Happy Birthday, Dawn.

There are all sorts of clever things I want to say here, but I seem unable to choose one. So be it.

Okay, everybody, get over to her site and wish her a happy day and a great year to come!

Parenting isn’t always easy, and one could argue that I’m only half a parent now that I don’t live with my kids 24/7. Fine. Be that as it may, sometimes things just come together. This evening’s a case in point:

• Pizza for dinner
• Anime on the TV (Fullmetal Alchemist and an episode of the live-action Sailor Moon for Erica)
• Ice cream after dinner
• Computer gaming (Age of Mythology: The Titans, three of us teamed against three computer players)
• Hugs goodnight

It’s evenings like this that make all those early frustrating years entirely worth it…

Friday: Barely escaped work in time to get downtown and grab a bite to eat (damn you, Geraldi’s, for being closed that day!) before heading out to the airport to meet Dawn. After some confusion related to how well hidden the airport MAX station is, Dawn and I headed to my place to catch a breather before going out to Gustav’s with Lil’. Endured much teasing from the two women. Shucky darn, how will I ever survive?

Saturday: Shopping, mostly at the nearby mall and also a bit down at Powell’s City Of Books. The new Raymond E. Feist series’ first installment is out in paperback, yay! Then out to visit Mari, which included a stop at Uwajimaya and a lunch at the Sambi’s therein.

Dawn made Mari a present of a pink Hello Kitty apron, and it looks totally adorable on her. (Sadly, neither Dawn or I remembered to bring our cameras that day. Bad shutterbugs, no biscuits.) Once back home we hit the store for ingredients so Dawn could make din-din, which we enjoyed in between rounds of gaming.

Sunday: Vegetative. Didn’t bother to get dressed enough to leave the house. Read books, played games, generally relaxed.

Monday: Packing Dawn up to go home, surprisingly (or not) with more stuff than she had when she arrived. Got to the train station quite early, and everything went smoothly there for a change. She boarded, I went home and tinkered with ripping MST3K tapes to DVD. (Generally unsuccessful. Argh.)

Not too shabby of a three-day weekend, really. I didn’t even get called by the office. Huzzah!

It’s bad enough that Wendi’s downstairs neighbor fancies himself a musician and feels compelled to practice his guitarwork (sometimes with accompaniment) all hours of the night. (Dude, here’s a clue: If you were any good, you’d be doing actual paying gigs on Saturday nights instead of engaging in six-string masturbation in your crappy apartment.)

But tonight, I came home (at 1am) to… a huge boistrous party going on in the townhouse adjoining ours. Did I mention that the balcony everyone’s crowded onto is right outside my window? Oh, but it’s okay, because apparently they warned us first and even extended an invitation. (I wasn’t here for this. If I’d known this was happening, I’d have sought refuge elsewhere.)

Great. So it’s 1:30 in the Ay Em, and I’m not likely to get anything resembling sleep for… what? Two more hours? Three? And I have places to go and work to do, tomorrow. Frelling lovely.

I guess I’ll get some work done on that livingroom PC I’ve been (re)building (again)…

I am, generally speaking, a nice guy. Sensitive, thoughtful, funny, that sort of thing. All in all I’m one of the most harmless folks you’ll ever meet.

Except, of course, when my brain goes into its occasional fits of thoughtlessness and I bust out with some utterly stupid act that costs me dearly. Usually the cost is measured in lost respect or lost opportunity or even just lost money… but every so often I pull something boneheaded enough to cost me a relationship.

I did just that yesterday. I’ve lost Heather as a friend.

Sorry, but I’m not going to go into details other than to say nobody was physically harmed and that it involved a breach of trust.

So, this makes two important relationships I’ve managed to scuttle in as many years. Springtime, even. I’ve got a great idea: How about I not go for three in a row?

Yeah, I know. I don’t hold out a lot of hope for me, either.

Saturday, other than some Diablo II before I left the house, consisted almost entirely of spending time over at the kids’ place. We watched anime part of the day, then I helped them set up Neopets accounts. I sort of wonder how “into it” each of them will become.

Because Wendi’s gig was at the coast and ran well past midnight, I didn’t get home until about 3:30am Sunday. This wouldn’t be so bad, but I had made plans that involved getting out of bed at 7:00am! Somehow I managed to do exactly that, and made it to a breakfast gathering arranged by some fellow Tribe-dot-net members.

It was at the Hot Cake House. How could I say no?

Breakfast was good, and at least half of that was on account of the company I kept: Lil’, Daria and Rich, and a wacky guy I’m sure I’ve met previously but don’t remember where or when by name of Edward, along with some others who arrived later. Unfortunately I was too tired and out-of-it to really engage in the Napkin Puppet Theater. Shame, really, ‘cause ordinarily I’d have had some real fun with that. I’m sure Edward thinks I’m a hopeless stick in the mud.

Oh wait, maybe I am. Hmmph. But hey, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen two Napkin Puppets going at it 69-style. Er, or maybe not. Heh.

After breakfast, Lil’ was kind enough to ferry me over to the office, where I started a massive email purge. Once everything was copacetic there, we took off for her place to hang out before meeting up with Jak & Karawynn for lunch. That was another nice little social gathering, and those two always seem to gravitate towards the trendy little dining spots that I would ordinarily never seek out. I’m such a greasy-spoon maven, I swear. Anyway, it was another nice little gathering that included Geoffrey, the younger of Lil’s demonspawn, and another local Pooligan, Larry.

I had to swing by the office once more to make sure the purge had gone well (went from 94% to about 86%, woo hoo!) and then we all trekked back to Lil’ and Geoff’s place to generally hang out and veg, complete with making fun at a really (really really) bad movie running on SciFi Channel. I’d have stayed longer, especially given that all sorts of guests dropped by during the 8:00 hour, but I was running on very little sleep… so I finally had to beg off and get home to crash out.

And so, here I am. It’s Monday morning, and I have risen but I refuse to shine just yet…