Happy birthday to me! And my mom!

And Kevin! And all the other December birthdays I know (and there are PLENTY).

I still haven't written about Thanksgiving. Bad me. But it was delightful, I promise.

But I will talk about my birthday.

My friends Steve and Jenn conspired with Kevin to surprise me (in the sense that I wouldn't know what we'd be doing, not that I didn't know anything was happening) with a fun birthday activity.

We left around 7. Kevin had the directions all written out and didn't say a word, just silently drove up 280. We got off at the exit I know to be Palo Alto and headed towards the part of town where Homma's Brown Rice Sushi is. Excellent! After a filling meal, we got back in the car and headed north on 101. Definitely not staying in Palo Alto, as I might have thought -- what, it could've been something at the Stanford Theatre, perhaps -- but rather all the way up to the city, then off at 9th and Civic Center... hmm... this is the exit for Slim's. But no outward appearances gave away the event itself, not even the signage at Slim's. We were inside before Steve told me: we are seeing Shonen Knife!

Now, Shonen Knife is a band I am only a little familiar with and never would have thought to go see, but that has totally changed. This show was fucking awesome, people. That was some solid rocking out we did. So the birthday surprise evening was a success. Even Kevin had fun, which was practically the icing on the cake for me.

Anyway, it's time to get ready for work. Paris plans are coming together (I'll be posting pics to Flickr, of course) and this ridiculous year is wrapping up, finally.