had a brilliant birthday weekend. friday night drinks with friends at my old time favorite the orbit room. plenty of friends came out and wished me well. great cake, candied orange peel, awesome hot toddies (I had a cold after all), a chinese scroll, and i got a guitar! it was not a complete suprise, my boss orchestrated it, but kind of spilled the beans. alas. and the deal under which i have the guitar adds a little pressure to actually learn it. huzzah!

saturday was brunch and then the exploratorium. we changed the plan based on the weather reports, but the weather cheated me and stayed nice and dry all day. still had a great time, with a suprise appearance of my friend phillip b and children. the other guest of honor was a woman I knew in Taiwan long ago, from Denmark. just happened to be in town this week.

and then after and evening at Dickens Fair, Ren Faire displaced a few hundred years it seemed. Liz was more into it. Norman and I dressed up in top hats and tuxes basically and strode the grounds. We hit the end of the evening so it was coming to a close, but still it was an amusing evening. Not as much theater as I would have liked to have seen though.