Now I am 36

It's closer to 40 than it is 30. That can make me gulp if I dwell on it, but it's all silliness, I know.

Things that happened my birthday weekend:

#1 - It was quiet and peaceful. That, in large part, was because my in-laws kept the kids and we headed off for a weekend in a Gatlinburg cabin with a sauna and hot tub. There is great value in totally relaxing.

#2 - I learned a new word: Loyly - the steam produced by pouring water over hot rocks in a sauna.

#3 - I read an entire 400+ page book: Archangel by Sharon Shinn. More of that sci-fi & theology mix that I'm really enjoying right now. It's so much fun for me to see the age-old theological questions brought up in a completely different context so that different answers are possible. For example: If god is omnipotent, why does god allow children to be enslaved? In this book the answer is: god doesn't, just give it time and the right people to do the work. The joy of inventing different parameters! But I like how it pushes one to reflect back on current, real-life issues: give it time and the right people to do the work.

Of course, conversely, I think god in this instance is a being on a space-ship who communicates to the oracles through a computer interface and likes music... but it does cause one to reflect about it all anyway.

As an aside: Can someone figure out a job for me in which I get paid to read? I'm really good at it.

#4 - I'm not sure this was the best part, but it was the perfect way to end the weekend away: Dear friends of ours had their baby on my birthday & I got to hold him.