[coupon codes at the end of the post!]

If you read any of the “Who was born or what happened on my birthday?” sites, you may have noticed that October 9th may be one of the most boring dates there is. I really tried hard as a kid to find something worth getting excited about that happened on my birthday. You know, besides me being born.

Admittedly, John Lennon’s birthday was October 9th. OK, that works. But it’s some serious kind of steep drop-off to the next tier, which includes Scott Bakula and Zachery Ty Bryan (one of the kids on Home Improvement, don’t ask me which). No offense to either of them or any other October 9ers, but we don’t seem to be a noteworthy bunch. Apparently Cervantes (Don Quixote) was also born on my birthday, which I’ll admit isn’t bad. Then there’s Trent Lott, which is just plain wrong.

To take the “This Day in History” route, October 9 was one of the most boring days in history too apparently. Phantom of the Opera opening in London on this day is fairly OK. But then you get stuff like “Isaac Singer patented the sewing machine motor” and “Joshua C. Stoddard received a patent for his calliope.” Yay! The Calliope! And supposedly Leif Ericson discovered ‘Vinland’ (and lobsters and chowder I guess too) on this day around 1000, but I question how they even know that since they don’t even seem to know what Vinland is.

But then I recently discovered something that made me smile. As I’ve said before, there are a very few women in the J-Man’s pantheon of goddesses. In that tier right below Mary, there’s Laurie Berkner, his Pre-K teacher Mrs. Jennifer, and someone who I learned I happen to share a birthday with – our Blessed Lady of Signing Time, Rachel Coleman! Finally someone cool to share a birthday with!

Rachel has commented here a couple of times and I talked to her a bit by e-mail several months back. She has not only been an important of his life and our family’s life since he was a baby, she showed him extraordinary generosity by sending him an amazing package of gifts. And the work she and the rest of the Signing Time gang do for children of every ability is worthy of all the praise they get. She has set the October 9th standard very high, so the rest of us have some work to do. We’ll give John Lennon a pass, though.

In honor of our momentous day, I got some coupon codes from them via the Happy Birthday Rachel Celebration e-mail if you are looking to get some Signing Time DVDs. (OK, so the coupon code has nothing to do with my birthday.) It’s 35% off a single DVD for October 9 only (Promo Code – RACHEL35). There’s also a 10% off deal going on if you buy 3 or more DVDs until the end of the month (Promo Code – BUNDLE10).

The mathematically astute among you can take the fact that I am exactly one year older than Rachel and the number on the coupon code and deduce how old we both are. That’s as much as I’m telling, though the same astute people will also figure out that I’ll now be a ‘perfect square’, which seems only fitting…

[Disclaimer – Yes, those links above are affiliate links. Any proceeds that come in to us from them will go to an autism-related charity. We are huge fans of Signing Time and cannot recommend them enough. If you go straight to SigningTime.com and skip our links, that’s great too. They deserve your business regardless of how you get there.]