we had a lovely weekend here in town. keenan and carrie brought petra to visit us so that she could present at a toxicology conference. apparently she did a kickass job. wooohoo, go petra!

oh. wait. steve just told me that keenan was the one that presented, and petra was the little pink person that kept crying. i'm sorry that i was confused.

it was great to see the boras. they even put up with the raging party that we had for steve's 30th birthday on saturday night. we had about 20 people over, and i used our two story living room wall to project some messages from friends who wished steve a happy birthday from afar. steve's high school friend justin also brought some impressive high school and early college footage of steve that got us all giggling as well.

the other highlight of the party was an amazing cake that our friend derek (who's taking a cake decorating course so that he can make a wedding cake for a friend) put together especially for steve. i had promised a prize if anyone brought an erotic cake, and so (even though he couldn't come to the party!) derek dropped off a boobie cake for steve and the partygoers to enjoy. hopefully soon i will upload a photo or two for you all...

having visitors lately has really led me to think a lot about living out here. it's really damn far from a lot of our friends, but i'm also extremely excited about all of the fun things to do and see out here. steve's parents (who were here last week) were amazed at how beautiful it was, and his dad does an admirable job singing the praises of our beautiful bay area on his blog, where he also compares san francisco to detroit. ahhh, detroit. (insert sigh here). well, at least detroit has the tigers (go, tigers, go!).

in terms of local things that i love that steve's dad didn't gush about, the amazingly temperate weather is one of them. locals may complain when it's "hot" or "freezing" but that just means it's 80 or 50. seriously, it usually only ranges from 55-75. today was a beautiful, sunny 70 degrees.

and in terms of culinary delights, see's candies are awesome. they're not only all over the place at the airport (which is dangerous enough for me), but they also have a store right across from my office building. evil!
between see's and beard papa's it's amazing that i don't eat more sweets. i guess it's just gotten to the point where i think about them. mmmmm...

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very random change of topic: i was walking past a toy store on my way home, and discovered that darth tater has been joined now by spud trooper in the lineup of star wars themed mr. potato heads:



gotta love it!