there was this girl...

And the first time I met her I really didn't care for her.

At all.

And she? She didn't like me so much either.

It was okay that way... right? I mean when two people meet and they really don't like each other...

at all...

the sensible thing for those two people to do is to steer clear of each other right?

You'd think so, except that this girl lived across the street from a coffee shop I was working at...

and hanging out at...

but for the purposes of this story I was working there.

She would wake up in the morning and stumble across the street tired and bleary eyed...

or wake up in the afternoon and stumble across the street tired and bleary eyed...

and she'd want her coffee, and I would give it to her.

Maybe that's how I grew on her, I can't be sure. Neither can I be sure how she grew on me, but let me tell you something, we're looking at 10 years later and I count her among my closest friends.

I love you Shannon.


Happy Fucking Birthday.... your card is late.

blogger detox facility now open

Welcome to the Kaos Valley Detox and Treatment Facility where we can help you clean up your life...

Messy house? No. We can't help you there.

Addicted to smack? Nuh huh. No. There's nothing we can do.

Have a coke problem? Ah now there we can help you... I myself battle with the Cherry devil... it's hard to resist the sweet bubbly goodness flowing down your throat... but here at the Kaos Valley Detox and Treatment Facility we can help you beat it... at least temporarily...

Want to quit smoking those nasty cigarettes? Um... well... yeah I may not be so much help there because while I did quit smoking years ago I'm not sure I know how I did it. My friend though swears by the patch... you could try that?

Have a horrible gambling addiction? I have no idea what to do for you...

But have you been eating too much red meat, cheese, butter, or sugary foods? Drinking a wee to much wine... imbibing a few too many tropical drinks?

There we can help you. Not by sharing with you any mind bending methods of how to give up the goods... but by holding your hand as we detox ourselves from the over consumption insanity that was the month of March.

You see the month of March was one little party after another. From my birthday at the beginning of the month all the way through my friend leaving Monday we had fun fun fun...

Then my daddy took the T-Bird away.

No. I have no T-Bird... Never did. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Maybe I need to add inappropriate quoting of songs to the list of things I need to detox from...

Nah. I don't think I'm willing to give that up for any length of time.

What I am doing though is trying to clean out my system a bit.

Inspired by my lovely Mr. Kaos I'm cutting out the cherry coke, red meat, alcohol, candy and all that other good stuff that I had too much of in the last month...

(but just till I feel like a super hero again)

Oh sweet natural energy... I've been missing you.

another birthday?

yes. yes. yes.

We've spent the month of March saying Happy Birthday to a new person each time a new day dawns.

Almost literally.

Today marks the last in a long line of March birthdays...

A day so important that you would think I would have done... more.

A day that I should throw my all into and ensure that the birthday girl receives my full attention, admiration, adoration...

But honestly?

By the time this day comes each year I am so tired I can't think straight.

So my dear mother often gets the shaft on her birthday.

The short end of the birthday stick.

She gets my love. She gets my respect. She'll even get an obnoxious phone call from me when I wake up singing a distorted version of an old familiar birthday tune.

Will her card make it through the mail and to her home on time? No! Will her present? No! (but this year I blame my dad for that.... but I may not yet be able to disclose why...)

Her card will be late and so will her gift. Her daughter will sing in a voice no one wants to hear and her granddaughter will speak nicely into the phone for about 30 seconds before begging off to play with her toys.

But we're sending her love. All the love we can muster. Love for all she is and all she does.

Happy birthday mom.

I'm so thankful for you.

to my friend

That young face with its tight lipped smile and long unruly hair is my dear friend Martin as he was when I met him more than a decade ago.

More than a decade.

For over a third of my life Martin has been a fixture in it.

Whether near or far he's always in my thoughts. I always wish him the very best (as he truly deserves it).

In my life there has been no other friend like him...

10 years or so ago I thought he was cute... today I think he's handsome.

His face isn't quite as youthful... his hair is short now and touched with gray...

his smile has loosened.
his eyes have softened.
his heart has grown.

his laugh though, remains the same.

To my friend Martin on his birthday...

I wish you only the best in this life and the next.

(picture NOT taken by me. picture shamelessly stolen from his myspace. he's a good friend, I'm a naughty one)

H E double hockey sticks: special easter edition

I wrote this long ass post.

well I wrote half of it.

It was all about the early wake up on Easter and stuff...

It was really long.

REALLY LONG

and also really boring. and whiny. and not really funny.

so instead I will tell you that after she was done eating breakfast (I am that mean mom that makes the kid eat BEFORE the fun... because otherwise she won't eat a thing) locating all her treasures... and opening each egg and revealing the contents of it with delight... and eating a bag of Jelly Belly beans... she wanted to put on her new pretend pop star headset and listen to the Radio Disney hits CD that Mr. Kaos and I got her for her birthday (which was only 3 days ago...)

Let me make something clear; She REALLY wanted that CD and rather than buy her another toy or 10 that she doesn't need and I don't want her to have we decided to let her have it. We leave the excessive toy buying to other people.

So like I said we got her the CD and she was thrilled but we haven't had a chance to listen to it... until this morning...

That's where the hell part comes in.

Have we covered here on my blog that I love music? I love it with a fierce and fiery passion. I adore music. I've spent most of my life LOVING music and... well kind of disliking musicians. One thing is pretty consistent with me though... aside from some crazy 80's stuff and some gothy club music I danced to in my teens I hate music that has been processed and over produced... music that has had the spirit and the soul ripped from it.

This CD pretty much embodies what I can't stand about the recording industry these days.

I think I may be bleeding from my ears.

please make it stop...

help me...

please.

piece of cake...

we're still getting ready for K's party Saturday morning...

All I can say is that I'm late. I'm late for a very important date.

No time to say Hello...

GOODBYE

I'm late. I'm late. I'm late.

yesterday

I declined to talk yesterday about something of the utmost importance.

Well I didn't talk about it here.

It was a conscious choice.

Truth be told I'm not sure why I made it.

Yesterday though... was K's sixth birthday.

My little girl has gone from this


to this


in six years...

It took a lot for her to get from there to here. For her to go from laying around kicking her feet and looking adorable to putting two pens in her mouth at a dinner table and pretending they're blow darts... or whatever it was she was doing there (but no. no. she was not pretending to be a walrus... that is beneath her okay?)

The point is?

My little girl. My tiny one.

She is growing up. It's going quickly.

While I may complain about her idiosyncrasies... the insanity I sometimes feel she is driving me to... the fact that I am really tired... you know stuff...

I would never have it any other way. I love her.

completely.

wholly.

unconditionally.

yesterday and always.

it's my party and I'll laugh if I want to...

No real post right now because...

It's my birthday...

So thank you to those of you who've sent my birthday wishes far and wide...

I'll feel so lucky to be alive and to have my family and all of you...

I'm off to get cleaned up for a lovely dinner out with the charming Mr. Kaos... but keep a look out late tonight for the podcast I recorded with the ever enchanting Holly this morning...

If you really need a cami birthday fix before the podcast is up, check out Sybil, my daddy and Jo who all said Happy Birthday to me in their own special bloggy ways!

Yeah me!

xoxo - CamiKaos

the birthday of my man

Mr. Kaos asked earlier today if he got to guest post on my blog today since it was, after all, the day of his birth.

I jumped at the chance to have some well written thought provoking content on my blog for a change...

then he told me what he wanted to say and I kind of put the lid on the whole idea...

No, not really. He told me what he wanted to write, which was kind of the tale of our typical new year's eve... It was funny, it was humor, it had sleep, coffee, passion, anger, fighting, crying, sex, champagne and plumbing.

But once he got the general theme out he didn't feel like writing it anymore.

At all.

So I am stepping in to write my own blog post on his birthday.

But still, totally gonna be about him.

You see, while he was a planned child his parents didn't give much thought to the whole having a child around the holidays thing.

At all.

I'm not being cruel, his mother will be the first to admit that they didn't think the timing out too well.

If there is one thing that Mr. Kaos hates (and trust me for such a loving man he can jump on the hate wagon for a thing or 10) it's his birthday.

Since I 've known him I have made great efforts to do nice things for him for/on/around his birthday.

Do you know what I 've learned?

Don't.

Without fail every year the day before his birthday we have a big fight about something asinine and ordinarily it's all his fault because he is in a bad stupid evil birthday mood. Though to be fair the big fight we had the day before his birthday THIS year wasn't all his fault. He was trying to not be his normal birthday self but I was REALLY defensive ready for evil birthday Mr. Kaos to show up. The two things, his trying and my waiting, they rammed head first into each other to create a dazzling effect.

THEN...

well then we had a big argument.

(this is what he was going to write about people, I am following his lead)

THEN...

well then we folded laundry and argued.

BUT THEN...


then we made up.

BUT THEN then...

Mr. Kaos took a shower in preparation to get ready to go out and do some shopping for his birthday brunch and I went down to check the new drain pipe to ensure that all was good and there was a leak.

SHIT.

SO THEN...

I went upstairs and found the leak in question and wrapped a towel around it to stop it leaking while he was in the shower...

what? it wasn't a very big leak.

And then I showered and we got ready to go out and then...

THEN on the eve of my man's birthday we had to go to a hardware store and 3 (count them three) different grocery stores.

Man did that SUCK.

But then we came home and do you know what we did THEN???

Well then we unpacked the groceries... but after that we had a huge dinner with my parents and we tore christmas the frick down.

It felt good. (though it isn't all gone).

I think for once he really just wanted Christmas to be over with before his birthday.

Or something.

I'll be honest here. I usually have a very good grasp of what Mr. Kaos is thinking. How he's feeling. What's going on in the old noggin there... but with this whole birthday thing I'm left adrift in a sea of I HAVE NO CLUE.

But I do know that there are two things that can make him smile:

A cake made by K fresh from her easy bake oven.

A blog post where I talk about how much I love him.

So Mr. Kaos, I love you, happy birthday from me, the only way I know how.

the post postcard post...

the dirty little secret... oh I must share something awful, shameful, untoward...

While I bought each and every postcard in Anaheim, addressed them and dutifully wrote each note in my hotel room, I did not mail them from California.

My hotel, it seems, was woefully lacking stamps for sale. They could merely post them for me... Well that wasn't good enough for little ol me. I wanted them to have a DL postmark but I couldn't find stamps there either, lots and lots of mail boxes though... I guess I should have purchased stamps before I got on the plane.

So because of the stamp debacle I said "screw it, I'll do it when I get home"

I think that is actually a quote. You see it was my 2nd to last day there, I was spending the day with a friend I hadn't seen in 9 years, The Chadness, and we wanted to get to the park and get the fun underway. So I decided the Portland postmark would have to suffice. It will won't it? I suppose you could all be hurt and angry an decide that my postcard is crap and tear it up the moment you eyes lay on it.



I hope you don't.

I hope you carry it by its corner like the stinky diaper that it is and welcome it into your home.

A warning note though, a few of them are funny, a few of them are true, a couple are random, sentimental or downright lovey... So deal with it! I invite you though if you enjoyed your card to scan it in and put it up for all the world to see. Then let me know about it okay? If more than 3 of you do so I will put up a little area in my side column linking to my postcard people... Ohh, exclusive little group that you are.


*****


On an only slightly unrelated note someone out there in the interlove is celebrating a birthday today and to her I say: Happy birthday babe. You've had some tough years and some really tough years... but you've had some great ones too, here is hoping that this year is greater than the greatest and the next is greater still.



Drop by and send her some birthday wishes won't you?



*****

And on a completely unrelated note I am now finished with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, feel free to email me.

march is just super...

March is like hell month here in the Kaos household. We handle hell well, we try to have fun with it but it's still hell. That's just what happens when you pile birthday on top of birthday multiply it by 16 and throw in family medical emergencies, Nana's visit, arts & crafts overload and 17 parties for good measure. We like visiting the hell that is March, but we don't want to live here.

So it is with a sense of relief that I start to poke my head out of my protective shell and look around... is it over? Are we there yet? April anyone?

Not yet. Almost. So soon I can taste it.

We have one more big March happening. One more big ruckus. A big bash. The birthday party.

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY.

The one where K and 9 friends will dress up like super heroes and hurl big round objects down 62 feet of glossy hard wood while trying to knock over 10 pins. Oh yeah people, we're taking a field trip to the bowling alley WITH SUPER HEROES.

Do all those capital letters make me sound excited? I am. I really really am. I'm not sure if I am more excited at the prospect of once again donning my bat girl ensemble or seeing K in her new wonder woman get up. It could be the thought of all those little kids in super hero disguises or the pitchers of beer and taco pizza. I know, we're not just normal crazy, we're super crazy. You get used to it when you've lived your entire life that way.

I think what I really look forward to is coming home from the party, hanging up our super capes, setting aside our masks, basking in the family glow and reclaiming some sense of normalcy, because yes, even here in the house of Kaos we have normal days sometimes, most of the time really.

As the month of March (hell) fades into April and the days grow warm and wet the Kaos family will start to unwind and for us that will be just super...

balloon love...

5 years...

5 years ago you came into my life and since the very moment I saw your tiny wriggling fingers and toes I knew what I was meant to be.

Your mama.

5 years ago today I held 5 pounds of tiny unyielding miracle in my arms and since that moment not a day has gone by, K, which you haven’t grown more miraculous.

I’m not even thinking of the everyday miracles that you had to perform in your short 5 years, like learning to cry, laugh, smile, roll over, eat, walk and talk. Then there was easy potty training, sentence structure, your 123’s and ABC’s, learning the names of too many super heroes to count, every Disney princess, all 4 Wiggles, and the 5 Backyardigans. See? Miracles.

Even as you sit composing and arranging a musical production of yet unimagined proportions for your super heroes and fairies to perform I am awed by you.

I am awed because I know that no matter what I create or accomplish in my lifetime I will never do a thing more important than bringing you into this world.

You are the future, and as lame as that sounds, as much as it makes that horrible Whitney Houston song run through my head, it's true. You are everything I have hope for in the world. I can not wait to see you live your life, to watch you as you grow and learn, and to see what miracles you will perform in the next 5 years.

Thank you K for being more than I ever imagined and all that I could hope for. I love you.

almost 5 years...

*Disclaimer... Mr Kaos suggested because some of the content in this post is Kaotic upsetting and gross you may not want to read this. It is an edited version of the story of K's birth*

It was late on a Tuesday night as Mike & I lay nestled together on the small hospital couch in our delivery suite knowing things would be so different so soon… We’d already been in the hospital for two days, going in and coming out of labor and though my doctor was quite clear on the fact that K needed to come out K didn't seem to be in a particular hurry.

Maybe she knew that she was being strong armed out of the womb 3 weeks early but wasn't quite sophisticated enough to understand that my body was not a pleasant atmosphere to live in. After months of poking prodding puking sleeping weight loss weight gain more puking talking talking talking and planning it was time to get the hell out of there. Evicted. Vamoose little baby.

But as we lay there knowing the entire world was about to be turned on its ear we had a sense of calm for the first time in weeks. Before we nodded off for a few hours of sleep and my contractions started again in earnest Mike held the camera up and took a picture. It was the last picture of us the way we were.




The next morning my induced labor finally took, I started throwing up readily, I was in agony with the contractions coming in waves I couldn't anticipate, the nurses had trouble monitoring the contractions because of my size (I had gained very little weight through out my months of pregnancy due to extreme “morning sickness”). My friend who had been visiting regularly since we were admitted didn't come, 1600 miles away my mom and dad held their breath hoping that everything would turn out okay and across town Mike’s parents waited anxiously to be allowed to visit.

As the day rolled on and the birth came closer and closer my doctor called for my epidural. As much as I hate needles just the thought of some relief was enough to make me praise whoever invented the medical marvel I had heard epidurals were. Sadly once it was administered and did nothing but numb me from naval to breast I realized that very little was going to go right that day.

Evening rolled in and my contractions started to take hold. My doctor stayed in the room and there were extra nurses milling about. When it was finally time to push I decided that K was in trouble and went mad. I was determined to get her out with each and every push. By the time my doctor had located herself at the end of my bed I was naked and alternating screaming obscenities and promising god (if there was one) that if woman kind has some how done something to offend him we had made great strides and he should reconsider his torture stance… At this time, shortly before 6 PM on a Wednesday our room was full. Mike stayed close by my side holding my hand or practically dislocating my hip by helping a nurse to pull my legs back. Our huge room seemed small as it filled up with 4 nurses and 2 doctors, a warming bassinet and medical supplies and carts I could never hope to identify.

Finally, after 3 days of labor but only 45 minutes of pushing K made her debut. Her amazing, tiny beautiful debut with her cord wrapped around her perfect little neck… Like I said, very little was going right that day.

Her delivery had already been bloodier than any of those they show you in birthing class but my doctor being the amazing woman that she was had simply put on one extra gown after another, this new challenge of the cord neck issue was nothing new to her. She quickly whipped the cord off. No blue baby, perfect baby… so what was the face she and the nurses were making? She quickly handed K off to the pediatrician who had been called in in case something went wrong and we were assured she was in great shape and bigger than they had anticipated… but there was a problem… with me.

When Dr. C removed the cord from our newborn’s neck there was an extra splatter of blood over everything and I hadn't had time to put things together… The umbilical cord kind of… popped. If you don’t know much about the whole nifty process of giving birth the seriousness of this may not occur to you… but you need that cord. Not to bank its blood, to guide the placenta out…

The anesthesiologist who’d done such a stellar job with my epidural was no where to be found so within minutes I found my self with a horse needle full of Demerol in my leg to keep the pain at bay and try to keep me from going into shock as my doctor did the only thing she could do to keep from having to perform a c-section for a placenta. She reached her tiny doctor hands up inside my body, grabbed hold of that placenta and pulled it out.

I’ll give you a moment to shake that off… I’m taking one too…

After that things were pretty okay. I couldn't feel much pain so the only thing that bothered me was that I hadn't yet held my perfect little bundle of fingers and toes and big beautiful eyes… The doctors had both held her, it was their job after all, a nurse I suddenly didn't like held her briefly and cooed at her as she lifted her off the warming pad to hand her to Mike… as he walked over to me with our little girl I glared across the room at the nurse who’d held K before I ever got the chance… my resentment was taken away as Mike laid K in my half stoned arms and I gazed at what had ripped a bloody path out of my body.

Of course, she was perfect.

a very kaos birthday continued...

cami kaos will return next week... xoxo

a very kaos birthday...

March 7th

5:30 pm: Mr Kaos gets home and whisks K away for a whirlwind of shopping that I am clueless about

6:00 pm: My friend T arrives... I am already on the front porch before she is out of her car... we wander the neighborhood a little... I'm like an ill behaved puppy because I get to go out on a weeknight.

6:20 pm: We arrive at my favorite bar/ restaurant in the neighborhood for drinks and dinner. We're greeted by the super friendly tall host busboy guy... I think his name is A. Hooray. We've arrived. He shows us to our table where I see one of my very very favorite waitresses ever, R. We promptly order drinks.

6:30 pm: Commence drinking. My phone rings. I can hear it and am oh so irritated by the noise but I can't find it.

7:00 pm: We order food. Good food. big food. A story about skiing occurs. A horror story. I decide I never want to go skiing.

My time line for last night gets fuzzy here... so much talking good company good food. Good time. I find out that R's husband's birthday is the 8th as well. I have never met anyone with my birthday before and I am thrilled. I know what he's getting for his birthday... he's gonna be happy! It is terribly quiet in the restaurant and T and I try to lob our obscenities quietly at the wall. R had no other tables, or was getting off work so the 3 of us have a lovely chat about music, men and bigots. My phone rings again, though much more quietly since I eventually did find it and turn it down. I see the time... it's about 8:30... it's Mr. Kaos on the phone. I think to myself, oh that's great, K is only getting to bed 30 minutes late and answer. I hear car noises. Yes car noises. They're kind of heading home, but do I have the phone number for the Chinese Takeout place? Yes, I do. I offer to call in the order for them and then continue the drinking... but it is time to get home.

9:00 pm ish: T and I meander home blah blah hahaaahaaa heeheee. Good times. We get home shortly after Mr. Kaos and K and find them in bed eating Chinese Food and watching Educational TV.

9:30 pm ish: T is sober and ready to go, she leaves. Bye T. Thank you. So fun. Happy day.

10:00 pm: K is finally asleep. I head into the living room to see Mr. Kaos putting together his bran new telescope. My life seems a little surreal.

March 8th

12:07 am: Mr. Kaos says happy birthday... I decide I really need to sleep.

1:30 am ish: I actually fall asleep

insert sleeping here

5:45 am: Mr. Kaos is up getting ready for a big meeting that has been rescheduled too many times... I hear the coffee making... I hear morning noises... shuffling about and I fade back into sleep.

6:45 am: Mr. says I can't wait til you wake up today. I ask if I have to get up but he says no...Bye bye Mr. have a nice day at work. more sleep

7:00 am ish: I can't sleep. The child is sleeping. I don't want to get up so I check the TiVo. It knows I need something to do, it recorded America's Next Top Model. I don't want to watch this show but I do. Oh, crap TV at it's crappiest...

7:35 am: ANTM is over (love the TiVo). I can't take it anymore I wake up the child. I ask for snuggles. She doesn't actually snuggle me but she scoots into me so I can snuggle her. So I poke her on the shoulder a few times... wakey wakey little one. she did. eventually. She told me happy birthday and dragged me out to the dining room to show me the the fabulous decorations hanging from the fan and sitting at the table. hehee...

7:45 am: Why is K coughing like that? Why does she have a runny nose? Why does she sound more like a 60 year old jazz singer who smoked two packs a day since she was 14 and less like a 5 year old girl? Because she is my daughter and she must be sick on my birthday.

8:00 am: Convince K it will be more fun to stay home with me. Promise her that as long as she doesn't have a fever we will still all go out to lunch when daddy Kaos gets home and that yes yes her babysitter can still come play with her this evening... Call the school. Call my mommy.

8:11 am: Hee hee. I'm 30.

8:23 am: breakfast is done. I am so sleepy. I can't wait until Mr. Kaos comes home...

consumer whore cami... again...

So it's been a while since I went the consumer whore Cami route and screamed that I loved some technological hoo ha but here goes...

We spent the weekend shopping around for a new laptop (days 2& 3 of the 40 day celebration of the birth of me). Saturday found us at the tattoo parlor for a consult on my 30th birthday tattoo... then off to Pioneer Place mall to check out the Mac store. Oh so pretty mac books and pros... the love was almost too much, it was all we could do not to buy one on the spot... but we had more looking to do. We did a little shopping and then had a quick lunch at Alessandro's before we tried to head home... It was so nice out though that we decided to head over the the library and Vino (again)...

What does this have to do with consumer whore Cami? Nothing... But we did ask everyone we met along the way about Mac Books and Mac Book Pros...

This morning (Super Bowl Sunday woo hoo go team) we thought it would be a great time to go laptop shopping. Boy were we right... We got a great deal on a spankin new HP notebook complete with Vista... umm... did I say Vista? But we don't want Vista. We really don't. I don't need the trouble of a whole new operating system... re learning word... and junk... Mike was way down on the Vista. The original plan was to either buy a Mac Book or buy a Windows machine right before the Vista release and try to get a good deal... so how did I wind up with this pretty shiny happy nice new HP laptop with all sorts of doodads and goodies and Vista... and the new office...

And why oh why do I SOOOOO love the new OS & Office? First off they did a ton of things right that they should have done right before. There are a ton of cool new features... my favorites in Vista being the quick search right in the menu, being able to scroll through all my open windows and the gadgets. Yes I know that so many others have done it before and they should have done it earlier... but they've done it now and they've done it well. I haven't played with most of the new Office but Word is great. I kept hearing that you have to completely re-learn word but I think that's babble. The commands all seemed to work the same way and the only differences seemed... well great. I loved being able to view the fonts and font sizes without having to change a thing...

So yes, it's me consumer whore Cami here and happy to tell you that something rocks... perhaps someday I will tell you all how much something sucks... like oh, my moto razr...

turning 30... day 1 of 40...

It's 35 days until my 30th birthday. Am I upset by this? Nope. Was I considering this when I woke up this morning? No, not at all. So what brought on this topic?

PRESENTS!!!

Mike went out to get a smoothie for lunch today (I was jealous so I retaliated by going to Me Kong for some tasty salad rolls). While he was out he was drawn into a record shop... at least I assume it was a record shop.

While driving home from work early enough for us to catch wine tasting he called and asked if he should start giving me birthday presents NOW or wait until my birthday. Images of a cute little German Shepperd pup gagged in the closet crossed my mind... but knowing he wouldn't ever do that to my puppy (and it doesn't look like I'm getting one quite that soon friends) I said he should do whatever he wanted to do...

gimme gimme gimme i want i want i want

He tried to give me presents before wine tasting but I said no, arguing that coming home to presents would be more exciting... He forced me to take one anyway... a Lords of Acid cd... Truthfully I had forgotten about the Lords of Acid. Thrilled with the album I set in on a cabinet and bounced out the door to trek through our chilly neighborhood and head over to Vino.

The whole time we drank our wine and had general merriment I didn't think of the bag or pressies sitting on the dining table at home... but when we walked in the door they were there!!! Oh whatever was I to do? I did NOTHING.

But Mike being Mike once again insisted that I receive gifts. He produced 2 Tom Waits albums that I didn't already have. Joy.

While the bag was not empty he decided to keep the additional bootie for another day... and thus began the 40 days and nights of the 30th birthday of camikaos

side note: traditionally since I met Mike 1 week before my birthday he has insisted on celebrating my birthday for a full week... He must be anxious about my 30th if he is starting this far in advance...