Bummer birthday, lost and found, making make believe money

Yesterday after work I had to make some more stops to pick up birthday supplies, namely a cake.  Ali requested some sort of vanilla creme cake which I managed to track down after a little searching.  I also grabbed a cool looking plant that had flowers that looked like mini-roses.

The next stop was Hungry Howie’s to pick up Ali’s requested birthday meal, pizza.  They have a nice deal when you pick it up yourself, 5 bucks and change.

When I got home I immediately noticed Ali looked like she had been crying so I asked her what was wrong.  She said on her way home from work she drove past a women by the side of the road whom was visibly upset.  At her feet was what appeared to be a dead cat, Ali assumes it was the woman’s dead cat.  As Ali drove by she watched as the woman tearfully was bending down to pick up the animal’s now lifeless body.  I understood Ali’s emotional reaction to it.

So I brought in all my stuff and after making the dog’s dinner we settled in for pizza while watching the season finale of the Biggest Loser.  Ali had a couple birthday calls throughout the evening from her brother, her mom, my mom and my dad.

I gave Ali her gifts from both me and remote locations after we ate.  I felt dumb when I realized that I mistakenly  bought two xmas cards for Ali instead of a birthday and Christmas card.  However the one card had a message in it that was equally appropriate for a birthday, I just crossed the Merry Christmas out.

My gift for Ali was a gift certificate to a local spa that she likes to frequent.  I figured it would be a nice thing for Ali to unwind with once she gets through this brutal patch of work she is mired in lately.  Getting the gift cert was a bit of an ordeal.

I called the place last week and paid for it with a CC on the phone.  I asked them to just mail it to my work address so Ali wouldn’t see it.  That was last Friday.  Well it should have only taken a day to get here, even with the holiday rush considering it is 5 miles away.  Well I called Tuesday and told them I still hadn’t seen it.  They assured me that it should show up, it didn’t.

So I called back yesterday and informed them that I still don’t have the gift certificate and I need it TODAY.  I asked them if they would be able to fax or scan me a certificate and get it to me that way.  I believe the guy on the phone was an owner.  He asked where I worked.  I told him.  He said he gets off at 1pm and would just drop the gift cert off to me.  Wow, that’s nice.  I told him that wasn’t really necessary but he said it was not a problem.  So I had the GC handed to me personally Wednesday afternoon.

So anyway, despite my efforts to make Ali’s birthday enjoyable, she spent much of the evening sad.  I asked her what was wrong.  Like I mentioned, she has been feeling stressed out at work since she offered to take over the responsibilities of the kitchen manager since he is out on medical leave.

Initially her thought process was electing to do this would translate into a lot of extra money which always comes in handy.  Unfortunately it also has translated into a lot of extra hours and stress that in retrospect may not be worth the bulge in the checking account.

Ali also said she was feeling old.  I told her to join the club, I clearly recall not being thrilled with my 37th birthday either.  Of course I didn’t really like any birthday that started with the number 3 or higher.

However with Ali the age thing also ties into her recent feelings about having a kid.  She has been bringing the subject up pretty regularly for awhile now.    I have been ducking and weaving on a regular basis as well as I am unable to embrace the idea.

Ali has gotten advice from many people that are happy to offer up their opinion that we should have kids.  I’m glad it is so easy for them to chime in so easily on something that is such a life altering event. This isn’t like asking for a recommendation on what type of toilet paper you should use.

Anyway the kid/age thing put a cloud over Ali’s mood for the night which sort of sucked.  It’s something we will need to address further in the future but not last night.

At least the dogs were in the birthday spirit.  they were quite happy to gobble down a small piece of Ali’s birthday cake as you can see here.

Hey did you see the Iphone now offers a Find your Phone thing?  I just set it up this morning.  It is pretty sweet.

Basically you configure your Iphone to turn this feature on which takes all of a minute or two.  Once you do this you can load me.com and find your phone!  Not only can you see where your phone is, you can send a message to it, lock it, or even wipe it clean if you think it has fallen into dirty hands.

Of course this also has the capability to be the ultimate big brother.  If I knew your Apple sign on information I could track your whereabouts at all times, or at least your phone’s whereabouts.  People that suspect their spouses of some monkey business will be big fans of this tool.

I have a lot of virtual WoW work to do since the latest expansion is now live.  I have 10 characters that I eventually will want to level to the new level cap of 85.  However lately I have been playing a more economic game.

You see when an expansion hits there is a huge push by the WoW addicts to want to reach the new max level for everything as quickly as possible.  This doesn’t apply to just the overall level of their character but also to the professions their character is trained in.

To level a profession you need raw materials which you use to create items that in turn raise you profession skill level.  I am currently in the raw material supply business.  These raw materials need to be gathered which takes time.  Well the people that are crazed with leveling FAST don’t want to bother to go out and collect these materials themselves.  Instead they will overpay dramatically to simply buy what they want off the virtual auction house.

I am using my warrior to mine minerals that have been selling for huge cash.  Now is THE time to make big money off the hard core nerds.  I plan to milk this cow as long as the milk is flowing.  Just as in real life, having a lot of gold in the WoW bank brings about a sense of well being.

This will probably be my last entry until after my extended 4 day weekend.  I hope anyone that takes the few minutes a day to digest my various strange thoughts has a great Christmas.  I’ll try my best to do the same.