Courtesy of Heather and fridayfive.org:

• Hey, baby, what's your sign? Do you think it fits you pretty well?
  
  I'm the most mercurial Libra you'll ever meet. On the other hand, I'm married to the stereotypical steady Libra. It's a good thing. We balance each other out.
• What's the worst birthday gift you've ever received?
  
  Oddly enough, most people are terrified to buy me birthday gifts. They think I'm picky or something. But there was that year that my roommate left me a copy of Playgirl under my pillow for Christmas….
• What's the best birthday gift you've ever received?
  
  Actually, I bought it for myself. I spent a week in Washington D.C., and spent my birthday in Manhattan. I saw Rent, and stood on top of WTC1 on October 20, 2000.
• What's the best way you've celebrated your birthday thus far?
  
  See above. Manhattan. Rent. WTC1. It was, simply, magnificent. My perspective from during the vacation, written almost immediately afterward, is available here, and my reflections a year later—after September 11—are available here. Even immediately after it happened, it was wonderful—but the events of 2001 give the joy of that particular day a particularly bittersweet taste. In some ways I will always associate my birthday with the World Trade Center.
• What are your plans for this weekend?
  
  Coding. Lots and lots of code. I'm working on a project for myself—a change, since I"m usually working on projects for others—and I expect that it's going to gobble up a good chunk of my time. Other than that…I'm thinking of starting to read Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie.