"Quicken! Premiere! Dad, I hope you kept the receipt.
--You want to return that?
--What? No, I want to deduct it!"



As if tax season doesn't provide excitement enough, I had some pretty rad birthday surprises. Thursday morning (my birthday) began with a card and bag of skittles waiting for me in my car from Doug. Followed by a beautiful vase of flowers delivered to me at work from Mom Blocksma. I came home to dinner with Dylan and Ann followed by (gasp) Ice Cream Cake! (Funny how my reaction to ice cream cake is exactly the same now as it was when I was 8).

Friday, I got a surprise visit from Aubrey and Monte who came to visit for the weekend. More food, more ice cream cake, LOTS of Dutch Blitz. Saturday, Doug surprised me (with help from co-conspirator Aubrey) with an afternoon at a spa, followed by a nice dinner at Nico's Catacombs. And, just about the time I thought birthday surprises were over, we found ourselves inside the lobby of the Armstrong Hotel in downtown Fort Collins. It was quite a weekend. And after all that, I didn't have to go back to work for another 8 days (three cheers for spring break--more on that later).