The Big Two-Eight

Happy Birthday to me!

It was a good weekend full of family & friends, cake, 3 days of babies, and finished off with my 28th birthday. I like to joke that I'm getting old, but I'm in good health, good spirits, and good company. So, another year doesn't make much difference to me right now. I'm good with it. My brother-in-law warned me about the 28th year of life since he's already lived through much of his. Apparently I'll have 3 kids by the time I turn 29, based on the fact that he has 3 kids now. I'm not so sure that will happen, but how can I argue with his evidence?

Friday we got together with Beth's family for dinner and got to see my new niece & nephew in the hospital. They've been in the hospital about a month now since their 10-week early birth. They're out of their incubator and have moved on to open "cribs." To top it off, we got to hold them for the first time, which was nice after several weeks of seeing them in their incubators. We chowed down on some Cold Stone ice cream cake and I opened some nice gifts.

Saturday was a nice day to sleep in, go to the gym, and get some painting done on the new cabinet. Saturday evening we went to visit our friends Kevin & Ellie and their new baby. We brought some dinner and hung out and had a good time. Their little guy was born premature as well, but he's doing quite well and lookin' good. Our friend Jean surprised me with some birthday cake too (and managed to load it up with 28 candles). Thanks Jean!

Since Sunday's schedule was looking a little tight, I decided to stay up to make some late night cheesecake. I enjoy making cool deserts, including the occasional cheesecake. I decided to make my own birthday cake... Turtle Cheesecake from Allrecipes.com, yum! I've done some different ones, but this one sounded good. They have some good cheesecake tips for those of you who are curious. The only thing I changed from the directions was baking it in a water bath, and keeping it in the oven for an extra hour after turning off the heat. This helps the cake cook more evenly and prevents cracking, and it gave me a chance to catch up on some taped episodes of MythBusters in the middle of the night.

Sunday we got ready for my birthday party with the family, and I got some more painting done on the cabinet. The family arrived and while it was a bit chaotic, I had fun with all my nieces & nephews. We enjoyed some excellent chili & cornbread, played in the basement, and got some more good birthday loot. After the house cleared out and we cleaned up, it was nice evening, the end of a good birthday and a good weekend.