Hockey and my back distracted me from getting all of this out there so I apologize profusely.
I’ll start with the one I got on time today, Phil’s birthday. At least he automatically gets the day off from work. Knowing him and his new-found love of SCUBA diving (gave him something to talk about with Somara, diverting the attention away from his inane wisdom at Marquette), he may be in some exotic location like Costa Rica or Mexico. There just isn’t anything in Lake Michigan to check out besides dead mobster informants.
On the late front, the first is my niece Anna. Her birthday was June 1 and she’s now eight. Thankfully she remains old enough for cool toys but none of those crummy educational things or junk with images of Dora, the Backyardigans or Yo Gabba Gabba! I think Barbie remains the center of her personal universe. I need to get to Chicago to meet her in person before she hits the fashionista age which is rapidly getting lowered thanks to America’s obsession with consumption.
Last, a belated happy fourth anniversary to Kelly and Ethan. What a wedding it was. It was a mini-vacation for me too. According to Wikipedia, the half-right source of factual things (history namely), the gifts for number four are linen (tablecloth?), silk (scarf?), fruit (we eat that every day), flowers (those are in the yard) or an appliance. Well there you go, they should buy each other iPads. Those are electrical appliances for keeping shopping lists at the grocery store, chores around the house and keeping their daughter Evie distracted with an episode of Elmo.
Wish these people well if you know them. If you already did unlike tardy ol’ me, great job, you’re more punctual and have better backs than me.