My birthday is less than two weeks away.  27 was a very good year for me; I hope 28 is decent, too.  In fact, if 28 will promise to simply stabilize the goodness from being 27, I'd be content with that.

My first birthday present arrived Thursday at work.  From my sister.  Well, from Amazon.com, but courtesy of my sister's bank account.

Jerry knows what he's getting me for my birthday, and he seems pretty proud of himself for thinking it up (he refused to shop from my list).  Fortunately, I don't need to buy any significant gifts for him for a few more months at least.  His birthday is in December, right before Christmas.  I suppose I'll need to buy something in August, since that's when we've determined our anniversary to be for the time being (it might change at some future date), but I think I already know what I'm going to do for that.

Tonight, Michelle and I are going out to a nice dinner to celebrate our birthdays.  We're going to X/O, which is a little pricey, but since it's for our birthdays, I think we can handle the extravagance.  Afterward, we're returning to her place for creme brulee and a bottle of dessert wine that we discovered at the February wine tasting.  We also have small gifts to exchange.  I'm really happy with my gift for her.  I was originally going to get Kung Fu Hustle, simply because it was a fun and campy movie that we enjoyed together, but then I saw a book at Borders that screamed "Michelle!" at me.  The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.  It's right up Michelle's alley, and I'm confident that she'll enjoy it.  If not, then I'll order the movie off amazon.com and keep the book for myself.  I already want to borrow it when she's finished.   And I have spare ideas for her for Christmas, so I'm set.

Incidentally, it's not a good idea to read CNN.com concurrently with The Onion.  I had a paper Onion while at CNN.com yesterday.  It was difficult to separate fiction from reality.

I've started The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.  It's a young adult novel, and Book One of the His Dark Materials trilogy.  There was an intriguing article about Pullman in The New Yorker a few months ago, thus sparking my interest.  But I had some books I knew I needed to get out of the way first.  Thus far, Compass hasn't completely captivated me, but some of the imagery is fun, and I'm only a couple chapters in, after all.  I like to give books 50 pages or so to engage my interest.  Ideally, I would like to finish this book and the second book of the trilogy by my birthday.  Whether or not I'll succeed is anyone's guess.

The two afghans I'm working on are coming along at a decent pace.  I think I might finish both of them before fall, which will be nice.  Then I can try knitting them for friends.  Yikes!  Jerry has taken a break from crocheting doilies (yes, doilies...Wonder Twins activate powers Supergay!  Fab-ulous!), and is working on potholders.

The footprints option Xanga gives us now is interesting.  Apparently, I have very loyal readers in California and Kansas.  The Kansas really surprises me, because I didn't know I knew anyone in Kansas who would follow my life that closely.  Maybe I don't, and it's just some random girl who stumbled upon my site and thought me a compelling read.  So, anyway, here's a shout-out to my loyal fans in California, Kansas, and also Ontario, whomever you may be!

As for now, I have an essay I need to write, for future posting here.   Be good kids!