Last Friday I celebrated my 30th birthday by having some people over for a barbecue at my house.

In attendence were my brother Pat and a couple of his friends, Christine and Rhiannon. My friends Dave, Jen, and Dan (and Dan’s daughter, Carrie) were there as was my mom and Nana. Berta and Abby were around, too, of course.

We had lots of chicken, steaks, burgers, and hot dogs and a variety of salads from Wegmans. A few people drank the Golden Monkey from Victory, but I pretty much horded the sangria I bought during the Reiverblues Festival in Chadds Ford.

I received a EB gift card from Dan, and I’m having trouble deciding what to do with it. There are quite a few games I would like to try, but none that I particularly want to own without trying first. Maybe I’ll grab up some hardware instead. Another wireless countrolle would be excellent.

Jen got me some cool books. I’m currently reading the first in the complete series that she gave me called Kushiel’s Dart. It’s supposed to be fantasy, but it’s really more alter-world than fantastic. That is, there is no magic or monsters, but it’s like an alternate history from this world. In fact, the book is very steeped in this constructed fictional religion. Jen also got me a book on the stars, which is very slick and quite infomative.

We’re waiting on my gift from Berta, which is some kind of hand-crafted guitar strap. I’m anxious to see this thing because I can’t fathom what could be so beguiling about a guitar strap, but apparently this thing is top-of-the-line. I only wish my guitar playing was half as good as this strap sounds.

Unfortunately, no XBox mod chip gift was in the works for me, so I just went ahead and ordered my own. It should arrive any day now. Any day. Darn it. For those who find my tastes too enigmatic (and I’ll add a more permanent link in the sidebar), you can find my wishlist online, which only contains stuff I really want.

Toward the end of the evening, we watched Pat’s anime movie Tokyo Godfathers, which was a very strange story that I didn’t really understand because I was apparently not in the room during a crucial scene.

In all, it was a pleasant evening. Surely, it was more laid-back than previous affairs, and I think I enjoyed it that way.