Birthdays and such

      So I turned 25 this last Tuesday. I have to admit, I'm not oh-too-thrilled about the prospect of turning 25, it sounds significantly older than 24. I suppose I can't be too bummed though, I've accomplished a lot of things and can't say I have wasted my time at all, but still... 25 doesn't sound fun. Sam bought me some roald dahl books that I have been wanting, and I also got a hardback collectors set of all seven Harry Potter books. It isn't released until September 18th, but my family all chipped in some money so we could order it for my Bday.
      I went to my brother Kevin's house for my birthday to spend it with his family and my parents. I was delightfully surprised to find that after re-reading his letter, my parents called my uncle Steve (same guy from my last entry) and invited him to Kevin's since we're all in town. It was the first time any of us had seen him in about 15-20 years. He's not really a shy guy at all (you couldn't really be in his line of work) but he definitely just sits there until you speak directly to him. He was way sweet and bought me a little bargain bin-type computer game valled "Westward: stake you claim in the old west" for my birthday. He wasnt sure how to go about giving it to me, so he just walked up to me holding it out. I couldnt really tell if it was a present for me (since it wasn't wrapped), or if it was something he was just showing me or maybe one of the kids games he had just picked up and he happened to be standing next to me holding it. I had to kind of draw it out of him bit by bit, since it could be rather embarrassing to assume it was a present if he was just holding something in my general direction- so I prompted: "Oohh, what a cool game!" (no response from him).... "did you bring this?" (slight head nod)... "is it a gift for me for my birthday?" (a slight, Eeyore-like smile of confirmation). I was thrilled, I actually love simple little games like that, and just the fact that he found something he thought I'd like for my birthday was just about the sweetest thing ever.
      As for the rest of the week, it was rather full with family time. We hung out with Kenny and Jenni whenever they were around and we watched some movies and played guitar hero. On Saturday we all went to Stewart Beach in Galveston and spent the day there. It was rather cloudy, but still around 85-88 degrees, and the water is 85, so apparently you don't need a sunny day in Houston to still enjoy some quality beach time (as opposed to beaches in the NW where the water's always around 50 degrees so it has to be 95+ in order to enjoy swimming at all).