Surreal Neil and Ryan turns 30

Well he's made it to 30 and a 1 day. Beat all the odds. No cash sums have appeared yet although we are still hopeful.

We've been in the house for over a month now and the renters have been in for about 3 weeks. So far so good. I haven't had a thermostat since living at home and I am thoroughly enjoying the fact the house is warmed up when we get up. Every time I head to turn it up a few degrees I hear my mom's voice saying "put a sweater on." I listen. I just turn it up half as much as I want to.

I am really excited because I just worked out a deal to write auto reviews for the paper. The deal is pretty cool for me. An article and a new car every week. I start my first stint in early December- the lineup is a '08 VW Toureg, Acura MDX, RDX then an Audi C7. I'll do series of similar vehicles, so January will likely be sport cruisers then I'll do hybrids. I like the demographic we reach! I'll send the links when they are up.

Ryan and I are getting his application ready to send off to JAG this week. Finals and final papers start here in the next couple weeks, so it will be good to get the application off. He has several letters of recommendations we have to gather and we'll be set. It would be amazing to get in on the first application, but we are hopeful.

One of Ryan's birthday gifts was a membership to our neighborhood YMCA. It is a tiny little gym on Fauntleroy. I love it, small and very quiet. We started going this week and are both really excited for the stress release. We plan to take classes - I am looking forward to seeing Ryan do aerobics. I know he is going to be better than I am though so it will probably just make me feel silly.

So now you know what my favorite gift was. HIS favorite birthday gift was the double Guitar Hero III pack. Two guitars and all the rock music you can stand. I will say that after a couple of head to head battles I am becoming a bigger fan of the whole thing. We now have something to entertain the family when they come over.

Super Diamond was a blast, the family hung in for the entire evening. Surreal Neil did not disappoint. Law School, sports, Starbucks, and Navy friends all joined us for the concert- a "super" evening for all. Photos will be posted tomorrow-

EM