(no subject)

So I have two things to plan for in the next few weeks.

First off, my birthday is on the 15th, and I have absolutely no idea what to do to celebrate. It's on a Sunday, so I'm free all day. We'll have a pretty busy week right before that, what with us getting carpet installed on the 13th and all the moving and cleaning that entails, but I'd still like to do something special, especially for this one. I turn 30, after all. The big three-oh, when I officially move from young adulthood to being a full-on adult, so I think something fun would be good.

Secondly, the weekend after that, the_z and her mom are taking the baby and going on a road trip to St. Louis to hang with family, so I will be all by my lonesome for at least a day or so, possibly all weekend. As much as the idea of an utterly quiet day is appealing, I think I'd like to take the time to have people over without worrying about waking the wee one. I was thinking a gathering, possibly on Friday or Saturday night that could run into the wee hours of the morning if need be, because I haven't done that in a long, long while. Again, open to suggestions, and once I find out what the schedule looks like, I'll have more info to better plan things out.

If anyone has any suggestions, they are extremely welcome.

EDIT: The road trip weekend is 7/20 through 7/22, so both Friday and Saturday night (and the following mornings) are wide open.

For my Xbox-mourning friends...

Did your 360 throw up the Three Red Lights of Death? You're in luck - Microsoft is extending the warranty to 3 years in cases of TRLoD. According to their press release, they're taking a $1 billion loss to cover the cost of both current and past repairs - yep, retroactive reimbursement.

The first link even hints that some of the newer Xboxes may have the fixes in place that prevent the TRLoD issue in the first place. This is happy news for me, as it means that my future 360 purchase may be problem-free.

I have to say that I have a bit more respect for any company that addresses a major issue like this and offers to make it right (much like the SNK Card Battler issue). I just wish Microsoft had acknowledged the issue a bit earlier than they did.