Boston!

Wednesday was my birthday and this weekend we went to Boston - we actually went to go to a Final Fantasy concert with friends, but I'm pretending it was for my birthday since I never played Final Fantasy. We had a sleepover and went to dim sum and bonded, and the highlight was a midnight picnic with this box of happiness from Finale:

As much as we love Philly (which is a lot!), every time we go to Boston we end up yearning to move back. We actually like the city of Philly better, but Boston has all our friends... we just have to figure out how to lure them here!

New camera

Ben got me a new camera for my birthday! I am still figuring out all its fanciness, but so far I am most impressed with its zoom. Here is an un-zoomed picture from our balcony, with the stadium circled in red:

And here is an all-the-way zoomed picture of the stadium, taken standing in that same spot:

Technology!

Oh Yeah

I forgot to post this on my actual birthday, but we went out to a fancy restaurant and I wanted to share this prettiness with you:

Believe it or not, that is very fancy, deconstructed s'mores: molten chocolate cake, caramelized meringue, and graham cracker ice cream. It didn't actually taste anything like a s'more, but it was still delicious.

Perfect square!

Look what I got in the mail:

 

At first I was like, "I can't believe they would send me another guilt mailing, especially since I didn't even give them anything last time!" But then I opened it up, and found:

 In case you can't read the small script:

It's from my aunt and uncle, or - as it says on the certificate - "Lady High Mistress of Muckety-Muck" and "Grand Poo-Bah." And people wonder where I get my sense of humor from.

There was a bunch of other silly stuff in there too:

They crossed out "erasers" on that package, and wrote "mistake catchers" instead.

I think I'm going to wear the "Birthday Girl" ribbon to work tomorrow, and see if anyone comments. I think I'm entitled, after having spent a quarter century among the Muggles of Planet Earth.

Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday, and my parents drove up from Maryland with this awesome cake for the occasion:

You can't really tell in this picture, but that weird dusty stuff on it is actually sparkles!

 This other picture shows its colors better since the flash isn't washing it out, and you can also see our pretty new walls and floor:

We're not usually this messy, we just haven't completely unpacked yet.

It was an extremely awesome birthday, consisting of a trip to Ikea for a table (and meatballs!), walking around Center City, and delicious dinner at a great restaurant recommended to me by a coworker. Also, as a birthday/housewarming present, my parents got us the most beautiful mezuzah I've ever seen:

(This picture is from the company's website.)

The real birthday treat was that Ben got a snake and cleaned out the tub drain, since after about five minutes in the shower the water would be up to your ankles. I think this is the grossest household chore there is, what with all the disgusting wads of hair and soap scum involved, which is why it was so nice for Ben to do it. Among the typical gross drain junk, he actually pulled up a dime. Wonder what those old owners did in there...