You say it's my Birthday?

It's true, today is the 38th anniversary of my birth. I'm feeling both old and spry at once.

Friday, gifts started arriving, making me wonder how I could reconcile getting an Xbox360 and finishing the NaNoWriMo. As a result, I'm a little bit behind. I hope to break 40K before I retire for the evening.

Saturday I worked all day, then came home and baked a pineapple cake for the party, while uterdic set up my Xbox for me. He's bringing me some sort of adapter that will allow the Xbox and the Wii to be plugged in at the same time. That's gonna be sweet.

Then we had the party. Many of my favorite people were there, while some were sadly unable to attend. It's a bummer that several of my best friends don't live within comfortable driving distance. Frown. But the party was enormous fun, though for some reason we never got around to doing any Mad Libs even though I have a new book of them. It was decided that I would indeed, be having some people over for New Years Eve. I got some awesome gifts including Se7en, Shock Corridor, Cooking Mama for the Wii, and Sir Graves Ghastly on DVD this last item was lovingly processed by pak_man78 just for me because he knows how much I love Sir Graves. H also got me the Underdog box set which I have been wanting forever.

Yesterday was dinner at Mark's house (my brother). It was the second time I'd seen him in 9 years, and the first time I'd been to his house. nate101000 was kind enough to drive us. I know, right. That was pretty nice. My bro's house is very cool, they have a fireplace. There is also a brick wall in their kitchen. I really like my bro's wife, and they seem to be a good match for each other. That makes me really happy to see.

Today we went grocery shopping and bought fixin's for a semi traditional Thanksgiving. We're having a casserole of ground chicken and stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and bread from the breadmaker, and cranberry sauce. Although I like to make my own cranberry sauce, they didn't have any fresh cranberries at the store. Bummer.

Not sure what we're doing tonight.
Might order food, might not.
H doesn't have to work again until Friday. Lucky guy!

YAY!!! Home stretch.

40,336 / 50,000 (80.7%)

I'm barely keeping my head above water in the NaNo thusfar. But I've got a pretty good chance of winning again if I can really buckle down and focus this final week. This is a lot more difficult when there's work and social gatherings and internets and video games to contend with. I think I'll do it though.

Nobody will get to read the first draft, as first drafts are far too terrible to share. The second draft, however, will go out to a select um...selection of preferred readers. Let me know if you want to be on that short list.

In cooking news, I used my bread machine for the first time today. The middle of the top of the loaf caved inward. I think it rose too high and touched the top of the machine, making it deflate. Other than it looking funny and not really browning on top, it was delicious and had a good texture. Any idea what I should be doing differently? It was a deluxe white recipe, just milk, butter, bread flour, sugar and yeast.

Also, Daniel Radcliffe is going to be on Inside the Actor's Studio in December.
Awesome!