Yes, The Rumors are True: Today is my Birdday

Since I live in Germany, all the stores, shops and pubs are closed today (Sunday), meaning I cannot go out to relieve my birthday depression by spending the day in a state of giggly inebriation with my NYC drinking pals.

But, thanks to my beloved spouse (whom I love more with each passing day), I am sitting in a (new) bed in a cool room under a (new) eiderdown duvet with a steaming latte perched next to me, my laptop warming my lap, and a pile of gifts to unwrap.

My birdday celebration actually started a few days ago, when my spouse came home from work, carrying a stunningly beautiful orchid that is in full bloom (photographs to follow). I have happily added this plant to the growing indoor jungle that my spouse has encouraged me to assemble (yes, I am very good at keeping all manner of living things, especially plants, fish and birds). Then after spending part of Saturday writing and collecting provisions for the following day, my spouse gave me a mug of steaming Glühwein and hooked up the (new) beamer to a (new) DVD player and we snuggled under a (handmade by his mother) quilt and watched the first Harry Potter film (using our new Heimkino surroundsound sound system!) projected -- very large -- onto the wall .. and we plan to finish watching the Harry Potter series today (yes, that will be a marathon!). It was better than being in a moviehouse because my feet weren't stuck to the theatre floor, there weren't any brats relentlessly kicking the back of my seat throughout the film, and I didn't have to continually move to see around the tall man with the fat head who always chooses to sit exactly in front of me and block my view.

Today, for the first time in my adult life (and most of my childhood, too), I am actually celebrating my birdday! I unwrapped the pile of gifts (pictured at the top) to discover that my spouse got me the first Harry Potter book -- in German!! (so now I have additional motivation to learn German). This book expands upon my already respectable Harry Potter book language collection (American English, Spanish and Indonesian so far).

My spouse also got me a Moleskine book that fits into the palm of my hand. For those of you who don't know, ever since the first moment I saw them, I've LOVED everything about Moleskine books. For those of you who have never seen them and therefore have no idea what I am babbling on about, here's some Moleskine porn for you to feast your eyes upon;

[Oh, for those of you who are curious, the long skinny package was a German Faber-Castell "grip" pencil]

I also was given a ProSound microphone by my spouse's brother (as an encouragement to begin podcasting) and a collection of handmade birdday cards created by his family. One of the pictures on a card created by his niece included this lovely work of art;

Well, my latte is gone, the birds are yelling, my allergies are acting up and I am feeling disgusted by my tangled hair, so I'll sigh out for now. I will be popping in every few hours to check on my blog (I also plan to write a little something as a gift to you all), but for now, I have to shower and feed the parrots so I can sit down (in peace) and watch more Harry Potter DVDs! But before I do that, I will leave you with one more Moleskine porn flick to enjoy;