Busy Week

My Birthday
So the 13th was my birthday . . . yeah, I'm getting old. I turned 29, which depressingly enough, means I'm one year from being the big three-o. Richelle surprised me at work with lunch from Crown Burger and boy was it delicious - way better than In-N-Out Burger. All my coworkers were jealous when I came back from lunch with a Crown Burger shake - doubly so when I told them my wife got it for me!

After work Grandma MacKay, Richelle and I went to Cafe Rio for dinner. It was great - I hadn't been in a long time, and it was a nice simple way to end the day . . . or so I thought. Richelle took me up to her parents for some cake and ice-cream, only to find that she'd coordinated a surprise party for me! She's pretty cute about that kind of stuff. We had cake and ice-cream, and opened presents, which was the best part of the day! Richelle went all out and got me a sweet paintball marker - a tippmann A-5 - which is exactly what I would have gotten myself. Richelle may just be the best gift-giver EVER!

Stephenie Meyer Book Signing
Saturday was a very exciting day for Richelle. We got up 6:30am to go wait in line for the Stephenie Meyer book-signing. For those of you that don't know, she's the author of the extremely popular Twilight series. For Richelle, the books are in the "Best Book Ever" category - they really are very good (yes, I've read them), though as a guy I found the books to be overly gooey at times, but I'm sure that's why so many girls absolutely love the books.

Stephenie Meyer was in town as part of the release of her new book "The Host" - it's part of a new series - here's the teaser from her website:

"Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away.

Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human - the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect - the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind."

I'm about 150 pages into the book, and I admit, I'm hooked.

Anyhow, we got up so early to go stand in line so that we would get good seats, since Stephenie was going to do a question-answer session before the signing. We weren't the only ones who thought this, and when we got there the line was already a good 20 people long. By the times the doors opened, the line was about 200 people long, so it was a good thing we went as early as we did.

Richelle had me make t-shirts for the event the day before - Richelle's said, "I Sparkle in the Sunshine Too!", and she had me make one for me that said, "I'm her Edward." The shirts were a big hit, but so many people wanted pictures of them that I put my hoodie back on so all the teenage girls would leave me alone.

When all was said and done it was about 4pm - it was a long day, but we came away with two signed copies of "The Host," two signed copies of "Eclipse," and another signed copy of "New Moon" to add to other signed books. Richelle loved it - every second of it, and that's all that mattered.