What do you mean "eleventy" isn't a real number?

FYI -- the movie "Contagion" is NOT a good movie to watch if, like me, you're a bit germaphobic and don't like to think about all the ways that one random person can transfer germs to another random person. Seriously, I wasn't even paying that much attention to it and I still had to change the channel...

Also FYI -- My condo is full of either floor varnish fumes or paint fumes (or possibly both) from the condo renovation going on downstairs. I have my balcony door open to get some fresh air in here, but it is really, annoyingly strong... if I start to babble aimlessly and use nonsense words like "comfortability," you can assume that the chemicals have affected my brain...

Anyway... so apparently I took a little blogging break, which was not intentional. I've just happened to not have much to talk about lately. What with my super-exciting life and all. I did, however, have one of those "milestone" birthdays on Friday, when I turned eleventy years old and spent much of the day crying in the bathroom and obsessing over my own mortality...

Okay, okay, that's a lie. It was actually quite a nice birthday, and I was busy enough to not have much time to contemplate all the years of life I've lived. The many, many years... Rick surprised me with a room at the Waldorf Astoria, because I'm a bit of a hotel fanatic (in which I put aside my germaphobia and try not to think about all the other people who've been in the same room as me... please don't remind me... *fingers in ears* lalalala, not listening...), so we checked in Friday afternoon and had a really good dinner at the hotel restaurant. I'm usually a bit wary of hotel restaurants, since they always charge exorbitant prices for food that never seems to be as good as what you'd find at a stand-alone restaurant. But the place in the Waldorf Astoria was quite good... we went back for brunch on Saturday and it was excellent. (They make their own chocolate-hazelnut spread, a la Nutella... I would go back just to eat more of that stuff...)

Eric and Debbie and Patrick and Matt flew into town from New Jersey, and I managed to extend my birthday until Sunday, when we had a birthday dinner at mom and dad's place. Eric and Rachel and Connor were all able to come over and hang out, too (you know how it is with Connor -- he's super-popular, so his calendar is pretty full...). And I received quite a few great birthday gifts from friends and family, but THE best is obviously Eric's present. I mean, my brother knows me so well:

Yeah!!! Oh, you KNOW this is going in my living room, right over the TV. Or maybe I should just hang it on the front door, so everyone who passes by in the hallway will think, "hey, a super-cool, mega-awesome Justin Bieber fan lives here!" They could also be thinking, "hey, a twelve-year-old girl with horrible taste in music lives here!" Whichever...

I can always count on Eric to make me laugh... :)

And hey, why not? A couple cat pictures to end the post:

Riff, attempting to look regal on my purple pillow...

And Piva, mid-yawn, looking like the most adorable evil vampire EVER... hehehe... this picture makes me laugh... (I am Count Catula from Tunasylvania... I vant to eat your tuna...)

Uh, yeah, I think those varnish and paint fumes are hitting juuuuuust about now...