Birthday Loot

I am 38! And about time too, since 37 was hell. Here's what I received:

• Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions by Arthur M. Shapiro and Timothy D. Manolis
• Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Including Bees of the Western United States by Gretchen Lebuhn
• Wildflowers of Northern California's Wine Country & North Coast Ranges: A Photographic Guide to Native Plants of Marin, Sonoma, Napa & Mendocino Counties by Reny Parker


• The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
• Substituting Ingredients: The A to Z kitchen Reference by Becky Sue Epstein


• Half of a Yellow Sun: A novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rushdie


• this poster print photograph of wildlflowers on Table Mountain in Oroville, California
• four stone coasters with pictures of cats on them


• an automatic door closer (for the door between my garage and my house; recommended by the home inspector for fire safety)
• two backflow preventers for my garden hoses (recommended by the home inspector for indoor water safety)


• the CD The Most Incredible Thing: Complete Ballet Score by the Pet Shop Boys

And I've read To Kill a Mockingbird before, but not since eighth grade, when it was assigned reading, so I figured it was time to read it as an adult.

The very most exciting present was the Salman Rushdie memoir; I've been so eager to read it that I barely restrained myself from just buying it for myself rather than waiting to receive it as a gift. I already read the first chapter or so of it tonight while at my parents' house.

And this is a picture my mother took of me while I was at my parents' house, not for my own birthday but for my little brother's birthday, which was earlier this month. My own birthday was much the same, so this can serve to illustrate both.