Of endings, birthdays, and dinosaurs

One word cannot possibly illustrate the relief I feel now that my first year of grad school is over, but I'll try: whew! The French exam has been successfully failed (I think), papers have been turned in, final parties have been attended. And for those of you who may have thought to yourself, "Geez, Sarah sure complains a lot about all that reading she has to do," I present to you this:

That would be my photocopied reading for 4 classes (it doesn't include many, many books.) Let this be a lesson to all of you, particularly those who think grad school would be "a good idea" or especially "fun."

In other news, I celebrated my "golden" birthday recently (25 on 25!) and received not one but TWO handmade gifts! The first one came all the way from Mongolia.

This was knitted by the world's most unlikely knitter, and it is what I believe to be her first finished project ever! How special am I? I think its something like camel hair, which makes it just about the coolest thing ever. My second handmade present came from my boyfriend's mom, who cross-stitched me this:

("Welcome friends" for non-Spanish speakers.) Also, one of the coolest things ever. When your boyfriend's mom starts cross-stitching for you, you have to feel special.

And finally, I did some handmade gift-giving of my own. This dinosaur went to live with someone who has the exact same birthday as me! Rwrrrrr...

(For the knitters, the pattern is from xtreme-knitting.com, link above. Size 6 Susan Bates really short circulars, on the squeekiest of all yarns, Red Heart.)