cheri starts to light the candles on my surprise bday cake on monday...	an arial view of my bday cake and ice cream!	happy jean with her blazing bday cake!	including the puppy in the bday photographs
happy cheri and jean -- cake still ablaze	cagney is to shy to keep licking the empty ice cream container for the camera	baby says, "hi! thanks for the yummy bday ice cream!"	bharat thinking about how good that cake was...
cheri really hoping that annoying bday girl will stop taking so many pictures of her...	another fun shot of the baby!	the cat just looks on, thinking that jean girl is so kooky!	bday party begins with the package 'o goodies from christine
jean intently follows the arrows and package opening rules prescribed by bold markings on the package...	in the bag of "essentials for a birthday bash," jean has found this interesting deflated balloon and long straw...	with all the grad students in the room, we resorted to the directions to figure out that the straw needed to be inserted in the valve...	with one strong exhale (practiced well in those aerobic classes), the mighty jean lungs inflate the balloon to the delight of all!
despite the adorable birthday girl and her antics, the cameraman is distracted by this cute indian and the funky glasses...	next in the bag of bday bash necessities, we find noisemakers -- one for everyone in the room (stranglers end up stealing some later -- including a strong black man who attempts to remove the bday girl's left eye, but I digress). Everyone blows on the noisemaker for a christine picture!	birthday girl's turn to show off her strong lungs and lovely tiarra!! she gets a little confused when the noisemaker extends to the right rather than straight...	still in the bday bash baggie, we come to an adorable banner... cheri keeps asking if it is someone's bday....
now equipped with a tiarra and a sash, bday girl delights in the cute bday votives that are too adorable to actually burn	hmm.. now the cute indian is distracted by the man formally known as cameraman... bday girl is quick to remind said cutie about her duties!! that is, "photograph bday girl, dammit!"	jean adores her cute new blue buddy -- thanks, christine!	emily, the pregnant one, is so excited at cuddling cute babies, she appears to forget that blue buddy belongs to bday girl!
we now begin opening the presents that actually function as intelligence tests for the bday girl -- here, we are testing object recognition abilities (perhaps appropriate for the tarrlab bday girl!)	as we find our fish cutout, giulia, the long-term tarrlab chica, starts spouting about the types of cognitive processes underlying the object recognition process -- show-off!	divya, feeling sore from her reprimand about appropriate camera duties, fixates on capturing every goofy expression on the bday girl's face...	though, in her defense, at least she had the sense to capture the hand cutout --- an absolute fav!
guess you aren't wondering how many cutouts the bday girl enjoyed exploring in present from cheri and bharat... :P	impressed with the artistic rendition of jeanster, we pause to make sure everyone knows just who that addressee is!!	however, unknown to the innocent bday girl, this present from divya and keith was actually a true test of primate intelligence, levels above the simple object recognition test of the earlier gift...	she smiles, thinking what a cute present -- if I only had a clue what the hell one could do with it...
as the crowd laughs at confused jeanster, she responds to the command to scratch her head from anthony, resorting to any primate behavior that could provide a reward (juice or otherwise, by this point)	even cagney comes over to try to help poor jeanster... fortunately, she is saved by the doorbell, delighting in the arrival of jessie and nigel! with the focus removed, divya takes hints from her engineer fiaance about how to actually put the cookbook holder together -- adorable!	yes, I am a spring chicken -- but a spring chicken that gets a discount on her car insurance as of this year!!! woohoo!!	isn't that bday bag awesome --- gorgeous colors!!
but that's right -- emily's present is an adorable bird house!!	trying to reel jean back in to the land of fiction, giulia provides a collection of short stories by an author she loves (obsesses...)...	divya, ensuring jean is back to recognizing abstract objects, writes her name in candles... also requiring another display of robust lung-blowing power!!	cannot forget about the loving companion of the bday girl -- isn't he such a cutie-pie?

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