me a knock-off Transformer set that she found while in Jerusalem. Amusingly enough, I have the original set that the knock-offs were based on.

Thursday, everyone got together at our place and played games. My dad had been wanting to play TransAmerica while he was out, so we played a 6-player game (me, Lane, Matt, Sam, Tara, and Dad -- Sarah was working) that Dad won handily, as I came in second place with only 3 or 4 points.

We also exchanged birthday presents, as Matt's birthday was back on the 13th and everyone was busy that weekend with the wedding.

From Matt, I got the 2-player Catan Card Game, and the Settlers of Catan Event Cards. Lane got me the James Ernest card game Dead Money. And Sarah got me the other 2 Mystery Rummy games: Jack the Ripper and Jekyll and Hyde. (Meanwhile, Sarah and I gave Matt the expansion to Ninja Burger, which 5 of us tried out Saturday night.)

I really like Jack the Ripper; Matt and I played a 2-player game on Friday (which I won), and we later played a couple of 4-player games. Sarah is definitely not a fan, though.

We played Jekyll and Hyde (2 players only) for the first time last night. Sarah ended up winning, but it was fairly close, and we both like it.

Sam and Matt and I played a hand of Dead Money (a variation on Give Me the Brain!) on Friday, but I wasn't too impressed. The game seemed to take forever, and for a game where the goal is to get cards out of your hand, it's awfully hard to do. It's likely we haven't adjusted our bidding strategies properly, but I don't see this one as catching on too well.

And the Settlers card game looks good, but it's only 2 players and takes a couple of hours to play, so I don't know when we'll get that played. It's got portability going for it, though -- I fit the entire thing in a standard-sized deck box. I just need to print out a rules cheat sheet to fit in there, and I'll be set.