Birthday Prezints!

Not Birthday Preznits, mind you. That would be kinda appalling.

My birthday was at the start of the month, but the vagaries of the postal system just brought the last of my presents at the end of this week--a much-needed spirit uplift given the flooding we had in the basement on Friday evening and the cold I've been fighting off for most of the last two weeks.

The big package was from

nellorat's sister,

nigelpuggle's mommy, and it was wonder-filled. Books: Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners, The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly; the DVD of the first season of Penn & Teller's Bullshit!; two different Wait Wait Don't Tell Me coffee mugs and a Wait Wait baseball cap; and great cards and nicknacks (and an amazing supply of little boxes of All-Bran cereal).

I had earlier received Eric Boehlert's Lapdogs from my parents, Masters of American Comics from my sister, and many nifty little things from nellorat and

supergee. And generous checks from my ancestors. I gots great family.