This is what my parents got me for my birthday:



"A diamond for every decade," Mom said. How sweet! Although I have some lovely (and very special) jewelry, this is the first time anyone's ever gotten me diamonds. I feel very girly.

Also for my birthday, someone gave me the flu. Not so much fun. I haven't had the actual flu in a very long time, but I had fever and chills and tiredness. I did have a sore throat and a little head congestion, but mostly the tiredness. I tried to go to work yesterday, but left early. There was a mistake made in there somewhere, because instead of taking a nap in the afternoon, I went to sleep about five and didn't wake up until three. And I've pretty much been awake since three.

I was so awake, I had to get up and eat breakfast. I read a little, then tried to go back to sleep. No dice. Today is going to suck.

This is the last day of my twenties.

I'm not sure how I feel about it, if anything. On the one hand, it's not really a big deal, because I don't really make a big deal out of birthdays. I like to acknowledge them by doing something special for myself, and this year was a big something special, but that's more using it as an excuse for doing something I wanted to do anyway. Or maybe it's more like, I like to make a big deal out of my birthday, but I don't like other people making a big deal out of my birthday.

Now that I think about it, that's exactly it. I couldn't tell you why, other than I dislike being the center of attention.

I am looking forward to my thirties. Looking back over the last decade, I have grown up so much, and I am rather comfortable with the person I have become. I feel prepared to tackle the next decade, ready to handle new challenges and excited to see what is to come.

I hate performance review season. Especially this year, when I'm feeling rather apathetic about this job. Or perhaps it's this time of year that makes me apathetic about my job. Right now, I don't really care about personal improvement or advancement or developing business. I take that back - I am starting to get a little excited about networking. If you remember, I was talking about trying to expand my social circle, so that when Josh and Chelsea leave, I have some kind of social outlet. So I've kinda been working the relationships in my Chamber Ambassadors group, and that has increased my enjoyment of that activity.

I'm also kinda excited about diving into home improvement. Yes, I've done projects here and there, but I don't really have much of a plan and I'm not much of an interior decorator. But this weekend I started working on a couple projects in my backyard that I've been meaning to do. There are a lot of those projects I've been putting off, but these were filling in the hole where a stump used to be and digging up a bunch of tiger lilies whose placement against a fence has always bothered me, and cutting down some volunteer trees that were getting out of control. So now that I've actually done some of the things I've been putting off, I feel free to start thinking about other things I could do. Outside. Inside, I have a bunch of those projects I've put off, like hanging pictures and putting up curtain rods in my bedroom.

It's Friday already, and I haven't even posted pictures from last weekend, yet! The fam was running a bit late Friday, so I had plenty of time to get everything done. I even had time to finish watching the penultimate Survivor and laugh about how naive Erik is.

We didn't go to the actual graduation ceremony, but the department of Mechanical Engineering had a brunch/ceremony in the morning that was less tedious and involved more food than a real ceremony. The kids all got up and spent one or two minutes talking about their college experience and what they were going to do next, and that was fun to hear.

Rocking the white jeans and the family tradition of making faces at the camera:


Emily will be there for the next one, though. Me, Mom, Lew, Dad:


Lew and Grandma:


Lew's girlfriend Kelsey, Lew, and his former roommates Tina and Aaron, who kicked him out so they have room for the baby:


Lew's new roommates are still right up his alley, though. I can't remember the one guy's name, but he and his dad rigged up a La-Z-Boy with a moped motor. You should have seen Dad and Uncle Tim's eyes light up, and they of course had to take a spin. Uncle Tim got a little cocky, crossing his legs as he went around a corner, which unbalanced the thing, and he didn't make the corner and went flying. He sure knows how to fall, though, because he tumbled right out, did a somersault and almost landed on his feet. He was fine, and everyone was wishing for a videocamera, because that right there would have won us some money.

Dad, a little more cautious but having just as much fun:


After a tour of campus, we came back to his house for cake and a kegger. Being at a kegger with my parents is only slightly weird. I wasn't really drinking, though, because I didn't want to waste calories on canoe beer.


We went out to breakfast for Mother's Day and then came home. I'm still sorry I missed Josh's second degree testing and the Tae Kwon Do annual picnic, but this was one of those things where family had to come first.

It's only fair that I post some pictures where I think he looks like Emily. Or at least he's got an "Emily look".




I'm going nuts trying to get things done before I have to leave this weekend. Lew's graduating from college Saturday, and I'm supposed to leave for Ames at 5:30 tomorrow evening. Ha! Too much to do with too much time booked already. We'll see if I'm ready to go on time.

I'd post, but all I'd do is bitch about work and the inane "get the work now, worry about getting it done later" attitude that comes back and bites staff in the ass. So I'm not posting.

Em's promised pictures came to me half "cat", half "baby". Also, one picture of a cat-eaten Advocate. I was cracking up when she was telling me about Jackie's obsession with our hometown newspaper. It's the ink or that paper they use for that particular newspaper, I guess, because that cat loves that paper and only that paper.

Anyway, these are my favorites:




He looks so much like Matt in this picture! I think it's the chin.