Geez, I thought I was birthday-ccentric!  Ha.  E managed to finagle himself the longest birthday celebration ever.

It started last Wednesday, when I took him to Giants Stadium for the U2 concert.  What a trip that was!  Used to be the bus would run right through the Meadowlands and have stops there.  Well, they're doing construction, so no Meadowlands stops anymore.  Argh.  So he decided to take the train to Secaucus, and I'd pick him up there and dash over to the stadium.  They're 10 minutes apart.  Perfect.

Well, he realized in NY that there was no way he was making the concert if he stood on line for a train ticket at Penn station.  So he had the bright idea to buy a ticket on the train.  It's more expensive that way, but generally possible.  Not that night.  That night, the train was so crowded - SRO - that the employees couldn't get through the aisles to sell tickets.  Instead, he had to wait on a line at the Secaucus station for an hour to get a ticket to get out.  People were tricking out of the station, and then dashing for the taxis, which had all been taken, to make it to the concert.  It was mayhem.  Finally, E got out and got in the car, and right then, a couple coming behind him called, "Anybody going to the Meadowlands?"  I was happy to not have wasted space in my car when so many people were freaking out trying to get there, so I called back, "Yeah, hop in!"  They were so grateful they insisted on paying for parking - no slouch at $25.

We missed the opening act, but got there during intermission with enough time to get some food & beer, hit the restrooms, find our seats, and eat before they even got on stage.  Phenomenal concert, I must say, and I'm not even a big U2 fan.  It turns out I got us awesome seats, and E has vowed never to miss another U2 concert.  This was his first.

On Saturday afternoon, we went into the city to watch the Rangers game at a pub with some if E's friends, and then that night, we went to a bar a couple towns away, that a friend of mine from grammar school owns now, the Harp 'n' Bard.  A band was playing that night, the Skels.  They're an Irish punk band from NJ.  They were amazing, and now E & I are both big fans.  I bought a CD.

E took off from work on Monday, his actual birthday.  That night, we went out with a bunch of friends for dinner at a Polish restaurant, and from there, to a local pub to play pool.

All in all, I think it was a good birthday for him, better than last years, that's for sure.

I said, "sure."  Why did I do this?  Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time.  And Monday is Eric's birthday.  So I said, "sure."

Wow.

Eric, last night, purchased a chanter.  And a book.  

He started last night, and has been practicing since about 10 a.m.  It's 3:12 p.m.  It's nice out and he doesn't want to leave the house.  We even ordered lunch in.  His face hurts (and is bright red), his hands hurt, and his lungs are going to collapse.

He claims it's fun.

He's also persistent.  And impatient.  Despite all he's read on the subject stating that it's nigh impossible, he wants to be on a full set of pipes by Christmas.  Sigh.

Actually, he's sounding pretty good for the first day.  He's kind of dashed through the scales, which he's still working on, and has got Amazing Grace mostly recognizable and really not bad.  Sometimes it sounds really good, even.

And honestly, I happen to love the bagpipes, so I'm really all for his learning them.

I just wish he could kinda skip to the part where he's great at it and I could just enjoy it.  :D

Stinky, stinky cheese.  

I got him tix to the U2 concert for tomorrow night as a surprise for his 9/28 birthday.  

I had no idea how it was happening, but I actually managed to avoid a discussion with him about the concert thus far.  I knew he must not know about it (he doesn't listen to the radio a lot since he mostly takes the bus to work and has an iPod), or he'd be bugging me.  I had no idea what to do if that happened, but I planned to talk about $$ since you can't really get tix at face value any more, they're all with resellers.  And with his birthday coming and the money I'm spending on that, I figured I'd have a good argument, though it might bring us to the brink of divorce, with U2 being one of his favorite bands and his never having seen them in concert before.

As it was, he didn't seem to know about the concert, and I just had to make it to TOMORROW morning when I was going to give him the tickets.  I'd have to tell him then, because he'd need to know to take a diff bus home & get off at the Meadowlands stop to meet me.

Well... DOOFUS (aka Eric), for the first time YESTERDAY, noticed a billboard on the way home from work.  Damnit!  He gchatted me from his Blackberry (note:  U2 will be here Wednesday & Thursday, and all I'd told him so far was not to make plans for Wednesday night because I had early birthday plans for him) with this:

Eric: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 me: what?

 Eric: Do you have to go to the dinner on Thurs?

 me: yes

  why?

 Eric: Sh!t

U2 is playing Giants stadium!!!!!

 me: Oh geez.

  And you've never seen them.

 Eric: No way you can skip it?

 me: What time does it start?

 Eric: No!

  Not sure

 me: I can't! It's the one with the seminar on crim law!

Eric: Arg

  Ok

  Mind if I go?

And then my computer froze!  Just as I was about to text/gchat/email every friend he's got to say they'd better not DARE agree to go to the concert with him on Thursday night.  I was also afraid that it would give me away, since it'd look like I was avoiding Eric.  So I grabbed my phone & texted him that the computer froze, but how much were tickets?

He didn't respond, but got home like a minute later, and I went into the, "Who will go with you?" rigamarole.  He said he didn't care, it's U2, and for them he'd go by himself!  Damnit!  So I tried, "But tickets aren't on sale any more, so they'll be hugely expensive and I'm spending a lot on your birthday."  And the ass said that single tickets can be gotten cheaper and he didn't care if it was nosebleeds, he'd seen tix for like $50.  Argh!

So finally, I just said, "You suck," and gave him the tickets.  Two days.  Two days!  Only two days left and he had to do this?  Ugh!

So then I just smacked him in the arm a lot of times with the envelope the tickets are in. 

He did, though, spend the rest of the night telling me I was "the bestestest wife ever."  And before that, I was the bestestest fiancee, and before that, the bestestest girlfriend, and before that, apparently, the bestestest chick in an Irish bar.  LOL 

I've been cast in a show!  It's been ages, what with getting married and all the rest, since I even auditioned.

So recently, now that I have more time, I started auditioning again.  My second audition in, and I'm in a show...

It's a play comprised of 3 vignettes, by 3 different authors, all taking place on the same beach on the same day:  Dawn (by Joe Pintauro), Day (by Lanford Wilson), and Dusk (by Terrence McNally).  I'm in Dusk, as Marsha.

She's an interesting character, as all of them are, and I can't wait to try her on.

Off to memorize my lines...

 No, not mine!  My little sister is pregnant, and due in December.  We had her baby shower on Sunday, with me and mom cohosting.

Did I ever mention that I bake and make chocolates?

Just not all that frequently. So I baked the cakes and made the favors for the shower. Three chocolate lollipops in the shape of teddy bears with blocks per person. Why three?  Mom and I decided that one looked too small and cheap.  So three it was.  With 52 guests, that meant 156 lollipops.  I did 160 just in case.

I had 4 of the mold trays, which helped to speed things along a little, but not enough for my taste. It still took hours and hours, over the course of two days.  (And hours.  And MAN, did my back hurt!)

to make these cakes

One a yellow butter cake and the other a fudge cake. I torted each so I could fill them with chocolate pudding that I cooked. For the yellow cake, I sliced bananas into the pudding, and for the fudge cake, I sliced strawberries.

 

One and a half batches of chocolate buttercream and one batch of regular buttercream (dyed lemon yellow and mint green) later, I had two shower cakes, sitting nicely on the cake board I'd covered in gift wrap to make it prettier...

 

... and a lot of dishes to wash! While I was baking, I thought my least favorite part of baking was greasing and flouring the pan, especially shaped pans like this. Then I got to the dishes, and they definitely win.

 

The chocolates and cakes were a hit, though. Everyone who didn't eat them at the shower took their lollipops, and both cakes were devoured, not a crumb left. Now THAT is a compliment.

 

Everyone had a ton of fun, too.  The shower was at a Japanese restaurant, and the food was really good.  They were great to work with, and gave us the whole front of the restaurant for the party.

 

We played two games that I organized - a baby name scramble and a "name the baby animal" one.  Those two games resulted in 7 winners and used all the prizes we'd brought, so we ended up not doing the final game I'd planned, baby shower bingo.  That was fine.

 

And my sis got a TON of gifts.  Nearly her entire registry was emptied out, and people got her other great gifts too - lots of books and great clothes.  It's terrific how much gender-neutral clothing is out there, since my sis & her husband have chosen not to find out before the baby is born.  They've got two names picked out, same as my parents did for us.  Had I been a boy, I'd have been Steven David instead of Larissa Ann.