Since I started my weekend on Friday, since it was my birthday, let’s start there:

Lin was late getting home, and he was so tired, we put off going out to eat and had pizza and TV viewing instead. I was, of course, totally cool with that … especially since he brought home a luscious fudge brownie cheesecake and a bottle of sparkling zinfandel. Those are two great tastes that taste great together! He also gave me an adorable card and … an iTunes gift certificate so I can totally spoil myself with some iTunes stuff without feeling guilty about spending money at iTunes! OK, I sort of knew he was going to get me some iTunes money. He asked about a week about if iTunes money was cool, and my reaction was quite emphatic that it was TOTALLY cool. :)

We were going to go see my mom on Saturday, but that got changed to Sunday, so I slept in, and Lin was a lazy bum. A little too lazy. I got grumpy, and eventually the rest of my garden area got tilled to perfection. Everything is ready for planting now, and all I have to do is wait for the weather to be right. I’m still a bit grumpy about the second raised bed just being a pile of dirt with no wooden parts to it, but I’ll take whatever tilled soil I can get. I can’t till it myself for fear of death or dismemberment, so I’m ever so thankful he did that for me.

Sunday we went to mom’s to finish celebrating my birthday. We had Sonic burgers for lunch, mom and I talked for hours, Lin changed the strings on my mom’s guitar and played out on the porch, and then I got presents. Presents are always good. Mom bought me the coolest little Peruvian flute, some glow-in-the-dark Silly Putty, a bunch more of those plain flour sack dish towels I love, some more fridge magnets (’cause you can never have too many), and handed down one of her old storage units with little drawers (like carpenters keep nails in, except Mom and I use them for crafty bits). Oh, and she gave me a book of puzzles, because she thinks I spend too much time sitting at the computer. :blush:

She also sent me home with a whole bunch of my little childhood treasures, because you know I need more junk in my house I can’t bare to part with. I’m going to have to do something artsy-crafty with all my little plastic animals. I can’t throw them out or give them away, due to there being entirely too many fond memories attached to them, but just having them sitting around in a box somewhere seems like a silly waste of space. Surely I can find some way to use them creatively without actually destroying them and get to see them hanging on the wall or something.

Then we had apple pie, a few more hours of talking, and it was time to go. It was a beautiful day, and I had a great time.

The only horrible part of the day was the traffic when we got back to Austin. Every insane driver must have been on IH-35 yesterday evening … including my husband. I very seriously had chest pains once or twice from the stress. I think in the future I will be the one driving when we are going to see my mom, and he can sit in the passenger seat getting stressed out about how I am driving too slowly (the speed limit) and not weaving around cars (drastically changing lanes every time there’s someone in front of the truck). At least when I’m driving, I know we’ll get where we are going in one piece and not get a ticket of any kind. Truly, my husband’s driving makes me insane.

And now for today:

I was feeling a little blech thanks to my allergies, which won’t let up, so I went back to bed for a few hours. When I got up, it was still pretty chilly outside, so I puttered around the house and sat at the computer until it was warm enough to leave the house without wearing a heavy jacket. Then I went to my bank to deal with my jury duty check and straighten out my bank card problem. I have to tell you, the people my bank are so wonderful. Always so pleasant and helpful. I should be able to finally access the money in my account in about a week when I get a new PIN and can finally activate my bank card, and I got all my mom’s questions answered about something she was freaking out about. Then I chatted with the sole teller for a bit, ’cause he looked bored, and I wasn’t ready to get back on the highway just yet anyway. Yes, one teller. It’s a very sleepy bank. I have never stood in a line. I love my bank.

Then I had to go get some groceries. Yet again, a very short list, and it still took me an hour to get it all. An hour is most definitely the minimum amount of time I can ever spend at that store, no matter how few things I need to get. That is so aggravating. But, fillet mignon was on sale, so guess what we are having for dinner! Can’t wait. We haven’t had that for a while.

Now I supposed I should go do the dishes, clean the kitchen, and do all the other boring household tasks I didn’t do earlier and should have. But … just in time for my birthday, Aspyr released a patch to fix the problem of Civilization IV not running at all since Quicktime was updated. I was dying to start a new game the day I installed the QT update, so you know that now, some weeks later, I am about to burst to start playing Civilization IV again! I think if I just do the dishes and clean the cat box, the rest of the house can wait until tomorrow (or the next day or the next). ;)