Birthday Loot

I’m not normally one to post things like this, but this year my friends and family were so incredibly generous with birthday gifts, that it just seems like it would be ungrateful not to share tales of their largesse. The photo below is a record of what I believe are all the presents I received for my birthday this year, except for the already-documented awesomeness of Playmobil Solomon Kane.

From the top, left to right, that’s a new pair of headphones, four bound volumes of books of weird phenomena and conspiracy theories called The Unexplained, The Book of Cthulhu, the Leonard Cohen Complete Columbia Albums set, The Collected Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson, The Best of Gahan Wilson, a Warner Bros. Horror/Mystery Double Features set (including Sh! The Octopus), a copy of Dominion (which is maybe my new favorite game ever), and a copy Mansions of Madness (which I haven’t gotten to play yet). Thanks for the bounty goes (in no particular order) to Jesse, Lydia, Sandy and J.T., Larry, Jessy and Allen, Christine, Christy, Charlotte and George, Kenny and Nicole, Richard, Lindsay, Jason, Veronica, and of course my lovely wife.

The star attraction was the aforementioned Leonard Cohen collection. Let’s get a shot of that here:

Omitted are the pictures where I’m rubbing them on my face and/or putting them down my pants. Seriously, these albums are amazing. First of all, pretty much every Leonard Cohen album. Second, holy shit remasters! These albums sound incredible. I’d try to come up with some kind of metaphor for what they sound like, but in my efforts to do them justice I would just end up descending into complete nonsense and compare them to diamond unicorn kisses or something, and nobody wants that. Short version, these albums are amazing. I had been publicly drooling over them over on my Google+ and Facebook accounts, and my wife (who is the best person ever, it’s just science) got several friends and family members to chip in to buy them for me. For everyone who threw money into that pot, you have my thanks. It might be the best birthday present I ever got. And to everyone else who got me presents this year, thank you too! Your presents are all close seconds to that Leonard Cohen set.