R to the thirtieth

The other big milestone this spring is R's 30th birthday. As a matter of fact it's today (Sunday)! The clip below, from 2003, is my attempt at embarrassing her. One of the things I love about R is that she is always willing to help me out with one crazy shenanigan or another. It's difficult to find people willing to act goofy in front of a camera, but I can always count on her :-).


This weekend was probably lower-key than a 30th birthday weekend should be. I wish I would have planned more. Our original idea was to celebrate with a vacation in Paris, but the scheduling didn't work out, so we're going to be there a few weeks too late. We did go out to dinner at a French restaurant, Julienne, on Saturday night as preview of the trip to come. And today we took some good friends (pictured below) out to brunch at a place on the beach. Afterward we made a stop at the luxurious Bacara Resort, where R was treated to a pre-natal massage. It was a good weekend, but, seriously, the celebration has just begun. We are really looking forward to our trip!

The birthday princess

R turns 29 years old today. The little lady is away in Minnesota this weekend. Her 10-year high school reunion was last night and today/tonight she will be hanging out with one of her best friends. She'll return in the early afternoon tomorrow, and then I'll get my own chance to celebrate with her. I'm devoting some free time this weekend to finding the perfect gift and baking a cake.

Obviously I didn't take this photo. Credit probably goes to R's mom or dad. I found the scan in my files for our wedding video. What a cutie.

I’m getting too old for this

This clip is nothing new if you caught it on Facebook last week or if you are a lucky owner of the limited edition Cottage Cheese DVD from a few years ago. It's not exactly brilliant filmmaking (nor singing for that matter), but I wanted to include it here because of its connection to the title of my blog. I had completely forgotten about the video when I wrote about the origins of "Midnight Toast," but it would have fit into that entry quite well.

What any of this has to do with my 30th birthday, I don't know. The big day was yesterday, and it got me thinking about things. Two years ago, I questioned whether or not hitting 30 would bother me. To be honest, I feel better about it now than I did then. I think a person reaches their full potential in their 30s, and there will be a lot of things to look forward to in my next decade, like having kids and seeing how Lost ends :-)

29 was one of my favorite ages, right up there with 4, 17, and 21. I won't bore you again with a list of everything that happened in the last year, but I've been very fortunate to have things work out the way they have. I really like my life right now. It scares me a bit to have things going so well because it seems like they can only change for the worse. But let's not talk like that. I'm just going to knock on wood and keep thinking positive thoughts.

Positive thoughts... like how wonderful yesterday was. Work wasn't too stressful. Afterwards, I took a bike ride along the beach. R arrived home early, and we went out to a happy hour at The Melting Pot. Then we returned home and uncorked a bottle of good pinot noir to drink while I opened my gifts. I was once again reminded why I love this woman so much: she got me a chess set (I'll explain this in a future entry) and a shotgun microphone for my video camera! Now I have no excuse for not shooting more video. I can't wait to start some new projects.

I also received a few cards in the mail with some kind words in them (as well as some moola :-). My parents also went so far as to record a video and email it to me. Between the acting, the editing, and the U2 soundtrack, they did an awesome job. I'd love to share it with you, but I'm not so sure my parents want it online. Let's just say I can see where I get some of my toast-singing lunacy from.

That's all I'm going to do for tonight. Thanks for reading, everybody.

R's birthday weekend

My wife turned another year beautifuler on Friday. She joined me for a Bud Light shoot downtown from 6:30-8:30, and then we met up with a few friends at the Ale House for some beer and dessert. It was a fun night. I have a feeling it could be one of our last nights out in Wilmington, as the big move is coming up in only a month (gulp).

On Saturday we rode our bikes down to the Wilmington Grand Prix to watch part of the races and to participate in an failed attempt at breaking the world's record for largest bike parade. I don't think we were even close. After that we got spiffed up and went out for a birthday dinner in Philly. We had some fresh, tasty seafood at a place called Tangerine. The restaurant was packed with graduation parties, but it still had a nice ambience and I can't get that salmon out of my head.

I spent Sunday afternoon indulging in some much-needed computer time while R went to pick up her sister and our new nephew from the airport. They also drove up to the art museum to check out the Frida Kahlo exhibit currently on display. Later on, I had the chance to meet this young gentleman, who shall hereby be referred to in this blog as The Fonz. He is a cutie. You can expect some photos and video to be popping up on here soon.

So we have some company for two and a half weeks. One of our plans is to make a short film that we will be submitting to a contest being held by Summit Brewing Company in Minnesota. It's going to be tight, however, because the DVD needs to be received by the judges by May 27th. We're going to keep it simple, but I think we have a real shot at winning one of the prizes. C has a killer idea, R is helping flesh it out, I'm constructing the sequence of shots, and The Fonz is perfecting his acting chops. This is happening tomorrow night. Wish us luck!

29

Ah, my birthday today... it was nice. Got home from work relatively on time. Grilled a steak and ate it with a glass of dark red shiraz. Had molten chocolate cake and perfectly ripened Royal Riviera pear for dessert (part of my gift from R was an 8-pack of these puppies). Next I opened more gifts from R. She bought me some cool new clothes from Banana Republic. Then we watched -- you guessed it -- an episode of Twin Peaks. And now I'm wrapping up the evening on my computer. Tonight was a celebration of all things Jeff. Kudos to R for arranging things and sharing in the party. Who says you need to go out on your birthday to have a good time?

We did do a pseudo-birthday dinner out on Friday night at a Spanish tapas restaurant called Amada in Philly. We tried octopus for the first time, which was pretty close to calamari, only grilled instead of deep fried. We also had some ultra-yummy clams, seared tuna, crab-stuffed peppers, and a few other non-seafood choices. We followed up the meal with There Will Be Blood at the Ritz. Very interesting movie -- the production design was done by Jack Fisk, an associate of Lynch's, and the score was composed by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. Those personnel, combined with a visionary director, make me wonder how I managed to not see this movie sooner. It was another challenging one, primarily a character piece. In the end I preferred No Country For Old Men out of the two, but this one was still a worthy investment of time. Further continuing our catch-up on the Oscar season we watched the DVD of Atonement on Saturday. I'm worried watching all of these great films are going to spoil us. Can we really watch something like Dan in Real Life after this? We'll find out soon because it's coming up on the Netflix list. Atonement was well done, but my sleepiness got a little in the way of my enjoyment of it. By refusing to become horizontal, I managed to make it to the end of the movie, but I did have some problems balancing my head on my neck for a few moments here and there.

Speaking of sleep, it's spots time for me (ask my dad about the origin of "spots" because I don't know it). Age 30 is coming. Maybe I'll have more to reflect on then.

Birthday girl

DC

Today is my 28th birthday. Time goes fast, I don't feel that old, etc. You've heard it all before. I won't get all philosophical on you. My cherry blossom girl and I spent Saturday in Washington, DC, doing the tourist thing. It was good to see the array of iconic monuments and memorials, as well as the awesome blossoms (yes, thank you, I am a dork) currently in bloom. We had a unique dinner (steamed muscles, quail, crab stuffed peppers, shrimp, and white asparagus) at a Spanish tapas restaurant. Afterwards the hiccups won another battle over me. I thought the lack of drinking would keep my system in line, but that theory proved false. Luckily, I have a sweet, patient wife who got me back home safe. She also had to take care of me on Sunday when my left eye was bugging me. Apparently I somehow scratched it the night before because I woke up on Sunday with foggy vision, a painful sand-in-the-eye feeling, and a bottomless tear duct. Miraculously it started to clear itself up by the end of yesterday (I think it was the blueberry/banana smoothie that cured me), and today it's back to normal again. I felt very baby-like and helpless over the weekend, yet also too old and less invincible than usual. I should be in my prime at 28, so what's up with that? Am I going to be one of those people who dread their birthday every year, especially the ones for ages that end in zero? Check with me again exactly two years from now, and I should be able to better answer that.