Balloons, Birthdays and Chinese

I signed up a while back for the Very Short List e-mail and I find most of the stuff they send me to be pretty darn interesting.

I really liked this little tidbit which shows a balloon in different famous movie scenes. I thought some of them were very clever, others cute. It's 6:33 minutes, but worth it.

I didn't get to the baseball game on Friday, but did manage to find someone to buy the tickets from me, so that was at least a step in the right direction. Saturday was a gorgeous day here, and although I had to do laundry (I had been way too lazy to do it last Saturday when it rained all bloody day), I sat outside and read my book between running in to check on the status of said laundry. Our stupid dryer will sometimes not turn on, meaning it's turning and all, but there's no heat and you have to beat on the side a la Fonzie to get the flames to come out and heat up the drum. Took three times to get my bloody towels dry. Stupid 70s era dryer.

That night my group of friends celebrate August birthdays at Cedar Garden (Lebanese food) and then headed over to the only Drive-In Movie Theatre left in the Detroit area where we watched Dark Knight. I enjoyed it, and thought that Heath Ledger was suitably creepy as The Joker (it was hard to picture his face w/o the make-up or to see past the make-up to his real face, however you want to put it). It was a little chilly for sitting outside and watching a movie, but thankfully I live in Michigan and keep a blanket (or two) in my trunk for wintertime breakdowns (not that I've ever broken down *knock on wood*).

Yesterday was very much family-oriented. Mom, YS and Grandma came to Mass and then we went for sushi where my nephew showed up (it's weird having a 20 year old nephew) wearing his Champ Car shirt. *sigh* After sushi, the YS asked me to give her a ride to Mom's, ostensibly to get my copy of the latest Janet Evanovich book. I told her, no problem on the ride except that I was planning on going to DSW (I had a coupon and a gift card). She had no problem going shoe shopping and then we stopped at Guernsey on the way to Mom's for some healthy ice cream (blueberry and pomegranate and dark chocolate – chock full of antioxidants). I dropped her off and then made my way home where I collapsed on the couch and did nothing (I did play Rise of Atlantis) until bedtime.

Tomorrow is my birthday and if it weren't for my friends Windy and BST, I'd have no plans for my actual birthday, which is so not like me. I'm a Leo, for heaven's sake, I believe in celebrating my birthday to the maximum!!! Ah well. I was supposed to go to dinner with the YS today in Royal Oak, but then the OS invited us to join her and Grandma for dinner, so instead of Belgian potato truffle ravioli (completely decadent) I'm settling for Chinese food and my friend Soyon is joining us, as I picked her favorite Chinese restaurant in the Detroit metropolitan area (they apparently make a noodle dish which is Chinese/Korean and they're the only ones who make it perfectly). She's always a riot, so it should be fun. (And it was. Grandma was highly amused by her.)