First of all, thanks to everyone for the lovely birthday wishes yesterday.  Such a wonderful thing to have pop up in my inbox - every single one was greatly appreciated.

I did have a nice birthday.  I've never been big on having a whole big thing or going out, so we stayed in and it was quiet and cozy.  Of course, any birthday dinner is improved by watching KU come from behind to erase a 19-point deficit to beat Missouri in overtime in our last Big 12 meeting - I mean, seriously.  It was beautiful.  I asked everyone not to get me much in the way of gifts, because I'm becoming more and more uncomfortable with people spending money on me as I get older, but my parents did buy me a new graphics card for my computer (maybe now I will be able to play Civ V!), and my sister got me this gorgeous fountain pen - I've wanted a nice fountain pen for years, and now that I have one, I don't know what to write with it.  I mean, everything, obviously, but I also want to do something fancy or special. It's too bad no one writes letters anymore.  You could write some very snazzy letters with that.