Birthday Twinges

My goodness, today I begin my 64th year on this planet. That means that it's my 63rd birthday for those of you who get confused by such things. All I asked for was a new iPod, and I already received it when we were all together last week. It's a spiffy little red one, the colour that supports Bono's effort to fight AIDS in Africa. I'm glad the family thought to add that nice touch, but there is another part of me that feels a bit funny about having this iPod even though it's what I asked for.

You see, I was the first in the family to purchase an iPod almost five years ago. I dithered a lot before I made the leap, but it has proved useful over the years in ways that I don't need to detail here and now. I say that I dithered before purchasing it because it's a frivolous item — really frivolous. After much angst, I capitulated and bought the thing but still felt some subsequent pangs of guilt.

Five years later, that pod being on its last legs (if you can picture that), I asked and received for a new one for my birthday this year. It's not an iTouch, iPhone or iPad but just a little Nano for goodness sakes, but I still feel the odd twinge of guilt because I could surely live without an iPod of any sort, and my old one still more or less functions.

To some extent we all now begin to think it's necessary to have computers, cell phones and myriad other goodies. We can't seem to live without them. Most of us have both cell phone and multiple land phones, and both varieties must have such features as call answer, call forwarding, caller id and whatnot. We have satellite dishes for our multiple televisions which must carry hundreds of channels lest we feel deprived. There was a time when all the telephone did was ring and all the television channels we received were twelve ... if we were lucky.

Times have changed. I like my toys and comforts as much as the next guy or gal, maybe even more than most, and I own my share. But I still sometimes feel a little guilty over possessing unnecessary luxury items such as this. As I said, I like to have them, but I think also experiencing the odd guilt twinge about having so much in this inequitable world isn't such a bad thing.

Party Pics

Admit it. You were expecting party pics. Weren't you? Well, here are a whole bunch. I can't help myself.

Openings






Where's the Cake?




The Cake Finally Cometh and is Consumeth








Afterglow

Thirty Years Later

Thesha celebrates her seventh birthday (above), and here she is thirty years later (below). That wheel of time will simply not cease its turning.


Congratulations, Thesha!

BC Birthday

Another memory from the recent BC trip, rather out of sequence (ie earlier in chronology than the mountains and Hope) with the most recent trip posts. Since I discovered it partly begun as a draft, I decided to finish it. I had probably abandoned it out of boredom because these chronological posts don't inspire me very much. And you too, I imagine.

As many of you know but may have forgotten, Althegal (D2) and I share the same birth date, early in September. Although we came within a few days of celebrating togther last year after the wedding, I don't know when we were last together on the actual day. We weren't able to be together again this year either, but on September 20, we able to celebrate what we couldn't on September 02.

This year she is exactly one-half of my age, and we started the day with a few gifts (L to R: D2, Althegal of shared birthday and D3, Pufferpoo). I am wearing the t-shirt and holding the little Superman light with which I was gifted.



Later D3 prepared a most excellent breakfast that included cheese blintzes and mimosas. Yum.



The girls planned a surprise afternoon for me at the Vandusen Botanical Gardens. Beyond my interest in flowers and gardens, the Zimbabwean Sculpture Exhibition (Zimsculpt) was also being featured. Since we were to see the Chainsaw Carvings at Hope later in the week, I guess carvings of one sort or another became one of the themes of this trip.

Here we stand at the gate, trying to mimic the faces on the picture of the sculptures behind ...



... and then I couldn't resist a little smooch with Cuppa, this trip being in celebration of our 40th after all.



The grounds and gardens were quite wonderful ...





... and the sculptures, interspersed throughout, were very impressive. They were offered for sale, but even if I could have afforded one, which I couldn't, getting it on the plane would have been highly problematic. Looking was good though.







As you know, Vancouver will soon be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, and there are constant reminders throughout the city. As we exited the gardens, Cuppa and I couldn't resist getting in the spirit even though it was a rather warm summer day.



Althegal and I tried to snow ... er ... grassboard. Unsurprisingly, her technique was much better than mine.



We ended the day's events with a bbq on the beach, a stone's throw from their front door ...



... after which Cuppa and I stared into the sunset ...



... together.

HB2ME

Yesterday was my birthday. While it's not all that exciting to turn 62, it sure beats not turning 62, so I celebrated. I don't think I have ever planned my own birthday to the extent that I did this year if at all, so let me tell you all about it. Oh stop rolling your eyes and humour a poor, old sod.

Since we awoke fairly early, I did our first non-standard thing by zipping out to Tim's for coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I wouldn't have done this if we had slept in a bit because I knew we were going to McDonalds for lunch. You see, I wanted to do something with Nikki Dee that she would like. Although everybody was welcome to join us, only Cuppa managed it because it was Zach's nap time.

On the way to the restaurant, Cuppa did what she frequently does: turn around and take a picture of Nikki Dee. Although she must have taken hundreds from this position by now, I think this one is pretty doggone special. Have I ever mentioned that I love this kid?



Here we are at McDonalds. She liked the fries but left the chicken. I enjoyed both my Big Mac and fries. Somehow, it seems right to share a meal with the kids at Mickey Dee's.



Better still, here's one without Buppa spoiling to photo.



The only McDonalds in our town is in Wal-Mart, so we sauntered around the store afterward. We bought her a bag of play food (for my birthday) which she ported heroically. In the photo, I am examining a little slide scanner that I glimpsed in passing. Earlier this year, I tried to scan slides using my flatbed scanner, but the results weren't good, and I wondered how well a dedicated scanner would work. It's not terribly expensive and may be worth trying as I have boxes of old slides that should be converted. I'll have to think on it.



With that little event out of the way, Cuppa and I made our way into the city to take in Julie and Julia. The movie was my choice, and I and two other guys say in a theatre filled with women and watched a good film. As usual Meryl Streep was awesome. Although I don't particularly know Julia Childs, except very dimly, Streep seemed to have her down pat. In case you don't know, the movie has a blogging connection as Julie blogged about her year of working her way through Julia's cookbook. They even showed her setting up her account on Blogspot, our very favourite blogging vehicle, presumably before Google took it over.

From there it was to the kids' place for Chinese and birthday cake. Thank goodness there were just 6 + 2 candles and not 62. We wouldn't want to burn the place down after all. Nikki Dee got right into the spirit and was a big help in blowing them out while Zach looked on in fascination.



Zach was a happy contributor to the festivities in his own right.



All in all, it was a low key but satisfying way to spend a birthday: sharing simple pleasures with those whom I love.

Thirty-One Years Apart

Somewhat uniquely, Althegal and I share the same birthday which is several days past now. Thirty-one years apart, we both arrived just under the midnight wire. Since she was still in Ontario after the wedding, we managed to squeeze in a quick birthday supper between arriving from Riverwood and her departing for Vancouver. I'm not sure anymore what we were finding so funny at the time, but it seems that we enjoyed a fine if all-too-quick time together. The birthday celebration was early and this is late, but Happy Birthday kid!