Richard's birthday is tomorrow. However, I'm working all day, and then we're off to a New Year's Eve production of a play at the local musical theater, followed (or preceded, we're not exactly sure which) by dinner, dancing, and other festivities. So amid all that his birthday would get lost in the shuffle, and I didn't think that was exactly fair.

So I decreed that today was his pseudo birthday - at least from me. I made waffles for breakfast this morning at his request and we ate them at the new table in the breakfast nook, lavishly covered in butter and syrup and whipped cream. While we ate, he unwrapped his presents from me. He's about as impatient as I am with gifts, hating to wait once they've been given to him, and had already opened the presents from both my sisters while we were all over at my parents' house for the holiday festivities. I'd already warned him that a majority of the presents were accessories (of a sort) for the grill he received for Christmas, but I managed to sneak in a few other things too - a video for his computer nerd side, and also a book he's been wanting that is perfect for his philosopher side. When I was out doing the after-Christmas shopping Wednesday I also got him a sweater and a shirt as two early presents. I tend to be just as impatient to give gifts as I am to open them. In a way it works out well sometimes - this means we manage to stretch out any gift-getting situation through more than just the usual one-day event.

This afternoon was a lazy slow one. I curled up on the couch downstairs, lap full of sleepy cats, reading some of my Christmas gift books while Richard sat upstairs and managed to kill off all the bad guys and finally reach the end of his computer game. I'm not big into computer games myself (Civilization II is the notable exception. I'm afraid to say I'm addicted to that one), but I actually really do enjoy watching other people play them if the plot is interesting enough, and this one had all sorts of nefarious and creepy critters for him to blast away while he solved whatever mystery it entailed.

Our laziness was momentarily interrupted long enough for us to get to the hardware store and get the last few items we needed to finish the end tables purchased yesterday. They got their first coats of stain yesterday afternoon and this afternoon the second was applied. I think it's fairly safe to say that both of us fall rather heavily into the amateur classification when it comes to working with wood, but with a second coat of the walnut stain, they started to look a bit less like a high school woodworking shop project and more like something we could be proud of. I think we have a lot of practice ahead of us before we should attempt this on any piece of furniture that won't be hidden away in our bedroom for only us to see, but still, it was a lot of fun to sit on the floor of our garage together finishing furniture.

There is cake cooling on the kitchen counter, and as soon as I am done writing this, I'll frost it and we'll eat it with ice cream, in front of a fire in the living room, and while watching one of the many videos that have been added to our collection this holiday season. Happy birthday, Richard. Grr! Argh!