ArrowStar - Billygoat - MozzerForLife - BigTex - Cruzanheart - DFWNonJW:
Thanks so much, good friends of mine. I didn't have the foggiest notion! You took me sooooooo by surprise with this. The birthday cards will go up on the bulletin board in my study, and the specialty beer will go in the fridge,to be... um... "appreciated" (cough) ... at the proper time, yes (Cruzan, come drink up this other twisted lemon brew - me and the boys won't have anything to do with it). I just was blown away by the appearance of the grim reaper himself (all 6' 9" of him). I asked him to dance, but apparently he wasn't having any of it. :)
Eddie - what could possibly be more appropriate from one drummer to another? Your gift will serve to produce another three sets of Pro-Mark 2B Japan Oaks... a major improvement over the Vic Firth 2B Hickory jobbies that can't survive a single gig.
Neil and Andi - even as we speak, the hand is gracing the table in my living room where all the mystic elemental power-pulling forces draw strength and energy into my house. Thanks so much... peace and spirituality I know well enough. Improved concentration and memory - goodness knows I can use all of it that I can get!
Lisa - you organizer extraordinaire! And you snuck this in right under my nose! Party Saturday night, party Sunday... making up for lost time, on these birthday parties! You know, I never even think of the things... a leftover trait from JW days. But you remind me that life is to be lived in the here and now, to be enjoyed moment by moment as the moments come; that I am no longer post-poning all my happiness for a vaguely dated future time that keeps being pushed back farther and farther; no, but now I'm living it as it happens. Thank you, ArrowStar, sweet thoughtful mamacita.
50 and counting... as I have often said to friends of mine: "Next time you go to a funeral, it don't hardly pay you to come back to town." That would be me. :) Be that as it may, I'm gonna keep living life as if I were 25 years old. ArrowStar, darlin', come a little closer... mmm, yummy... :)