I Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!!

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I think Melanie's awesome. Best wife ever!! The fact that she spearheaded the week-long celebration of my birthday is just one more reason. That being said, I'll let you in on what the festivities included.
My birthday was on a Tuesday, so that meant that the celebrating began on the preceding Saturday. That day, we went with a select group of friends, to go tubing on the Shenandoah.
We went to a place called Butts Tubes, located right by Harper's Ferry, on the VA side. Mel and I went, of course.
Then there was Kasey and Lex (photos courtesy of Lex BTW).

Then there was Adam and his then-new flame Megan. (They kinda shied away from us)

Sara was unfortunately sans significant other, as Tony was off for training. Turns out he got back that morning, and she dropped us like a hot potato once she caught word that he was back, not joining us for dinner.

This is me, looking hot on a rock. At this point, Melanie had floated past me, and I was wondering where she was, judging by the fact that I was smiling, I might have found her by this point on a rock further downstream. The tubing was a lot of fun. The river was calm, but had some fun whooptie-dos. All-in-all, we had a great time.

On Sunday, Melanie invited other friends to our place for cake and ice cream. She pulled through amazingly, buying a chocolate cake from Costco. It was delicious.
And these are the people who came. In our little apartment.
On my actual birthday, we went to dinner at the Sweetwater Tavern, which was really good. I got a steak and mashed potatoes. We also had a coupon sent to us from them for a free dessert with each entree purchase. While there, my lovely wife gave me my gifts in three envelopes. The first was a card...it wasn't the sappy lovey-dovey type--she knows I hate those. The second envelope had tickets to the Capitol Steps, which is a comedy troupe in DC that parodies songs and mocks politicians, a perfect choice for me.
The last envelope contained a print out from Amazon.com showing this (picture was taken during a Pantene commercial in case you're curious of who the lady is) :
On the paper was written "okay, let's talk about this." I've been pining for a big TV since I left my old apartment and it's Hi-Def goodness. She hadn't purchased it, but had done a lot of research on it. We did some further research, and found that the one she had found, was the best deal, had a great picture, and had great reviews. We bought it on sale at Sears, which made me wax sentimental from my days of employment there (haha, just kidding). Thus far, we've brought it home, but we need to upgrade our cable to get all the sweet channels, but we'll get to that soon enough.
Finally, on Saturday, we made it to the show by the Capitol Steps. It was a lot of fun. The music was very topical, the entertainers were very energetic, and hillarious. I enjoyed it very much.
Ultimately, this was probably the best B-day celebration that I've ever had. Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes from everyone. Especially, a big thanks to Mel who organized all of the birthday goodness. I'll definitely have a hard time trying to top this for her next January.