Strangely-timed post.

So, this is a post about my birthday. There's no better time to blog about your birthday than after you've digested all the details, which apparently takes just shy of 6 months...

Last September I turned 31. We weren't sure what to do on my birthday, which occurs over Labor Day weekend (most of the time). A few days prior, some friends and I went to a bachelorette party for a friend where one of the bridesmaids made a list of things that the bride had to complete before the party could end, so we approached my birthday with the same idea.

First on THE LIST: BRUNCH. Yeah, dude. Here's the lovely J, post-brunch, looking up at the Barbie balloons I'd been given. Those balloons lasted for more than a month. You may notice that J looks a little sad - well that's because after brunch, she had to go into work :(

After brunch, we got down to the business of getting items checked off THE LIST. Second: buying a whisk. This is no ordinary whisk, people. This whisk has a metal ball, inside a metal ball inside a traditional whisk. This is the whisk for people who are serious about aeration. This whisk can form soft, fluffy peaks out of egg whites in under a minute. Whisk. Whiiiiiiiiiiiisk! Look at how happy Dr. Monkey and I are about this (ok, we may also be happy because he's grabbing my butt. YEAH!) :
Right outside the whisk store, we were able to complete another item: Skipping through Davis Square. Now, it's tough to capture skipping in single-frame pictures, and we didn't think ahead and take video, sadly, but, you get the idea... A and I are world-class skippers!

After the skip-fest, it was off to the playground. If your birthday doesn't include any playground time, you are missing out, let me tell you. Here's an action shot of A and Dr. M. They're holding each other up so as to avoid falling in the lava pit below. Why do people consistently build playgrounds in such dangerous areas? It seems irresponsible...

Swinging. Swinging!
While holding hands, even. This was a tough skill to master, but we did an admirable job. And, you can almost see what color underwear I'm wearing... Made you look!

We hurried home from the park to play some lightning rounds of trivial pursuit. Here's how you play the lightning round: every question is worth a pie piece.
I won the first round in one turn:

So, they handicapped me. A couple of times:

With the day turning to evening and most of the items crossed off the list, there was still one thing that was causing me much shame. I needed to get my picture taken with a pug. This should have been pretty easy for two reasons:

1. Davis Square is lousy with pugs.

2. I have good pug-dar, and can sense their presence.
Sadly, we could not find ANY of them. It's like they were hiding for fear of being petted to within an inch of their lives. I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I would not complete my list, and would therefore FAIL my birthday.

So, we all got dressed to go to a wonderful restaurant - Dali. Dr. M and I got in the car with J and M to pick up A. Leaving A's house, I screamed "PUG! pull over!". I sprinted giddily towards this young guy and his pug, and yammered, rather incoherently "There's a list...picture...your dog...PUUUUG!"

... ... ...

And he replied, somewhat guardedly:

"That's Pucket's choice."
Here I am with Pucket, who generously allowed me to be photographed with him.

Ahhhh. The only thing left on my list was to drink wine from a decanter at Dali, which is encouraged there. Here I am doing just that, while we eat unbelievably yummy tapas (including sizzling shrimp, pork tenderloin, succulent duck, and all manner of tiny-delicious things).

When it's your birthday at Dali, they not only sing you Happy Birthday, but they also bring out this inexplicable brass frog with a candle in it, and use a bubble generating device to soak you with soapy goodness. I'm not sure why they do it, but it's standard, and who am I to argue?

That's right. I am one happy birthday girl. I'm looking forward to what kinds of wonderful nonsense will be on my list in 6 months...