My birthday! Huzzah! I was born 28 years ago this very day. Yay for me.

Tonight I'm going to my parents house for dinner and pressies. Tomorrow is my company's Christmas party, where Diana and I will put the patented Rawls family raffle-winning technique to work. Laugh all you want, but it worked last year. I'd post the secret technique here, but then it wouldn't be secret. Now would be a good time to win, though, given the new expenses in our lives.

Otherwise, all is well. Work continues, still playing Civ III and Counterstrike when I get the chance. I played a little Battlefield 1942 with Eryn last night, which was pretty fun, but it's too easy to die without knowing where the bad guy was, which is a really frusterating feeling.

Diana and I have been watching the Lord of the Rings on DVD, which one of her students lent to her. She commented that she's enjoying it much more this second time around, which pleased me immensely. There's quite a bit of information to digest, and I'm guessing that people new to the stories would enjoy it more in subsequent viewings simply because they know a little more about what to expect and can follow the story easier. I'm sort of skimming The Two Towers to get ready for the movie. I can't wait for that.