"Happy Birthday To Me."

That is how I started my day, by singing Happy Birthday to myself (and I didn't pay royalties to Apple Recording Studios. Take that Beatles.)

[What follows is a fairly detailed account of my day, so if you are the browsing type: ACHTUNG!]

For breakfast, I had a big bowl of oatmeal with flaxseed meal and dried blueberries that plumped overnight in the fridge. My mother called and talked for a while. The day I was born she had rocky road ice cream and pizza after not having eaten much the previous two days. It was also a beautiful day weatherwise; however, the following day it snowed four inches (St. Paul, MN). My drive to work wasn't noteworthy except for a great song by Ben Taylor, son of James, that was on KRNU that I waited in the car to finish before going into work. This was the first of four songs I emotionally highlighted because it was my birthday.

Work was good today, we had a big money day while avoiding that crunch time stress that can creep up on a busy day. During the all request lunch hour on the classic rock station, someone requested The Pretender by Jackson Browne (#2 of my fab four today). I went for lunch to Famous Dave's and had their delish bread pudding for dessert. I haven't had a better bread pudding from another restaurant, which is a neat find in a rib joint. Driving back to work a fun version of Waters of March by Gilberto was on the Brasilian radio show on Lincoln's community station KZUM (#3). Instead of getting a cake for my birthday celebration at work, I requested a fruit tray. This went over surprisingly well, with a much smaller percentage remaining than the run of the mill cakes we've had. On way home from work, I was listening to Iowa Western Community College's station, The River, and they were playing Buffy's favorite new song "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White Ts (#4).

After work Marcy did a great job being the "birthday slave" by cleaning the apartment and making our small gathering go smoothly. We had a Coldstone Creamery ice cream cake, red velvet layered with chocolate ice cream covered in a ganache accented in raspberry sauces. The exclusive guest list included: Wanda and Nate, Kyle and Cassie, Angela, Karen, and Wendy.

Now is the time for a recap of the bean bag action. The first game pitted Wanda and me against Kyle and Nate. After jumping out to an early lead, Wanda and I fell behind, but we pulled it out in the end. The second game, after a break for cake, matched Marcy and me against Karen and Angela. Marcy and I controlled much of the match with a lead of 19 to 8 at one point. Then Angela started paying attention and Karen the Closer got closer and closer til they won. The final match of the evening was between Angela and me. She kept her form from her previous comeback effort and led much of the way, 20-15 going into the last round. Then with a flurry of ringers, I scored seven points to win the match 22-20.

After bean bags, Wendy and I went to Yia Yia's, and she got me an Olfabrikken porter. According to the bartender, it is on the top of many "best porter" lists. I liked it. Still not as complex as Free State's Black Jack porter, but well worth the price.

Then I got home and talked to my mother again. This time she did the listening :). And now I'm blogging about my day.