Thanks, all! A friend called this morning and asked if I was giving myself something for my birthday, that she and her sister (decades older than me) do that each year. But there isn't much I can think of; at this point there is no place to go in a new outfit or pair of shoes or nice new earrings. :)

I spontaneously decided my gift to myself a rearranged sewing and storage room. It was originally my daughter's bedroom and was still set up as a bedroom with my craft stuff on one wall, so it took a few hours and lots of photos to my daughter to see if she wanted some of the craft things I wasn't going to keep. There is a stash of frames and foam core in the SUV to be delivered to her one of these days, and the bed is now in the corner and I have lots of floor space. This evening finds me shopping my house, so to speak, looking for a table to use in there for some of the equipment I want to leave set up. So it has been a nice day and I'm enjoying the functionality of this room that even yesterday I hadn't thought much about changing. The birthday wishes have been useful!

A late dinner and a glass of wine will finish off the evening. My daughter's birthday is a week ahead of mine so we will get together for a dinner; this year it will probably be a picnic on the front lawn since she lives with a group of people in another town and it isn't possible to create a COVID-19 "pod" right now that would let people come into the house. We do live in strange times.

In my county there was a spike in COVID-19 cases two weeks ago, and then leveling off, but with a holiday weekend here now, we need to wait two more weeks to see if things spike again. If they don't, then we have plans as a family to try to create a pod of two, so my ex can come over and into the house, since we both work from home and are careful not to go out often. The next stage will be to let our daughter in once numbers show an improvement in her county as well. We've all become odds-makers and statisticians in this unhealthy time.

I haven't used this year much so I should just stay the same age and try again next year.

Thanks again!