Can't have a birthday without people

I was kindly invited to a birthday lunch of my friend Winnie and the following pictures will be evidence to prove nothing illegal was done(by me anyways... muahaha)
I figured that this would be a very good opportunity for me to take pictures of people. First, the hugs.
I titled this picture, "D'awwwwwww"
Still trying my darnedest to get a portrait picture down right. I really liked this one.
Taylor and Ashley were there too. (and Dave, Rainier, Ken, Rene, Cameron, and Jenn)
They brought the present we got for Winnie. There she is, kissing Charlene.
She got gas.

After, we went to yee olde comic book shoppe. I figured I might as well play around and take some pictures. Mouse over the picture to see me play with aperture. Yes, I enjoy this. I'm a simple kind of guy.
We went back to Dave and Ken's place and Jan decided to be a model. I am nowhere good enough to capture her beauty, but here's my attempts.
It's still hard for me to take pictures of people. I don't really know how to do it. I guess this is where I need to read up a bit more, but I think also that much of people picture taking is also confidence. If you're not confident with the picture, then will the model be confident with you taking their picture?
Here she is cocking Winnie's gun. Lol, I typed cocking.
Devious.
Winnie decides to get her eyes all gussied up.
The cute birthday girl.
Dave decides to get gussied up as well. Pictures to add to your masculinity album.
Unf. Unf.
Hide it as she may, but the worry in Winnie's eye is present.
Ken pretends to ignore all of us.

I've been using the 35mm lens and I can't seem to want to use my 18-55mm. The extra light and the quickness is just really awesome. However, I continually keep the aperture to F1.8 and it does mess up pictures. I need to keep learning to adjust based on setting instead of just focusing and blurring too much. Learn learn learn!