Josh and Erin in the Twin Cities

Yes, that is right, yesterday was the big 3-0 for me, the triple decade. It was a pretty average day as far as days go, E had her first day on the job, and I had just another day at the office. We finished up the day by going to Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse in the same building as my office. We had always wanted to go there, but just never found the time. That, and it is $42.50 per person for the meat orgy that it is. If you have never heard of this place before, let me tell you, this place is ridiculous. So they have a mammoth salad bar for those vegetarians out there, but that is not the highlight, we are talking about the meat here, after all, it IS a steakhouse. They give you this 'coin' that is red on one side and green on the other. Green means you want the crazed men carrying swords stacked with steaks to stop and give you a slice, red means you don't. Sounds simple enough, right? So, I warm up with a little salad and then decide to start the meat orgy. I flip to green. Within minutes, I have 5 of these guys queueing up next to me, ready to chop a big hunk o' steak onto my plate. They were coming so fast that I didnt have time to flip my coin back over to red and get them to stop. Did I mention that this is an all you can eat place? Well, it is, and as Mike put it, this is 'a meat lover's Valhalla'. It was surreal, the amount of meat being cut onto plates. As our server put it, 'this is a marathon, not a sprint, so pace yourselves'. I think we were there for a few hours, and I think I put on another 20 pounds.

So, that was yesterday, but the real fun was on Saturday. Erin surprised me with Travis and Jalynn flying up here on Friday night and joining us at a bar, it was pretty great to see Travis up here and get to show him around. He has been threatening to come up since I moved up here last year (and yes, it has almost been a year). We started off the day with some indoor go-karting at the place in Burnsville that I used to go to for the league, and as usual, Travis kicked everyone's butt. Kaleb came with us and kicked my butt, but I was able to come back and stay on his tail for the rest of the session. Travis' friend from MMI, Todd, also came out for the races, but I don't think he was ready for the level of competition that we were putting out there. In the first race, we all bashed by him in the third corner and left him for dead. 8 minutes doesnt sound like a long time to drive, but when you are doing 20+ laps in those 8 minutes, your arms, back, and neck all get tired. By the second race I was done, I didn't have any energy left, and was only able to improve my laptimes by .7 seconds. Overall, it was a LOT of fun. We picked up a load of BBQ from a local place called Rudolph's, (which was VERY good) and headed back to the casa for everyone to start the party. People started showing up around 6 for dinner, and we annihilated that BBQ. I bought two party platters, and by the time the bus showed up, both were just about gone. Oh yeah, we had a party bus, and we went barhopping. This is where things started to get really out of control...

I think there were 15 or so people in the bus, and it was just one of those shuttle-type buses from the airport with the luggage rack taken out. We stowed the cooler and headed for uptown and the Independent Bar and Lounge. So, I know it was early, but this place was D-E-A-D and not very receptive to a big party like ours. We ended up commandeering the patio area and hanging out there for a bit, but it was not long lived. The most memorable part of the Independent was when Aric downed his martini as we were leaving. From there is was over to Brits in downtown to have some scotch eggs and cider. Everyone liked Brits so much that we ended up staying there twice as long as planned and then heading over to Psycho Suzie's to see Ryan and party on their patio. By now the bus rides between bars were pretty fun, and getting more and more rowdy. I think everyone had a good buzz going by now. Suzie's was hopping and standing room only, so we went out to the wet patio and stood under the umbrellas whenever it started to rain. This was the beginning of the end for most of the party-goers. We also spent double-time at Suzie's and had a blast until they thought one of our revelers had booted in the bathroom. This was our exit cue, whether it was one of us or not. BACK TO THE BUS!!! We only had a few minutes of the bus left, so we took it over to Cuzzy's, our local neighborhood bar that we could walk home from. Everyone filed in and we found a table in the back, near the games. Someone broke out 'Connect Four' and it was ON!! Girls vs. Boys. Unfortunately, the boys representative was quite a bit more intoxicated than the girls rep, so it wasn't really fair. I am officially calling for a rematch between equally sober or drunk people. Well, this was the end of the official birthday, and at this point most people headed back to our place where a few people crashed out on our couch.

So that was the end of the day, and it was a really good time, but Sunday was a little rough. Overall, it was the best birthday I have had in a lot of years. Big thanks to all of you that came with us!