Birthdays, Tourism, and Trojans -- Oh my!

Wendy celebrated her 26th birthday this week! For her birthday dinner, she chose Chinese takeout, something we hadn't had in a long time, and which we both enjoyed. We also had a chocolate hazelnut/nutella cake, courtesy of a Nigella recipe. Very tasty. All told, it was a fine birthday, although Wendy is starting to feel really old. If anyone out there who has successfully navigated the waters of their mid-20's wants to offer her some advice or words of encouragement, I'm sure she would appreciate it. :-)

Earlier this week, I happened to notice an ad on weather.com with the following picture:

I'd seen it before, but I've become so accustomed to ignoring ads that I paid it no attention. This time, though, it caught my eye, and I noticed it was for the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, showing a trail in Tunnel Hill State Park. So, I (gasp!) clicked on the ad, and was taken to http://www.enjoyillinois.com. The site lists a number of attractions and trip ideas, and it reminded me of just how little of the state Wendy and I have seen. There are a couple of places it listed in Northern Illinois that I'd like to check out soon; namely the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, and the Starved Rock State Park, which is located in the Illinois River Valley.

And, finally, the USC Trojans. They dismantled OU in last season's national championship game. Now that the Sooners are firmly out of the national championship race for this season, I find it much easier to admire the incredible talent USC has. I watched the first quarter of their game against Arkansas last Saturday, in which they scored 28 points in a span of 92 seconds! It was almost unbelievable; they scored so effortlessly every time they got the football (the final score was 70-17). If they play to their potential every week, I don't think any team in the nation can beat them. But, you never know. I remember Florida State looked invincible in 2000, but OU shut them down, and Miami looked invincible in 2002, but Ohio State pulled the upset. In one game, anything can happen.

I should be writing...

We have a new TV! After looking at the Circuit City in Boulder, the Circuit City in McHenry, and the Best Buy in Crystal Lake, reading a gazillion reviews on Amazon.com, checking Consumer Reports, and a great deal of dithering, we finally bought one Sunday. We may not be the most exciting people, but boy howdy, no one can say we're not well-researched and deliberate.

It's great so far - much bigger, and with a flat screen, so we can finally see all the stuff in the corners. I'm glad the payoff is worth it, because it was kind of a pain to get it. We went to Best Buy, bought it, took it out to the car, struggled with getting the box in the car for a bit, finally realized we were going to have to take it out of the box to get it to fit, opened the box, and discovered it was broken. Part of the case was not just cracked but actually crushed. So...back in the box, back on the cart, back inside to trade it out. This time, we gratefully accepted their offer of help getting it into the car and were impressed with the guy who easily picked it up all by himself and slid it (no problem) into the backseat. Wow.

Randy also had a birthday! He's 28 now, so it was his Golden Birthday (28 on the 28th). Sadly, he had a bit of a cold on his birthday and only wanted to go to bed early, so we didn't do much then. He was feeling much better by this weekend, though, so we went out to dinner to celebrate and had a great time.

Finally...writing. Since I last posted about my novel, I've written, um, almost nothing. At the rate I was going, I would have finished around, oh, say 2034. Luckily, while George was visiting, we were talking about writing, and I told him all about NaNoWriMo and loaned him my copy of No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High- Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days. He was inspired, and we decided to have our own, unofficial version of NaNoWriMo this month, starting today. So, for the next thirty days, I'm sure we'd both appreciate any support any of you want to wing our ways. Any of you who are feeling particularly masochistic are welcome to join us!