Thirty seven years ago on this date, the world was blessed with my arrival. It has been paying for that day ever since. I thought it was particularly apropos that my interview appeared today on this most sacred of Lobotomy Land holidays.

I was gifted today by wonderful friends. My good friend Jamie made me a key lime pie (from scratch, no less--delish!) and brought me a bouquet of flowers. My other good friend Jaimie gave me a $20 gift certificate to one of my favorite scrapbook stores. That was matched by one from my friends Russell and DeLyn, too, so I have $40 to spend on nothing but scrapbooking stuff. I can hardly wait! My friend Holly brought me a sugar cookie candle (smells divine) and the new Enya CD. My dear husband gave me a wonderful new professional ball-head tripod. It totally rocks. I can't wait to get out there and start using it! I can see it now--I'll be the envy of my whole photography class! Stacy is taking me to lunch on Monday because she forgot my gift tonight. I told her she could still be my friend, though. :-)

It was a pretty mellow day for a birthday. I went to Joey's soccer game and then to the library to look for photography books for my oral presentation on Monday. The local libraries here mostly suck so I couldn't find a book by Mary Ellen Mark. I had to suffice with Dorothea Lange. I hope I can find a picture that I can reproduce. It might be difficult since she was famous for her photographs of destitute sharecroppers during the depression. Perhaps I could go out to the Burnside bridge and take pictures of the homeless people there. I'm sure they'd just *love* that.

I spent the rest of the day trying out my new tripod (and pinching the hell out of the palm of my hand--youch!) and making West African Groundnut Stew for our West African dinner tonight. We had some really great food--oh man was it good! My favorite was the coconut rice which consisted of pork cubes cooked in a tomatoey-coconutty sauce poured over rice. Man was that good. My groundnut stew was tasty, too. It was made with chicken pieces, stewed tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, onions, garlic, lots of spices and peanut butter. And since today was My Special Day, Jaimie brought a birthday cake.

All in all, it was a quiet but enjoyable day. I always love our International Dinner nights, even when it isn't my birthday. Next up is Thailand. Yum!

I'm feeling sleepy now. Ed kept me up until 3am last night. ::g:: And that was great except that even sleeping in until 10am, I only got 7 hours of sleep. So now I think I'll go to sleep.

Nytol.

--L