getting all dolled up for my birthday

Ugh. I'm down and out with something nasty. Hating it. Throat swollen shut, and blinding pain. I was able to see (another) doctor yesterday who has taken care of me and I feel I've turning around.

This is my birthday cake.



Happy birthday to me. I should have put a candle in it.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes, and I promise to be supper happy fun birthday boy upon recovery.

Birthday!

So, 42 isn't really a milestone birthday, except now I expect to have the answer to everything.

Brother Mac gave me some sweet Starfleet Academy cuff links and a French-cuffed shirt with which to wear them—and I'm wearing both today.


Awesome Ellen sent me some pens she made at camp in her glass/ceramics class. He handmade some gorgeous color beads and some pig beads and made the pens for me.




I love the pigs. Love.

And then Ellen pointed out: "It's a pig pen!" get it?" Oh dear. Love more.


And here she is making them!


Happy birthday to me! Off for the final performance of Designing Women Live followed by dinner and possibly bowling at Mission Bowling Club.

hide your stache

The Intimates took me out for a surprise belated birthday adventure a couple of weeks ago, and I can tell you that nothing spices up a random mid-week adventure like a bag of mustaches. I do have to admit, it took me a moment to realize that I already had a mustache and affixing another one was a bit superfluous and not terribly face-altering.

However, when I was a young child, my oldest brother was in high school and developed an ingenious means of becoming invisible whenever our parents would embarrass him (i.e. whenever they were within 100 feet and anywhere in public). He would grow an "instant mustache" and this would be his disguise so that no one could recognize him or affiliate him with that insane man dressed like James Robertson or that woman with that loud voice talking about diarrhea. Jay would grow this "instant mustache" by placing his index finger under his nose above his upper lip. The other brothers readily adopted this technique, and for some reason perhaps desperation—we all believed that by adopting this gesture we could become completely invisible by such a clever disguise.


It even works on guys with beards. GENIUS!

As you can tell:

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Nothing to see here. Move along.

Oh, by the way, PeeDee wants you back.

Mad Men 40th

I'm still putting together photos and videos from the big coutnry party, but here's the slide show from the awesome Mad Men-themed 40th birthday party my sister-in-law Emily threw for me in Nashville in August. So much fun!



And here is a bit of Mac's toast:

This is what love looks like

I am blessed with a loving family. And a "crazy in the good way" one. And Mom always finds the best cards. This year, I found this bit of love in the mail that moved me to tears. And it's just spot on.


That is just so me/us in so many ways. And what's even more funny is that I have a hat very similar to that flamingo one that's a turkey, which my mother gave me. And I of course wear it proudly during the holidays.

But the kicker is the inscription:


I may be one odd duck, but I love and am loved by my family that's completely quackers.

A happy birthday indeed.

40!

Wow. Turning 40 was a wild ride, and in the recovery I am feeling every year. But it was ridiculous fun and thanks to everyone for their well wishes and to everyone who came out for Mad Men or the Big Country Dance last week.

That's some serious love. And I'll post pics and such as soon as I can get them from the friends who took photos. It's all a blur to me.

But I want to do it again.

Mad Man at 40

I turn 40 this Saturday, and am having a ridiculously big blowout at Cafe Cocomo with country dancing, my favorite band (77 El Deora) and other treats.

While I was home in Nashville, my sister-in-law Emily, with assistance from her mother, my mother, and Carrington, threw me an amazing Mad Men-themed party at their house. "Wilson Hardcastle: the last great thing conceived in the 60s." Food and attire was 60s-themed, and mom even went through six costume changes at home, of wesome outfits she has kept since the 60s, only to be unable to bring herself to show up in costume. Mac and I however wore a smoking jacket and dinner jacket respectively. While everyone thought the weather had cooled considerably and were comfortable, it had cooled to a balmy 95 and was still too hot and humid for me to wear the jacket long or mingle at the bar on the screened porch.

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Emily was amazing. She even took time off work to spruce up the house and make all of the arrangements—including a period menu, a pineapple/fruit/sausage candle party thing, and even put out antique ashtrays and candied cigarettes all around the house.

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Mac and Jay has a short roast, and the cake features a photo of me dressed as a clown at one year old, with the caption "some things never change."

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It was such a special, special night and I send my love and thanks to everyone who participated. And I feel doubly-loved that I can have two 40th birthday parties on opposite coasts and have a hundred or so loved ones at each.

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Flickr set (most photos from Carolyn and Keith).

Pretty Sneaky Sis!

Fuck yeah! Sneaky's barbecue is going to cater the birthday party.

From all of the reviews around the Bay, theirs is the downhome best pork BBQ, and I want to take a bath in their macaroni and cheese. So far Pat has been a joy to work with, and he was happy to work with me to cater exactly what I wanted within my new budget. They are even going to bring their juicer to make fresh lemonade on site!

Second Annual 39th Birthday Party

I finally found a venue, so invitations are going out. The club claims they can hold a thousand people, so I don't have to be skimpy on the invite list. I am hosting an afternoon of country/western dancing, with an 80s music block thrown in. AND 77 El Deora has agreed to play a set or two as well! Unfortunately, it looks like Jenn (female lead singer) won't be able to make it so half of my favorite songs are off the set list.

My budget for this thing is nearly gone after I had to lay out $3,500 for the new transmission. Grrr. But Club Cocomo gave me a good deal on the space, and I won't be hosting the bar anymore so it's just food stuffs I have to deal with.

A full afternoon of drinking and dancing in warm weather in an indoor/outdoor club with all my friends—a great birthday plan!

Poster and invite:

PeeDeeBeeDee

Yesterday was PeeDee's birthday. And my Dad's. Happy birthday to Paul Day and Papa John!

Paul Day loves cake.


Fans of Strangers with Candy know who else loves cake.

happy birthday hour

I'm going to do something big (as soon as I can find an affordable venue) and outdoorsy/dancy for my First Annual 39th Birthday Party. As it was, a few of us just went or happy hour two-for-ones on the actual birthday. This turned out to be a blast, what I remember of it anyway. Again, Shilpa's got most of the good photos. These were in my camera the next day.

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Special shout to Guy who made it out after class, and brought cake! And a big shout out to surprise guest who landed just time from NYC: Rick Marshall (before off to Burning Man of course). Happy to me!

Flickr set.

thief of time

Wednesday, quietly, and he had hoped to be without acknowledgement, Kevin turned 40. I had planned to make a nice collage of Kevin shots but that takes a lot of time and time is not something I've had a lot of this week.

Tuesday was the night before his birthday--the last day of his 30's. Tony has moved back from SoCal and was performing at harvey's that night so we turned his show into Kevin's anti-birthday party. (He did not want to recognize the birthday, and certainly not "celebrate" turning 40.) Kevin said the only theme was black-- the death of his 30's.

Kevin always brings it when it's my invitation. I could hardly not return the favor. Even it was just going to be the two of us.



Hi. I stole his youth.

Shilpa got her work done and--in her funeral finest-- was able to accept the invitation to celebrate her buddies Kevin and Tony.

PeeDee, newly unemployed, has no reason to go to bed anymore and joined us for the anti-birthday party.

We finished the night off at 440 and had a ball with the old "gang" including Tony's ex and Kevin's replacement roommate Jorge (he should look familiar to regular blog readers).









(Shilpa: this should totally be your new online profile pic!)





PeeDee, ever vigilant on the "turning 40" countdown.



This is what 40 looks like!
Happy birthday Kev!