Welcome to the club! I find it most disconcerting that when filling out a form I have to go to the next age range box along or down, now…
Wow! 40 huh? So do you like remember when you had no electricty? Did you like use candels and stuff to read by? Where you school books on paper or stone??
Happy birthday, Shirley! I hit 40 yesterday, but was too depressed to post about it…
I’m humoring one of my (young) assistants today by wearing all black. I threatened to wear a hideous Christmas/cat sweater. 
Shirley you’ll always be a whippersnapper to me. Now, pass me a swig of that Geritol and GIT OFF’N MUH LAWN! 
Listen here, you whippersnapper! I wrote my school papers on something called a typewriter. If you made a mistake you had to use Liquid Paper to fix it.
And i walked to school every day, uphill, in my father’s pajamas.
But I was happy.
Wishing you a good day, a good year and a great life!
Did you mention a hideous sweater?
4th Knitter of the Apocalypse (my brain candy blog)
Happy birthday, Shirley! I’m six months behind you (39 and a half).
I turned 30 10 in September. My wife claims she is 29 with 7 years experience.
Just to prove how senile I’ve become, I’m headed out the door to go play ultimate in the snow.
The nursing home community in Michigan gains another member.
Happy happy, Shirley.
I’m just glad I got out of the nursing home biz just in time.
In the mail today I have received an anonymous Happy Birthday card.
No signature. No message. Nothing. No return address. Local ( sorta) post stamp. The hand writing on the envelope is not familiar and written in sharpie.
This can only mean one thing.
I have a stalker!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I remember turning 40. I was in my first year as a college professor, a career I abandoned some time ago.
Time slips away, doesn’t it?
There is nothing so exciting as a bit of intrigue on one’s birthday.
Welcome to the other side of the hill I hope you have a wonderful birthday!
Happy Birthday! Your 30s have teamed up with my 40s. They’re trying to take the fun out of everything. Don’t let them win!
Happy Birthday! May the coming year be the best you’ve ever had, and surpassed by each year that follows.
Happy birthday!
You’re like wine, Shirley–you just get better as you age. 
The first year is year One. The tenth year is year Ten. That completes the first decade. All subsequent decades begin with the number One. If she is in her forty-first year (forty years having passed, e.g. four decades,) she is in her Fifth decade.
And yes, that means that, for example, the 1970’s began on January 1, 1971. December 31, 1970 was the end of the last year of the 1,970th decade.
Surely, you jest. You don’t sound a day over 29. Happy Birthday!
You’re confusing calendar years with people’s ages. Since there was no year 0, the first decade AD went from 1 AD to 10 AD, the second decade from 11 AD to 20 AD, and so on. However an infant only becomes 1 after 365 (or 366, as appropriate) days; prior to that they are 0 years old (plus some number of months, days, etc.) So, notwithstanding how calendar decades, centuries, and millennia are counted, your first decade of life is the ten years 0-9, your second decade is the ten years 10-19, … your fifth decade is the ten years 40-49.
Happy Birthday! As I said to my remarkably adorable husband (who passed the 40 mark in June) you don’t look a day over 39 and half.
Six months later I think he’s finally forgiven me for that remark.