birthday swag

i’m a gift guy. no question: it’s my love language. and, boy-howdy, did i feel loved on my birthday this past week. the loveliness i received:
- a cool ipod back-up battery (my ipod regularly runs out of battery power on long flights)
- a $25 gift card to our local theater chain
- an intoxicating “gifted” album, via itunes (more on this later)
- a $30 gift cert for amazon. i ordered a book recommended by a friend (the yiddish policeman’s union), and a cd recommended by amazon based on my previous purchase of “th’ legendary shack shakers” (those poor bastards: hellfire hymns)
- a very fancy bottle of wine, along with a hideous “last supper” fake lace tablecloth
- a sweet university of michigan pull-over jacket
- a cool modern art painting by my daughter (including the shell of a flower she brought home from our trip to new zealand), and a beautifully performed viola solo of edelweiss (the lullaby i sang to her every night for the first 5 years of her life)
- a new shower squeegie (yes, i’m a bit obsessive about wiping down the shower so the glass isn’t all spotty, and the old one broke)
- a rocky patel olde world reserve cigar (a very nice stick)
- and, the coup de gras, a sweet portable gps system, which will be so stinkin’ wonderful to have on my trips.

my wonderful family also lead me on a friday night and all day saturday scavenger hunt, which included fun food stops, and two movies (i love movies: we saw pirates 3 and shrek 3). good friends took us out for dinner last night to an amazing little italian joint.

no, seriously, for 44, i scored. i’m truly feelin’ the love.