My friends...

they know me so well. I celebrated my almost 40th birthday on Friday, and was fortunate to meet up with one of my closest friends (variously called the "MCBC" and "L'S...") at Panera Bread for coffee (...sigh...like the good ole' days in Cairo...) and then with another (the "QB") to see the Capitol Steps downtown at the Ronald Reagan Building (the irony is delicious: the president most known for being in favor of "small government" has his name on the biggest and most expensive federal building in the country) with our "goozs".

Anyways, the QB gave me the following for my birthday:

I proudly wore this pin on my purse last night - on the other side from the Pope Benedict pin I got when the QB and I saw him in downtown DC in April.

The coffee mug starts with red and blue states (indicating which team won which states in '04) and then changes to all blue when strong Dunkin' Donuts (or Tim Horton's) coffee is added. Love it!

It's funny, there are multiple political viewpoints expressed among my circle of friends, though we all seem to be united on one point: none of us can stand Hillary Clinton.

Drop out already, will ya????