Birthday Weekend

At The Japanese Village

I prob­a­bly looked like this the whole week­end, cause it was non-stop awe­some­ness.

The Japanese Village

Last week, Aaron asked me if I want­ed to go to The Japanese Village. I thought it was just to hang out, since we had­n’t had a guy’s night in a while, so I did­n’t clue in that it was for my birth­day until the day of. Aaron told me I could order any­thing I want, as it was his treat, but I ordered the only thing I ever get when I’m there; the filet mignon cooked medi­um rare, which I think is the best in the city. It was good to hang out with him and Trolley again.

And, of course, silli­ness is always present with these guys around.

____ in town

Chilling on the couch

____’s been work­ing two straight months, with­out a week­end off. The last time was when he came to Ottawa to vis­it. Between all the activ­i­ties, we only had enough time to watch one movie — American Graffiti — and between the two of us, we could sing every song that came from this film based in the 60s (me cov­er­ing The Platters, him cov­er­ing every­thing else).

I usu­al­ly only get to see him once a year, so twice in two months was a spe­cial treat.

Cranium Party

I’d love to do games nights on a reg­u­lar basis, but peo­ple aren’t avail­able on the same days, so I used my birth­day as an excuse to get as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble togeth­er for a giant Cranium par­ty. I told them that instead of giv­ing me a present, they should just come to the par­ty. It worked, and we had enough for four teams of three. Some peo­ple also brought snacks, like hon­ey mus­tard pret­zels, car­rot cup­cakes, and fresh­ly baked choco­late chip cook­ies.

It was the high­light of the week­end.

Dim sum with my dad

John and dad at dim sum

On Friday, my dad called me to wish me a hap­py birth­day, and told me he was in town for 10 days. We made plans to have dim sum. ____ came too, which is always inter­est­ing to see his reac­tions to what food is as the token white guy. I had a phoenix talons for the first time1, because I was feel­ing adven­tur­ous, and I have to say that they weren’t bad, but I did­n’t care for them either. They’re too hard to eat, and the sauce was­n’t to my taste. It was strange to see both John and my dad at the same place, and in Ottawa instead of Toronto.

I told my dad he could prob­a­bly sit and observe one of my Tai Chi class­es, so he could see what I do, but he was­n’t inter­est­ed, and I’ll admit that the indif­fer­ence hurt a bit. Afterward, I asked John what he thought as a 3rd par­ty observ­er, and he told me I had a good rela­tion­ship with my dad. I’ll take his word for it.

I needed this

I need­ed this week­end so much. To recharge. To stop think­ing about things. To get com­plete­ly wast­ed. It felt like it was my birth­day the whole week­end, and I won­dered what I did to deserve it all.

  1. It was­n’t the taste, but the look that has always pre­vent­ed me from try­ing them. []

13 comments

  1. This will be a point­less com­ment but I guess i just have to say it for myself. I total­ly knew that was a waf­fle as soon as he start­ed mak­ing it! :-) Glad you had a great birth­day week­end.

    • That’s pret­ty good. I could­n’t even fig­ure it out with Aaron’s ges­tures, which were obvi­ous­ly pour­ing syrup and cut­ting the waf­fle, now that I know the answer!

      • Steph got waf­fle right away too :)

      • I guess that means the qual­i­ty of the video is pret­ty good!

  2. Watching that video of the par­ty makes me feel young. Great birth­day week­end!

    That pic­ture of John and your dad looks so fun­ny, John looks so sub­vervient in front of a senior.

    I only like pheonix talons when they’re boiled in soup, nice and soft, and melt in your mouth.

    • John def­i­nite­ly has a deep respect for peo­ple who are old­er than him. His rela­tion­ship with his dad is quite inter­est­ing, and I think think it par­tial­ly defines how he sees old­er peo­ple.

      At one point in the meal, he took his bbq pork bun and dipped it in soya sauce. My dad and I both laughed. I told him it was like putting but­ter on an egg.

      I’m not sure if I could han­dle boiled phoenix talons; part of the rea­son I could eat them is because the sauce cov­ers up the unap­peal­ing tex­ture of the skin. But I still want to try that one day.

  3. That’s my EXACT feel­ing about feng szhao (sp?), they are too much work for a taste that’s just a tad off of what I’d like. Besides. It’s creepy gnaw­ing on a foot.

    An exu­ber­ant birth­day to you.

    • Too much work is exact­ly it. It’s the oppo­site of bone­less wings, which aren’t enough work, and way too creepy to be eat­ing a mouth­ful of meat.

  4. Try for a Birthweek next year! Celebrate the 30s! Better than your aver­age 20s and younger than the 40s! (I’m not there yet, but I will be insane when I do get there!)

    • Screw the week…I’m going for a birthyear when I hit 30. :)

  5. Since you and your friends seem to be fond of games you should check out a game called Quelf. Its a board game of total ran­dom­ness and its a lot of fun! Just a friend­ly sug­ges­tion. :-)

    • I had just rec­om­mend­ed Quelf to some­one actu­al­ly. I’ve only played it once and was quite impressed already. It’s def­i­nite­ly a good ice-break­er type game.

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