Last weekend’s birthday festivities turned out to be a non-stop, action-packed gauntlet of celebratory chaos. We opted for a change of venue for this year considering Steve and Stella were both hitting one of those multiple-of-five birthdays. Essentially, we didn’t think we already had enough going on during the busiest and most expensive month of the year, and wanted to really feel the burn. We set up a schedule that went a little like this: Saturday was the visit to the SF Academy of Sciences, Sunday was the official Princess and Pirate celebration and Monday was the day for Steve and I to schlep into the city to participate in Nerdapalooza.

At the last possible moment I was actually able to get my hands on the gift for Steve that I had been coveting for weeks – a vintage Apple Think Different poster featuring one of Steve’s favorite nerds, Richard Feynman. A gift whose procurement required the kind of time, money and patience that had better earn me a gold-plated pedestal in the Awesome Wife Hall of Fame. Stella’s gifts were numerous, as usual – but it was our particular choice of gift this year that got us the most confused glances. We bought her a karaoke machine. And when you see the pictures you will understand why we chose to sacrifice our sanity over her sublime happiness.

A huge thank you to the family (and friends) for all their various contributions of time, money, travel fatigue and overall stamina. I know of two Walstons, in particular, who really appreciated it.