it was my birthday on friday!: a recap

and, i'm happy to say, it was a really fun weekend. here are the highlights:

* i began the morning with a bunch of facebook greetings and an e-card from YB, then headed out just before 9am to meet up with her and mom for our day of shopping and eating and shenanigans.

* our first stop was what-a-bagel! where, on your birthday, you get a dozen bagels... free! i decided to let mom pick out the 12, hot-out-out-of-the-oven bagels for herself.

* we then drove north and stopped at petsmart, where i played with a very sweet, gentle cat named emmy, who was stationed in their adoption center. she was a calico, and petite, and she wanted nothing more than to be petted. she rolled over in her cage, pressed her body up against the bars and purred. then she reached out a paw and just placed it on my arm... then left it there. just touching my arm. no claws, just paw. i bent my face close to the cage and she reached the paw to my cheek and then held it there. mom and trix shopped for food for kyle and browsed the store while i hung out with emmy. for about 20 minutes.

* we stopped in at jacob outlet, where YB scored some super deals. jeans for $5! lounge pants for $2.50! unfortunately for me, none of jacob's pants are long enough for me, so i left empty-handed.

* then, a monsoon hit for ten minutes, so we waited it out in the parking lot before continuing on our way.

* we drove farther north and went to a costco. trix picked up a kitchenaid food processor, mom bought vitamins and i had a sample of some kind of almond/cranberry cracker.

* next stop: a shopping mall. trix treated me to baskin robbins for lunch (not "with" lunch, FOR lunch) after the young guys working the crêpe counter proved themselves to be ill-versed in food safety and i decided not to have anything they were making. mom had a coupon for a free muffin, so she had that. afterwards, i popped into sephora for my complimentary birthday gift – which i promptly gave to YB. it was cupcake-scented body wash and, while i enjoy eating cupcakes, "vanilla cake" is not what i wish to smell like. the mall didn't give up any deals, per se, so we moseyed onwards.

* we hit a wal-mart supercentre next and did some grocery/necessity shopping, which was productive. mom had given me a gift card en route, which made it a free visit for me.

* for dinner, we stopped at the keg. we were all starving, so it was the perfect place (a steakhouse) to chow down. plus: free dessert on your birthday! my slice of billy miner™ pie (mocha ice cream with drizzles of butterscotch and chocolate-fudge sauce, adorned with toasted, slivered almonds) arrived with a sparkler. our server, huffing and puffing, said he'd run across the restaurant to get it to the table before the sparkler went out.

* when we got back to my parents' house, i opened presents. i'd asked for "fun socks" and fun socks i did receive. :-D i also got some useful gift cards, subway tokens (which i always appreciate!), a new pillow and several small-sized reusable tote bags with which to carry my lunch to work... because, in case i haven't yet mentioned it, my job has now been extended through to the end of july.

* WE HAD CAKE!!!! mom made a whoopie-pie cake – which is essentially a devil's food cake mix with homemade whoopie-pie filling as frosting. so so so delicious! even though we'd stuffed ourselves at dinner, we each made room for big slabs of chocolaty wonderfulness.

* i stayed over at trixie's place on friday night because we had a second day of shopping planned for saturday. mom opted to sit this one out, which was totally understandable given that our (well, my) ultimate destination was krispy kreme. YB and i got up, had birthday cake for breakfast (yay!) and then hit the highway just after 8:45am.

* instead of going north, we drove west this time... all the way to the west pole (aka: mississauga). we tooled around assorted stores, tried on shoes, had chicken fingers and herbed potato wedges for lunch, spotted swallows roosting at a RONA and, when all was said and done, walked into krispy kreme. (cue: chorus of angels.) i bought two of my absolute favourite flavour: glazed raspberry filled. omgsoamazingandgood. trix bought an iced coffee.

* when we got home, trix whipped up a batch of her homemade tomato sauce (YUM!) and i made myself pasta. we ended the evening chez mes parents and watched the documentary Don't You Forget About Me, which kind of blew. but it was nice to share the crappiness together. misery does, after all, love company.

* i finished my birthday weekend by doing massive amounts of laundry. i have five giant bags full, and getting it all done (on saturday night and sunday morning) was incredibly satisfying. while stuff washed and dried, mom and i made apple-walnut muffins. then she gave me a ride home with all my stuff, i spent half an hour putting everything away... and then the weekend was over. i was pooped but happy.