It was a lovely weekend.

On Friday night, Kristi and I went to Herkimer to wish a happy birthday to Bertine. I bought her a drink and she bought me a tasty shot of something (for my birthday, which was yesterday). After chatting for a bit, Kristi and I left to meet Jen at Stub & Herb’s.

(This photo is from the bathroom.)

We had a few more drinks and Kristi left after Jen and I got distracted by bar trivia. I think I got home around 2:30am. It was an early start to the birthday weekend festivities!

On Saturday, Bachman’s delivered some pretty flowers from my parents. I also made Karyn, Bryan and Kristi go bowling with me at the Bryant Lake Bowl. We had dinner there, too. It was pretty fun, but I didn’t get to win.

After that Kristi and I dropped by her friend Jared’s roommate’s art gallery opening (a cooperative effort in Steven’s neighborhood). We checked that out and ate a little bit of salsa. We tried to go to Gasthof’s (where the boys were going) but it was too nutty and crowded for me and I already had a headache, so Kristi and I came home and rang in my birthday with pudding and Sex and the City.

Sunday morning, my sister made brunch reservations for some family and me at Jax’s Cafe. They give you personalized matchbooks if you make reservations, so now I have matchbooks to light my birthday candles for the next 20 years or so. Among those present at the restaurant this morning: my aunt Laurie, cousins Jamie and Sarah (and a friend of Sarah’s), my dad’s cousins, Dian and Scott, my uncle Darman and his wife Laura, and Karyn, Bryan and Kristi, of course. It was lovely. We all ate too much and that’s awesome. Laurie and the gals (her daughters) gave me some lovely-smelling Hawaiian Ginger frou-frous (lotions, perfume, etc.) and a “dream pillow” (filled with herbs, you stick it under your pillow in bed and it gives you good dreams). Karyn and Bryan gave me German magnetic poetry (so I can re-learn some more German words — Kristi will have to, too) and signed me up for a morning at the Kitchen Window in early December. I’ll be making German cookies and drinking gluehwein! (Then I’ll stumble over to Karyn’s place and we’ll go have another cookie/Christmas fest at Laurie’s house.) Fun!

After that, Kristi and I went to Uptown to pick up a piano she found through TwinCitiesFreeMarket — except we weren’t strong enough, so we called in four boys (Bryan, Barry, Jared, and Jared’s brother, Logan) to do the lifting and the smartness.

Once that was done and we were home, we took naps because it’s very tiring watching boys lift heavy pianos and such. We ordered greasy Chinese food for dinner and watched Reality Bites and the Simpsons. Before it was bedtime, Aaron took me out for a tiki drink at Psycho Suzi’s.

Lots of fabulous people on FaceBook sent me birthday wishes, too — people I didn’t really expect to hear from! But they’re all lovely and I wish I was better at hanging out with and keeping in touch with more people. My brother and his girlfriend sent me a really hysterical e-card from Hallmark and apparently something else is on the way. On Tuesday at work during staff meeting I’ll get some sort of dessert (I don’t remember what I requested). My mom told me that she has another present for me when I go home for Thanksgiving. I love that I get to stretch my birthday out for half of November!

I didn’t take as many photos as I wanted, but I was distracted. Oh, well!