Happy Birthday to Me!!

Today is my 41st Birthday! To know me is to know that birthdays rank right up there with snow and barbecue beef ribs on the list of things that make me happy. Following are a few factoids concerning this momentous day:

I was born at the end of the last day of the Capricorn zodiac, and right at the beginning of Aquarius. That makes my birthday the dawning of the age of Aquarius...

I am the youngest of four children and the youngest of 26 grandchildren (on my mother's side) and the youngest of seven grandchildren on my father's side. In addition, my mother was the youngest of ten and my father was the youngest of three. This means that if you're reading this and you're related to me, there's an excellent chance you're older than I am.

When I was nine, I had a bowling party for my birthday. When I was 16, my friends Lynn and Carol kidnapped me for breakfast at Denny's. At 21, my Mom & her friend, Jody, drove to Mizzou to take me out to dinner. At 30, I had a party at my apartment in St. Louis. At 40, Bill and I took Mike & Susie to dinner at Spaggia. I heard a good saying today. Someone said that people who are able to celebrate their birthdays should do so with gusto for all those who no longer can.

So far today, I've gotten birthday wishes from: Bill (of course), Mom & Jim, Anna Lynn, Karen (yesterday), Chrissy & Kevin, Neal Weisenberg, Mike Teplitsky, Gil, Maribeth (my assistant), Heather (another assistant in the office), Joe Siegler, Lee Griesbach, Aunt Gladys, Barbara, Mike Boxerman, Jeremy Kriegel, Ruth Gagliard, Kevin Gagliard, Todd Taylor, Sondra, Lili, Micah, Kevin Casey, Scott Frenkel and more!

We had planned that we might go out for dinner, but Bill was pretty tired from his day trip to Pittsburgh so, instead of going out to dinner, we had my "traditional" birthday dinner -- barbecued beef ribs, peas with sauteed mushrooms and chocolate cake. Mmmmmm. Quite tasty, if I may say so.

All in all, it has been a great birthday and I really enjoyed myself, which is the whole point, n'est-ce pas? And now, it's time for bed. Thank you everyone for a great dawning of the age of Aquarius.