Today my husband turns thirty. I robbed the cradle. Well, not really although I am older than he is.

In honor of his entering a new decade (and no pedants out there better start with the zero thing, hmph), I present thirty random things about Justin.

1. He sings and whistles a lot. Our house will never be without music when he is around.
2. He spent ten years in Taiwan.
3. He managed to use the word "bastard" in the first sentence of his college honors paper to good effect.
4. I've known him for over a third of his life.
5. He has spent many years seeking and perfecting the cooking of the perfect scrambled egg.
6. Although he loves pork, he manages to put up with his non-pig eating wife and rarely goes on a bacon binge.
7. He can build a beautiful gate.
8. He loves tools and gadgets.
9. He loves Legos and we have all umpteen million from his childhood, although they have been taken over by The Boy.
10. He was a Presidential Scholar for the Arts, and yet is not an "artsy" person (whatever that means).
11. He is a better decorator than I am though.
12. The children like to treat him like a rock star when he returns home from work. All three rush the door or wait impatiently on the porch for his arrival.
13. He started this blog.
14. He's the same height that I am.
15. He loves real fires and will never agree to a gas fireplace.
16. He also loves real grills and will never agree to a gas one.
17. Unlike his wife who bashes fifteen holes in the wall for every picture, he carefully measures and marks and generally manages to hang things correctly on the first try. Can you guess who hangs things in this house?
18. He doesn't like cake and so he gets a cheesecake for his birthday every year.
19. He's taught himself to (mostly) sight read music, with or without shape notes.
20. Caffeine doesn't keep him awake at night.
21. He's been the same weight the whole time I've known him.
22. He once made a girl cry, when as a writing tutor he used "big words" around her and told her things like her words were pejorative.
23. He first asked me on a date over e-mail.
24. He can restore order to our house in just a few minutes, while I struggle with the toy explosion for hours.
25. He likes his steaks rare.
26. The Boy looks so much like his father that pictures of young Justin can be mistaken for current photos of The Boy.
27. Although he claims to be a Southerner, he was born in northern Indiana.
28. It drives him nuts to see me trying to do something that he thinks he could do faster or better.
29. I never (or almost never) drive when he is in the car.
30. He's my best friend.

Happy birthday, Sweetie!