And more happy birthday wishes! Also, a thank you for writing about your late grandmother's life and accomplishments and those of her children. What an amazing subject for a biography!

Happy Birthday! I hope its a great one.

Madonna

Wishing you all the best, today and always! Your posts are always interesting and enjoyable! I hope your daughter cooks up something special for you!
Ellen

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday John!
I hope SWMBO has something special planned for you.

Happy birthday!

Hppy Birthday, John! When I hear about mega cooking marathons, I think of you. I love your posts!

Teresa

Another fan of your posts. Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday to a real CF contributor (unlike me). I wish an enjoyable celebration for you today.

Happy Birthday, John. I hope you are celebrating with SWMBO and the kids. Maybe your daughter will make you sushi?

Annie

Happy Birthday, John! May you have many more!

Cj

Happy Birthday, John!

Happy birthday, you old sausage!

Oh, no, I missed this yesterday. A belated happy birthday, John! I hope you celebrated in style, which I know you can do big time.

Sally

Thanks everyone. This was a low-key birthday, which is how I like it.

No cooking. That was the day before, my daughter made us a mahi mahi stir fry that was very good. She learned how to juggle two woks at once.

Last night we went out to sushi, as that is daughter's new food passion. Then we browsed our favorite vintage/hipster clothing store. I've almost stopped buying clothes at regular retail stores; this store provides in retail-speak, an edited eclectic selection at remarkably cheap prices. I bought a like-new cotton-cashmere sweater from Club Monaco (a Ralph Lauren sub-brand) for $8 - hard to beat that, even if the horizontal stripes are not exactly slimming. Call it a challenge.

We also poked around Powell's bookstore, where I checked out some books on 1980s BMW sedans. I am getting a slight hankering for a "new" car project, and I've always liked the late 1980s BMW 5-series sedans, the last of the boxy no-nonsense Teutonic Beemers. They are quick, solid, and great bargains as future classics. Plus I'm told a fellow who knows how to work on cars (that's me) and who likes to work on cars (that might or might not still be me) can transplant a V8 motor from a later BMW in place of the stock 220 hp six-cylinder M30 motor. We bought a magazine on 3D printing for my son. Home 3D printers are now as cheap as $500, and that would be a pretty interesting thing for us to play with.

My favorite present was a cutting board that has gridlines and measurements for various cuts. Now I can judge exactly how thick to slice for medium dice (1/2"), batonnet (1/4"), julienne (1/8") and fine julienne (1/16") sticks and brunoise. Very useful for the OCD cook.

My least favorite present for this b-day will be making an appointment for my first colonoscopy. Oh joy! The pleasures of entering my fifties. Actually I should have done this last year on my 50th b-day, but have been putting it off.

The pastime currently occupying us is planning for daughter's impending start of college. She is now receiving her college admission and rejection letters, and we are going through the various dormitory choices and studying credit requirements for different degree programs. At this point she is most seriously considering either Fordham University in Manhattan, McGill University in Montreal, UC San Diego, or the Clark Honors College at University of Oregon.

I'm quietly rooting for U of O, it seems perfect to me. The Honors College is a small liberal arts program with just 700 students and their own professors, counselors, building and housing, set in the big campus of a 30,000 student research university. 2 hours from home, far enough for her, not too far for me. It is eminently affordable if you pay in-state tuition. If she wants to get a single room with private bath, to spend five years in school doing multiple majors, to study abroad and take trips, we can do all that and she can still graduate with zero student debt. She likes the campus and the town, and already has some friends who started there last year. So, I hope she picks it. Fingers crossed!

We went to the beach last weekend. The Oregon coast is gorgeous. I haven't been for a couple of years. My friend led us in making a huge sandsculpture (a dragon consuming a hilltop city) that, I'm told, made the local TV news. It was very relaxing, and made me think that perhaps I work too much.

This post was edited by johnliu on Thu, Mar 27, 14 at 10:32