Don't You Wish You Were a Factorial?

I recently celebrated my birthday. I have a friend who is a numbers/math girl (unlike me) and she introduced me to the wonderful habit of figuring out something cool about every birthday year. This year I am a factorial. Since I will not be a factorial again until I have become a centenarian (which may never happen), I think this is one of the coolest birthday years I've ever celebrated.

For my birthday, Patrick wins the "Best Husband Ever Award" because he went to get my gift on black Friday because he saw an ad for something he thought I'd like and it was hugely on sale. (As in, this gift is usually about 90 dollars and with Black Friday rebates, he got it for 20.) This meant, that the weekend when we were sick, he got up at 5:30 am and went to Office Depot. This may not seem that early for Black Friday fanatics but it was a weekend, he was sick, and he was going to Office Depot so he didn't think it would be that busy, and it didn't open until 6:00 anyway. After he got there, he couldn't find the product he wanted. He got in line to check out something he had found instead and talked to a lady who had been there since 4 am and was the fourth or fifth person in line. This made him realize why the product probably wasn't there-- he just wasn't gung-ho enough. Fortunately, he asked an employee just to be sure, and the employee went in back and found the last one. The product he got because he didn't think the one he'd come for was there was a photo editing program. The one he came for and ended up getting successfully was a scrapbooking program. The gifts were great, but, I have to admit, the effort was the most flattering thing.

Patrick also gets another star because he went in to work his job the night before my birthday so he could stay home with me later on the morning of my birthday. He also canceled a study group so he could come home earlier on my birthday even though he is desperately in need of studying because we were all sick over Thanksgiving break. (Did I mention how wonderful that turned out to be, by the way? I loved being confined to the house with my husband and son. We had a great time just hanging out and being together as a family, even though we all felt physically crummy.) Anyway, in sum, I have the best husband ever.

I opened presents, we had an early dinner going out to eat at Five Guys Burgers and Fries (second choice after Subway, which we couldn't find), and then had friends over for cake and ice cream. I also, as it turns out, have some awesome friends. One friend is a Mary Kay lady, and she gave me lip gloss. The same friend called the night before and offered to make my cake, but I had already made it so she made me homemade oreos instead. One friend is a sewing master, and he made me an awesome purse, so now I can have something cooler than my old-lady purse when I'm not using the diaper bag. Another friend dropped by a really sweet card on my birthday. I also got all sorts of generous and thoughtful gifts and cards from our families on my birthday. Following cake with the two couples who came to share it with us, we finished off the night playing games with our friends Kyle and Kathleen. All in all, a pretty stinkin' sweet day. I was super satisfied with how this birthday went, and now I get to revel in 4! for the duration of this next year of my life. Just think, I'll never get to do that again.