Today is my birthday.  My wife sent me a cake…she knows I love Reese’s peanut butter cups and Hershey bars, though I really don’t think 45 is all that old, do you?

Apart from being, uh, apart from my family it’s been a really good birthday.  In addition to [...]]]>

All my favorite candies around the border!

Today is my birthday.  My wife sent me a cake…she knows I love Reese’s peanut butter cups and Hershey bars, though I really don’t think 45 is all that old, do you?

Apart from being, uh, apart from my family it’s been a really good birthday.  In addition to the cake I got fabulous expressions of love from Louise (written in a different card this time) and the kids, letters, a drawing from my daughter showing her waiting at the airport for me, and the book “Horse Soldiers”.  It’s about Special Forces soldiers who rode into battle against the Taliban in 2001 and captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.  Thanks to my nightly study of Afghanistan and its terrain I now know where that is.  Yes, I’m bragging.  Take that Ken Jennings!

It doesn't get any better than this.

My Scottish mother-in-law, having no clue about my penis size, sent me a batch of her divine homemade Scottish shortbread cookies.  Wait a minute…shortbread?  Hmmm…  They were carefully packaged and arrived in pristine condition.  I don’t ever recall her making these other than at Christmas so it’s a rare treat to have them now, like fresh corn in December in the northern hemisphere.  I’ve tried making these cookies and I’ve failed…you’d think sugar, flour, and butter wouldn’t be that hard to mix up but it is.  I shared some cookies with my coworkers at, uh, work, and they all raved about them.  Only one per customer though, except the woman who noticed I’d lost weight and asked if I was 29…she got 2 cookies.

Last night I was back on shift with my usual cohort (he having moved to swing shift for a couple of weeks) and the Stanley Cup finals were on TV live.  Just for my birthday, the Penguins defeated the Red Wings, tying the series at 2-2.

Shortbread on the top, the surviving snickerdoodles out of the last package from home on the bottom. In the time since this picture was taken, 20 minutes ago, the snickerdoodles have become extinct.

After work and a workout (fat never sleeps), three of us hit the bar for bingo (yes, at 10 am, no, we didn’t win anything) then on to the chow hall for pasta bar day.  Next to gyro bar day, pasta bar day is my favorite.

Tonight at work I’m having some ice cream and I’ll top the day off with a call to the family.  The Internet was misbehaving the other night so our webcam chat didn’t happen.

I don’t need a fancy party or gifts to have a great birthday, just some love…and sweets.  As a double bonus, since I work nights I sleep during the day, when I get up for work it will still be my birthday.  Two birthdays in one day…how cool is that?!

Wait…does that mean I’ll be 46?

At long last the heralded day, bringing Cole’s 6th birthday and a trip to Medieval Times, finally arrived.  We visited the Kingdom as guests of King Phillipe and Lord Cole was heralded appropriately.  In fact, his birthday was announced twice to the assembled Guests of the Realm – the Guests [...]]]>

The Three enjoying the action

At long last the heralded day, bringing Cole’s 6th birthday and a trip to Medieval Times, finally arrived.  We visited the Kingdom as guests of King Phillipe and Lord Cole was heralded appropriately.  In fact, his birthday was announced twice to the assembled Guests of the Realm – the Guests did not cheer heartily enough the first time so the Lord Chancellor admonished them, repeating Cole’s name and occasion a second time.

Immediately after receiving the adoration of the masses, Lord Cole announced he was bored and wanted to go home.  It was at this point that King Paul did bring out the threats of bodily harm and cancelation of future birthday celebrations, effectively I might add.  The rest of the evening proceded without incident.

Prior to that was the opening of the gifts…er…Cole opened his gifts.  His brother and sister pooled their money to buy him a Darth Vader suit, and we chipped in with 400+ Legos and a base plate.  Legos are the number one toy in our house (surpassing even the Nintendo DS or Wii).  By receiving his first non-Duplo set of bricks, Cole is officially a member of the small brick brotherhood.

C2W2 in all its glory. Cole too.

Cake was ate before dinner – as loose as I can be with rules, cake and ice cream after 9pm is a bit over the top.  The cake tasted fine but was probably my ugliest cake ever.  I tried for an R2-D2 dome shape but along the way made several critical errors.  Moving the cake from surface to surface seemed like a bad idea at the time and that proved to be so.  At least all the missing pieces were on the bottom of the cake, easy to fill in with icing.  The writing icing, date of purchase unknown, separated and ran.  Bubble gum tape is not as flexible as I’d hoped.  In the end I used spray coloring (giving myself one blue and one green lung in the process) and lots of Sweet Tarts, Nerds, and Air Heads Belts to dress it up.  First rule of kids’ cakes: the more candy you can stick to it the better the cake.

Yes, as my bride pointed out, the cake looks like a hat.  At first.  As you study it you’ll see it really is the long-lost cousin of R2-D2, or at least his top portion.  Once I pointed it out to Cole he recognized it immediately!  (C2-W2 is a combination of his nickname, CW, and R2-D2.  See, I’m wicked clever that way).

Our hero, the Yellow Knight.

The Bride of the Realm