Birthday wishes

Well the Red Sox just won the World Series, so that one didn't come true either. Hate the Red Sox. Hate the Celtics. Not that crazy about Boston in general. Hope they don't take up the mantle of "team of the decade" or "America's team." That would be just.too.much.

Yes, I had a birthday this week, and I'm of an age where that isn't necessarily good news. Even though everyone quips, "Well, consider the alternative!" Ha freaking ha. For instance, I have only one year left in an age bracket (designed by media consultants and insurance companies) that I never felt applied to me. Now I'm headed into an even more improbable one. By your late 40's, birthdays become slightly taunting -- another year when I didn't publish a novel, swim laps every day, or read all the books I've checked out from the library. And you aren't as likely get the great, extravagant gifts either. Though I am looking forward to my upcoming visit to the Caviar Bar at the Ferry Building. And I did love my birthday cake from Satura, and celebrating with the dear friends that make up my book group.

Also, on the up side, there are still things to learn, new areas of expertise to develop. The ever-expanding world of the Internet for one. Just when you start to become a little bored with it and think you've discovered all it has to offer, you stumble across a new site that captures your fancy. Or changes your life. I found the latter, and I'm not exaggerating. Some one(s) have created a comprehensive knitting site that anticipates and fulfills your every knitting need. It's called ravelry.com and it's still in beta form, so you add your name to the list and in a few weeks (or several; okay, somewhere between 4-10) they contact you and give you access to the site. Which is so incredibly amazing. I have been a knitter for a long time, decades even, and I have yet to find or create a system to track all my knitting paraphernalia and projects. Which, it turns out, has been a good thing that's allowed me to live in denial about all the knitting stuff I have accumulated over said decades. But, the geniuses at ravelry have created a flexible, interactive system to catalog all my current projects, my unfinished projects, my projects that have yet to come to fruition, and all of the yarn I have purchased here and there over the years. And let me tell you, that is a shocking, shocking amount of yarn. I haven't even entered it all yet, and I am convinced (in this one discrete area) my mother is right -- I really do have too much yarn. It's a common joke among knitters that whoever dies with the most yarn wins, but I now have to face the fact that I actually possess more yarn than I can knit in this lifetime. And take steps to decrease that stash. Because ravelry has a category called the queue (so British, so adorable) where you list your fantasy future projects. (Do they know knitters or what?) And despite all the yarn I already own, I confess I've made entries in my queue. Therefore, I have to get rid of some old yarn and abandoned projects to let in the new. Which is having a very relieving (and revealing) effect. There are abandoned baby sweaters that will either be frogged or finished and donated, whichever option is most conducive to shrinking the stash. And yes, they have a category for frogged projects! and hibernating projects! They're geniuses, I tell you, geniuses. I'm inspired to tackle my other primary weakness -- too many books. And maybe, CD's that I don't listen to so much. You can see where I'm going with this.

Here's an example of another area of expertise I'm developing. I have a riddle for all you fans of The Wire. Two actors from Seasons One and Two attended Harvard. Who are they? The great news about the Wire is that the fifth (I refuse to believe final, even though that's what the creators say) season is set to air in January 2008. And, the Season Four DVD set will be available in early December, according to Amazon and Netflix. Let me just mention how disappointed I was not to have received a pre-order on this magnificent show as a birthday present. Ahem, ahem, I guess I'll just have to put it at the top of my Christmas list. Local niecelet, spread the word.

As a lead-in to the delivery date, I will be sharing with you some of the classic, memorable lines from Seasons 1-3 of the Wire, sayings that I frequently apply to appropriate moments in my own daily life. Expect some of the wisdom of Omar, Bunk Moreland and Bodie from the Barksdale crew. Just a little touch of BalMer reaching out to the Bay Area.

I know a bunch of people -- friends and relations -- that have October and November birthdays. Since we are roughly in the same age bracket, I'm assuming that Valentine's Day used to be celebrated in style... And a happy happy to you all!