Pretty Good Year

12/29/71
So it's my birthday. My 41st, as my mom reminded me by writing and circling the number 41 on my birthday card. We actually did my birthday thing yesterday since George works Saturdays. Mom and Dad had some casino holiday party to go to. They can't skip out on a free buffet. So we didn't even end up eating since George and I had each had a late-ish lunch. I'm staying with the dogs at John and Pedro's so it was a pretty quiet day.

I headed over to Mom and Dad's around 6:00. Me and George watched a movie, Fright Night with David Tennant! and just hung out until they got home around 8:00. George told me I was not allowed to look in the fridge. Um... okay, I said.

Finally Mom and Dad arrived and they gave me the birthday card with a gift card inside. Then it was time for George's big reveal. He told Dad to cover my eyes. I was sat down at the kitchen counter. I heard George and my Mom whispering. Finally they were ready and Dad took his hands away. What I saw was a Tardis, lying on its side on the counter. "Oh, it's the Tardis!" I said. George looked at me expectantly, as I peered at it. "It's a cake!" he blurted excitedly. I did a double take. A cake made in the shape of the Tardis! It was red velvet, I was told. Painstakingly crafted in fondant, down to the little keyhole on the door, the perfect shade of Tardis blue, the Police Public Call Box banner around the top, the windows, the Pull to Open sign. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen! And I've seen a giant cake shaped like a MINI. But this, the level of detail was splendid. Except one thing, as George pointed out. No blue light on the top.  In the photo he had given them you couldn't see it. It was mounted on a styrofoam platform. "Oh my god," I said, "We can't eat this! It's too beautiful."

"What do you mean we're not going to eat it?" Mom said. "We have to. It's your cake!" George said the bakery folks had told him to leave it out of the fridge for 3 hours before eating so the fondant could soften. It still had an hour to go so I agreed to take pictures of it now, and then in an hour we would cut it open. But there was more. George had placed a large box wrapped in blue paper with an orange ribbon and bow. Mets colors! "Open it!" he encouraged. I took the box and pulled off the ribbon and started unfolding the paper at the corners. It was a plain white box about the size a large fancy hat might be put in, but it was heavy. I put it down and lifted the lid. Inside was a yellow envelope that said "New York Mets, City Field, Flushing, New York." Under that was a bubble wrapped object with a sticker that said Mets Amazing Memorabilia. I looked at George who was beaming with pride. I opened the bubble wrap and pulled out a large rubbery object. It was first base! Actually first base from Citi Field! One of them at least, that was used in a game in August of 2009, the inaugural season of the new ballpark. It still had dirt on it! I was dumbstruck.  I looked at the base in my hands. I looked at George. "Say Thank You," my Mom urged. I put the base down and gave George a big hug. "Thanks Goob!"

After taking many photos we finally cut open the Tardis to find the yummy red velvet cake. We sliced off the bottom segment of the police box and then cut that into four large pieces. It doesn't look that big from the outside, but we calculated you could probably feed 20 people from it.  Bigger on the inside! "This cake really needs a party," I said. But as long as I can remember, birthdays have always just been us four. With the cake cut open we could see that the fondant Tardis panels were applied to the cake with a layer of buttercream. The inside of the cake had the usual cream cheese icing. I didn't want to each the fondant. I said we should save them and then reassemble the Tardis later, but George had already eaten some of his. We put the rest of the cake into the giant box my 1st base was in so it would travel safely. At the end of the evening I put it in the front seat of the MINI. I put the base in a shopping back to head back to the dogs.

Today, I took the day to go shopping. When I left the shops I drove home to drop off my purchases even though it was out of my way. I already have quite a lot of stuff to carry when I leave John and Pedro's tomorrow including the gifts the guys got for me for Christmas and my birthday. All that, and I get to hang out with the dogs. That's a pretty good weekend so far.

Now some review of other happenings this year.

The Mets
As per usual, had a good first half, then faded quickly in the second. But we did have a no-hitter this year, thrown by Johan Santana, and a 20-game winner AND Cy Young winner in R.A. Dickey. Sadly, the Mets took advantage of Dickey's pinnacle of value and traded him in the offseason to Toronto for some prospects. With him went Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas, all of whom I'm sad to see go. Hopefully the prospects will work out for us. Ike Davis passed 30 homers after a god-awful start. And David Wright hit over 20 for the first time since Citi Field opened. David signed a big contract which will likely keep him a Met for the rest of his career. Some say he was paid too much, but I think in an age where you can lose a batting title winner (Jose Reyes) and a Cy Young winner (R.A. Dickey) in consecutive years, there's a lot of value in having both a team and a player committed to their fans for the long haul. I love David as a player. Though his power numbers are down, he's still hitting for a high average and his fielding at 3rd base is as good as ever.  His leadership in the clubhouse is integral. And as a person, he contributes a lot to the community, doing amazing charity work, and it seems he is still more humble than anyone in his position can be expected to be.

Work
At work, I've had an up and down year. My depression has been rearing its ugly head in the office at the most inconvenient times. I've taken a step back from my co-workers. But lately I've been getting a lot of recognition for my actual work which includes two raises and a promotion. So that's good. I'm coming to the realization that this may be my career. Not there yet, but coming.

TV
Doctor Who
This year, George started watching Doctor Who which is really exciting for me because it's another thing to bond over. George got me a bunch of Doctor Who stuff for Christmas, which he was so excited to give me, which made it even greater. On the show, we said good-bye to Amy and Rory and hello to Clara/Oswin. Still with the 11th Doctor.

30 Rock

The final season is about halfway over. Each episode will be accompanied by the dread of the impending end. But the episodes so far are as good as ever. Liz Lemon got married dressed as Princess Leia! Kenneth is finally free of the evil Miss Wassername. Jenna also got married at Jack's mother's funeral. Seriously, this happened. I belatedly discovered this show last year, but now I can't imagine not knowing those characters. Especially Kenneth.

Movies
Wreck-It Ralph

It's brilliant! It's John C. Reilly as Ralph, Jack McBrayer as Fix-it Felix, and an entire brilliant cast of voice actors. An adorable underdog story and tale of friendship. I'm obsessed. I have the toys.

Books
Sadly, I haven't read much this year. I don't know why. Things just seem to get in the way. I have a list so I hope to get cracking on it in 2013. I checked my Amazon purchase list and it seemed all but one of the books I read this year was a memoir; Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, R.A. Dickey, Elna Baker, Fred Stoller, and Rachel Dratch. And Chris Hardwick's The Nerdist Way was a sort of hybrid memoir/self help. Weird because last year was such a good year for fiction.  I did get to meet Jennifer Egan at the book festival though, so that was pretty cool. She gave a reading from A Visit to the Goon Squad. We talked about Jake! Oh, honorable mention to The Influencing Machine, an astonishing graphic non-fiction work by Brooke Gladstone from On the Media and Josh Neufeld.

Music
Muse released a new album and me and George have tickets for their show here in March. Glee is still loads of fun. The Book of Mormon, the Musical is fantastic. I liked Keane's Strangeland. MINI Takes the States was a good time for road trip play lists. Also driving down to Dodger Stadium with Dad

Pets

I got the turtles this year. Sidney and Scout. They are a handful, but fun.

Games, Social Media, etc.
I've pretty much abandoned FarmVille for The Sims Free Play. My Kenneth and Jennifer Sims got married on 12/12/12. I joined Pinterest, Instagram and Pose and use them hardly ever. I haven't been to Second Life all year. I hardly tweet or check Facebook unless I get a personal message. I did however reconnect with an old friend from Germany through Linked-In so that's nice.

General Well-Being
Not bad, but not great. I've changed medications again after a long time. My sleep is better. My fitness level is not good. I've ridden the bike some more. But I'm having some back issues that prevent me from walking for a long time. And there's this weird numbness/burning sensation in my left thigh when I wake up in the morning. I've made an appointment with Dr. Chinn. It's all the damn sitting at work and the commuting. Things go downhill fast in that respect.

I don't want to end on a downer as I have a tendency to do when I look back. So I guess I can say that I've been making an effort to write more. Not always getting it done, but it's something I think about everyday. I've had some ideas, and actually written them down. I got the best new laptop. And I'm doing some research. It's slow going, but still worth doing I think. We'll see what the new year brings.
In the meantime, there's this! Sim wedding!

And This!

George gave me this Fix-it Felix doll as a pre-Christmas gift in the weirdest way possible.
He texted me the following from work:
George: Hey Goob, did you do something wrong? Someone is here in my office and says he heard you were my sister so he figured he would come see me.
Me: Huh? No...
George: He said not to worry though, he can "fix-it!"
Then he sent me the above picture of Felix on his desk at work. He scared the crap out of me. I was trying to remember if I'd run any red lights recently.