Right off the bat, please allow me a moment to thank everyone who commented, emailed or called with birthday wishes. You all helped make the day better!

Friday night, Lil’ and I went out to dinner at Kell’s, both of us choosing the lamb stew. Saturday morning, I slept in. Saturday afternoon, I played games with Alex. Saturday evening, Kyla and I went out to dinner at the Broadway Pub & Grill, our favorite “pub grub” dining spot.

On the “big day” itself, we played games until early afternoon and then visited Lil’ & Geoff’ & Anxiety for a while (the chocolate cake with maple flavored frosting was dee-lish), after which Kyla and I took off to go spend my birthday money gift card. (Lil’ will be chagrined to learn that her efforts resulted in expanding my anime collection. I’ll make it up to her somehow.) We dined at the Red Robin out at Cascade Station… and probably won’t do that again. The burgers were okay, but the “garlic & parmesan” fries… weren’t. Still, that cast only a slight shadow on an otherwise wonderful day. We went back to Kyla’s place to watch my cheesy $10 DVD purchase, Christian “Batman” Bale starring in the “1984 meets Metropolis meets The Matrix” flick, Equilibrium. I liked it, though I won’t claim it’s one of the finest acts of cinema ever produced.

My haul? Kyla bought me the CD of the “Peter Gabriel and friends” musical project, Big Blue Ball. (Some of you will be tempted to crack wise, here. Go ahead, but it’d better make me laugh…) I haven’t had the chance to listen to the whole thing, but what I’ve heard so far is quite good. As for the gift card purchase… well, turns out that Funimation has finally copped a clue and put out the collection of Fullmetal Alchemist anime DVDs in a semi-convenient two-box format for a not-wholly-astronomical price… that I still wouldn’t have paid my own money for unless I hit the jackpot, but I was delighted to pick up with the help of the gift card! 51 episodes making up one of the finest anime series I’ve ever seen? Huzzah!

The only downside, really? I had to go to bed earlier than I felt like doing because of the stupid Daylight Savings change… and it didn’t help with the massive jet-lag sensation I’m feeling today. Ah, well.