richlayers

I had a pretty good day on Friday. I slept in, then slowly got myself together in time to go to lunch with mom. We went to the Mexican place and had chimichangas and margaritas. Then I went to the library to see if any of my ILLs were in (they weren't, but I have plenty to read).

I went home in the afternoon in time to meet Gregory and Chris at my house. B called to wish me happy birthday, which was fun. We hung out and played Magic until my grandparents showed up for dinner, when we had Dad's homemade pizza. There were some presents presented, among others: Got a gorgeous Blue Willow tea set from mom, as well as an iHome. Greg got me The Child Thief by Brom -- yay! Chris got me a nice hefty external hard drive and a cover for my iPod (which he got me for Christmas). Then there was The Greatest Birthday Cake in the World, which we consumed with mighty amounts of ice cream.

Then Gregory, Chris and I went over to Chris's to watch The Shawshank Redemption, since Chris works in a prison and he's never seen it. Only I wanted some wine, and there was no bottle opener, so we went to Walmart for that, a new lightbulb, and I found a copy of Tropic Thunder at a buy-myself-a-birthday-present price.

We watched Shawshank Redemption with wine for me to drink and pizza bites for us all to eat... and then decided to rock out with some rock band. Only... we didn't have enough batteries for the guitars. So another trip to Walmart and a $5 copy of Super Troopers later, we were back in the warm apartment rocking out.

Overall, it was a little too much Walmart for my birthday. Oh well.

Finally came home and crashed around 5, a little after Gregory headed back to Manhattan, where he had to be late in the morning to help a friend move.

It was an awesome day.

And NOW the holidays are over.

I've gotten a few requests and questions about Mom's ever-growing Lord of the Rings collection, so I thought I'd take some pictures and meander on through the books, the other books, and the other things Tolkien-centric in our household.

This seems like a good place to start:

( Many Pictures! )

Cross-posted to prettybooks, told_tales, and richlayers

Mom called me while I was in class this morning. My phone was on silent, but I still heard it buzzing in the middle of class, and I'm pretty sure people around me could hear it, too.

I found out a little later that she was calling me to tell me that Neil Gaiman won the Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book.

I told her, "Don't call me when I'm in class unless it's an emergency!"

Her response? "It was!"