My Birthday Haul, originally uploaded by ishane.

I got some great presents for my 32nd birthday. If you go through to the Flickr photo, you’ll see a larger pic with tags as to what exactly everything is.

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I turn 32 years old today.

It seems old, but I don’t feel older. I still don’t have a job…that would be a decent present for me today. Anyone got one of those for me?

We’ve got some decent plans today. We’re gonna go see Yes Man at the Fork & Screen and then we’re meeting up with the whole fam at McCormick & Schmick tonight. 

Happy birthday to me!

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My birthday is exactly two weeks from today! I turn 32 this year. I should be ready for the nursing home soon. Just in case you were wondering what to get me, here are some ideas.

Honestly, there’s not a lot I could ask for this year:

• I have a loving and wonderful wife who is my best friend and is totally hot.
• I have a fun, expanding family.
• I have good friends who make me laugh.
• I have a roof over my head and a job, which makes me more fortunate than about 80% of the world who live in substandard housing.
• I have a lot to be thankful for and I’m very blessed.

If even after that you still want to buy me stuff, go ahead. I won’t be mad at ya.

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Our amazing dog had his 8th birthday yesterday. If you haven’t met our dog, you are missing out. He is hilarious. He smells like corn chips, has no hair, loves to snuggle, and is the third member of our family.

He had a pretty low-key birthday, mostly sleeping the day away while I worked from home and Alli did tons of laundry.

Happy Birthday, Dreyfuss.

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My lovely wife celebrates another turn around the sun today. Let’s have fun!

Love you, babe. Hope your day is awesome.

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Happy Birthday Dad! Looking forward to dinner with the fam tonight!

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Today is Jake’s birthday. His lady-love Kelly’s birthday is on Wednesday. We had a little party for them today at my parents house after church today. (Alli totally killed her sermon today, BTW. She’s a serious Rostrum Rockstar.)

Jake, in his infinite kindness, decided he wanted STEAK for his birthday. Having to look at these gorgeous steaks all day was not fun. Everything else was a lot of fun. We had a blast hanging out with the family all day, playing with the kids, playing Apples to Apples, overeating. All of it was a lot of fun.

Being with the family was fun. Watching Jake and Kelly be great parents was fun. Even the parts where the baby got scared of me and started bawling…those were even fun.

Happy birthday brother.

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I’ve had the good fortune of 3 separate birthday celebrations this year, one with Alli’s family on the day before my birthday, one with just Alli on Friday, then the final one with my family on Saturday.

Each birthday celebration involved me picking the food (2 times out of 3: barbecue) and picking the movie.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Last Saturday, we ventured out into the cold Iowa weather to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Of all the “holiday” movies that are released, this was one that I was really looking forward to. I liked the previous movie a lot. It was very Dan Brown meets Indiana Jones…how can you go wrong with that?

Look, it’s not going to win any awards, but it was a lot of fun. Lots of action and a decent (albeit unrealistic) story. If you can suspend belief a little (think Transformers), you’ll enjoy this movie.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd is one of the most well-reviewed films of the year. That should have been my first clue. A couple years back, I went picked a well-reviewed movie (Sideways) for my birthday and it sucked.

Sweeney Todd benefits from Johnny Depp, who is one of the best actors around. But the story is just so dark and evil and it’s so drearily filmed by crazy Tim Burton that it can’t recover. Oftentimes something as dark as this movie is balanced by humor or at least some sort of redeeming ending. Not so much here.

Now, I’ve never seen the staged musical. Now that I’ve seen the movie, I have absolutely no desire to do so. I might suggest this to people who like Tim Burton, but for those of you who look for at least something positive in your movie-going experience, I’d steer clear of Sweeney Todd.

Juno

Finally a movie both well-reviewed and good. Juno is the latest film by Jason Reitman, director Ivan Reitman’s son and the director of the very underrated tobacco company satire, Thank You for Smoking.

The independent film centers around the title character, played beautifully by Ellen Page, a 16-year-old high school girl who gets pregnant by her best friend who is played by George Michael Bluth himself, Michael Cera.

The dialogue is witty and sharp, written smartly by newcomer Diablo Cody. Ellen Page shines in this movie, but is surrounded by a lot of terrific supporting players like Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the to-be adoptive parents of Juno’s unborn child and J.K. Simmons and Alison Janney as Juno’s dad and stepmom.

Of all the movies I saw for my birthday, Juno was by far the best. It was heartfelt in the same way as last year’s indie darling, Little Miss Sunshine, but it was funnier. I found myself laughing aloud on more than one occasion during the movie. Even stuck in the 2nd row of the theater, it was a joy to watch.

Tonight, we’re going to check out Atonement. I’ll let you know what I think.

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It’s back to the old grind today.

Since I used up all my vacation galavanting around Italy and France this summer with my lovely wife, I am working this week.

It should be a relatively slow week. We closed out a couple huge projects last week and I’m getting ready to ramp up some new ones for Q1.

I got some great presents for my birthday and Christmas from my whole fam. Lots of fun books and DVDs, gift cards, clothes…all good times. I’ve been wanting to get a MacBook for a while now and am now chomping at the bit since I have some money burning a hole in my pocket, but after running down to the Apple Store on the Plaza today, I’ve decided to wait until after MacWorld in January before I purchase anything…that way I’ll be in on the latest and greatest.

Did you get anything fun for Christmas?

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