Last Saturday, I celebrated my birthday with the ones of my friends who still live in the vicinity of my parents.

The food was excellent (if I may say so), largely thanks to my mother's ideas, my father was thrilled to have two small children clearly delighted with the toys he dug up in the attic, and I dare say we all had a nice evening.

My brother even took a heavy load off my shoulders when he decided to reattach my torn off front bumper. It won't get me through the next Inspection, but that's not the point anyway. I just prefer to be able to drive through town without everyone staring (and possibly being stopped by the police).

The new bumper has already been ordered, but hasn't arrived so far (so much for the eBay seller's advertising, heh!).

Which brings me back to the whole "poor vandalized car #3" issue - on 24 Mar 2007, I went to see "Sunshine" which had its world premiere during the Fantasy Filmfest Nights #5. When I attempted to park my car at the side of the street, the guy in the car behind me was too impatient to wait, passed me too closely, and... crash. His old Beetle had a small dent, I lost my front bumper.

We agreed to settle it all privately, with each of us paying for the damage to our own car, but I was less than thrilled with the cost estimate of the official Opel repair shop, so I found a free repair shop and ordered the bumper off eBay.

My brother even offered to attach the new bumper, replace the shredded inner lining of the fenders, and, hey, also changed my tires! (In exchange, I helped him and his girlfriend with his.)

Which reminds me - evidently his girlfriend finally managed to corner him, and they announced their engagement party in May! I like N.; she's social, friendly, tranquil and nicer than my sister-in-law by my other brother. She baked my birthday cake, and we actually can talk to each other without falling into an awkward silence.

But I digress. Birthday party. Right.

I was a bit disappointed by the presents - all my friends took the easy way out and gifted me with (far too much) Milka chocolate and several bags of differently flavored black tea. If I'd known that, I wouldn't have sweated so much over my birthday wish list. Hmpf.

Anyway, I now have approx. 4.5 pounds of chocolate (counting my Easter nest's contents) and black tea in five different flavors (which, admittedly, all taste very good).

xkatjafx