Pre-Birthday Fun

Work has done something odd which has been kind of entertaining lately. This month we have only been working 4 days per week. There simply isn't enough work for us to do due to all sorts of politics (national and within the company itself). But since we're only working 4 days per week, we have usually had Fridays off. For the last two weeks we have had Mondays off instead, which is just as nice from my point of view. Mostly because it allows me to go to job interviews on Mondays when I'm theoretically more awake and alert due to sleeping more during the weekend than I normally can during the work week. This is especially convenient this week because I have a job interview tomorrow for a job that both of us are both pretty excited about. Hopefully it will go well. Anyone with some spare prayers should feel free to share with us. We both want it for various reasons, including (but not limited to) the work schedule would be days instead of nights, higher pay, better working conditions, a much shorter commute, and some other stuff that I can't think of right now.

But back to the fun stuff! Jacalyn set up a surprise birthday party for me! Yes, I actually was very surprised. I had no idea whatsoever what was going to happen. She arranged a kiddie pool and lots of water balloons and such for a nice water fight to go along with a custom-made cake with a motorbike on it. It really was sweet and I had a wonderful time splashing in the water with the kids that came over. I'm turning 30 on Tuesday but I got to splash around with 2-year-olds like a kid too. The best thing was a toy that one of our friends brought. It's basically a water-powered rocket launcher that you hook up to the hose. It comes with a "throttle" that allows you to control the amount of water that shoots out of the end to lift a plastic rocket into the air. You can blast it as high as it will go, or you can make it hover and then land again. I think it was called a Rocket Sprinkler, and I think I could probably play with it for hours on end if the kids would have let me. We went to Walgreens to look for one but we couldn't find one. We still have Wal Mart if we get really desperate... I might get desperate. That thing was serious fun!

I also went for a motorbike ride yesterday morning. That went well also. I went for a "spirited" ride about a month ago and I just never felt comfortable during the ride, like I was fighting the bike the entire time. I went last week and it felt better, but still not quite right. This weekend was the first time I really "clicked" or "gelled" with the bike and it did exactly what I wanted it to do when I wanted it to do it. I even got my knee down for the first time since November, which was exciting for me, even though that's a skill that doesn't really need to be used on the street... Oopsy. But I am still glad that I finally felt confident enough to have a little fun with the bike. On a side note, I rode the bike all winter long and never even got a cold. I have been driving the cars a lot more since the spring and I have gotten sick twice so far this summer. Clearly this means that riding a motorbike in the winter is better for your health than driving a car in the spring and summer.