My favorite thing about my birthday is the food. Everyone wants to feed me. Last week, Susan K, one of the assistants in my suite, put a Dole fruit cup and a spoon in my inbox and said in a singsong voice, "Happy almost birthday." I ate it yesterday for a mid morning snack. On Sunday, my family treated me to dinner at their favorite restaurant. We ended the day at my sister's house for a dessert banquet - her mayonnaise cake, a german chocolate cake, and a bowl of banana pudding. In light of the overabundance of desserts at that gathering, my mother suggested a one week dessert delay - so next week, carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Also next week, my friends M & E are gifting me with a dinner of parmesan encrusted porkchops. This morning, I arrived at work to find a brownie trifle waiting for me, compliments of my ace assistant, Janet. And tonight, Marian will astound me with another one of her fabulous latitude longitude dinners. Last year, for my 41st birthday, she prepared a 41x41 dinner - a Turkish feast (lemon hummus, spicy lamb kofte with muhammara and flatbread, vegetable casserole with tomato garlic sauce, and kulfi on pistachio cake). Today, I'm 42. If we had used the same approach (42 degrees latitude / 42 degrees longitude), I would have been enjoying the regional food of Ozurget'i ... that's in Georgia (the other Georgia). But Marian chose 8 degrees latitude / 22 degrees longitude to honor the actual day of my birth - August 22. This evening, I'll swaddle myself in a dashiki caftan and relish the food of the Central African Republic. Filet of dik dik? Dongo dongo and fufu? Stay tuned for a full report.