What great birthday presents I got today

Today is my birthday. I'm 36 and proud of it. My kids got me a new swimsuit and my parents took me out to the Texas Roadhouse for lunch. Wow, what a meal!!! I've got leftovers for tomorrow!

What a great unexpected birthday present I received today! My beautiful Russian fiancee' told me that she has reserved an airline ticket to come and visit me in July. She went to actually purchase the ticket today. She will tell me detailed flight information the next time I talk to her. What she has told me so far is that her flight will depart from Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow on 10 July and that it arrives at Logan International Airport at 13:05 on 11 July. She lives in Yoshkar-Ola, 800 km (497.1 mi.) from Moscow, and must take a train to get there. She says the train ride will take 20 hours. Russian trains must be pretty bad. That train trip is about 7 hours longer than her flight from Moscow to Boston will be! Her trip will begin on 9 July. She will travel for two days just to get here. She will be tired after all of that traveling! In addition, it is very difficult for an Eastern European woman under 40 to get a visa to enter the USA. Apparently many such women have come here and have not left when they were supposed to. I have questioned her about her visa, knowing how difficult is is to get and how fortunate she is to have it. So it will be very special when she arrives. Though I must confess that this all feels like a dream to me right now. It will only feel real when we actually are looking at each other face to face. I must also say that I am becoming more excited every day as the time of her arrival gets closer.

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I got my car inspected on Friday, and it passed!!!! I only needed to buy two tires and two bulbs for the third brake light. This was much better than I expected. I thought they might tell me I needed new brakes, exhaust and tires. The bad part was that today my car wouldn't start. The engine just clicked when I tried to start it. Guess I'll need to call AAA tomorrow. I hope it's a minor fix. Fortunately my parents have a third car that they will let me borrow.