Birthday Review

I had a really good birthday on Tuesday. It's one of the best I've had in years. I didn't get much in the way of gifts but that's not what made it special.

I got into the office and almost everyone was already there. They all joyously said "happy birthday" then one of them began to sing. It was cheesy but they all joined in. It was good to start the day with a smile.

After a few minutes (time for me to get my computer fired up), I'm told there is a "laptop" I need to look at. I suppose you could classify a mixed box of Krispy Kreme donuts as a laptop. Yum.

Later, I looked up at our in/out board and noticed somebody had written "HAPPY BIRTHDAY Joe!!" all the way across next to my name. As one of my techs was heading out to fix something, she drew a birthday cake. Other than that, it was a quiet day and I was able to get a few things out of the way.

To top it all off, I received maybe 30 happy birthday wishes on Facebook. All of this made it like a day-long virtual party. It was fantastic.

That evening, the wife an I went out to Chili's for dinner but not before making a stop so I could spend some of the birthday money my mother had given me. I went to the local Staples and bought a Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet. Imagine a big touch pad off a laptop only it uses a pen instead of your finger. These devices are quite handy for photo editing and other digital graphic arts. Wacom has been making them for years and years and they're very good at it. So good, in fact, that many tablet computers have digitizers (the part that lets you write on the screen) made by Wacom.

I didn't have much time to play with it Tuesday but I worked with it some last night. It didn't take me long to get used to it and it is definitely better than a mouse for photo touch-ups. It also makes ticking several check boxes in Gmail much easier. I may have a full review later if I can pull myself away from it long enough.