The Best (birth) Day Ever...

"Until you've seen this trash can dream come true

 You stand at the edge while people run you through

 And I thank the Lord

 There's people out there like you

 I thank the Lord there's people out there like you

 While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

 Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers

 Turn around and say good morning to the night

 For unless they see the sky

 But they can't and that is why

 They know not if it's dark outside or light"

 -  Elton, John - Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

There was no new car...and I didn't hit the lotto. No trips to a sandy beach locale, new camera, or a big flat screen. No, on this birthday of Friday last, I received four awesome gifts. Gifts of true and lasting value. Wonderful, meaningful gifts that mattered. Anyone who's known me more than five minutes knows there are only four things in my life that truly matter to me. My music, my Giants, my friends, and my family. If I lose anything else, I can pick up, dust off, and move on. But these are the things which sustain me. The fuel for my fire. And on this day of celebration of my fifty-six trips around the sun, I was treated to a fabulous gift from each...

Make Me Smile...after 49 years of groundbreaking music (and especially during the first ten years), in their twenty-second year of eligibility, the "rock band with horns", CHICAGO, was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. As a dedicated fans of that music for 47 of those years, to have the boys finally take their rightful and respected place among the all-time greats on my birthday seemed not only fitting, but somehow, cosmically just. Congrats to RL, Terry, Lee, Walt, James, and Danny. To Peter, congrats as well, but you are still the ass you've always been, for not showing up. And to Rolling Stone publisher and Rock Hall over-lord Jann Wenner, who was virtually solely responsible for this band having to wait more than two decades for this honor, well, you're just still an ass...

A Humm Baby Birthday...for Christmas, Jenn gave us tix to Friday night's game. And while the rain-soaked transport from the Northern Fortress to the friendly confines of AT&T and back were perhaps not quite celebratory, to curl up under a blanket in a light rain, dining on garlic fries and hot cocoa as we watched perhaps the most bizarre, exciting, and triumphant installment of the Giant/Dodger rivalry since 1982 (when Joe Morgan knocked these same Dodgers out of the playoffs with a walk-off home run), was indeed, giftus majorus. Topped off by having P-town homeboy Brandon Crawford reprise the Morgan roll by going deep in the 10th for a walk-off G-men victory. Humm Baby, indeed...Belated congrats to friends and fellow AVHS alums Eric Otis Nostrand and his lovely wife, Julie Dolan Nostrand, who were also at The Yard, celebrating their 27th wedding anniversary. I am guessing, without their two beautiful hummm babies...Placed on the top of my Gyros B-day cake (sadly "not" made by our own Anne "The Cake Lady" Scheibli (nee Connolly) who was busy creating her first-ever cake for a gay wedding!), fellow birthday celebrator, Giants' President and CEO Larry Baer signed Giants' first-bagger Brandon "The Giraffe" Belt to a six-year contract extension. Our homegrown infield (the league's best!) will be locked up until the middle of Hillary's second term, by which time, da Bums will still be looking for their first Series title since the end of the Reagan administration...

My Giant Roster...I must give the extra props today to Mr. FB, Mark Zuckerberg. Regardless of what you think about him or the $50 billion toy he built in his Harvard dorm room, his mental meltdown machine allows us to keep up and in touch with family and friends, and to me, that just rocks! Maybe never as much as yesterday, hearing from (through FB, e-mails, texts, and a couple of awesome phone calls!) all of the family I correspond with and receiving well wishes and birthday greetings from all over the planet. Sitting in the stadium that night with Jenn's head on my shoulder, surveying the 40,000 strong who had come to join in my celebration, reading the thoughtful messages between innings, how could anyone not be moved. A couple of times to the point of tears. Thanks gang. I hope you all know I love ya more 'n my luggage...

Alpha and Omega...right where it all starts and ends, with the family. The day began with the most special of gifts, our tweeners (Miss Riley, 11 and Sir Zachary of Me, 13) being so incredibly pleasant and engaging and helpful and giving, I was about to start looking in the back yard for pods. Laughter and great conversation from breakfast through the 8 minute drive to the school drop-off loop was warm and loving and continuous and if you've raised tweeners, you know it's nothing short of Valhalla. A morning filled with joyous work and over-prepping for our trip to the Yard, was followed by nine hours of soul-joined bliss, as Jenn and I focused on nothing but ourselves and our beloved ball club (well, she does have a bit of a thing for second baseman, Joe Panik, but I am nothing if not understanding). Throughout the day, I chatted with and read messages from family, and as Jenn and I made our way across the Altamont, heading back to The Northern Fortress, I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of blessed gratitude and riches that had somehow made their way to me.

I read once that a man is not truly wealthy until he has something that can not be bought. And to paraphrase baseball immortal Lou Gehrig, "On Friday past, and for everyday hereafter, I will consider myself, the richest man on the face of the Earth".
My eternal gratitude and most heartfelt love, to each of you, for donating to the fund...