Day 5

Very big-girl day. Refinanced our house. Took Jules to the doctor for a mysterious rash. (He's fine. Rash, still a mystery). Hired an electrician to save our home for imminent fire. Seriously. Take it from me: If your lights have been flickering for a month, call an electrician ASAP no matter what anyone else says. I have taken over all electrical responsibilities at our house.

Also, I received the MOST thoughtful birthday gift from my sis, Kate: Joy of Cooking, 1975 edition. (Recall: the year I was born).

See?

I have a humungous cookbook collection. But, bizarrely, until today, I did not own Joy of Cooking. I may have mentioned that I wanted it. I may have... and maybe even that I'd heard one of the older editions was better. (I think my wise co-worker Stacy, who manages EatingWell's Test Kitchen told me this.) Or I maybe I didn't say anything at all. But Kate knew it'd be the perfect gift.

When I told Jon about Kate's awesome gift, this was his response: "What the f*ck? You're f*cking kidding me. That girl is totally out of line with her 'perfect' presents."(Note: Jon loves my sis. Perhaps more than he loves me. In a totally appropriate way, of course.)

Huh?

Turns out, Jon had ordered the exact same thing for me for Christmas, just hours earlier.  I seriously don't recall talking about wanting to get this book so this coincidence is totally blowing my mind still hours later. Anyway, Jon cancelled the order, noting that his reason for the return was, "My wife's sister bought my wife this very same book for her birthday. Now I, her husband, am left trying to figure out what to buy her for Christmas." Oh. I might note that it is our (mine and Jon's) tradition to buy each other a book (one that has some significance) for Christmas.

So today I have no trouble identifying the targets of my gratitude: the two people who seem to know me better than I know myself. Oh, and the man who saved our home from catching fire.