Okay!

Well, I have finally slept. In fact, I didn't sleep for 6 days (well may 8 hours in the entire 6 days), but then I slept for like 18 hours yesterday and the day before. Oh boy! So now I'm sure that I'm screwed up sleep wise again. But when your body finally wants to sleep, it is awfully hard to force yourself to stay awake. Anyway, now its 7:30 in the morning and I have some energy so I'll tell you about my birfday.

Okay, soa catchup - a month ago, before I left Winnipeg, I had a birthday dinner with my family and one with my friends, both very nice. The friends bought me dinner and some earrings and some crafties, and the family got me money to buy a suitcase. Then on my actual birthday, Wednesday the 24th, Paul showed up at home like 4 hours early from work. YAY!! He had already given me my amazingly cool digital camera and on my birthday he gave me a totally sweet and perfect card that made me sniffle pathetically. He then announced that since he was home during the day, we were going to have to take the puglet to the groomers. So we headed out to Shampooch. Smeagol loves the car, so she was rather jovial. And she didn't even mind the shampooing and nail trimming, but then they vacuumed her and she whined very sadly through that. But she did so good that we rewarded her by taking her to Petsmart. She went CRAZY!!! She met her first bird, and they loved each other. And she met lots of giant dogs who were all scared of her tininess. We bought her a doggie placemat and a new bowl set and a tooth cleaning toy/bone called a Velvet Bimple, and we had already bought her a TINY dog bed last week, so she was beyond thrilled. You should SEE her in her bed. She's in it right now, all curled up and tuckered out. I've been trying to take a picture, but I can never get good pictures of her cause every time I haul out my camera, she stops whatever cute thing she is doing. And we also had lots of fun with the toy; she because it tasted like peanut butter, and me because I got to say 'velvet bimple' a lot.

Then I got myself all gussied up and we headed out to Josh and Alet's. We were gonna go out to dinner with both of them, but Alet had to go out of town, so we just went with Josh. I thought that might be a bit weird, but it wasn't at all, Josh is super cool. We hung out at his apartment for a while while he got ready and played with their dog and two cats. So sweet they are! Then we headed to Dante's Down The Hatch. How amazing !!! The whole thing is a giant ship, and it totally feels like you are on a real, old wooden ship. There are actual crocodiles and stuff in the water and oh, how cool. We had this tiny, cozy booth that Paul had reserved. We couldn't even see the other tables. And the jazz band was directly outside our booth. They were a bit loud, but very good, and they took lots of breaks so we could talk more then. Dante's is a fondue place, so we ordered cokes and a cheese platter for an appetizer, and then, of course, fondue for the main course. To be honest, the actual fondue was my least favourite part. The atmosphere was great, the band really talented, the cheese platter was...my word...so good. Have you ever had Boursin cheese? HAVE SOME!!!! The service was impeccable, but the fondue was...enh. The guys liked it a lot, but I'm just not really a meat eater. But it was still totally perfect cause I was full on bread and cheese and crackers and stuff. I told Paul that if we ever go there again, I would just order the cheese platter for myself and that would be my meal. I would be totally happy with that. Then I had the pecan pie and ice cream for dessert. Best pecan pie EVER!!!!. We pretty much rolled on out of there. I tried to take pictures of the crocodiles, but they said that the flash would make them mad, and it was way too dark in there for no flash. I did take a couple pics of the shiplike atmosphere though, hopefully I will be able to post them.

So we waddled to the car and barely made it home without falling asleep, then promptly fell asleep as soon as we walked in the door. Then Thursday was kinda hellish cause Paul had to fire his roommate, K. I will not go into detail here as I do not want Paul to get vicariously dooced
(dooced by proxy?). But long story short...Paul gave K a home and a job and K squandered it and continues to do so. After Paul fired K, his boss congratulated him and Paul said that the whole mood in the shop was lifted. I'm very proud of Paul, it was unpleasant, but it had to be done, and I think his job won't be quite so awful now. I wanna say more...but better not for now...

So that kind of sucked, but it is okay-ish now. Then Friday Paul was yet again exhausted but made an effort (as he -always- does) to make me happy. So he agreed to watch The Shining, which he had never seen! He fell asleep. Finally his snoring got so loud that I turned it off and led him to bed. He managed a 'Ilovoo" and continued snoring. I couldn't possibly be mad :) But! Saturday morning dawned, and I reminded him that he had promised it was Ikea day! So we headed to Ikea with my list in hand. (Him - You have a LIST? Me - Yuh, it has stars on it and everything! [brandishes it at him, it is two pages] Him - Jesus Christ! [storms out of the room].) Now I hate to disillusion any of you...but Ikea is the 9th circle of hell. Yes, their stuff is nice and it is reasonably priced. But NEVER GO TO ONE OF THEIR RETAIL STORES, EVER!! NOT IF YOU VALUE YOUR SANITY!!! Two blocks away already, cops were directing traffic. (It is a 15 acre facility) So Paul was already antsy, then we had to park underground which Paul normally refuses to do (zombies, you know). Then we got in and there are like no signs! Where do we start, I don't know, where do we get a cart, I don't know!! So we were already going mental before we even started, but then Paul spotted the cafeteria so we started there! We had to wait in line for a long time with the dregs of white trash humanity, but damn, was the food good! Delicious and cheap! Then we began again, to find out how to start. There were arrows on the floor, but they had no beginning...everyone had a cart, but there was no place to procure a cart. There were thousands and thousands of people, all twisting in all directions, talking at the top of their lungs and banging into each other. I was grabbing things willy nilly and Paul just wandered behind me, darting his eyes left and right, mumbling 'Jesus Christ" or "fuck me". After 25 minutes I turned around and saw that his eyes were wide open and glassy and he was sort of quivering. He looked down at me and said "Wehavetogorightnow". I tried to protest, but he was, I think, on the verge of a full blown nervous breakdown, so I shut up and we left. But first we had to find the exit...nigh on impossible! I'm not kidding, they hide it!! It took us TWENTY minutes to find the exit and check out. I bought a crapload of stuff though. All for $125 and Mom2 had given us $100 for Ikea, so that part was all good. The apartment is looking very spifftastic. We got to the parking garage and Paul said 'where did we park?' I gaped and suggested that since he was driving, it was probably his business to remember such things. He didn't, but eventually, with thought, I remembered where we had parked and we hustled out of there. Once in the car, I turned to Paul, who was still, literally quivering, and said 'honey, I swear, we never ever have to go there again'. We hugged like disaster survivors. If I ever want Ikea stuff again, i will order online. It is TOTALLY WORTH THE SHIPPING CHARGES!

Allrighty. The rest of the weekend was great. The roommate was away all weekend, so Paul and I had three glorious days alone. We lay in bed and talked and talked and laughed and ate good food and played with the puglet and watched a bunch of movies (White Noise *****/Hitch *****/The Life Aquatic ** (that pains me, but ouch, it was bad)/Alone In The Dark **). So yeah, great great weekend, perfect really. Then this week we haven't done much...went to Olive Garden for the neverending pasta bowl. Yummers. I've been putting up shelves and stuff from our visit to the bad place. I scrubbed the bathroom etc so as I could put up some of our new stuff ( you know? You can't put up new stuff in a dirty room). I spent hours on Target.com selecting a bunch more house stuff I want. You can put it all on a wish list, so when we have a few bucks, we can just order whatever and save the rest for the next time. Yesterday, Alet came over and we hung out for a bit and then went for great Mexican food. And I believe that brings us up to date. Whew.

In short...The apartment looks great, Paul and I are very happy - as always, and for those who have kindly asked Paul's owie is doing much better :)

Thanks again for all the sweet birthday calls, emails and comments, it means a lot to me. Enjoy your Labour Day weekend!