Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes. Yes, he really is wonderful (most of the time). And no, I don’t plan on giving him up. 😀

My birthday was nice. I got a surprise phone call from a dear friend whom I haven’t seen in four years and spent a while chatting with her. And while I didn’t get a “buttload of books” like Andi wished, I did win two from Book Binge. I wasn’t the original winner, but she never responded, so whomever she is I have her to thank for my two “birthday” books. I originally chose the two Judith McNaught books, but I realized that reading 1400 pages in two weeks — on top of everything else — was a bit much, so Holly very nicely let me switch. I chose Colleen Gleason‘s Gardella vampire books, which have been on my TBR list for a while now anyway. I also received Cinder Edna (which is really hard for me to say) from a good friend here in Kansas. It’s a delightful alternative telling of Cinderella… it’s nice to know I’m not to old for picture books!

Other than that, we just had a little party at home. I made my cake, a chocolate-marshmallow confection that was a bit too sweet for my taste. (Good to know; I’ve been meaning to try out that recipe for a while.) Here’s the bonfire I had to blow out (we only had a 3 number candle, so we attempted to make a 5 out of regular candles):

And I got a lovely pair of earrings from my girls, money from my in-laws, and this from my parents:

So it was a very nice birthday.

Now back to what we usually do around here.