BLOOD AND ROSES AND CAKE

Bruce ursuspersonatus came out to visit this weekend, as he's done every January for the past three years. I tell myself it's for my birthday -- but I really know it's so he can get away from the Milwaukee winter weather. :)

A huge group of friends and co-workers joined me on Friday night for a show by the Grand Guignolers, which is quite hilarious and worth your entertainment dollar if you happen to be in the LA area (it's extended through the end of the month); it's got profane puppets, simulated rape, spilling intestines, and I even got bled upon. Plus, two glasses of absinthe, and cake!

Saturday, Bruce and I spent the day at Disneyland with a ton of SD & LA folks. Sunday, we went for ridiculously huge pancakes at The Griddle, and then wandered over to the always-awesome Museum of Jurassic Technology for a few hours of wonder and whimsy. Sunday night was pasta and cake with the family, and then this morning I sent Bruce back home on a plane before I went to work, where I now sit, somewhat melancholic but still basking in the weekend's glow.

Big, huge, sincere thanks to all the folks who joined in on the various events, and to the many, many well-wishers out there who showered me with birthday emails, cards, Facebook wall posts, text messages, Twitters, and phone calls all weekend. Even the smallest of gestures didn't go unnoticed, and it brightened my thirty-ninth immeasurably.