So yesterday was Odious's birthday. His delight in the gift I gave him was a great vindication (ah, there's the word I've been trying to think of for a week now) of our upcoming marriage--I guess I know him pretty well. One of his favorite books has long been G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday, which I have to say has never overly impressed me. It's not easy to find anymore, being fairly unknown, and to our great dismay his treasured copy was recently redecorated by my dear rabbit (almost his only flaw is his taste for books!). I felt guilty enough about it that it weighed on my mind for some time, and finally I decided to visit Alibris in search of a better copy for a birthday gift. What a terrific site that is! I much prefer it to Half.com, which delivered the wrong edition of the Chronicles of Narnia to my door a while ago--but I digress. To my delight I found that an annotated version had been recently published; a new, discounted copy was readily available and delivered within a week. As an added bonus, the annotator is Martin Gardner, whose notes on Alice in Wonderland have long been a staple of our library. Anyway, Odious was so pleased that he claimed it was the best gift he'd received since his first bike--I feel that that deserves a little self-congratulation.