MARCH 7, 2003: Well, it finally happened. I've officially crossed over to that other side of 50. I'm glad that's done. Actually I had a great birthday. I got a cake and balloons at my office along with a mysterious phone call. A couple called and sang happy birthday to me and then hung up before I had a chance to even open my mouth. I have my list of likely suspects, but I can't say for sure who it was. Thanks for remembering me on my big day. The biggest surprise was that Charles flew home from San Francisco for the weekend to help me celebrate. He arrived Thursday evening. Of course Janet was in on it, because she picked him up from the airport under the auspices of visiting some girlfriends for the evening. What a treat and what a great surprise! We ate lunch at Yats on Mass Ave. (creole) and had dinner with my sister's at Santorini's (Greek) in Fountain Square. Always lots of good leftovers from that restaurant. Then we all walked across the street for some duck pin bowling action. This was something most of us had never done before so it was good to know there is still something new past fifty. We all had a great time. It's like bowling, only half-size. The balls are a little bigger than a softball, and the pins are spaced far enough apart that it's hard to get any pin action. I guess that's why you can have up to three balls per frame. I believe Jim was the only one out of the eight of us that got a strike. Lets see, that's eight times ten times two games --- uh, which equals not so good. Then we all came back to our house for cake and ice cream. It was good Janet made a sheet cake, because fifty candles sure take up a lot of space. Jane had made a couple of calls from Italy that we missed, but she tried again on Saturday. Luckily, I had decided not to go to the Y or else I would have missed her again. She said she had a great time on her spring-break. We're looking forward to seeing her in about a week. I hope the snow will be gone by the time we get back. We still have about 4 inches on the ground. Geesh!
Finally!