First, thanks for the birthday wishes. I haven't thanked a lot of people individually yet because I've had a really busy week, although in general a good one.

It just got a bit better. I opened the mail and found a letter from the state department of revenue, the income tax people. It seems they disagreed with my calculation of deductions for the 2008 tax year and sent me a nice refund. It's not enormous, but it will almost pay the cost of bringing M:TNG-1 home for Thanksgiving.