I love... burritos at four a.m.

... Parties that never end
Dogs that love cats
And twins!

Ladies and gentlemen, my fine twin sons.

Oh wait… I don’t have twins. That’s just Gideon, singular, who was down over the weekend for my birthday, playing with the Photobooth feature on my fine new iMac. Or, to be more specific, my fine new iMac with the 20” screen, which was a present from my dear, dear, lovely Jeff. I see now, in retrospect, how much it pained him to see me pounding away at my cumbersome old PC, staring at a monitor that’s nearly ten years old – oh, 17” was so BIG in those days -- covered with odd stickers and the customer support number for my old modem written in Sharpie marker and that generalized grimy look that putty-colored plastic acquires. Now that I have this beautiful gleaming white sleek machine sitting on my desk, I realize just what a blot on the general landscape my old computer was. (Now it’s my desk and attendant clutter that are blots on the landscape, but that will be addressed soon. Honest.)

Blot or no, it was a ridiculously wonderful, extravagant gift. It’s fast, it’s streamlined, it does cool tricks. And mostly it’s from someone I love. This birthday was just amazing, and I don’t mean the loot – the crazy amounts of love and good will that came pouring in my direction will stick with me for a while. Or at least I hope so. I may be highly unworthy, no matter what all these people are thinking, but I can at least aspire. I may be, in fact, fairly selfish and lazy and incapable of remembering other people’s birthdays and anniversaries and such, but everybody else seems to think I’m good, and that gives me a little bit of a head start. Just a tiny one. But that’ll do.