My birthday this year was a day of near perfection. Tiffany and I began the first minute of the 19th with a midnight showing of "Lord of the Rings." The super fans were all there dressed up in their geeky best. The movie was great, but long! We got home from that at about 4am. In the morning Tiffany had to go to work, so I got up and took myself off for a bike ride around Central Park. It's such an amazing thing to see this city in all its changing seasons. I could just about take it all in through my frozen eyeballs. After this I went to visit my old friends: at the Whitney museum - Edward Hopper, and at the Met - Rembrandt and Corot. I also stopped by van Gough because I was in the neighborhood. I love this city. On my birthday I can walk through Central Park and within 15 minutes be standing in front of some of the greatest art ever!

In the evening we had tickets to the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. They performed the Nutcracker Swing by Duke Ellington. The philharmonic was there too, so they would alternate between pieces, first as Tchaikovsky wrote it, then Ellington's version.

We ended the night at midnight at the local Irish pub, The Dead Poet. We said farewell to another great year with a pint of Guinness and a slice of chocolate cake. All in all, a perfect day!

The celebration continued into the weekend with the annual trip to Benihana. We also were able to take in the newly released "2001: a Space Odyssey". What a treat to see that on the big screen in a new 70mm print! It was hard to turn around and think about Christmas after these amazing days of birthday-ing.