<before I left work>
Mom strikes again
Sunday (the 8th) is my birthday. I've been trying to avoid the whole birthday thing. I've tried to lay low at the office and not let too many people know what was going on. Leave it to my mother to show up with a birthday cake just before lunch. Thanks mom. Some of the guys want to take me out and get drunk or something to the effect. No, I don't need that to feel better about getting a year older. They did corner me into a lunch today. I can survive that. I'm turning 35, and not very gracefully I might add. Ah, well I will wake up Monday the same person. That may be the trouble. I believe birthdays are a time of reassessment. A friend of mine says they are a time you are most likely to break up with a significant other. That makes sense to me. I know I'll wake up Monday with the same aching back and the same poor attitude and just as lazy as I went to bed with Friday. Maybe I want everything to change on a dime.

Something I learned today
China requires other countries to prove who some one is and that they are from China before said person can be deported back to China. It is not good enough to prove they are simply Chinese. You need paperwork and a proper identification. The UK has trouble with illegal laborers and people who are exploited getting them back to China. Most other countries require only the identification of nationality. I wander if some one can sneak into the US by pretending to be some one else and get themselves deported from a third country.

Foreshadow
It didn't hit me at the time but I noticed a coworker hanging up on his wife in the middle of a conversation.

<after I left work at 11:00>
Lunch, until six PM
We stopped at a sports place for lunch. I got wings. I've been trying to eat better the last couple of weeks. I enjoyed the lunch. We talked shop and learned a few things about some products and people we work with. It was loud. We went to a pub called The Fox and Hound on Westhimer. They are kind of yuppie, but it's a nice place. We plaid pool and darts. My right arm is stiff this morning because I didn't follow through with my through. Trip was pretty cool. He would screw up the scoring in my favor. After all, it was my birthday.
One of the guys and I left The Fox and Hound at about six PM or so. Not bad for seven hours. He and I bar hopped a bit. We ended up at the Rice University bar called Valhalla. Talk about a hole in the wall. You drive around Rice and follow the hazard lights.
After that, we went to a coworker's birthday party. My buddy had to take off. He had just hung up on his wife in the middle of a conversation. it didn't sound serious. I hope he isn't mad about my mentioning it here.
Cynthia's party was fun. Not many <my day job company> people showed up, but I'm glad one did. Ramone, a buddy of mine from work ended up giving me a ride home. His friend from San Antonio hung up on his girlfriend in the middle of a conversation.
I kept trying to flirt with a girl named April, but I'm quite bad at it.