31 and holding - Birthday #1

Last weekend was birthday weekend for me, so I thought I'd share a few of the things we did.
First off was Friday night bingo and bowling. Seriously.

I had no idea that people still regularly played bingo. Our group of 12 got there late, dressed like freshmen in college (yes, that was the costume code), and struggled to find a seat quietly while trying to catch up on all the numbers we'd already missed on the first card.

Bingo lesson #1: You have to bring your own bingo marker. They charge $1.50 for them at the hall.

From 31st Birthday

Bingo Lesson #2: You apparently don't just have to get "bingo" anymore. For the first game, when we had no idea what was going on, RL got an actual bingo right away, and ran up to the front to show the lady calling the numbers. No bingo, you have to make the letter "P" on your card. The next one was a musical note or something. Confusing.

From 31st Birthday

Bingo Lesson #3: They kept saying something about a "pickle bar" and everyone in our group thought that meant there were actual pickles for sale. Pickles are actually like scratch tickets that you can buy for a dollar. Weird.

Bingo Lesson #4: You have to be very, very quiet. We actually got shushed once, even though I was very proud of my friends for keeping it to loud whispers. Apparently the two times the woman calls it, the video of the ball coming up, and the two boards that flash the number are not enough for the bingoers. Must have total silence.

From 31st Birthday

Bingo Lesson #5: The only people that win are the ones that have like a gazillion boards in front of them. We only had one board. None of us won. Not even Q, who had a lot.

From 31st Birthday

By the end, we were all ready to go (my friend Tim even said something like, "I think I'm dying a slow death" in the middle of a game). Off to the bowling alley next door! We magically got three lanes together, I was not the worst bowler, and there were cupcakes. Awesome.

From 31st Birthday

Three Engagement Stories

So, a few weekends ago we went on a hut trip up to Francie's Cabin outside of Breckenridge. It was amazing for lots of reasons (great snow, perfect weather, sauna, good friends, etc.), but the best reason was that our friends J and L got engaged! They've been together more than six years and we all knew it was going to happen very soon, but no one on the trip (except J) knew we'd all get to be a part of it. He even hid some champagne in his bags (could be why the trip up there was arduous, and well, heavy) to celebrate afterwards. Congrats.

Our other friend D and K also got engaged last week. Again, we knew it was going to happen soon, but K was uber surprised when he finally did it. Congrats to them too. Way to go boys!

The last story came from a Nuggets game we went to the other night. It was half time, and they were doing the whole "kiss cam" thing where they focus the camera on a couple (or just two people randomly sitting together) and the crowd cheers for them to kiss. We were delighted to see two couples who had on the ugliest Christmas sweaters possible, but that was nothing compared to the last one...

When the camera focused on this last couple, the man immediately got down on one knee. His proposal flashed on the jumbotron. She stood up, covering her shocked face with her hands. A few uncomfortable moments passed, he's still kneeling, and she's just not responding. Rocky the mascot and a couple cheerleaders are standing there, waiting. The whole stadium is hushed, trying to figure out what she's thinking.

To make matters worse, this woman had on the lowest cut blouse possible, and everytime she moved it looked like her boobs were about to spill right out of her shirt. Now everyone is staring. Trainwreck! Even the players on the court had stopped what they were doing to watch. She just kept shaking her head and saying "I don't know." I'm sure the guy, and everyone else, was really hoping she would just say yes and then discuss later, because after all, he put a lot of effort and money into this.

Finally, she mumbles yes and hugs him. From what I could see she was the young fake-blondini and he was the older (probably rich) man. Match made in heaven? Possibly. I'd like to know how it all turned out.

Note to men: A basketball game is probably not on the top of your lady's list of places she'd like to be proposed to.

lobster fest 08

Yeah, it's been awhile. But that's because nothing terribly exciting has happened recently. Until last night.

That's right, it's Lobster Fest at Red Lobster, and boy, did we celebrate those lobsters.

I know what you're thinking. Tplate, aren't you a vegetarian? Well, yes, but once in awhile I'll indulge in a little shellfish. Nevermind that these bottom feeders have twice the cholesterol of red meat, and that there was an actual tank of live lobsters as we walked into the restaurant, one of which inevitably ended up on our plate of Lobster Lover's Dream. (At least it's fresh, right?)

The good thing about lobster is that you can pull the edible part out of the shell fairly easily (none of those "bones" to get in the way, one of the reasons I can't deal with meat) and then dip it in melted butter. I mean, come on.

We went with our friends, one of whom received a Red Lobster gift card for Christmas, and had been literally holding onto it until Lobster Fest came around. So we happily donned our plastic bibs, munched on those delicious herb cheese biscuits, and ate our fill of crustacean delicacies.

Afterward we went and saw U2 in 3D, which I would highly recommend if it's playing in your area. I was a tad disappointed with the fact that Bono did not once point his crotch at the camera, but he did reach out to touch us at least once (with his hand). The 3D thing was great (made possible, in part, by RL's company) and made you feel like a really tall person wandering around the crowd and the stage. I got all inspired by the music, then started daydreaming about Bono running for president. Would The Edge would be his running mate? Would they run under those names? The Edge is actually named Dave. Bono is named Paul. Borrrring. They could be like the first rock n' roll leaders of the free world. The Bono/Edge ticket. Yeah.

I wonder if Bono and/or The Edge have ever been to Lobster Fest? I think they, like us, might do it just for the kitsch factor.

sled fest 08

Well, as you can see, I had to change the name of my blog. Yup, I couldn't hold on to 29 any longer, and the 30s are here. I'm okay with it though, and, as my older and wiser family members keep telling me, it's going to be a great decade.

For my birthday my awesome Colorado-side friends indulged me and went sledding! It was 60 degrees but our sledding hill managed to hold on to enough snow to make it fun. Here's a peek at one of cardboard box races (the "station wagon" of sleds as RL calls them). Team Tplate vs. Team Cardboard Box. We totally won, as you'll see. Please ignore the point where I put the camera down to put my gloves on. :)




After we tried to squeeze eight people into a box and the boxes subsequently fell apart, we raced on what I can only describe as "rocket sleds" which propelled us down the snow/ice/grass into the padded trees and hay bales at the bottom of the hill.



For my final run of the day I decided to go a totally different route and ended up narrowly missing a tree and landing gracefully in the gravel under the swingset of the nearby playground. Everyone watching was pretty sure we were about to go to the hospital, but I managed to come out of it with just a few scrapes. (Apparently there is something you can do called "bailing" which would have diminished the risk, but I was unaware of he technique at the time.)

Once we were all cleaned up, we went for burgers at Red Robin, a classic teenage experience!




My friends are great. Thanks guys!