WE GOT ONE!!!

So I was going to write some schmaltzy piece about turning forty last Thursday, and going to the Getty Villa museum with my family as a special field trip, and then realizing about halfway through the day that I'd decided to celebrate my birthday at a place that specializes in antiquities.

But then I got home.

There was a package on our doormat.

I looked at my husband, thinking this must be some last-minute birthday surprise.

"Did you order something?" he asked.

"I thought you did," I said.

I picked it up. It had my name and -- hey! The return address was the Critical Thinking company. They'd contacted me a few days ago about reviewing some of their stuff.

I brought it in and we all sat down to look it over. It was amazing. The kind of books where you wish you could set the homeschooling clock back about four years and start over with these. My husband went one better.

"Why didn't they have these when I was in school?" he asked.

He was thrilled -- and yes, this is the kind of thing that gives him a genuine thrill -- to see that some of the comprehension tests gave you the option to answer true, false, or unknown. "I always wanted that," he said.

I calmed him down, and we looked at our loot a little more and read about some of the other books CT offers, and my husband started drooling and demanded to be homeschooled and I told him to get in line. And then I decided that it was time for he and my son to go out and bring back dinner from the Italian restaurant down the street while I lolled around in a manner befitting one of my dignified years.

All my lolls start with a quick check of my email. I noticed a letter from Gail, my advertising guru. The subject heading said, "Invoice," which always means she's sending me a copy of the bill she's going to send someone who's expressed an interest in advertising.

I sighed and got ready for another trip down Research & Rejection Lane. If you've been reading recent posts here, you know that at this point, SHM's track record has been that if an advertiser wants us, we don't want them, and vice versa.

So I braced myself.

I read the invoice Gail had made out to the latest Wanna Advertiser.

And it was Critical Thinking.

That screaming you may have heard last Thursday? That was me having the best birthday ever.