Rowan Tree and Red Thread

Best birthday wishes to curiouswombat and a turkey-free day to all.

Best birthday wishes from R'yleh and the fishes. Have a good 'un.

*Hugs!*

Best birthday wishes, antiqueight, and have a good 'un.

Best birthday wishes. I hope it's a good one.

Best birthday wishes to nwhyte.

"Against Entropy"

The worm drives helically through the wood
And does not know the dust left in the bore
Once made the table integral and good;
And suddenly the crystal hits the floor.
Electrons find their paths in subtle ways,
A massless eddy in a trail of smoke;
The names of lovers, light of other days --
Perhaps you will not miss them. That's the joke.
The universe winds down. That's how it's made.
But memory is everything to lose;
Although some of the colors have to fade,
Do not believe you'll get the chance to choose.
Regret, by definition, comes too late;
Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate.

John M. Ford (1957 – 2006)

Have a damn fine birthday.

Happy birthday, myholder! Have a good 'un

Best birthday wishes Avram. Have a great day.

Happy Monkey, Mr Darwin, and thanks.




(Image source: Ray Troll reproduced without permission but with great thanks.)

Fly high everyday, but particularly so on your birthday. Have a fun one.

A very Happy Birthday and best wishes to you for a fun day's celebrations, chefted

I'm 40 today.

In keeping with tradition there'll be brownies courtesy of my mother and an open house this afternoon for friends free to drop by and celebrate.

My 40th year seems to have been something of a placeholder. I can't pinpoint any personal highlights really; most of my fondest memories are successes and milestones for my kids.

Well that's not entirely true. I did manage to hit 100 consecutive zines for Alarums & Excursions and was proud of that. I wonder if the general sense of depression from the global recession has coloured my outlook of late.

My 41st year looks to include a big house move as part of the excitement. I'm hoping that goes smoothly but it's best not to hold your breath in such matters, particularly before we've even had the engineers' report on the structure.

I haven't made any New Year's resolutions. I'm not that responsive to them, but I do plan to change a couple of things over the course of the year.

I've always thought of myself as a reader but in the last year I've really been distracted by teh Shiny Internet etc. and failed to read anything like a satisfying number of books. So more reading is definitely required.

The other thing, likely as aspirational as any other year, is health and weight. Hmm. we'll see.

And now toast, as made for me by my daughter. See? 2009 is looking good already

Best wishes on your birthday, curiouswombat and I hope you have a great day.

Happy birthday stupidgoatboy. I hope you have a fun-filled day.

A very happy birthday to muskrat_john, his first of many with his adoring daughter to brighten the day.

Best birthday wishes to mrs_dm. Have a fun time!

Happy Birthday Nikchick, may it be a day of good food and good company.

A very happy birthday to a_d_medievalist. May your students be wise and engaged, your colleagues helpful and witty and your family warm and good cooks.

Happy birthday to friends wanton_heat_jet and Ken, who is curiously without a LJ account.

Happy birthday purplecthulhu, may you dream peacefully in the depths of glorious end times.

A very happy birthday to lordess. Best wishes for a fun time celebrating!

Happy birthday thoughts and hugs in irishkate's direction. Once we've sammywol back on her feet we'll take you out to the movies, or have you round for cake, as you prefer.

I haven't posted in a while. Partly due to a brief visit to Dublin to touch base with family and friends and partly due to generally fuzzy-headedness on my part.

Dublin was good. We saw lots of friends, and threw an extended birthday party for sammywol, which went nicely. We combined an afternoon party with kids and brownies with a later party with wine and more brownies.

We also discovered the playground at Malahide Castle and boy was that a good find. It's a really well done playground with a good mix of apparatus for little 'uns and bigger kids. Rowan played with D, the eldest daughter of B, the friend who recommended the place to us, until she was exhausted. Oscar even managed to pod about the various pieces with great enjoyment despite his great envy of the big girls and their acts of derring-do.

My mother did the baby-sitting thing too, so sammywol and I got a quiet dinner for two in a nice Italian restaurant round the corner in Ranelagh, which was a lovely way to celebrate sammywol's birthday.

We got home on Wednesday after a night-time drive that left the kids sleeping most of the way. It's the only way to travel.

Back to work tomorrow. Sigh.

Best birthday wishes to mnemex. Have a fun time celebrating!

A very happy birthday to the dear daftnewt in far off Canuckistan. Have fun today!

A very happy birthday to delichan. May it contain fun, frolics and little rain.

Many happy returns of the day to smalley_smoot. Hope it's a good one.

A very happy birthday to fjm and best wishes for a fun day of celebration.

Happy birthday, Beth! I hope it's a good one.

Have a good birthday filled with pulp-tastic fun.

Happy birthday, M, and big best wishes for a splendid wedding day tomorrow. Love and hugs from Cork to you and the Hun.

Happy birthday peaseblossom. May your day be fun-filled and prank-free.

It's hard to credit it but Oscar is one year old today. He's oblivious to the significance of the day, but happy to indulge his parents' quirks today as on every other day.

Best wishes for a good day to both agrumer and LJ refusenikfriend Ivan.

We're in Fitzgerald Park for lunch at the museum café before Rowan burns off energy at the playground. I haven't been here in ages, it seems, the recent weekends being more exercises in thinking up indoor diversions for the kids while avoiding the rain.

Today, however, is dry and very much February. Rowan is off school this coming week and her birthday falls neatly in the middle on Wednesday. I hope the weather holds good and we will go for picnic in Fota wildlife park as part of the celebrations.

The big party has to wait until Sunday, when we're having a birthday party for Rowan at Monkey Maze, one of the several soft-play centres in and around Cork. I forsee lots of sugar-high kids and three-storey slides. I've laid in a supply of paracetamol and ear plugs for the parents.

Rowan will be five years old on Wednesday. It seems like an age and just a beginning at the same time.

Health and happiness to you. Hope you have a good day!

I'm 39 today. This is the first birthday in several years I've not spent in Dublin so unfortunately I won't be having the usual get-together with friends at my mother's place. I'm sure anyone really missing them could ring my mother and ask her to make the traditional brownies anyway.

Instead for this birthday I'm in my wife's parents' place and my father-in-law has just brought me an early morning cup of tea. I'm watching Rowan make (and remake) a house of cards. She is discovering the frustrations of building with cards but showing a admirable persistence in the face of the usual setback when building in such unhelpful materials.

I think it would go better if she tucked her pyjama top into her trousers to stop it brushing against her construction when she leans forward. There have been more tears and heartache than any three episodes of Grand Designs already.

I haven't done a New Year's resolutions post. It would be the usual - read more, eat less, make changes I'm unlikely to follow through. I hope to do these things, but I think I need a better prod than the turning of the year to make them happen. I'll think about what might work and report back, okay?

So another older and an eventful year behind me. Last year started with medical matters when I underwent surgery for an overactive parathyroid gland; let's hope this year involves less hospital time and illness all round.

I didn't read as much as I would like, but I did more roleplaying than anytime since I left high school. In the process I've made friends, or become better friends, with some excellent trans-Atlantic folk.

Last year my son Oscar was born and much of the year has revolved around my children and my constant amazement at their growing up. Sleepness nights notwithstanding it's a brilliant, confusing, unmissable thing to be caught up in.

e.g. Rowan just stood up from her beadwork, the house of cards completed after some setbacks, and said 'now I'm going to sing Happy Birthday to you' and burst into song.

I'm smiling, in case you couldn't guess.

A very happy birthday to curiouswombat, whose birthday is even closer than mine to Christmas. Have a great day!

Have a good one!