Today

Today is Matt's "golden" birthday--23 years old on the 23rd of April. Happy birthday, Matt, with tons of love and gratitude and wishes for all good things.

Matt shares a birthday (date not year) with a number of illustrious people, such as Timothy McVeigh (!), Nathan Chapman, (the first American soldier killed in Afghanistan; we happened to be on the plane that brought his body home), and. . . William Shakespeare!

Today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day. So you can all go around asking your mom, Prithee, Mistress, mayn't I taste merrily of this chocolate cake that thou baked'st yesternight?

Here are a few tips, from the website:

1. Instead of you, say thou. Instead of y’all, say thee.
2. Rhymed couplets are all the rage.
3. Men are Sirrah, ladies are Mistress, and your friends are all called Cousin.
4. Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous bunch-back’d toads.
5. Don’t waste time saying "it," just use the letter "t" (’tis, t’will, I’ll do’t).
6. Verse for lovers, prose for ruffians, songs for clowns.
7. When in doubt, add the letters "eth" to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth).
8. To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth or wherefore.
9. When wooing ladies: try comparing her to a summer’s day. If that fails, say "Get thee to a nunnery!"
10. When wooing lads: try dressing up like a man. If that fails, throw him in the Tower, banish his friends and claim the throne.

And since I was reminiscing this morning about pregnancy and such, it was fun to get this message from Carolyn M:

"Our paper here, the Toronto Star, has a front page article on a study on morning sickness and how mothers who have it in their pregnancy have children with higher IQ levels. It even says the worse the morning sickness the bigger the jump...so your children need to rise up and call you bless-ed I think, if my memory serves me correctly! This mothers day you need breakfast in bed, flowers and many declarations of thankfulness from your children since you went through much so they could be so smart. "

Something redemptive from morning sickness! I really really like that idea.

Quote of the Day:
"I packed for youth camp in 14 minutes flat."
--Matt, last fall I think. He really is a guy.