The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

I got a hot tip recently - a sighting of a pasta making machine at Italiani's Family Restaurant Grill & Bar, 3508 E. Lake Street. That's pretty rare these days - making pasta by hand is very labor intensive.

Southern Italy is full of svelte young women running around in black leather coats and exquisite, sharp-pointed shoes who eat pasta every day. I don't know how they do it.

Today is my birthday.

I'm not afraid of coming birthdays, and I don't intend to stop the count-up. Despite all of its challenges (living with teenagers, IRS tax audit, five year old with pneumonia), through the mud and the stars, life on the whole is pretty good.

So today is MY day, the one day a year that I book solidly to do whatever I want (sans Fiji, of course). And because this is the last year I'll have a five year old in tow, I plan to have some silly fun.