gwyn | In which Hugh Dillon is my birthday present

My birthday party with the steampunk cake was last night. Aside from the fact that I ended up with way too much cake and way too much food and I completely forgot to put out the giant Costco bunch of grapes I'd bought, it went OK. A lot of people canceled at the last minute -- I think there would have been a lot of cake left over regardless, but that put it into the nearly half the cake realm. I'm freezing a lot of it for the next bash, even after taking it to the adoption event today. My trainer said when I told her a lot of people I know won't step outside their routine to come down for the party, "Fuck 'em! They don't deserve your wonderful cake!" I LOLed. To all the wonderful people who braved the shitty weather to come by: thank you so much. I had a great time!

Pics of cake (the pics really don't do this justice -- the light level was just very problematic, so it's either too orangey or too dark brown, it was lovely sparkly purples and wines and golds and coppers):

But before the party started, I got like the best surprise birthday present I could never have imagined:

brynnmck tweeted Hugh Dillon about the Flashpoint vid I did a few years ago to one of his songs with the Headstones (Come On). And he said he really liked it and used multiple exclamation points, and tweeted the link! Look, proof:

My shrieking was in the range of sounds only dogs can hear. Hugh!!!! Liked my vid!!!! ::flaily Kermit arms:: It was such a cool thing for her to do (I'd made it for her back then as part of a fannish gift exchange among some local fans) and it just made my whole year. Even if it's just fan service, which everyone insists it isn't because Hugh's not that kind of guy, I choose to believe he liked it and I still want to kidnap him and marry him.

And I got some lovely pressies, as well, from a couple people (even though I said no presents!):

belmanoir and

mrs_laugh_track gave me a robot tea infuser, something I'd posted on Tumblr ages ago and that I never got around to getting for myself but always wanted, a Mo's Bacon Bar (chocolate bar with bacon), and this really cool weights and measures exchanger cup thingie that I had never seen or heard of before, but which is so cool and unusual that now I can't imagine how I ever lived without it.

feochadn brought me these really cool flowers that fit with a steampunk mode perfectly. She also concocted a drink for me (which had elderflower liquer in it, so she called it an Eldergwyn) that was incredibly tasty and that I want more of. And finally a couple people made donations to Motley Zoo Animal Rescue in my name, which was aces -- that's the group I foster dogs with (see below for cute current doggie). (I have a post in the near future about them, actually, since we're critically low on funds at a time when we're critically overrun with animals.)

I was really fucking drunk on only two drinks, but I realized afterward, when I was trying to sober up, what was going on: I had the beginnings of a migraine. By the time I went to bed, it was pounding in my head and right eye was visionless, and I spent the rest of the night fighting the pain or fighting throwing up, which exacerbates all the rest of my problems -- the restless legs, the hot flashes, the constant need to pee. I finally lost my battle about 8 this morning when I let the dog out and then promptly started puking in the sink. This has happened a couple times recently when I've had booze. Obviously something's triggering my migraines -- and it's not red wine, which used to be the culprit years ago, because I haven't had any of that. I'm trying to figure out if it's vodka or gin, or something that's in the drinks...and it doesn't happen all the time, either. I remember drinking quite a bit in Hawaii and nothing happened, but there've been more than a few times lately when I've drunk liquor and then got this freight train of a migraine.

I had plans to come home from the adoption event today to work on my Yuletide story, but I'm still kind of ragged around the edges. I didn't eat all day, just tried to infuse as much caffeine into my body as possible. But Buffy got her pic taken with Santa, and everyone who met her just adored her. I wish that someone would take that extra step, of course, but maybe if enough people fall in love with her, the odds will increase she'll get a forever home. She's such a love bug and so cute and happy.

Isn't she adorable?

And now it's Sunday and I spent way too much time trying to figure out how to get my @#$#&)! photos off my camera onto the new iPhoto on the new computer. Gah. I wish to hell I'd never upgraded. But cake! And Hugh! And doggies with Santa!