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!

You got that right, dude!

This is one smart dog.

Life's a beach! (part 2)

I must down to the seas again,
               for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
              that may not be denied . . .

John Masefield was right: It turns out I couldn't stay away from . . . THE BEACH! M and J took me there for several days last week. It was better this time, though now that I've had a few months to think about it, I have to admit the first time was more upside than down.

What was especially cool this trip (aside from the weather!) was that our friends Bonnie and Judy drove over for a visit. It was fun walking along the shore with them, showing them dead crabs and jellyfish and coquina rocks and other neat stuff. I still couldn't manage to get more than a toe or two into the water--and even that was by accident. I'll keep working on it.

Here are some pictures M took of the rest of us:

Since Judy and Bonnie were there on Wednesday, we went to McDonald's for burgers and fries, which we took back to the beach house for some splendid seaside dining. Here's a picture of our "seaside dining room" that M created from three separate photos he took at Christmas of 2009. You might want to click on it to make it bigger. In reality the house's deck, floor, and ceiling are straight and the ocean is curvy, but you get the general idea:

If you're new to the blog and don't know about our Wednesday "hamburger nights," you can go to this post, which will lay it all out for you. (Forget what it says about my not liking French fries, though. I've seen the light and now think they're wonderful!)

To read about my first beach experience and see some more pictures, click here.

This looks like a pretty fair deal.

Happy birthday, Bonnie and Ally!

Two of this blog's loyal followers share a birthday, and it happens to be today! Special birthday hugs go out to my sister Bonnie and cousin Ally.

Everybody knows what a sister is, but cousins can sometimes take a little explaining. Ask any genealogist--like M, for instance. Ally's mom is M's aunt, but she's also his first cousin once removed. That's not as trailer-trashy as it sounds. All it means is that M's mom and Ally's mom are first cousins who married a pair of brothers. It also means that M and Ally are not only first cousins (because of their brother-uncles), but second cousins as well (because of their first-cousin-mothers). Which I think makes Bonnie and Ally both first and second cousins once removed. And I guess the same relationships apply to me and Ally (by my adoption, of course). And M is his own grandpa. Holy cow, forget what I said about trailer trash. This is pretty funky. It's starting to remind me of Deliverance. And they say Irish setters are overbred!

But anyway, back to my main message, which is a lot simpler: Happy birthday, ladies!