Birthday Wrap-Up

With my birthday falling in the midst of tax season, I'm usually too tired after work to want to do anything special. This year, in what is beginning to look like tradition since it's what we did last year, we picked up take-out sushi and ate at home. I wanted to watch the Jeopardy IBM challenge (I had recorded all 3 shows) so that's what we did. And it was lovely.

I did also get some gifts that arrived in the mail from my parents.


I was thrilled to find a new toolbox, a small solar-powered fountain pump, a garden kneeler and a Jelly Belly candy assortment that included a favorite from my childhood: fruit gems! I heard from my parents in-law that I have a new pot coming my way, which is perfect since I got a gift card from my brother to the Home Depot that will be perfect for filling said pot with plants. I suppose all these things might not sound terribly exciting, but I was pretty happy about them.

And despite being a one-car household, Steve managed to sneak to downtown Santa Cruz while I was at work and buy me an absolutely fabulous necklace. He is always spot-on with the gifts he gives me, but this time he outdid himself (I really love it, can you tell?). Unfortunately, the length of the chain makes it lie funny on my neck, but that can be fixed. Until that happens, here's a picture of it lying on my other birthday gift from Steve.


In that black case is an iPad (Steve and I agree, iSlate would have been a much better name, but nobody asked us). It was supposed to be my Christmas gift, but didn't quite happen, but it's here now. I still use our desktop computer for writing-intensive tasks like blogging, even though I don't find the iPad as difficult to type on as I would have expected. But, I use the iPad a lot for reading articles online, checking e-mail and making to-do lists. I really enjoy having it. Steve was kind enough to let me begin using it when it arrived, and didn't make me wait until my birthday.

In short, I had a low-key but very nice birthday. 28 feels suspiciously similar to 27, but I'm optimistic that it'll be a good year.