What a busy, busy birthday!  I got into LAX around 2 am and got home sometime past 3.  After scarfing down some food (I can’t believe the airlines didn’t offer a single meal after all the delays and overbooked flights they put us through!), I was asleep by 4.  I woke up just before 9, probably because I’m still sort of on EST.  I took a shower and renewed my auto insurance, then went to get Panda.

We took a stroll around the park, had a huge lunch at a Northern Chinese style restaurant, ran some errands, and made the congested trek over to Sprinkles in Beverly Hills.  I got my usual: a red velvet and a chocolate marshmallow and then it was time to rush off to the apartment complex to drop off my first month’s payment and sign the lease.  I completely forgot that plenty of people actually went to work today, so I hadn’t expected the kind of traffic we got stuck in!  Nevertheless, we made it to my soon-to-be new home in time to take care of the paperwork.  Tomorrow my roommate does the same and gets the keys so we can officially move in this weekend.  🙂

By that time, we were running late to meet my parents at Din Tai Fung for dinner.  Fortunately, we got there at the same time that they did so neither party had to wait for the other.  We did, however, have to wait to get seated.  Tonight was more crowded than the previous couple of times I’d been by DTF to eat and we were waiting for a good 40 minutes before getting a table.  We ordered 10 items from the menu and chowed down as they started to serve dish after dish.  Everything was steaming and delicious and soon enough we were all stuffed.

My parents headed home from there and Panda and I spent some time sitting together to talk and rest a bit.  He’s getting ready to move out to work on the east coast, so things are going to be changing quite a bit in another two months or so.  By and by an hour passed and we had to get home.  I dropped off Panda and just got home not too long ago.  There’s been a lot of traveling and not so much sleeping for me in the past day, so I’m just about ready to crash before we go celebrate New Year’s at a family friend’s place tomorrow afternoon/evening.