autographedcat

I've long fallen out of the habit of publicly commenting on birthdays, mostly for fear that I'll eventually forget someone and offend them terribly.

But today is a day I always want to note: the birthday of kitanzi, the best wife and partner I could have ever dreamed to have. You fill my life with joy and happiness every single day.

Happy birthday, love. Here's to many more.

Since it's National poetry month, I think I'll mark today with a poem.

A Sonnet of the Moon
by Charles Best

Look how the pale queen of the silent night
Doth cause the ocean to attend upon her,
And he, as long as she is in his sight,
With her full tide is ready her to honour.

But when the silver wagon of the moon
Is mounted up so high he cannot follow,
The sea calls home his crystal waves to moan,
And with low ebb doth manifest his sorrow.

So you that are the sovereign of my heart
Have all my joys attending on your will;
My joys low-ebbing when you do depart,
When you return their tide my heart doth fill.

So as you come and as you do depart,
Joys ebb and flow within my tender heart.

A very happy birthday wish to my darling kitanzi, the best wife, lover, partner, and friend anyone could ever hope to have.

I couldn't let the day go by without wishing a happy birthday to my beloved kitanzi, the best wife, partner, lover and friend that anyone could ever hope to have.

Happy birthday, love. I hope it's full of magic.

Happy birthday to my beloved sweetmusic_27! Hope your day is full of magic, sweetie!

Happy Birthday today to Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967), who in 1926 founded Amazing Stories magazine, ensuring that, as one thing led to another, I’d have something interesting to do on weekends. :)

Happy birthday to my beloved kitanzi, the best partner anyone could ever hope for.

Despite the fact that Friday was my birthday, I had not arranged to take the day off, as had been my habit once upon a time. In all honesty, I just had too much to do at work to spare the time. All in all, it's probably best that I didn't, as it would have complicated my sweetie's plans for me.

kitanzi had requested a half-day two months ago, without telling me. She used this time to be ready for me when I got home, where I found a dozen roses in a vase on my desk, along with a card and a rather tasty key lime cake from Harry's Farmer's Market. It was one of the nicer surprises I could have imagined.

We left the cake for later, and headed off to have a nice romantic dinner. We chose Casa Nuova, a marvelous family-owned Italian restaurant in Alpharetta Casa Nuovoa falls into the category of "hidden treasures" -- to see it from the outside, you'd never guess it was worth visiting. The interior, however, is cozy and the service is impeccable. The food is authentic Italian fare, rather than the more common American-Italian, and the difference is worth seeking out. kitanzi had the seafood casserole, one of the nightly specials, and I had the Scampi Alla Casa Nuova, which was very tasty as well (though I think Kit got the better entree -- hers was exceptional, whereas mine was merely very very good). For an appetizer, we had what may be the best Calamari Fritto I have ever had anywhere.

We skipped dessert (since we had the cake waiting) and returned home to snuggle on the couch and watch the DVD of "Eddie Izzard: Dress To Kill". I had heard this performance before, but never seen the video. The video makes what was already funny even better; Izzard is a very visual performer. About halfway through, we started getting tired, and left the second half of the performance for another night and went to bed.

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend the evening of my birthday. Thanks to everyone for the good birthday wishes here on LJ, and on #filkhaven, and wherever else you sent them to me. (And a special thanks to annonynous and his wife L., for the only physical birthday card I got aside from kitanzi and my mom!)

As I travel through life (For the road is long,and there is yet far to go) I cannot help but think in amazement and wonder how lucky I am that you are walking beside me.

Happy birthday to my love, my sweetheart, my partner, kitanzi

First of all, happy birthday to the sublime catsittingstill on her natal anniversary. I'm still entirely convinced that Cat is not strictly human, but somehow a Tolkien elf who never passed into the West, but at any rate, we're damn glad to have her around.

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I adore Mark Morford. Sometimes he goes a bit over the top, but i love the sensibility that anchors his work. I especially liked column today. I could have written the following about myself:

"I don't watch NASCAR or "WWE Raw" or "The Man Show." I don't read a lot of Maxim or ESPN Magazine or Sporting News nor frequent Gold's Gym with a cadre of thick muscled dudes named Rick or Tony who stand over me and spot my bench presses with a lot of c'mon dude you can do it pump one more rep yeah yeah yeah, just before we all high five and go out for pizza and beer and talk about SportsCenter and the crazy shopping habits/frustrating fellatio inhibitions of our wives.

I do not spend endless hours of every weekend out in the garage rebuilding my rusty old '67 'Stang. I do not grill giant slabs of beef ribs on the Weber every night. I do not reshingle the house or wear khaki Dockers or pound pitchers of Bud Light at O'Shaunessey's during the Final Four. Maybe I should. But I don't.

In fact, I engage in few stereotypical manly guy things largely because I live in the City and enjoy a wickedly urban and decidedly lubricious lifestyle, and tend to find many traditionally "guy" activities to be sort of unfulfilling and uninteresting and occasionally sort of dorky and faux macho and sadly devoid of divine sensuality and intellectual mystery and really good booze. But whatever. That's just me."

The truth is, I've never been entirely comfortable with "guy things". Most of my close personal friends are female. I enjoy "chick flicks". I cry over sentimental things. I find most of the concerns of the "average male" to be banal. I often wonder if there wasn't some sort of mixup in the Souls Routing department, and somewhere out there is a very tomboyish girl who enjoys auto repair and football who was supposed to end up in this body. Something to think over.

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Dayna is definitely feeling much better this morning, and back to her old friendly self. And I got a voice mail from the vet on her blood work from last week, confirming that she's negative for FIV and feline leukemia. This doesn't remotely surprise me, since she's never been outside a day in her life, but it's still reassuring to know her health is in top shape.

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Rejoined the Columbia House DVD club for another set of nearly free DVDs (seven for the price of two, essentially). Picked up Willy Wonka And the Chocolate Factory, Harold and Maude, Sense and Sensibility, The Englisman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down a Mountain, Schoolhouse Rock, Forrest Gump, and the amusing Mel Gibson/Helen Hunt film What Women Want. Also picked up the Matthew Broderick remake of The Music Man, because, let's face it, I'm curious. It takes a lot of guts to step into a part that is so firmly and universally associated with one actor, in this case the late, great Robert Preston. I admit that Harold Hill is a part I've always wanted to do on stage myself. And of course, I got Pirates of the Caribbean because it rocks and stuff.

We didn't actually watch any of these last night, opting for The Daily Show and the last part of the sex in the 20th century documentary that was stacked up on the TiVo. TiVo good. I like the TiVo.

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Almost no one wants to ask me questions? The poll is still open!

First up, Happy Birthday to jhitchin (today), Don (6/27), djbp and mokatiki (6/29).

Second, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes yesterday. Despite having to work (with a server down in the morning and an important meeting in the afternoon, I couldn't take the day off), I had a good day. kitanzi and I went out for dinner, then came home to watch TV and cuddle. I got a phone call from my mom, and called and made a phone date to talk to someone else tonight, and then went to bed early. :)

I often get amused at looking at what other things happened on my birthday, so I went and looked a few of them up. Some I was aware of, and some I wasn't, but here's a run down of the more interesting things:

• June 25th is the birthday of Eric Blair, better known to the world as Animal Farm author George Orwell. 2003 was his 100th Birthday, in fact. It's interesting to see that nearly 20 years after the events of his seminal work 1984, our government is still actively exploring the type of future he envisioned.
  
  
• June 25th is also the Birthday of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Broadway directory George Abbott, King Crimson guitarist Ian McDonald,
  
  
• On this day in 1967, the Beatles recorded the song All You Need Is Love in front of 400 million people during a worldwide television broadcast. This was one I hadn't known about, and I think it's really, really cool.
  
  
• In 841, Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeated Lothar at Fontenay. (I have no idea what this is about, but it just sounds cool - reminds me of the Star Trek episode Dharmok)
  
  
• On this day in 1178, five monks reported seeing something explode on the moon. (I had nothing to do with it. I was elsewhere at the time, and there are witnesses to prove that.)
  
  
• On this day in 1638, a lunar eclipse occurred, the first astronomical event recorded in America. (Again, I had nothing to do with it.)
  
  
• In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, beginning the Korean War. (No really, I was at lunch with my girlfriend. I was nowhere near Asia.)
  
  
• In 1951, the first commercial color TV program was a show presented on CBS using the FCC-approved CBS Color System. The public did not own color TV's at the time.
  
  
• In 1966, the tv show Dark Shadows premiered on ABC.
  
  
• In 1989, 1st US postmark dedicated to Lesbian & Gay Pride (Stonewall, NYC) is issued.
  
  
• In 1993, Canada elected Kim Campbell as its first woman prime minister. (I know nothing about her politics or how good a job she did, but I'm impressed she was elected.)
  
  
• And finally, June 25th marks the anniversary of the passage of 1910's Mann Act. From this day forth, I will encourage every one to celebrate my birthday by transporting a girl across state lines for immoral purposes.