Halfway to 70

My birthday weekend was good, fairly low-key in some ways and that is not a bad thing. As many of my weekends do, it started Thursday night when I saw The New Pornographers in concert with Ren. There were two opening bands, Immaculate Machine, which was a fun group, and Destroyer who I could live happily without ever seeing again. Too damn morose and depressing. Anyway, the important thing is that The New Pornographers were great. Apparently we were lucky to have Neko Case performing with them. I read she has only been touring with the band part of the time.

Another concert was on the schedule for Friday night. Eric and I saw Keane at The Greek Theatre, a great outdoor venue. We were a little late, but caught most of the show. For a rather mellow band, the guys had a lot of energy and great stage presence. I dug their light show too. We grabbed a bite to eat at Canter's after the show. We noticed they've added a second, midnight Jon Brion show at Largo on Friday nights. It was tempting to stand in line to try and make it in, but our growling stomachs won over.

Saturday, the actual date of my birth, was pretty mellow. I got a couple of cool gifts, including a very bizarre one from my dogs.

I know you're saying, "I've got to get me one of those!" and you haven't even seen it lit up at night! **EDIT: I showed this photo to my friend Jill and she said, "I totally want one!"

Eric and I spent my birthday night at the L.A. County Fair in Pomona. I really wanted to see the farm animals, so we spent a long time watching the baby lambs and pigs in the nursery area. Both are such playful animals and such a joy to watch. It made me almost want a (small) pig as a pet and momentarily question why I'm not a vegetarian. I didn't really come up with an answer, but I did have a hot dog right after leaving the farm area.

Since I'm such a chicken shit, I don't go on most carnival rides. We did do the bumper cars and got out some of that aggression you can't legally and safely take out while driving on the freeway. There were also a couple of very silly funhouse rides we did. I almost got up the courage to go on a ferris wheel, but no, I backed down and played some skee ball instead.

Going to the fair means eating lots of "fair food." I decided to try the deep-fried Twinkie this year. It wasn't bad. The batter was a little thick, but it was better than I thought it would be. It's definitely not something I'd have on a regular or semi-regular basis. I'd mentioned to Eric earlier in the evening about wishing they had Frito pie at the fair. I was really craving salty and in line to get some kettle corn when Eric comes over to tell me he thinks they DO have Frito pie. Sure enough, there it is...but called by a rather embarrassing name..."Frito Feedbag." Come on, what the hell? Oh well, didn't matter...they were even serving in the bag like the school cafeterias in Texas do. My only critique is that they opened the bag from the top and it works a little better if you slice it along the side.

All that junk and I still had room for a slice of Carvel ice cream birthday cake when we got home. Ugh. My stomach was churning a little on Sunday. No surprise. We wrapped up the weekend by seeing A History of Violence. Eric and I liked it. Sherri didn't. Granted, I'd probably watch a film of Viggo watching paint dry and enjoy it!