First off, though I told him early this morning at dawn's crack,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAN!!!!!

My husband is another year older today, and later on, we will be going out for dinner at an undisclosed (to him) locale. This morning I gave him Sufjan Stevens' Illinois album, because we saw him performing with his Band of Butterflies on Austin City Limits this past weekend when we were flipping through the channels for something to watch, and we just couldn't pass up watching a guy who'd outfit all the members of his band with big butterfly wings on their backs. Couple that with my husband's Midwestern ancestry (by way of California, where he was born and raised), his being a University of Illinois alum, and the fact that Stevens does a song on his album about Pulaski Day, and voila! Birthday gift for my love and my life partner.

He can take in Sufjan Stevens occasionally when he carpools off to Baton Rouge and back for work, since he's the one with a CD player in his car (my husband, that is). Enjoy, honey.

How else did I commemorate my husband's birth? I dropped our son off at school, I went on in to vote "Dollar Bill" Jefferson out of office and to amend the city charter to put one assessor in office to attend to property values down here instead of seven assessors (I kid you not. Who says political patronage is a thing of the past? HA. HA. I say.), among other things to vote on locally in the booth, and I helped out at our local library with shelving books and making sure kids and parents were happy campers in the children's section.

These days, every time I vote, I think of my husband, who is one of the few people my age that I have known (including myself) who makes it a point to vote regularly. I think it's one of the reasons why he loves it down here in the first place is because politics is such a spectator sport here in which we really can participate, at least on many local issues. Lately, he hasn't been able to vote in the past few elections because of the idiotic hold that was put on his license ages ago when we moved to New York. Now that it's lifted, he can once again use his index finger in the electronic booths here to exercise his voting rights. Nice birthday gift, huh?

I wish I could give my husband the world on a platter. But I can't.

1) I'm just not making enough money. Period.
2) Where the heck would he put it?
3) Our family and home is all he needs (right? Right?????!!!??!?)

So I'm taking him to this place tonight instead. Best way to his heart sometimes truly IS through his stomach.