i'm old

the birthday was a happy one. not much recognition at work, but barb sent a beautiful bouquet of gladioli and lilies and carnations. i was in little kid mode. chocolate, yeah! then barb and robin andi not only went to scarf fine mexican food at la botana but actually then hopped over to the oak tree cinemas to see flightplan. (i'll review that on Woof!) and barb noticed that the pin oaks between the oak tree cinemas and larry's market were amazingly brilliantly colored, and they were. i gotta say, from the color standpoint the autumn is hard to beat.

i told barb it felt like 49 was this big watershed year and i was kind of freaked out about it. she said the same thing happened to her. but since she always starts preparing for next year's birthday by thinking of herself as one year older, i guess 50 and up have been fine for her. i have to say 49 finds me in happier position than maybe ever. (well, it was nice to be a bunch richer 6 years ago. but that's the nature of markets and asset values. that's a great nonattachment practice for rich americans like me.)

hadn't seen robin for 2 weeks prior to last week. he'd gone through a bad stretch of boredom and not doing much at work, then (not sure of the order here) went off to vegas with his cronies and fell off the wagon for the first time in 10 years and got made the project co-lead with a guy he works with that he respects. so maybe he'll be happy. odd that i think that'd be a perfectly wacky/interesting job. i'm being bit by the work/travel bug again.

people just gotta be reminded that you're thinking of them and even then they may not want any human contact at all. that's the way i was feeling tonight when i got home after work/grocery shopping/no dinner! and then when melissa called and i about bit barb's head off.

at work and actually making progress building pieces and now starting to assemble them. data modeling, now i'm doing the visual spec. then code as much of the rest of it as i can. it's pretty intense, learn-in-a-hurry mental work, and it leaves me tired. tonight wanted just to retire and write, came upstairs, then barb and i both got calls from missy and then melissa, both with happy birthday wishes. talked to brother-in-law jim about getting out of the line of work i want to get into. maybe 'cause it's still almost brand-new to me and he's been doing it for 20+ years. he'd like to teach if he could make a go of it as a community college teacher or something similar. maybe in hawaii. hey, why not?

other happily received greetings
dad
dwight
lorraine & carl
mom
sandy
mj
meredith

and oh yeah someone's throwing a party this weekend. i think it's time i was the center of attantion for awhile. maybe i'll just sit in one place...