Hello Kitty +

So much to talk about!

First, I'd like to introduce you all to our new baby girl, Scout (click for larger):




We adopted her from a local shelter called Friends for Life. She's wonderful and I love her. Today was slightly sad because I had to take her in to be spayed. She's recovering well and seems happy, if... totally doped.

Second, I celebrated my 26th birthday recently, and I'm happy to say it was a good one-- hell of improved over last year's. I do feel pretty old, but that's only because I'm so old. It sucks to be 26 and jobless, but at least I sort of have direction, and I'm totally ahead in that I've already found the love of my life. Compared to that, a career is easy, right?

I hate to be crass and talk about my birthday gifts, but Mary surprised me with such great ones that I can't help it:

• The Mario .S Diorama Kit (Set C), which I put together immediately. It's really damn cool to see Mario in semi-3D on my shelf. Plus I can rearrange the peg "pixels" however I want, so I'll be changing out the Mario scene occasionally. I'd looked at these things on import sites, but it was one of those things that I idly admired but would never buy for myself. And Mary found one from a US seller and bought it for me! Yay!


• Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life,a book by Chris Kohler that talks about not only the history of Japanese games, but also the unique narrative, visual, and gameplay concepts of Japanese games that make them so different from Western games, especially the early arcade games. I've only read like 7 pages and already I love it. The dude interviews Keiichi Yano, the director of Gitaroo Man in the first chapter or so.


• One month of GameFly, which already promises to fuel a number of game blog entries.
  
• A note that said I could purchase one new t-shirt of my choice. My choice:
  
  


• Twizzlers, which Mary hates but I can't get enough of (and hadn't had for probably several years). A big bag of them, too. And a Heath bar.

Plus she made me a chocolate cake! Cake, if you haven't heard, is delicious, when eaten.

Okay, that part was really long. But it's my damn blog. Anyway, next item, also related to my birthday:

Birthday cards came from all over the place. Mary's was very sweet and had some wonderful sentiments about the fact that she apparently continues to enjoy my company (???). Mary's mom sent as a birthday card a pencil drawing of a lizard she made. And Zack and Blair sent an adorable Hello Kitty card with a sheet of temporary tattoos that make me really quite happy to wear. I don't quite understand my love for Hello Kitty, but the aesthetic makes me smile, and I love temporary tattoos. And these are sparkly!

A short note: this thread provides intense, painful LMAOs.

Finally, head over to the game blog for a special and wonderful news item, provided I, uh, write it.