I've been thoroughly birthday'd!!

Everyone has been awesome!

It started Monday, when I got a box in the mail from Tom Z. He gave me a book (big surprise): Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul. Plus two other books that he'd intended to bring up as host gifts when he visited.

Tuesday I got a card from my Mom and Dad with a most generous check. I already spent part of it on a fashionable blue bamboo-and-organic-cotton dress at the Green Festival. (Picture to come...) Today or tomorrow I'm planning on hitting Behnke's for their sale (winter pansies!) And of course I'll be placing a manga order with Amazon.com.

Wednesday my coworker Annette, who'd got my name in our birthday/holiday drawing at work, hosted my birthday celebration at work. I got a chocolate angel-food cake with whipped cream (low-fat and yummy), a card, and several little gifts. The most amazing was peppermint starlights: 385 of them!! I put some in my dish at work, some in Barbara's "free for all" dish, and some in my purse. The rest are stowed in the kitchen. Boy are they heavy!

Yesterday I got a card from Ken's Mom and Dad with a lovely Macy's gift certificate. I'm going there too, of course, for clothes shopping. Then, it being our anniversary, Ken and I had a lovely dinner at the 104th Aero Squadron (a restaurant my mom and dad discovered when they visited). I suggested, and he agreed, that we'll buy a solar and/or gravity-operated waterfall pump for our mini-pond as a mutual anniversary gift. Ecological and beautiful.

I spent my actual birthday driving all the way up to Roseland (east of Baltimore) to co-coordinate an all-day program on teen services for libraries. Specially for my birthday the traffic up was not horrible and drivers were not over-aggressive (not so good on the way home, which was during rush hour). The workshop was excellent--I learned a lot, especially from the experienced, funny, and gifted presenter on teen reluctant reader and great books to suggest (or leave around the teen section for them to "discover" and devour).

Ken had to work late at a special presentation, so I got home, popped in a soy-cheese pizza, and ate that and a slice of my angel-food cake with dark-chocolate sorbet while Ivan snuggled and then chased a hapless cricket around the room.

And this morning I got an email from Bev, our adoption-homestudy social worker, that she sent in her homestudy write-up on my birthday!! What a welcome and long-awaited gift!

An amazon.com box from Ken is forthcoming. So is my birthday dinner!