My birthday was Wednesday. So if my math is correct (because the older I get the less I care, so whenever anyone asks, I always have to pause to do the subtraction in my head) that makes me 38. Two more years til I hit 40, which quite frankly does not bother me as much as I suppose it should. Perhaps that is because I have always managed to avoid having any sort of freak out about my own age by having a little mini one about the age of my older sister. She is just a little over one year older than me, which means she always hits the milestone years first, and that gives me time to do the ‘holy crap, how did she get to be *that* many years, and that means I’m next’ a year early so by the time my birthday rolls around, I am so over it, and ready to just move on with life.

But anyway. I had my birthday and as my birthday usually goes, considering its close proximity to a holiday, it tends to stretch out over a few days. Richard gave me presents on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning (including some wonderful knitting books I’d been wanting, and my very own Mr. Bento, and of course the latest version of Civilization, which I have been playing every single night since. Knitting? What knitting?) . Since the family gathering part of the birthday wasn’t going to happen til this weekend, he cooked salmon on the grill – or tried to, because we have now discovered that the stuff that looks like charcoal but isn’t (it’s made of wood or something) might burn, but it produces not nearly enough heat. So we gave up on the salmon and tossed it onto the broiler and it turned out just fine.

I have been having fun with my Mr. Bento, because it makes planning out a lunch a different sort of challenge, centered around trying to find enough different things to put in all the little boxes. I haven’t tried bringing hot food yet, but if I fill the exterior container with ice in the morning and stick it in the fridge, it can then sit on my desk all day and everything inside remains nicely cold until I’m ready to eat it. Also I am inexplicably charmed by the fact that it comes with its very own stainless steel spork, but we all know that I am easily amused, so I am sure this comes as no surprise to anyone.

Presents have arrived in the mail – a very cool cellphone holder shaped like a dragon; a book of celtic crossstitch designs that I intend to transcribe to stranded colorwork for knitting. And this evening we had the full family gathering, all of us meeting at the usual midpoint in Fairfield for dinner and chatter and presents.

So it’s been a rather nice week, as far as birthdays go. I even managed to squeeze in some knitting and a shopping trip with my mom in between work and endless games of Civ 4.