Tuesday Twenty-Seven

My homemade birthday key lime pie in a store bought crust.  Hey, when I'm lazy, I'm DIY where it counts.

Okay, so "Tuesday Twenty-Seven" is considerably more than our typical Tuesday Ten here on PK, but I promise it's for a less than adequate reason.

Twenty-seven is.  My.  Current.  Aaaayyyyggg-agh!

Ungh, I can't say it.

Today just happens to be........

Ummm....  I'm in denial, here guys.


Denial.  It's not just a river in Egypt anymore!

Okay, sorry.  Thanks for sticking with me, to the two of you still reading.

Today happens to be the day of my birth (thanks to one of my two readers! A grateful Mr. Pihl thanks you, Mom! - I think), and this date on the calendar has been progressively harder and harder for me over the last few years.

I know what you're thinking.

Pshaw.  27?  She's a baby!  She has no idea what old even IS.

Or perhaps some of you...

Man... I hope I've accomplished more with my life than HER when I'm that age.

I typically identify with focus group number 2, which (after quite some thought and wine and carbohydrates) might be the root of my age anxiety.

But there's no need to psychoanalyze my babble.  Just know this:

TODAY IS MY DARN BIRTHDAY, AND ALL I WANNA DO IS WATCH 24, EAT SWEDISH TACK CRACKERS WITH BUTTER, AND MAKE AND THEN EAT THE CARB-LADEN FOOD OF MY PEOPLE (see cultural food reference below).

To break this down for you, I will be spending the day on our couch surrounded by cracker crumbs probably sans pants watching Season 8 of 24 later pulling myself together in time to make my favorite dish (Hungarian chicken paprikash with nokedli) before Mr. Pihl gets home from work.

And you know what?  That's exactly what I asked for.  A day with no pants.  A day full of shameless carbs.  And a day on MY terms with no Catholic guilt about not cleaning.

The most productive thing I'll do all day is this post (which as of yet hasn't actually accomplished a darn thing in relation to the title of said post and isn't exactly bringing about world peace).

Here's a fun fact!  Google knew it was my birthday and set  my Google Chrome search tab to look like this:

Isn't that nifty?!  The caption even said "Happy Birthday, Amy!" when I moved my cursor over the graphic.

Leave it to a large corporation to make me feel special.  Geeze...

So.

In celebration of my descent into oblivion, here are 27 weird and wonderful things (emphasis on the weird) you may not know about me.

1. Mr. Pihl and I met on eHarmony.  In fact, we were matched up ON MY BIRTHDAY!  HA!  Really.  It was the best wine-induced decision and 3 hour sign up process of my life.
2. I am from California, but I live in Kansas.  Okay, well, most of you already knew that.  But anywhoodle...
3. I have never dyed my hair.  EVER.  But I did try using lemon juice for "natural bleaching" one sunny day when I was 13.  All it did was dry out my hair.  What a downer.
4. Speaking of hair, I hardly ever go in for a trim.  When I do, I ask for the teeeeeeeniest amount possible to be cut off.  Don't get me wrong... I love my hair place, I really, REALLY love my hair gal, and I don't have an actual fear of haircuts.  I just have an appreciation for longer hair on ME.  Yup.  That about sums it up.
5. I hate celery.  With a passion.  The smell.  The taste.  The smell.  The sound.  And the smell.  I recoil in pain and fear at the mere presence of celery.  Celery.  Just say NO.
6. When I was 4 I fell and got a gigantic rock (read: pebble --> I was 4) embedded in my knee.  My mommy took it out.  She's amazing.  AND a second grade teacher (which isn't about me at all, but shows you what a trooper she is).
7. One time I tried to slice off my thumb.
8. And two weeks later I got stitches in Mexico.  The incidents were not related.
9. I worked at a certain lingerie megabrand for 3 years while I was in college.  It took months for me to pick up a ringing landline and NOT say, "Thank you for calling Victoria's Secret!  This is Amy.  How may I help you?"
10. I've watched You've Got Mail approximately 40,000 times.  I'm not kidding.  I put it on as background noise while cleaning, DIYing, writing thank-you's, et cetera.
11. I overuse the phrase "et cetera", yet rarely take the time to spell it out.  Interesting?  Not in the least.
12. I love labrador retrievers.  I grew up with them, so I have an innate appreciation for bigger dogs, though I love dogs of any kind (especially a certain beagle-basset currently residing in the New Jersey area - and his owners of course).
13. 24 TV SHOW SPOILER ALERT! AVERT YOUR EYES NOW, YOU NON-24 PEOPLE: When TV President David Palmer was assassinated, I cried a little.  Don't lie.  You did, too.  And if you didn't, then read this article about how Palmer was the perfect TV character and had the perfect TV death.  Amen.
14. I own a bird, but I really want a puppy.  
15. I can audibly crack/pop my wrist joints at will.  That might come back to haunt me in the form of arthritis in a few decades...
16. I have one sibling.  She's kinda weird, too.  We like it that way.
17. I'm obsessed with the Pioneer Woman.  She's my idol.  I even met her once at a book signing in Wichita.  She told me that I had pretty hair and I immediately decided that my life was complete.
18. I'm a project starter, but it takes a LOT for me to commit to finishing a project.  It's my inner perfectionist's problem and makes DIY anything a leetle difficult.  Now you know why this ISN'T a DIY project blog.
19. I'm a dessert snob.  It's not my fault.  I just knew the difference between what I consider quality and, well, everything else.
20. When I was a kid I hated chocolate.  I know.  It's blasphemy, but it's true.  Puberty changed my taste buds, and everything was once again right with the world.
21. I can roll my tongue.  And my "R's".  Apparently, that's a valuable ability in Spanish class.  And I was the moron who elected to take Latin.
22. And on that note - I took 4 years of Latin in high school.  I didn't retain a darn thing.
23. I have a birthmark on my right shoulder.  I think it looks a little like the Mojave desert, but it could just be my imagination.
24. I played soccer back in the day.  Every once in a while I get pangs and urges to play again.  I suspect it's my need to take out aggression on others via contact sports.
25. I like the color green.
26. I really like cheesecake.  Any flavor.  Except for regular cheesecake with a can of cherries dumped on top.  That's just lazy.  (Sorry I'm not sorry.  Refer to #19 above)
27. I have an irrational fear of my 30th birthday, which is amazeballs because I'm not there yet.  But I'm definitely closer to 30 than I was yesterday.