Surprise Birthday Party on Friday, 8/31/07

I turned 29 this year and had a wonderful birthday weekend. It all begin with this totally unexpected surprise party on Friday (thanks Jason & Mel, et al)!

We got annual/seasonal passes to Disney and celebrated by going back in time to have lunch at the Sci Fi Drive-In Theater Restaurant at Disney’s MGM Studios. This is Tom, our happy Disney server, who was apparently given too large a dose of pixie dust today We had a blast! It is always night time in here, so I was using night mode. As I was taking the picture I laughed at his expression and moved the camera, but I like the effect that it gave this picture.

We had a Girl’s Weekend Getaway this weekend. We went to the mall for a bit of shopping and pampering, then spent the night away from the boys at the fabulous Embassy Suites in Altamonte Springs. We chose this hotel because of their free manager’s reception and made-to-order breakfast. It was a lot of fun. Here we are showing off our newly manicured toes.

We went to see the launch of space shuttle Endevor. This is the smoke trail casting a shadow over the water as the sun began to set.

Even though I’ve lived in Florida for the better part of my adult life, this was the first time I saw a launch; I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps is because it was a day launch, or perhaps it was because I saw most of it through my camera lens as I took video and pictures of it. I’ll give it another try the next time there is a night launch, but I’m not holding my breath.

long exposure + moving car = FUN!

On our way back from a fun-filled day on I-drive and Giordano’s with Sean and Mel, I decided to have some more fun with the long exposure setting in my camera. We had these glow in the dark bracelets from the mini-golf place, so I put them to some good use and got this cool abstract.

The 80s edition of Guitar Hero came out this week and they had an 80s theme party at work. Several people dressed up for the occasion. It was certainly a blast from the past.

We got home from work this afternoon to find the backyard a complete disaster with branches everywhere, tables and chairs turned over, and oh yeah a huge chunk of the fence down! Did we miss a hurricane or something?

These ants somehow found their way inside a water bottle on my desk, and the surviving ones were using the dead ones as a flotation device. They kinda look like they are about to walk a few steps and start a duel.

I vaguely remember seeing ONE mushroom (maybe this one) in our front yard next to the garage on Saturday. By Sunday, either the smurfs moved in and colonized the front yard, or we are blind.

Here is a close up of one of the smurf homes

On our way back from Giordanos, we passed a Kwik-E-Mart (one of the many 7-11s that has been converted to promote the Simpsons movie. Unfortunately, it was dark and the pictures could be better, but it still neat to see how far they’ve gone (e.g. Squishee machine) with this promotion.

See my whole set or view more from various users on Flickr