It’s my birthday and i’ll party if i want to, party if i want to, party if i… we’ll get to that.

It’s day 40, which means we’re in the last week of our trip and on the downward slide to flying home (booooo).  Today I turn the ripe old age of 34. hahaha

The day started pretty sad, as we had to return our rental car to Enterprise.  The rental, a 2008 Ford Focus was a great little car and in the 10 days we rented it, we drove over 1500 miles.  that’s somewhere between 2000 and shitloads of KM’s for those in the metric part of the world.  The focus here is different to that in Australia and is US built.  Unfortunately, while it shared the name, the car itself was nothing on the Australian/English/German counterpart.  It was doing some wiggy noise stuff by the time we returned it, so probably a good thing we did return it today.  Jen was great and drove with us to the airport and then gave us a ride back to the hotel again.

By the time we got back we decided to go down the road for lunch.  There was this little chinese takeout/restaurant type place down on Forest Lane that we decided to checkout, so walked down there.  I had the Garlic Chicken (can’t go wrong with that) and Wendy went with the General Tsao Chicken, which she’d read about.  Turns out, General Tsao isn’t all that nice, and my garlic chicken was overly salty.  The rice was kinda wiggy also, and we couldn’t help but wonder how much MSG was in it (it’s not banned here like back home).  Overall, it was tasty, but dodgy.. hence the name we gave it; Dodgy Wok.

After lunch we went nextdoor to pick up a Starbucks coffee and then walked back to the hotel again to hang out and wait for our friend Leni to arrive. We met Leni on the Stars Forum 4 years ago and she and Wendy are quite good friends. She was even there at Frisco the day that we met Mike Modano in March 2006! Since that time, she’s been collecting Mike Modano things for Wendy, such as posters, mini bobble heads and 503 memorabilia for when Mike broke the record for the most goals scored by an American born player. When Leni arrived, we got to see her newest pride and joy – a volvo convertible (very nice!) and the three of us went for coffee and a wonderful chat about hockey. That’s probably what we love most about Leni – she’s just so good to talk Stars hockey with!

All too soon, it was time to get back to the hotel and get ready for our evening out; a Dallas Stars watching party / birthday part at Val’s house.  The Stars were playing the San Jose Sharks, a team we love playing at the Shark Tank, so we knew it would be a great game. Which meant yet another sad goodbye, an all too common occurrence through our trip!

Jen had promised to “doll” Wendy up for the night, so she took off next door to get all dressed up and stuff while i got ready in our room.  Wendy eventually comes back wearing a jacket… apparently to hide whatever Jen had put her in.  Bit of a surprise ya see.  I was cool with that as it only made for more excitement and entertainment.  We all jumped in Jens Mustang and headed over there with a slight detour at Krogers (grocery store) to pick up some things and my cake, which they made me choose.  Isn’t that just nasty. hehehe

We had a pretty good turnout for the party; Wendy and myself, Jen, Rhonda, Jesse, Adam and Amber (was GREAT to see them), Clay and Harry, Val, Nathan and the kids, Julie and Jeff.  (did i miss anybody?)  We all had sausages and burgers for dinner and I washed them down with some Shiner Bock that Adam and Amber bought me (OMG that’s nice beer!).  Clay and Harry bought me a 6-pack of Shiner Bohemian, which is the the premium stout beer that Shiner make.. and OMG even nicer.  Anyway, back on track.

The game went pretty well but gave massive cause for concern when it went to overtime and then into the shootout.  For those in the know, Marty Turco, the Stars goaly has been pretty mediocre (see: crap) in the shootout this season, so the entire rooms energy levels deflated when the OT period ended.  Marty Turco just have known it was my birthday or something, because he was steller today, saving shot after shot.  Unfortunately, Nabby at the other end of the ice was just as good and after 3 shooters the game was yet to be won so more shooters were needed.  It became a battle of the goalies with shooter after shooter going up until eventually Matt Niskanen (Stars defenseman) finally got the goal that won the game for the Stars.  Not only did the Stars pick up the 2pts, but Marty was kick-ass in the shootout through 11 rounds!  Now that’s a birthday present i can handle!

As it was getting late we all had some cake before saying our goodbyes and departing back to the hotel where we collapsed and talked for a bit before finally heading to bed.

Great friends, great company, great hockey… it was a long, but absolutely fantastic day!