A Festive Occasion

Today is my sister Jenny's birthday.

(Crowd erupts in wild cheers.)

I was going to declare that if she lived in my world she'd be 5.4285714 years old. But then I started noodling around on Google and found that the old rule about one dog year equaling seven human years is no longer believed to be very accurate. Unfortunately the "new and improved" dog-year calculators you find all over the web don't agree with each other. For instance the one at this site gives an answer of 6.25. And this one provides a table where the age conversion also depends on the dog's weight. (Maybe it should depend on the human's weight, too.)

During my Google-fest I also learned that if Jenny had lived in ancient Roman times, this would be her XXXVIIIth birthday. And if she were a rocket scientist or other mathy person, she'd probably calculate her age as e to the 3.6375862 power.

In honor of her birthday here are some pictures showing Jenny at various points in her life, starting with when she was three months old:

Here she is in 1981 at her first piano recital:

Before we push on, M just interrupted me to point something out: When Jenny's niece Annabelle was about this age, she bore a striking resemblance to Jenny. Here's the recital picture alongside a similar pose of Annabelle (cue the Twilight Zone music):

Next we have Jenny in Driver's Ed:

And learning to wear makeup:

Here she is committing her first crime (that we know of)--feeding an endangered green sea turtle on the North Shore of Oahu:

(As an animal who used to depend on handouts from strangers, I have to say, "Good for you, child!")

At some point in her amazing life, Jenny posed for a statue:

And played banjo in a folk trio:

And won A Major Award:

"You like me! You really like me!"

Yes, Jen, we really do. Happy Birthday!