Of Birthdays and Such

Today is my wife's birthday, so we had a little celebration at the office (complete with our singing battery-powered gopher belting out the Beatles' "Today is My Birthday," as is traditional for all staff birthdays). This evening, we went to dinner to a place called The Firehouse. The food is wonderful; I recommend it. Most menu items are on the spicy (not necessarily hot) side; steaks, chicken, etc., with marvelous vegetables as sides (asparagus, spinach, carrots, etc., etc.), all of which are zipped a bit with spicy accompaniments. Various and sundry of my brothers and sisters and inlaws and nieces and nephews sent my wife birthday greetings; very nice of them and much appreciated by my wife. Her sister sent her an audio birthday card, shaped as a bottle of champagne that, when opened, made the sounds of a cork popping, champagne being poured, and glasses clicking. It was clever.

Enough about food, though; I am stuffed.

I was contacted today by a Seattle television station, KOMO-TV, with a request that I be interviewed for a program called, I believe, Northwest Afternoon. So, tomorrow I will be interviewed; I have no idea when, or whether, the piece will air. They wanted me to send them a photo...I assume they will flash it on the screen while they play my interview. I'm not in Seattle, so won't see it, but it would be interesting to hear how I come across. Well, maybe not so interesting...oh, well, it's nothing of particular merit.

My sister-in-law sent a link today to an MSNBC web page that offers the opportunity to test one's knowledge of topics that are included in the citizenship interview questions. On the MSNBC page, the questions are multiple choice; in the real world, they are simply asked as questions without answer options offered. I scored 85%, after guessing on several questions. Absent the multiple choice options, I am convinced I would have failed. Check it out.

Nothing more for the moment. I feel a need to get back to writing something other than travelogues. I need time, too, to think about what I want to say. So, maybe I'll take a breather and return with something worthy of your time. We'll see.