Best. Birthday. Ever. part II

Sunday afternoon, I went to ptown for a birthday celebration with my family. Never in my life has my birth been so celebrated. The girls were super cute and fun, entertaining and having us participate in family band events. I am enthusiastic. I freaking love the family band.

Brin and Shae singing happy birthday into their new resonant microphones.

Decorations

Miss Shaely discovering cymbals.

Okay. So I have sensitive teeth. Like, I haven't been to the dentist in ages (don't get grossed out. I brush and floss, although not as much as Jaci (love)). Brinly has her first loose tooth. I am trying to be really excited for her but inside I am screaming and cringing and kinda want to cry. Oh, supportive aunt.

Sully ate shaely!Pooh ate Brinly!

Sully tried to eat Ellie but choked!

And tiredtiredtired Shae-bae just wants some caaaaaaake (insert child whimper here)

Best. Birthday. Ever.

28 came in with a bang. My last real bday party was when I was like 9 and Friday night was well worth the wait. Party at Tara's with some of my favorite people. I am a lucky lucky girl and thank you to all who celebrated into the wee hours with me.Saturn returns.

the sun not yet set. pomegranite juice and taradise.

enter sparkle vision! (fantastic contribution bri. freaking fantastic)

No party is really complete without a head measuring game, right? I mean, really.

And the winner is Moy Toy, with a whopping 24.5 inches. That's a HUGE HEAD (insert scottish accent)

Two of my favorite ladies. These girls are so incredible....they each made leslie tailored mixes. One played outside by the fire pit, and the other was dance ready in the coffee-table-less room. body roll woot!

hawtness.

Something wicked this way comes. Actually, I have no idea. Comments?

hat-gasm.

holla.

Friday the 13th.

my entire family sang to me on various speaker phones before 830AM, small voices and older voices, all shades and keys. Amy made me a portable plant press complete with decoupage and pretty orange ribbon. Joyce wrote a story revealing I am a circus performer. Leslie M treated me at the local cafe, and took a photo of me with flowers sent by Alisa, far off in Utah. So sweet. Such a good day already. Theoretically, I am at work, but all people have asked me to do is return one phone call, landscape one document, and identify the singer in a song. I'm leaving at noon.

adore-mint

love it. obsessed with it. like smearing yummy gum on your lips. love it. obsessed. tingly.

commonly rare

Centromadia parryi ssp. congdonii. Yesterday, I walked miles and miles in circles looking for and at this rare plant. To tell it apart from the common tarplant, you have to pull apart the flower. Those are spines on the plant. So basically, I spent all day yesterday pulling apart potentially rare plants and getting stuck ridiculously in the process. Oh logic, we greet thee.

I listened to this all day long in my headphones. We also hopped like 10 fences. That was cool.

Megan took me to Tartine in the evening and we had the coconut cream tart. oh heaven. oh decadence.

for af.

mud hens

We used to spend ridiculous amounts of time together in a wee zodiac called LUPE, cruising the waters of the bay and the delta. More than once, we hung out in mud. We dodged both bullets and the coast guard and navigated our way through pot fields. Now, we gather for food and wine, keeping going the camaraderie found in typha that curved overhead. wetland girls woot! (above photo: Karin, Laura, Lisa, Diana)

Karin and Matt's house in Oakland. Karin just finished her PhD. Smartayyyy. Diana. She just went to Argentina.

Theresa. Her dog, Taj, has two new hips and is doing quite well.Laura. New job as restoration program manager lady. kick ass. Also a fan of cutlets. (photo credit: Diana)Lisa likes fireworks. So do we.

fourthified

Plunked in the middle of the week, the independence day off started with a nice amalgam of Tara, sun bathing, mojitos, and the Beastie Boys. Colette and Rob joined up and we moseyed to Stacie's. Cowboy boots are good for patriotism but bad for walking long distances, no matter how many mojitos-a-go-go you have.

mojitos-a-go-gostacie!

i point and lounge.

Ended the night in Diamond Heights, watching the city sporatically explode. Seriously, it was amazing how many random LARGE fireworks are set off throughout San Francisco; we had an awesome view of all the city and explosions, from over near the main show (at Pier 39?) to Bernal Heights. Some peeps in the Mission were going OFF. A neighbor mentioned that all of the booming must be what IUDs exploding sound like. Let's hope not. A woman and I laughed hard at his word choice. I think he thought we were callous.

hindsight

Robbery in progress. Burlington, Vermont.Mojave Desert, California. 105mph.Backseat love. Arnold, California.

East End of Champlain Bridge, Champlain Lake, New York.

Airport hanger, Livermore, CaliforniaI-880 Traffic. Oakland, California. 645 AM.1988. Anywhere.

82 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 8% Dork

Just so ya know:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. (sweet!)

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. (yay!)

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. (umm.....)

You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

Find out if you are a freak or a geek here.