Bookshelf:

Recently Read:

• Dan Simmons, The Fall of Hyperion

Currently Reading:

• Margery Allingham, Mystery Mile

Next Up:

1. Yogesh Chadha, Gandhi: A Life
2. L. E. Modesitt, The Ghost of the Revelator
3. Margery Allingham, The Gyrth Chalice Mystery
4. Wil McCarthy, The Collapsium
5. Margery Allingham, Police at the Funeral

A Very Pleasant Birthday

Thursday was my birthday, as a few readers may already know. I turned 34, which - oddly enough - is a year older than I turned last year. Aah, the relentless march of time.

My birthday itself was fairly low-key, but enjoyable. I got some nice gifts from my family, got to work a little late, and spent the day mostly fixing some bugs I felt like fixing. Seemed fairly reasonable. Then Thursday night I played Ultimate, ran several end-zone routes for scores, and Subrata brought cake from The Prolific Oven, which was yummy and went over really well with everyone else on all the teams. Not that this was a surprise!

But the really nice surprise came on Friday: Debbi had been telling me for a couple of weeks that she expected me to really like her gift to me, and I really had no idea what it was. So she handed me a large, wrapped box when she arrived.

She crocheted me an afghan!

She has an afghan on her bed which she crocheted for herself ten years ago, and I'd admired it a number of times. I'd even put "afghan" on my Christmas list, which prompted a fast e-mail from her to my family telling them that she was already making me one! (Apparently my Mom's response was, "Well thank goodness. Now I won't need to learn to crochet.") She'd apparently started back in September and had spent many of her weeknights working on it.

I was floored. I'd had no idea she'd had this in mind. And she used some of my favorite colors. It's really professionally done, too; no loose strands, and straight edges and joins between the separate squares. I put it on my bed almost immediately:

Of course, the cats took to it immediately:

...though they still like their old throw blanket, too (but aren't so wild about flashes which make their eyes look like they're firing laser beams):

It's quite warm, too, on top of my comforter. It might migrate downstairs during the summer. Or, maybe I'll just put the comforter in a closet.

It's really one of the nicest gifts I've ever received. And on top of that she took me out to dinner, too. What a gal! I'll keep her!

It was a pretty quiet week other than the birthday events. I spent most of Monday and Tuesday nights reading, then spent Wednesday night gaming.

Saturday our Ultimate league played a tournament. I was still somewhat sore from Thursday (which was our first game in about six weeks), but I played for a couple of hours anyway. Debbi came out and watched. My triumphant moment (and some days I have to take 'em where I can find 'em) came when I got the disk about 1/3 of the way down the field, saw a man sprinting for the end zone, and let off a big backhand huck.

Here's the funny thing: I heard a bunch of people on the field groan, not just opponents calling "Up!" I don't throw deep very often, because my arm isn't that strong and it can be erratic. This time, though, the disk cleared a couple of defenders, drifted toward the edge, and my target caught it just inside the end zone. Score!

Someone on the sideline called out, "Okay, Michael's making all of our hucks for the rest of the day!" Hah-hah. Still, it was encouraging to know that I'm good enough that sometimes I can take a risk and actually execute it. You only get better by trying, of course...

If my forehand ever gets strong enough to go that far, then they're all in trouble.