Birthday Shock

David Hasselhoff is a bit of a joke around our office. Ever since I shared his "Hooked on a Feeling" video with my coworkers, we have been obsessive Hoff-haters. We scrounge around for any bit of gossip on him and have endless fun at his expense. We came up with numerous outrageous explanations for his recent surgery on his wrist that were actually more believable than the official explanation. The official explanation goes like this, "He was shaving at a gym in the Sanderson Hotel when he hit his head on a chandelier, showering his arm with broken glass." Uh huh. Right.

Some of our other, more memorable exploits include making paper airplanes with his face on the wings from a template on a website and enjoying this game when we're frustrated at work: Wax Hoff

Still, my coworkers took this pastime to new heights today when they conspired to get me out of the room so they could place a picture in a frame on my desk. I walked back in and froze in horror when I saw the photoshopped image of the Hoff and I sitting innocently next to my computer. Wait, innocently? Not hardly. I screamed, and now so will you.



This all came about apparently because the Hoff and I share the same birthday. To paraphrase Quentin Tarantino from his appearance on Alias, "Have you ever regretted being born?" And now I can say that yes, I have--at least being born on that particular day.

Happy Quarter Century

Cue the confetti and streamers. That's right, it's my birthday and I'm at home enjoying my birthday present to myself of a vacation day. It's the perfect ending to a wonderful birthday weekend!

Saturday I celebrated Big Bold D's birthday as well as my own at a picnic he organized. It was HOT. But the food was excellent and the company was great, so the heat was bearable. And the water gun fights were entertaining. Nevertheless, I did take a shower when I got home.

I also got to spend some time with my cousin Brandi this weekend which was great since it's been awhile since I saw her last. We used to spend a week together every summer so it was nostalgic to hang out on my birthday weekend and stay up until 3:30 am talking. What perfect timing. She came into town to go on the Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride with my dad and it was a happy coincidence that it was also my birthday weekend. I'm really looking forward to that Chicago trip, btw, Brandi. :)

Sunday afternoon I had an informal gathering at my place. We made friends playing the Fruits Basket card game where everyone is a winner because they're all friends. It was cheesy goodness. We watched some season 5 episodes of Star Trek: the Next Generation while playing, which only multiplied the cheesiness to a point somewhere off the cheesy scale. We watched "Disaster" and laughed at Worf trying to help Keiko deliver her baby and Captain Picard trying to relate to little children. Oh, and Geordi singing "I am the very model of a modern major general." But I don't think he can match Marcus' musical talent. ;)

Then, since we were already playing a game, we decided to watch the episode "The Game" and enjoy some Wesley cheesiness. That was the episode in which, according to Wil Wheaton, "Uncle Willy went to Booty Town" with Ashley Judd. Uh huh. Right. But the scene in which Troi makes a show of eating her triple chocolate sundae makes it all worth it (and became even funnier later when neowolf mimicked the scene while eating out of her bread bowl at Panera). But my favorite scene of that episode has to be when Wesley gets on the elevator with the nurse from sickbay and she's like, "I'm on level 47." Although the end when Data cures everyone with a strobing flashlight is pretty good too.

We ended the day with an episode of Samurai Champloo and a few episodes of Babylon 5.
All in all, I couldn't ask for a better birthday! I even got an email from lizalou today and that's always a treat! (I'm so happy you have the internet now, lizalou!) And Borders gave me a birthday coupon. How thoughtful of them. ;) I'm wearing my Hatsuharu hat right now (white side out) and my pendant made from an antique Chinese vase. And now I would like to leave you with a quote from the magnificent ST:TNG/X Men novel I got from neowolf and drjones.

"Now that I'm here, howzabout you show me that game you were tellin' me about--the one we didn't have time to play the last time?"
"Game?" said the Klingon.
"Yeah, what'd you call it... some kind o' holowhoozis?"
Worf suppressed a grin. "Ah, yes. My calisthenics program on the holodeck."
Wolverine pointed to him. "Yeah. That's the one."
He hooked Troi by the arm.
"Hey, Counselor--wanna join us fer some calisthenics?"

First of July

I helped out at neowolf's dad's fireworks show again this year, and this time we didn't get rained out. Last year it was so depressing because we put so much work into everything only to have a storm roll in right before the show and drench the place. We were running around like crazy people trying to salvage what we could and get to shelter before one of us got hit by lightning or something.

This year though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was hot and did I mention that it was hot? But it was still fun. We worked hard and got to take a break and drive back into town to let Toula out and play with her a bit before we picked up lunch for everyone. It was a welcome break and saved me from a probably very major headache.

The scariest part of the day was not when we were loading the 8" and 10" shells, though you might have thought it would be. No, it the scariest part was when we were putting foil over the mortars to keep sparks from setting off other fireworks. I was standing on the opposite side of a trailer from another guy who was helping out when neowolf stepped on the back end. The entire thing tipped suddenly and I literally thought I was going to die for a split second. It was disorienting more than anything, but when you're standing on a trailer full of explosives anything unexpected is enough to send your adrenaline through the roof. I felt a little sick to my stomach at the time, but we all laughed about it afterward--when we were away from the fireworks. ;)

The show went off with only a few hitches. Some of the fireworks were rescued from last year and acted a little strangely when they went off, including the one I was responsible for firing. The pond cake was on a little raft in the middle of the pond and it was on fire for most of the show. We didn't realize why until afterward. Apparently it set the raft on fire and by the end there was absolutely nothing left. But it looked pretty awesome during the show. I was also responsible for running the disco lights during the Chicago medley and that was a lot of fun. I honestly did very little, but they looked really cool.

It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. And boy did that shower feel good afterward. I swear I had an inch of grime, sweat and suntan lotion on my skin by the end of the day. Ewww...