Forty

Well, today I turned 40. I was telling a friend of mine a couple of days ago that I don't feel 40 (although maybe everyone who turns 40 doesn't feel that way). I remember when I was very young, maybe 10 or so, and I thought about the year that I would be 40 and it seemed -- literally - an eternity. I couldn't even imagine the year 2000, let alone 2007, and now it's here. Wow. I feel pretty darn good for 40, so hopefully it bodes well for the future.

I didn't have much of a celebration, though, since we are still totally under the gun about the barbecue we've scheduled next weekend (the actual birthday party). The koi pond has escalated into a full construction project in of itself. Today Walt built a small retaining wall in the pool to hold up the patio -- part of it is right up to the patio, and it needs some support. The pond itself has become a whole little mini-project. I'm just hoping that we can get most of the pavers in before Saturday; we've got enought to put a barbecue in at least, so in the worst case, we can barbecue and eat upstairs.

Walt did get me a birthday cake, though, which I really enjoyed (although Devon enjoyed it more). Sometime later in the month we'll go out for a real birthday dinner. It also didn't help that today is Easter (including Eastern Orthodox, which is rarely the same day as the western Easter) and it's also Passover, so lots of places are closed. I was really shocked today when Devon and I went to the Gap to buy her big girl underwear (we're trying to encourage more potty usage by purchasing real underwear as an incentive) and it was closed for Easter. In fact, loads of the stores today were closed -- since when is Easter a standard holiday? I thought it was quite weird. It reminded me of when I came back to the US from Israel and I was really struck by how, despite the separation of church and state (outside of the Bush adminstration, of course, which is almost like a little equivalent to Vatican City), the entire country is just steeped in Christianity (and things like Christmas and Easter are considered to be holidays).

Devon had a great weekend, primarily because she got to have birthday cake for two evenings in a row. My mom and Jon had us over to dinner last night, and Jon cooked this Moroccan fish tagine that Devon devoured -- it was truly staggering how much she ate -- and then afterwards polished off a fat slice of chocolate decadence cake that Jon had made. Then tonight she also got some of the cake that Walt bought at Schubert's today. What could be better?

We also went to the Discovery Museum this weekend (otherwise known as the "Play-Doh Museum"), primarily because it was miserable weather on Saturday. That museum is a great place for rain, since there are numerous indoor activities including painting, "play-doh" (which is really Delta Sand, a mix of pumice and wax), paper Easter egg making, etc.

This afternoon we also colored eggs. I had, frankly, entirely forgotten about egg coloring -- and of course it also plays into my desire not to celebrate Christian holidays in which I don't believe. But I justified the eggs with the idea that the Easter Bunny is clearly not Christian -- but more importantly, Devon had colored some at Elaine's and was eager to do it again. One of my coworkers on the train mentioned that she had taken her son to an Easter egg hunt at the zoo, and I suddenly realized that perhaps we should make a nod in that direction. Maybe next year we'll attend a more organized egg hunt; she'd probably like doing it with other kids anyway (and I can tell you that the dyeing is really messy and is best avoided).