31.

Boy, wasn’t this birthday a far cry from the last?!

If you’ll recall, last year Brian went to great lengths to throw quite the shindig in celebration of my 30th birthday.

This year’s celebrations were certainly more modest, but Spoiled Square Piece still entitled herself to a birthday weekend versus a skimpy birthday.

Last night, Bennett and I joined Sly Louise and caught up with a few more friends at a local middle school to watch the Sterling Play Makers perform Peter Pan.  And while I didn’t manage to capture any pics of the play and cast itself (they’re kind of sticklers about the no-photography thing), I did manage to snap a pic of my son in his new “Chip Off the Old Block” Charlie Brown T-shirt ($2.00! at Three Lil Monkeys!) and his new, summer green pants (I dunno, maybe $6.99?).  We’ve long sense lost the laces to his Sperrys.  No surprise there given Bennett’s lack of interest in shoes.

In spite of the fact that I had fully braced myself for typical, 20-month-old behavior at this play, Bennett proved my expectations wrong and was strangely well behaved and even interested in the story (though I did try to wear him out before Peter Pan and during the intermission).  I couldn’t have been prouder.

This morning, I bid farewell to my 40+ year old, electric range.  Last week, after hours, Corinne and I ended up having to put out a small electrical fire in my kitchen.  One of the wires in the stove top caught fire and – man! – I haven’t brushed up on my fire safety knowledge since, like, 5th grade.  Even though a Costco-sized bag of baking soda was four feet away under a cabinet and would have solved the fire issue, I huffed and puffed (you know, practice for the birthday candles) and finally smothered the blaze with a towel.

So while cooking my very last meal (a pasta dish with a nod to Indian cuisine with lemon, ginger, curry, etc.) on this old, windowless, push-button GE range, it dawned on me how much I won’t miss taking 30 minutes to boil water.  I had never counted until this morning, but, yeah, that’s too long.  We’ve decided to switch over to cooking with gas (like a BOSS).  And while I sure can’t wait to enjoy all the extra features of our new range, I’m mostly just looking forward to all the s’mores I get to make.

*Childish grin.*

Now, for those of you who take advantage of grocery store gas rewards, I should mention that when I shopped around and priced our range, I ended up settling on one from Home Depot.  Because Safeway gives double (and sometimes quadruple) gas points for gift cards, I got savvy.  First, I calculated my approximate total online.  Second, I sent Brian to Safeway to get about that much in Home Depot gift cards.  Third, we went to Home Depot, ordered our range and paid for it with the gift cards.  Thanks to the grocery store gas rewards, when I filled up at the pump today, I got $1.00 off per gallon.

Always thinkin’.

After I finished cooking this morn, Brian and Bennett gave me a lovely gift card to Anthropologie for my birthday (and Bennett picked out a pink unicorn, “Happy Birthday” card for me).  The babe and I headed to my home-away-from-home for some shopping while Brian stayed put waiting for our new range to arrive.

Bought some shorts.  Made in America.  Woot woot.

When the babe and I arrived back home, our ravine had been refilled.  Oh?  Did I not mention?  Perhaps “ravine” is too strong of a word, but Glass Door Salon finally had some major progress made in our garage-conversion/salon renovation this past week!  A trench was dug for a water/sewer line, pipes were laid, inspections were approved and holes were refilled!  This was monumental in helping us move forward in our renovation.

So there was that.  Then Momma, Donovan, Olivia and four friends from Ireland showed up ready for lunch and a ride to the Air and Space Museum.  Fast-forwarding a touch, they all came back and we made burgers on our George Foreman grill since our range won’t be hooked up for a while.  Mandy and Rachael stopped by, too.  Bennett always lights up when he sees his aunties, and that blesses me.  So, all in all, this was a lovely birthday: home, family, friends, shopping, cooking, progress.

(^^That’s my hubby!^^)

By the way, I’ve been meaning to mention that I hope you can consider attending or supporting the Connor Cures gala this year.  Brian and I had such a good time last year (my first time on a red carpet!) and lots of money was raised to help find a cure for pediatric cancer.  The gala is being held in D.C. on November 15th this year.  If you work for a company who has a budget for charitable giving and/or a holiday party, I highly recommend combining the two at this incredible event.  Details here.