For my birthday today Carson gave me a Makita cordless drill and a hammer, among other things. No more blisters when assembling furniture! My mother sent some of her delicious chocolate-covered cherries, which she's been making a lot of lately.

We also made steak for dinner, and for the first time ever the steak didn't come out too rare. Usually when we broil steak, I get too nervous about all the smoke coming out of the oven from the protruding parts that cook too quickly and end up undercooking it. This time, we actually left the oven shut and tried to ignore the smoke coming out, and the steaks were done perfectly. It probably also helped that the meat was room temperature instead of refrigerated.