clarifications

1) The fish are temporary. Especially the one that left us this morning for the Great Toiletbowl In The Sky (even though he got stuck in the pipes of the Lowly Toiletbowl In The Bathroom on his way out). The rest are leaving, apparently/supposedly once their real owner is finished moving into his new apartment. Also, I'm told the tank is supposed to be a little murky. Something about "natural tank environment" (does that sound like an oxymoron to anyone else?).

2) I will indeed be sick on my birthday - seeing as how it's now officially my birthday and I'm still officially sick - but not as sick as I was, so it's OK. Resting a lot and bombing my body with vitamin C and echinacea and zinc and resting some more has done wonders in 24 hours; I feel halfway human again.

3) I believe I have not yet stated for the record how excited I am about (baseball's) Opening Day this weekend. SO excited. Yeah, the Twins are supposed to suck this year, but hell, the Cubs are supposed to be great. And we all know how likely that is, so maybe the Twins will win the World Series. Because that is the obvious logical conclusion. Why? Well, go to your local bookstore right now and order my brother's new book. It will tell you.

4) I like birthdays because they are touchstones, an inspiration to pause and look around at life. And thanks to blogging, I can reflect pretty specifically on where I was and how I was feeling a year ago today. It's amazing to realize all that's happened in this year and how right the decision was to move here.

And that's all I will say for now because it's really late and I need to sleep so that I can actually be awake for most of my birthday.