Wednesday went even more perfect than I ever could've imagined! Shortly after waking up, one of my best friends from back home called.

"Is J making you pancakes this morning?" she asked.
"No, he's shaving his face right now..."
"Well, if you were marrying me, I'd be making you pancakes."

It's an ongoing joke between H n' I that I might change my mind and choose to marry her over J. I casually teased J that he should be making me pancakes or else I might run away with H instead.

Fifteen minutes later, I catch a whiff of what smells like pancakes. Believe it or not, J has never made pancakes before, but he did his best, and they were quite good. What a sweetie. I told him that he was the best, and he admitted, "If I were the best, I would've thought of that idea myself." So I emailed H, and thanked her for being the best. Ha! Apparently later in the day H emailed J with my breakfast order for the rest of the week. Ha ha... oh, how I miss her!

When I got to work, people were wishing me a happy birthday before I made it to my seat. Gee, did all those decorations around my cube give it away? Our department has a folder filled with decorations, and so whenever someone has a birthday, you can expect to be the center of attention -- thick streamer thingies hanging from the ceiling, a big happy birthday banner, ribbons, confetti -- the works.

As I walked towards my birthday cube, my friend L gave me some pretty flowers. How unexpected and nice! I sat down and chatted with my co-workers for a bit until it was time to "work"... which really means I turned the computer on and checked the huge onslaught of happy birthday wishes on Facebook and email.

A couple hours later and J stopped by my desk, "I wanted to ask you something..." Just as I looked up, a happy birthday balloon popped up over the wall, and he walked around the corner to present me with a big bouquet. With all these flowers surrounding me, I couldn't help but feel spoiled.

Another co-worker friend, M, made plans for DMC, L and I to all go out for lunch at the pub across the street. I made sure that J had nothing planned, and told him that I was going to just have lunch with the girls. (Little did I know...) Once inside the pub I started walking over to an empty table, when the girls sent me straight ahead -- deja vu. I'm so easily fooled. The same thing happened last year... an unexpected birthday lunch! Last year J organized it, and this year it was organized by M. With the exception of Manager, I have to say that I really do work with the best people around.

There was a whole crew of people there, and everyone signed a card. Such a nice surprise!

After work, as we headed home, J's folks called us from the parking lot of our building. Greaaaaat... Even though we were expecting to meet up with them at some point, we weren't anticipating the pop-in. We told them we had some errands to run and would meet them at our place shortly. Instead, we parked at the pub next door and ran upstairs to do a quick vacuum and ensure that my pj's -- or anything else -- wasn't left on the bathroom floor. We then ran back downstairs and pulled into the parking lot. Oh so sneaky, aren't we?

Once everyone was in our apartment, J's folks and J spoiled me with thoughtful gifts. His folks n' grandma went in together and got me a really nice address/phone number book with all kinds of wonderful inspirational quotes. They also got me a little travel journal for our trip and a fanny pack thing with $100 US in the pockets. I told us that they assumed US cash is like international currency and that it's accepted everywhere -- they didn't realize that we would be better off using Euros in Europe, until it was too late. Oh well, 'tis the thought that counts, and it was a very generous one at that. :o) We can always get it exchanged.

As for J, he gave me two shirts -- because he did such an awesome job at Christmas, I told him that he could buy all my clothes from now on. He picks out stuff I'd likely never buy for myself, but I always end up loving it. He has got such great taste. He also gave me a gift certificate to HMV because I was saying how I need new music... and I haven't managed to join the rest of the world and download my tunes. I still like having a tangible album. I just burn the music to my computer and then load it on to my iPod.

Anyhow, after the gift opening, we all went out to Kelly O'Brien's, where I got my free birthday meal. My real choice for my birthday dinner is DJ's -- a cool little Mexican restaurant... but I'm saving that for Saturday when we go out with friends. I figured since we were with J's folks, we should probably go to a more meat n' potatoes type joint. Not that I was planning on eating any meat... but I do love Kelly O's Champ Stuffed Potato. Mmmm.... I could live off of potatoes forever!

Much to our (HUGE) surprise, Bro picked up the tab for everyone. Believe me, this is a big deal, as J n' I often find ourselves covering for Bro. Maybe GF is rubbing off on him?

So yes, that was my birthday.

Then yesterday my friend M flew into town. Since I'm using up all my holiday time for our trip later this year, I don't have any vacation days left, so I had to work today -- at least I get to work from home (although I don't know if writing this little blog counts as "working"...)-- so she went to get her hair done to kill some time. She should be back any minute, and as for me, I should be off work in about 15 minutes. I started at the crack of dawn before M woke up this morning, so I could be done extra early.

Best of all, it's the Victoria Day long weekend and the weather is gorgeous! Normally it almost *always* rains on the May long weekend... but it's 25'C (77'F) out today and expected to be 31'C (87'F) tomorrow! Whoo!

Have an excellent weekend everyone!