Two to the Fifth Birthday

Dragon Mood? -- happily remembering this momentous day!

Two to the fifth, that's how old my baby boy is today. Two squared is four, two cubed is eight, two to the fourth is 16 and two to the fifth is ... THIRTY-TWO!

Happy 32nd Birthday, Josh!

Happy 33rd You-know-who-you-are!

Dragon Mood? -- a tiny bit sheepish


Yeah, I've got to admit that this is after the fact. I shoulda posted something about this before the weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't.

But I say better late than never. So here goes:





You have my heart ... completely!  I love you.

H 24 B

Dragon Mood? -- remembering & celebrating

And if you're wondering what that means, it's meant for my niece, Jess:

HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY, JESS!!

She was born on Easter Sunday morning, many, many years ago (just kidding)! Ask my sister!

It's his BIRTHDAY!

Dragon Mood? -- not surprised he's a Leo!

To our next president? ...

Happy Birthday, Barack Obama!

He was born August 4th, 1961 and today is 47 years old. And here's the least surprising thing about learning that today is his birthday: he's a Leo!

Twin day

Dragon Mood? -- happy for them and whooped for me

Today is THE DAY, twenty-six years ago, that S gave birth to the twins, the identical peas-in-a-pod twins, Mark and Tim. Mark Wilhelm and Timothy Louis, to be more exact.

And on a far less important and non-personal note, the news is full of headlines today about the Brangelina twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marchelina. Wow, what do you think of those names? And I thought Sunday Rose (Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's just-born baby) was an unusual name!

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Mark and Tim!

More about our celebration of their birthdays in a yet-to-be post.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Doris!

Dragon Mood? -- cozy & warm on the internet

Saturday morning, once again home amongst the pine trees, now covered in soft, fluffy snow. We had a storm blow through all of lower Michigan yesterday that dumped various amounts of snow: Detroit less, mid-Michigan more. Thankfully, we didn't get hit with the worst of it and I was able to go to work yesterday and drive back here last night.

Today is my Aunt Doris's 84th birthday. So here's a BIG internet-ish, cyber-ific HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her! On a more 'grounded' level, I called her on my cell phone, sang "Happy Birthday" to her and we chatted for 30 minutes or so. It was a good conversation. What a woman! At 84, I'd love to have her spunk, her get-up-and-go, her optimism!

Anticipating September 6th

Dragon Mood? -- remembering & ruminating

September 6th ... did somebody say September 6th? Yeah, somebody did. I heard it at work. In my world, that day will always be Nana's birthday. Nana, my maternal grandmother. I wrote about her here. And here's the ensuing conversation between Me and Myself:

Me: How old would Nana be now?

Myself: 106

Me: 106!

Myself: That's a looong time! (looking up, calculating)

Me: Yeah!

Myself: Well, how old are you now?

Me: I'm 54.

Myself: Yeah, well ... that's a looong time too! You're more than halfway to Nana's current-but-not-here age.

Thirteen!

Dragon Mood? -- aquiver

Do you know what tomorrow is? Do you? It's a Friday the Thirteenth! Whoo-hoo! I love 'dose THIRTEENS! My lucky number .... :-)

And Happy Birthday, Mark and Tim! Happy 25th! Love you guys!

Happy Birthday, Josh!

Dragon Mood? -- dragon-happy and celebrating!

Mbaby, my baby boy turns 29 today! Ohhh! While he jumps on the slippery slope to 30, I just hope and pray my memory holds out (for many, many years) so I remember all the sweet, lovely details of his birth!

As is our tradition, I called Josh this morning and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He sounded pleased, as he always does. It sounds silly, but just hearing the pleasure in his voice at my call gives me pleasure. We chatted about this, about that.

Right at the end of our conversation, he laughingly admitted that he actually thought he was turning 30 today. I replied with one of those hushed, intense "WOWs" that we fling out there when we're teasing one another and want to give the impression, "I can't believe you just said that!" I suggested (ever the mother) that, given the state of his memory, perhaps he should have two rather than three cocktails tonight after work. Obviously, those brain cells are expiring faster than expected! 27 - 28 - 29 ...(hee-hee)...

Happy 29th Birthday, my sweet son. I love you!

Happy Birthday, Lina!

Dragon Mood? -- remembering and celebrating

Today is Lina's birthday! Wow, I can hardly believe that my baby is 31 years old! I called her just a little while ago at work and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She told me that she had baked a carrot cake last night to bring into work to share. It's a new recipe, full of shredded carrots and pineapple and coconut and raisins, all topped with cream cheese frosting. Sounds yummy, doesn't it? I wish I could be with her to celebrate!

While a big, ol' lake separates us, I have whipped up my own cyber-Photoshop-version of a birthday cake for my beautiful, queen-of-a-daughter! I love how Seussian it looks! The original cake was made by an obviously very talented cakemaker. Her blog is http://blog.pinkcakebox.com/ and the original image is here.

Catching up on birthday horoscopes

Dragon Mood? -- a wee bit of dragon confusion

I love to read my horoscopes (as well as many of my family members) from Astrodienst.

Here is one that I find particularly difficult to comprehend. I feel like I want to space out when I read this -- which is why I'm posting it here -- and all the more reason to read it and understand it.

Limited warranty
Valid during many months: This is a time of equilibrium and balance in your life, because now you have a pretty good idea of how to handle your own world. Events will run along more or less easily during this time. But it is important to note that it will not necessarily be an especially happy or peaceful time [my emphasis]. Our lives are directed by our own demands much more than we realize, but very often those demands are unconscious. We would often be horrified if we knew what we are really trying to do. We try to protect ourselves and what we feel belongs to us from "threats" that often are not real threats according to adult criteria. Yet we structure our world according to them. This influence only guarantees that you will be successful in patterning your world. If you are very unhappy at this time, you had best get in touch with what you are really doing.

This can be a time when you are successfully approaching your main conscious goals in life. Or it can be a time when you are being run largely by unconscious "programs," as if you were a computer. Usually you will experience a little of both of these effects. However, in the long run the positive possibilities are more useful to know about. Concerning the negative side of this influence, suffice it to say that the difficult and unsatisfactory aspects of your life that you are experiencing now require you to look into yourself more closely.

At this time you are particularly good at working with other people. You are able to see your individuality and differentness in a way that makes it possible for you to work with others in a complementary way so that neither you nor they feel competitive. You can work just as well with people who are above you and with those at your own level.

You approach your own goals methodically and practically, for you are not particularly idealistic at this point. You are much more concerned about how to achieve what you want in concrete practical terms. Use this time well, for it gives you the opportunity to lay a foundation that will protect you in the future.

Transit selected for today:
Saturn Sextile Saturn
activity period from end of October 2006 until beginning of August 2007.

More birthday celebrations!

Well, my birthday celebrating continues on today.

I got an unexpected call from Uncle George this morning on my drive to work. He evidently had tried to call last night while S and I were at Jan and Tom's drinking and celebrating the holidays.

Then at work, a coworker, an emigre from Russia, came up to me (again unexpectedly) and handed me two items. Mariya said she overheard that yesterday was my birthday and wanted to wish me a "Happy Birthday!" She gave me a very nice mechanical pencil and a colorful pad of Post-It notes.

I grabbed a blank piece of paper and asked her to write the words "Happy Birthday" for me in Russian. I'm thinking about replicating them in UG, creating a jpeg file and publishing it to Flickr.

And here it is ... with my clumsy effort at creating a stereotypical Russian onion dome.

Tomorrow is my birthday

Dragon Mood? -- befuddled and unprepared

Tomorrow I turn 54.

Wow, there it is. Fifty-four, carved in stone, up on a pedestal, its profile outlined by spotlights, big and monolithic and rather detached.

Maybe that better describes my feelings than any fantasy statue. Usually I'm more excited about my birthday, feeling a keener sense of anticipation, you know? For whatever reason, this year I'm not.

Fifty-three, almost done now, has been a tough year for me. Losing my job last January and all the ensuing uncertainty has been tough. My self-confidence feels smaller and diminished from a year ago. My sense of optimism and general well-being is feeling rather worn, rather weary. (I'm chuckling to myself. Thinking of my formerly optimistic outlook -- once robust but now rather worn down with a distinctly ragtag quality to it -- reminds me of my bras. I'm wearing the lone survivor and desperately in need of reinforcements, strong and up to the job!)

My moments of excitement feel smaller these days. Bite-size rather than whole meals, if you know what I mean? Even my dreams seem to have gone AWOL these days. S asked me weeks ago what are my dreams for myself and for us. Sadly, I couldn't come up with a single thought.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow as a remembrance of all the wonderful years I've already experienced. I'm also looking forward to a new age, a new year, renewed dreams ... and maybe even some new bras!