Happy Birthday Papi!

My father would have turned 78 today.

I remember we used to always make a big deal of his birthday, because as I've said before my father would make up excuses to have people over to eat and drink - so when there was an actual reason like a birthday he was all over it. My mother and I were never big on parties for ourselves, so he was forced to focus on his own.

I specifically remember one year we celebrated his birthday with a cheese and wine party - at the time they had not come back into style yet, so it was a retro 70s thing. As a theme he picked wines and cheeses from Spain. In case you didn't know there are a lot of different types of Spanish cheese! And happily just as many types of wine.

He went all out - he researched different cheeses online before there was Wikipedia or Google to simplify things, he contacted restaurants and wineries and then drove all over the Greater Miami area looking for the different cheeses and wines. We wound up having quite a selection. We got these little tooth-picky sign things so we could label the different types of cheese and indicate the region they were from. He printed out pairing information and details about the cheese and wine areas and then put them in those report binders (wine-colored of course) with the clear covers so everyone could take one home. The whole decor was wine themed - I'm telling you he was totally into this - in short, he had a blast.

Old friends and family were invited, around 30 people showed up. The Cuban music was playing and the Spanish wine flowing. Everyone had a great time comparing the different cheeses, picking their favorites, figuring out the best pairings, etc. His friends still talk about that party.

In fact, years later on the day of his funeral, one of his friends brought the binder he had been given at the party. He said he had kept it because of all the great information it provided and that he still referred to it and annotated it whenever he heard of a new Spanish wine. Papi must've have loved that as he watched the last and biggest party given in his honor.

¡Feliz cumpleaños Papi! I hope you're having a phenomenal party with Mami and all the friends that have joined you.

I love you and I still miss you every day.

Happy Birthday David Cassidy!

image source

Can you believe he's 59 today? That is just so wrong! He still looks great!

But still...Happy Birthday David (sigh)!

My 45th Birthday Celebration"s"

Inspired by my friend Purplepassion I have decided to make the entire month of July my birthday celebration - particularly this year when I turn 45 years old. That's a big one - the ones with fives and zeroes are always big ones. Really.

So the day before my birthday my visiting mother-in-law made me a delicious birthday dinner - yes boys and girls I got Halupki! And homemade macaroni and cheese! Along with roasted asparagus and a diabetic-friendly birthday cake pictured at the top of the post.

Here's Nancy, the royal mother-in-law and Chef extraordinaire - the woman cooked for me on her vacation!

I had the appropriate Birthday Princess regalia...

...which I shamelessly wore and waved! (Note the royal stain on my shirt - halupki splatters a bit!)

Presents...I got presents, I got lots and lots of presents...preseeeeents...(props to David Letterman).

Hubby gave me perfumes and a spa day, in-laws gave me the dinner and $$$, and I gave myself a Passport which arrived just in time the day before my birthday! No, I'm not going anywhere, but I like to know I can.

On my actual birthday we went to dinner at a great all-you-can-eat seafood buffet in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. Here we are in the restaurant.

Here are Hubby and his Dad futzing with the cell phones...boys and their toys!

Hubby and me by the water in Islamorada. Seriously, are we not adorable?

So I've had a wonderful couple of days...and the month is still young...even if I'm not! :)

Mami Would have Been 85 Today

Happy Birthday Mami.

I miss you.

The Lola Shuffle - "The Happy Birthday Hubby Edition"

On Wednesday 2/20, the day of my mother's funeral, Hubby turned Jack Benny's age. Yes, he turned 39! (I know! I got me a boy toy - WOO HOO!)

So Lola, go ahead and shuffle up a nice set for Hubby. This oughta be good, as Hubby and I have mostly different tastes in music, so chances are whatever Lola comes up with will make Hubby shudder, but hey Lola shuffles what she wants to shuffle and she don't care nothin' 'bout no birthdays!

1. Hold On - KT Tunstall (I love her, Hubby, not so much)
2. Feel Good Inc.- Gorillaz - (I think Hubby sorta likes them)
3. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (I love this song)
4. Runaway -Bon Jovi (Yeah, so Hubby is sooooo not a Bon Jovi fan - he still can't get over their "hair period" in the 80s)
5. I Put a Spell on You - Nina Simone (well, Hubby put a "spell" on me, so it's appropriate)
6. Oh Boy - Buddy Holly (Hubby isn't really into oldies that are this old - he has no appreciation for musical history!)
7. New York, New York - Frank Sinatra (He likes Sinatra, so OK)
8. Home to Stay - Josh Groban (Hubby is totally underwhelmed by Groban)
9. LDN - Lily Allen (BWAHAHAHA - Hubby hates this song!)
10. Hitchin' a Ride - Vanity Fare (Yeah, uh no...)

OK, so apparently Lola decided to be ornery and not throw Hubby a bone...nary a Rush, AC/DC, Doobie Brothers or even Eagles song to be heard! They're all in there, but apparently Lola wasn't in the mood. Don't let her fool you, Lola loves him , she's just being difficult.

Happy belated birthday Baby - you are my heart! Thanks for loving me so wonderfully.

Everyone, have a great weekend...

Birthday Meme

My Blog Buddy Curmudgeon has tagged me for this meme. Since I love talking about myself (What? Don't judge me! I'm an only child! It's all about me damn it!) I'm in meme heaven!

OK, so we're supposed to look up our date of birth on Wikipedia and find three events, two births and a holiday that happened on that date.

My birthday, as many of you know, just happened on July 8th.

Events:

1. 1776 - The Declaration of Independence was read aloud in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


2. 1889 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published. (Things that make you say Hmmm: I worked as a telemarketer for The Wall Street Journal about 20 years ago!)


3. 1947 - Reports are broadcast that a UFO has crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.

Births:

1. 1593 - Artemisia Gentileschi, female Italian painter


2. 1970 - Beck, American singer

Holiday:

1. Annual Soapy Smith wake, held each year in Skagway, Alaska in the Gold Rush Cemetery (that's Soapy's picture up there)

That was fun!

Now Curmudgeon is a lawyer, so he likes to complicate things. I'm supposed to copy the list below from his Blog, delete the top name and add my link to the bottom. So you have to do that too - Curmudgeon said so!

Big Leather Couch

Mimi Writes

Late Bloomer Boomer

Second Effort

The Mind Wobbles

And, I'm supposed to tag five people,so...purplepassion, Dixie, Sari, Troyboy and Toni - TAG, all y'all are IT!

Happy Birthday David!

No, not *my* David - my *other* David...David Cassidy!

Can you believe David Cassidy turns 57 today? 57!!!

While I think he still looks great, in my mind (and heart) he'll always look like this:

Come on every body, sing along for David...

"Hello world, here's a song that we're singing...come on get happeeeeeee! A whole lotta of lovin' is what we'll be bringin' to make you happeeeee....!"

(I even wrote this post in purple because that's his favorite color - tee hee!)

Happy Birthday Edvard!

Today is Edvard Munch's - one of my favorite artists - 143rd birthday.

The painting shown above "The Scream" or "The Cry" is probably his most famous painting, but he has a significant body of work in addition to this piece. Although "The Scream" is my favorite (I have two inflatable Screams, one about 2' tall that sits on my desk at work, and one that's 4' tall that lives in my second bedroom wearing a big straw hat, a feather boa and several strands of mardi gras beads), he painted another piece, "The Mermaid" which I also love.


You go Eddy!