What a Birthday It Was

Sunday I had a birthday - I'm now 30 with 11 years' experience. All in all it was a lovely day. The Girl made a monstrosity of a chocolate pancake and covered it edge-to-edge with whipped cream, then slathered it with dulce de leche and chocolate syrup, then added another spire of whipped cream on top of that. Pure decadence! I could only eat about four bites before I felt like I would pass out. Add to that a lovely mocha amaretto latte - heavy on the amaretto, just the way I like it - and reading the newspaper in the sunroom and it was just about as perfect a morning as anyone could ask for. I didn't even get dressed until 3 in the afternoon when my sister in law dropped by to bring me a present - a really interesting book about one of my least favorite things in the world - wine.

The Man's card read:
My Wife
My Partner
My Love

"The best love is a lifelong love that sweetens the joys, softens the hurts, and strengthens two hearts as it grows" - J. Hund

We've been together a long time now.
We've laughed and cried
And seen each other through
Our best and worst and everything in between.
And today, when I look at you,
I feel even more love than I've ever felt before.
We have a history together
Full of shared memories that keep us close.
You are so much a part of me
And a part of my happiness
That it's impossible to imagine
What life would have been like without you.
You are my partner and my love,
And I ask nothing more than to spend
All the rest of my life with you.

Happy Birthday
Love,
The Man

The Girl's card read:
Mom, I want to thank you for the very special gifts you've given me all my life.

You've given me the gift of sweet childhood memories.
You've given me the gift of dreams:
The ones you've made come true
And the ones I achieved myself
Because of your encouragement.
But most important of all,
You've always given me the gift of your love,
The most precious gift of all.

There's no way I could possibly thank you enough
For these gifts and so many more.
I will always be so grateful,
And you will always have a special place in my life
-And in my heart.

-I love you mucho-ly! I just hope you know how much you're appreciated. You do so much for everyone and everyone loves you muchly.

Love, The Girl

Well, as you can probably imagine, those cards really got to me. It's not every day a busy wife and mom is told how much she's loved and appreciated.

When he asked me what I'd like for my birthday a few weeks ago, I told The Man that I would like either an iPhone or a new iPod to replace my 3rd generation 4-button 20G that's 6 years old and doesn't have room enough to hold all of my music, much less the audiobooks. He didn't know which one to get so he told me to just go get one or the other. I am now the proud owner of the Holy Grail of tech toys - the iPhone. I've only had it a couple of days but so far, so good. I'll give a full report after I've put it through its paces - but what I can say right now is this: You know how it looks so easy to use on the TV commercials? Yeah. It really is that easy. The coolest part is that it speaks the same language as my computer. Life is good.

I will sooooo be the first one on my block.

This is going to be a great summer. In case you've been hiding under a rock the past few days, Apple has finally unveiled its long-rumored smartphone. As a longtime happy Mac user, I can hardly wait until it's released in June. I was at a Cingular store just yesterday getting help adjusting to my brand new Palm Treo 680 (which is "okay," but doesn't really play well with Mac). I tried to get them to put me on a waiting list for the iPhone, but they wouldn't do it. Grr. That's okay because I will be first in line, dammit. Once you go Mac, you'll never go back, baby.

Imagine. A smartphone that works seamlessly with my MacBook, all the way down to using the same operating system! I could just pee. Sure, people are already hollering about the price tag ($599 for the top-end 8gb version), but in my humble and considerate opinion, knowing first hand Apple's well-earned reputation for making their hardware & software work together seamlessly, just eliminating the frustration quotient will make it well worth the price. Oh, and we mustn't forget to add "cool factor" into reasons this is my #2 must-have of the year. What's my #1 must-have this year? Silly rabbits...that piece of paper that says, "drsharna, PhD," also hopefully out this summer.