My birthday was awesome!

I had a terrific day yesterday. We started off with a little breakfast at my favorite diner. In spite of the extremely loud construction going on on the roof, I still enjoyed my feta cheese omelette with homefries immensely. When the ceiling threatened to cave in, we decided it was time to leave. Good call.

Next stop was to pick up some flowers to plant in our flower beds in front of and in back of the house. That was my main goal for the day. Weird, I know, but being able to plant the gardens without Ellie hovering about is very enjoyable and only takes a couple of hours. We stocked up on impatiens and marigolds for annuals and shasta daisies, Arizona blanket flowers, a hosta plant, and an azalea for our perennials. I have to say I'm quite pleased with how it looks. I love flowers but I have a black thumb. I researched and bombarded my mom (who used to be a florist) with questions about hearty flowers for our area that required minimal attention. These ended up being the top choices, and I'm really hoping they take well. We'll be able to enjoy the perennials for years, and they'll eventually take up most of the space so I won't even have to plant annuals anymore. Total score. Oh, and my hydrangea we transplanted from the other house survived the winter and looks like it's gotten bigger. Joy. As for the mums we planted last fall, only 1 survived. Sadness.

Harry and I really enjoyed gardening together, and it was the first project we've done in a while that we didn't bite each other's heads off. We tend to get a bit moody and irritated with each other when we're working together, I admit. Yesterday was not like that. It was relaxing and we were talking and laughing through a good part of it. Eventually we ended up in separate areas of the yard, and I got to spend some quiet time planting and thinking and just enjoying the sunshine. Perfect.

After that, we trekked our way to the movie theatre to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. Weapon X is one of my favorite X-men stories, and I like how they encorporated some of it into the movie. Mr. Jackman was, of course, fantastic as usual. Liev Schreiber, whom I love as an actor, was awesome as Victor. The only casting I didn't like was Gambit. Gambit happens to be one of my favorite X-men, and Taylor Kitsch didn't do him justice. Josh Holloway from LOST, who was the first choice, would have nailed it. It's too bad he couldn't fit the movie into his schedule. I liked it so much that I totally wouldn't mind seeing it the theatres again. Not sure if that will happen, but I'd like to.

After the movie, we picked Ellie up from daycare and headed to our local Olive Garden for dinner. Olive Garden is never my first choice for restaurants, but my mom had gotten us a gift certificate there at Christmastime, so I figured we'd save a little cash going there. Unfortunately, dinner was a bummer. Ellie couldn't sit still the entire time we were there, and the food was mediocre. AND we had to fork over another $20 to cover the bill and tip after we used the gift card. Ick. It seems Ellie has hit that weird age where she absolutely cannot sit still in a restaurant. This is the second time she's been extremely antsy when we went out to dinner, and she's normally really good about it. I'm hoping it'll pass in a few months. Eh.

After dinner, we went back home for cake. My mom came over to join us, and Miss Ellie helped me blow out the candles. I had decided I wanted a chocolate cake with ice cream filling and whipped cream topping this year, and well, you can't really buy that around here. So I made it myself. Yep, I made my own cake. And it was delicious. Even my mom, who's not a fan of chocolate and can bake like you wouldn't believe, really liked it. Yay!

We ended the evening watching LOST (excellent episode) and a little, ahem, you know. Quite a nice ending to a nice day:)

Oh, and I got a ton of birthday wishes from friends which I not only appreciated but which completely made my day 100 times better. I can't thank everyone enough. AND my niece wrote this wonderful blog entry about me, too, which brought me to tears and made me smile. She rocks. Love you, Uh-cuh-cuh.

Haikusday

Tuesdays will now officially be Haikusdays on How I Became a Tattooed Mommy, courtesy of The Book of Shenry. The actual idea of a haikusday isn't Shenry's, but his suggestion is what brought it forth. And you all know how much I love haiku. I couldn't resist.

Cinco de Mayo

I don't know Spanish
Except what Dora taught me
Today is May 5th.

Yeah, not feeling that one. I'll try another.

Cinco De Mayo

It's just the party
Leading up to the best day
To celebrate ME!

I'm a little rusty.

I heart Annita

(I stole this pic off her facebook... shhhhh)


(Jess took my most favorite pic of Annita during our Richmond trip. She's just so stinkin' cute)

Last week, I was reading an entry on I Was Never the Girl Next Door, suggesting that everyone take a moment to write a blog about a friend. I immediately thought of my gal, Annita. That's Annita with two n's, not one. Annita informed me that that's the correct way to spell Annita. My cousin, Anita, has been spelling it wrong all these years! Heh heh.

I met Annita on Maya's Mom, a now-defunct online parenting community. Upon first glance, Annita comes off as funny and caring and cool and laid back. She's definitely my kinda girl. We chatted regularly while we were on MM, and when I left, we kept up with each other via email. Now, being as we live like 1000 miles away from each other (I'm guessing... it could actually be more), we keep in touch via facebook.

We started off chatting because of our similar music tastes. Annita LURVES Pearl Jam, so you know she's cool. She's also into DMB, another concert favorite of mine from years past. We talked a lot of concert talk those first few months of our friendship on MM. We had fun laughing at stupid jokes and drooling over Scott Weiland (OK, that was just me). Eventually, we started chatting about more serious stuff... our husbands, our childhoods, our first marriages, our children. We found a lot of similarities in our stories despite the fact that we grew up in different countries with different cultural backgrounds.

If you can't tell from the pics, Annita hails from Cyprus. She's got an unbelievably gorgeous and sexy accent that goes right along with her gorgeous and sexy look. You seriously want to devour her upon sight.

And I finally did get to see her in the flesh this past January. After all the time spent communicating through a computer, we were finally able to see each other face to face during the Richmond meetup this past winter. Annita and I spent a lot of our little weekend trailing behind everyone else, talking, talking, and more talking. We just fit. We learned even more about each other, and I knew right away that I wanted Annita in my life from that point on. That may sound cheesy, but it's true.

I don't think I can really put into words exactly who she is or what she means to me. All I know is I love her to pieces. I could chat with her for hours. She's loving and caring and hilarious and soulful and amazing. Oh, and she has great taste in music and she's hot. Those two things are kinda like the cherry on top.

And I'll hopefully see her again before the year is up. We're planning a trip down to FL hopefully this November or December, and we will most definitely be seeing Annita on that trip (and Becs! Holla!). I'll get to meet her husband and her two beautiful children. We'll have the time to grab a cup of coffee and just enjoy each other's company, lounging in the sun. Man, I wish I could book a flight right now!

So here's to Annita. I love her so.