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oh where to begin… i’m sitting in a chair at a house that i stayed overnight last night (and will tonight). the parents of a family i knew from my previous church congregation are out of state and they wanted someone to stay the night with their 11-year old and 15-year old girls. good girls that are self sufficient… i’m merely here for the peace of mind factor. no biggie. the classic movie channel is on and there are a bunch of kids in costumes tap dancing and performing acrobatics (in black and white, of course). i have obviously missed something about the plot, methinks. the commercial just told me that there is a show where old movie child stars are going to talk about their pain or something. next.

while shopping for shoes, i left my cell phone (magenta pink rzr) on one of the little bench things. i didn’t realize it was gone until much later. by the time i had called the shoe store and realized it was not turned in, i immediately contacted my cell provider. my cell provider told me that calls had been made since the time i had left it. including a call to a church of all things. i had been calling my phone all day and had left messages for it to be returned. nothing. so i assumed that the finder of my phone had no intention of turning it in. i suspended my account and purchased a new phone (a samsung t509). it’s pretty sweet and i like it so far. it’s way slim and small. user-friendly controls are a plus for a tech n00b such as myself. low and behold, over two days after i lost my cell phone, i get a call from my grandma (who lives with my parents) saying that a lady called their house saying that she found my phone. she said her grandkids found it at the shoe store. and while that is great and wonderful, and i’m glad it was found, it really doesn’t do me a whole lot of good now that i bought a new phone and had a new card activated. i’m going to investigate options with my cell provider, though, and see what can be done (probably nothing).

on friday night, jeromy, neo, and i went to dinner at cantina laredo to celebrate jeromy’s birthday. we were also there to celebrate phoenix’s birthday as well. his friends showed up and all together, there were ten of us. it was a good time. below are some pics of jeromy opening his gifts earlier in the week, as well as some pics at cantina laredo (where the boys donned the birthday hat… heh).

saturday night was the fort worth opera ball. jeromy and i got all dressed up and had a wonderful evening. the theme was japanese (the cherry blossom ball) and there were a lot of people. there was a silent auction with all sorts of neat things (but a lot of it was pricy, so i just looked). during the cocktail hour, we just stood and socialized. there were geisha girls walking around and old japanese women doing calligraphy and origami. really beautiful stuff. i got my name written in japanese on a bookmark. dinner was super good. we had a salad to begin with. and then the main dish was steak, salmon, potatos, carrots, eggplant, and some spinach thing. it was all super good. dessert was green tea ice cream with berries in it … in a chocolate bowl!!! the chocolate had the most marvelous flavor and i couldn’t help but to smile. while we ate, there were japanese performances including drumming, flute playing, and dancing. it was super enjoyable. we met some people around our age that are part of a young professionals group. we might be hanging out with them again soon. all in all, it was a wonderful time and a memorable night. below are pics…

tomorrow at work, we’re having the kickoff lunch for our united way campaign. our committee this year (i was co-chair) has been doing a great job, and i’ll be glad to have it behind us. this week at work should be much less chaotic and i might actually get home and get some things accomplished.