A birthday.



Leave it up to Nina to send me the oddest and most wonderful birthday pressie! You might remember when Intel launched it's Pentium II chips and they had those commercials with the guys in the silver space suits with the Intel patch... well maybe you don't, but anyway they spent zillions on the ads! (And for those of you who are keeping count, Pentium 4 is the standard now...) Anyway, they apparently made these little silver space suit dolls! And, of course, Nina would have found one; she has a house full of fascinating objects. (When I told her that I was looking for a saxophone to put on the wall so it would show up on my cam during Jazz Fest, she said, "OH! I wish you had told me sooner! I have three of them! I would have brought you one!") She really is amazing.

Robert brought the amazing object back from St. Louis, as he had recently visited Nina on his way up and back to visit the family in Fort Wayne. Robert also produced a lovely pressie; a set of crystal globe lights for yard or patio! They look stunning around the pond, but they do provide enough illumination to point out that I need to do some serious work on the yard... it's gotten a bit jungle-like back there again...

My natal day was a bit so-so. I tend to down play the whole birthday thing lately; the last two years it's been a solitary affair. I thought of taking Robert out for dinner and a movie, but since I didn't remember to ask him until the day before, he already had something scheduled. I worked the early shift and came home. For about two minutes, I felt sorry for myself; poor lonesome me... Then, I got out a bunch of new material from the regional office and started making lists for the new job that I'm starting this Monday. As I read through the stuff, I typed notes on the PDA using the extremely cool fold-up keyboard. The whole thing sat comfortably on the arm of my chair and it's about ten times more powerful and has ten times more storage capacity than my first huge desk top computer. This kind of thing makes me wet.

And the new position is very interesting; I get to rebuild and remodel a department in the original store here in New Orleans and I get to develop some new retail items. I think it's a very good place to be right now.

And there is one other thing that I found out on my birthday. The company is sending me and my ATL (luca, not a word) to San Francisco for the American Cheese Society Convention! It is going to be so incredible! Three days of seminars and tastings! The president of the Association is our national cheese buyer and WFM is sending people from the Specialty departments from all the stores nation-wide. We will be attending seminars, meeting cheesemakers, working at the convention and touring the SF area stores.

I mean, this is the Super Bowl of Cheese and I am going to be there! Yeeeees! This is so great... I couldn't be happier about it.

Other bits.

My brother got back from Japan after a wonderful time, but had the worst jet-lag...

My Dad's license to drive was taken away after this latest series of tests. This is all for the good, as he has done some seriously dangerous things in a car over the last six months, but he doesn't like it much. Not being able to drive is just part of the loss of control he feels over his life as the Alzheimer's progresses, but it's a significant part for him, something he tends to focus on, and it's causing some unhappiness and sadness for all of us.

I considered for a few minutes, doing a sort of nakie pic of me for my birthday journal like Bry, of ChaosInAustin does every year, but I got over that notion thankfully for all concerned, hehe. (BTW, Happy Birthday Bryan, a fellow Gemini...) I really admire Bryan for the raw honesty he puts into his journal sometimes, and as I have told him, his journal was the inspiration for me to do mine. I just don't think I am ready for that kind of close-up yet... Maybe next year. You've been warned.

The recent message board thing; well I made a decision and so far there seem to be more posts and so, I think most people are more comfortable with the situation now. The decision that I made was not easy, but I thought it was necessary after stating what I felt about what was happening, and after getting a lot of e-mail from regular posters who were unhappy with the way things were going. There were a few people that were unhappy with my decision and left the board and one of these people I miss dearly. I think we will remain friends, but I miss the daily bits. Still, I remain firm in my decision; I just don't want anyone on the board who posts with a sense of superiority over the others while hiding behind the icon and never letting anything real out. Some mystery is wonderful, but when one attacks or demeans others from behind that mask, well that's just... well, it's just not right.

I am sending daily affirmations to Noah. He's going through another nasty patch... If you have been following his adventures over the past year or two, you know. I know from experience, after working for a very charismatic chef for many years, that a person can enter a room and change the way people feel in a matter of seconds. (And everyone knows what it's like to walk into a room where everyone is unhappy; you can feel it right away.) So, I think you can send good feelings to someone, I just don't know how far, but I'm willing to try...

I still haven't sent that picture CD to Zilla! I have got to do this... why haven't I done this!

I should be getting the scooter in another two weeks.

So, I am very busy. I sometimes feel very lonely, but only for a short while. My career is going just fine, thank you. My family loves me and I love them back. I am doing a great deal better than I was a year ago when I thought I was going to sell out and leave New Orleans. And, also very important to me, I have this wonderful group of on-line friends, who were there for my birthday. Thanks everyone: GC (famous Las Vegian!), szel and Beppo (San Francisco,here I come...), Fruity-P (red has always been my favorite color), Dag (Motor City boi!), r@! (but, I'm a clean fogey!), Chip (one who knows Rochester), Ford (the pic was divine!), luca (a very nice card, thanks, but where was the check you promised), tejaz (I loves my jazzy), CarltonFL (yes dear, age and wisdom always prevail...bwahahaha!), buddha ( after all these years, you are still a trip, darling), Trip (who knows his way around the beltway), Felix (long time meow), unokhan (my home state librarian and keeper of the faith), cajunjeff (come on, cher! When you gonna visit?), ABJrGuy (one of our old buidlings collapsed during renovation, I must get a pic for you), lucy (looo-sie!), ETinNY(Jet Blue has some really cheap fares right now...), SonicZephyr (my early morning commentator), sippi (who is not the only one who had an imaginary friend), mass ( my musical dancing cheese pal), Dante (yes, you can stick your fingers in my mouth) and joop (the most artistic of us all)! You are all my favorites!

And a special thanks to a special auntie...

That's it from the desktop...


durlx