Yes, thanks to Facebook and Chris Rodda, the word’s out; it’s my birthday! One year has gone by since I promised myself to use a semi-colon at least once in every blog post for one year; that’s done with. And I want to thank all the people who have sent me birthday wishes on Facebook; I tried to “like” all of them but Facebook has rounded out my feed so at one point I see a single entry that says “175 people have wished you a happy birthday” and there’s a picture of about nine people there.

I’ll figure that out later.

Every year, there is one thing I want for my birthday, and Julia finds out what it is, and tells everyone else, and then they don’t get it for me usually because it is not spec’ed out, and later I buy it myself. This year my birthday present will be a small propane grill. Very small. Portable, even. Not a propane stove, but a propane grill. Weber makes one, it’s called the Weber 1520 Propane Gas Go-Anywhere Grill. We don’t grill much at home but when we do the charcoal grill is overkill even though it’s very nice (it was a birthday present from a few years back). And we’ll still use the charcoal grill now and then. But there are those times when pulling the charcoal grill out onto the driveway, getting the coals lit and ready, cooking two hot dogs and a potato or something followed by having this hot grill ready to be knocked down by the toddler for the next two hours seems like the wrong way to go. The small propane grill will require that I get a new and more useful table, which is actually a good thing. It is also portable so we can go down to the river now and then and cook our potato there.

There is also one thing I want for my birthday every couple of years that is too expensive and extravagant but Amanda gets it for me anyway; this was one of those years and the thing is a lens. Since I didn’t bring that camera up to the cabin I can’t show you anything yet, but in a few days you’ll see, I’ll finally be a great photographer! (It is all in the equipment, right?)

The other thing I got for my birthday was this: Two shirts from JC Pennys. Absolutely appropriate since this year my birthday falls on Pride Day in the Twin Cities.

Oh, and about the semi-colon; I was kidding.

Happy Birthday everybody! (Who’s having one, that is.) And thanks for the good wishes.

Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:

In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle or Paperback
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