(e:paul) had a work shindig in Chicago, so we decided to make a trip of it. Paul and I headed out on Monday night via the Amtrak Lakeshore Line.

He wanted to bring the electric unicycles and I love the train, so there we go.

The house was very full for Thanksgiving week. (e:hodown) came and visited us from her globetrotting travels, and was with us the week before.



We went with (e:mike) for a crazy night at the wine bar at Main. (e:hodown) found a new ping pong buddy.

Then (e:terry)'s family came into town the Tuesday before. Altogether we had 9 people in the house which was the most ever. The Mickelson's got to pingpong, (e:paul) got to teach unicycling, and we took the family to the botanical gardens and parking lot christmas market on South Park.

As confirmation of my previous post that i turned thirty, I went and bought a Roomba.

My union at work got a new contract got a new contract with retroactive pay, so i thought I'd splurge.

We also had to get ready for (e:Terry)'s family coming to stay for Thanksgiving. So (e:Paul) and I went for a shopstravaganza at Niagara Falls Boulevard Plaza of Hell.

I am terrible shopper and waffled the whole time at Best Buy whether to get one and if so, Paul eventually convinced me to just pick one. I also had decision paralysis on choosing a shopping curtain.

Anyway the Roomba navigation is kind of dumb, it has to bump into everything. But it is amazing at cleaning and the floors have never been less dusty.

Last Thursday i turned thirty! It seems crazy, i know it doesn't actually change anything but it feels like i just finished school yesterday. I remember (e:mike,58043) 's 30th 8 years ago and it seemed so far away.

To celebrate, and since my sisters' partners both also turned 30 within weeks of me, my parents rented a house down in Pennsylvania near Allegheny. It was a fun weekend of games, pizzas and watching (e:Paul) learn how to unicycle.

Then last Thursday we went over to my parents to celebrate with my Aunt Shirley who i share a birthday with.

All in all a great birthday. Can't ask for better guys and family.

Since I didn't go over to my parents for the usual cookie decorating shenanigans (e:terry) and I went on a baking bonanza and made a shitton of cookies to deliver.

We baked:

• Double batch of oatmeal scotches
• Choco-chip, heavy on the dark brown sugar
• Shortbread thumbprints with raspberry jam from my mom's coworker
• Snickersdoodles
• Rumballs

Turns out despite meticulous planning with recipe and plate distributions in a google sheet, we ended up with 10 plates worth instead of 6.