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What a momentous day.

Last night I had a good time at Jill and Dean's house. They threw a little BBQ to celebrate Jill, Tirzah, Isaac, and me all having birthdays at generally the same time. We had all sorts of good food (oh, corn on the cob, I have missed you!) and played Apples to Apples. Good times.

But that's not the momentous day. That's today. I slept in until 9, then I decided sort of spur of the moment to go for a bike ride. I ride north on the Platte River trail every day I commute. However, I had never been north of my turn off, so I decided to do a little exploring and see where the northern part of the trail ends up. It was a pretty good ride up, quickly falling into a heavy industrial landscape. I rode past garbage facilities, scrap metal processors, sewage treatment plants, power plants, a dog food factory (or so it smelled), stockyards, and the former home of a business called Pieces of Eight. Once I passed under I-76 I stopped to see where the heck I was. I had only planned on doing a little exploring, but now I saw I was about a half hour or so from the end of the trail at a park on the other side of 104th. Since I thought I was just doing a little exploring, I hadn't brought any water with me, but I figured I could fill up at the park. It seemed a shame to come so close to the end and turn back, so I kept on pedaling along. I was rewarded with much more rural scenery and the river by my side. Of course, I now knew what was in that river, but it was nice nonetheless.

I made the park and looked around for a drinking fountain or spigot. Nada. There is no water on the trail north of Confluence Park. So it was a rather dry, desperate ride back until I finally passed a gas station and chugged a bottle of water. I also realized I had forgotten to put on any sunscreen, so I was booking it home. It was a fun ride, and I didn't even get tired until the home stretch up Cherry Creek. I figure it was around 30 miles round trip. Not bad for a morning's exploration.

Later on, I made my way to the Plastic Chapel and finally scored a couple of MARS-1 Invisible Plan figures. I had originally planned on getting more, but the money on my gift card had gone elsewhere in the intervening days. I now have a tree-like thing and pair of little Martian gremlin tentacle things. Keen! I will have to get some more.

Then Gavin called and asked if I could come pick him up, as his car was losing an alarming amount of coolant and tending to overheat. I said sure, and made my way over to pick him up so he could get their other car. Did I mention he was in Copper up in the mountains? I had actually been toying with the idea of a mountain drive today, so I was glad to make the trip and help him out. Hee. It's fun to have a car that can go fast in the mountains.

I got home and went to Kokorro to try their teriyaki in my endless quest to find teriyaki as good as that back in Tigard at my beloved House of Teriyaki (a.k.a. Jesus Loves Teriyaki). This was probably the best teriyaki I've had in Denver, but not quite up to the House of Teriyaki's standard.

I came home and went to the basement to get my mail and something sweet from the laundry room's vending machine. Now I know why you should never get chocolate from that machine. It's rather warm in there. I regularly break a sweat doing laundry. Most of the chocolate from my Oh Henry was on the wrapper. But what was this in the mail? Goodness gracious! It's a package from Cake! It finally came!

Now for our Moment of Irony. Yesterday was 12 weeks to the day after Cake reported getting the CDs in their distribution center. Thursday was the day I sent a cranky email to the distributor. Today was the day I got a response email. But now I am listening to my CD with the scratch-n-sniff cover. Glee!

See? Momentous!