A very happy birthday!

Well, yesterday I turned 29, which is frighteningly close to 30 but I'll try not to think about that. As I learned from my mom and grandma, it was my "golden birthday" because I turned 29 on the 29th. It seems to me it must be an extra-special golden birthday since it fell on the 6th month of the 6th year, but maybe that's stretching it...

Fun numbers or not, I had a really nice birthday. For starters, I am just so happy to celebrate it in Oxford! I continue to feel very lucky to be here. I also got all kinds of nice e-mail wishes and cards from home, so I don't feel so far away from home, either! Thanks very much, everyone.

The morning started with a fun e-mail from my former coworkers and a surprise delivery of flowers from David that look and smell beautiful! I then relaxed outside in the sunshine for awhile, then did some work (feels like play) on my website as usual.

When David got home, I got a cake and fabulous presents from involving large amounts of chocolate, a nice card, and a wonderful book (right) to take to Rome with me! What a guy. The book has detailed plans of dozens of Rome churches, showing exactly where to look for the 4th-century mosaic, foundations of a church built by Constantine, the sculpture by Bernini, etc. Great stuff!

Then we had a nice evening walk into town for an al fresco dinner at a restaurant called QUOD, which was really good.

I took a camera with me for all of this and have put together a gallery so you can all vicariously join us for the fun! There's lots of photos of Oxford sights that I snapped as we walked into town, and more birthday details in the captions, too. Check it out here:

Birthday Photo Journal

Mom and Grandma - I'll send you photo prints!