Happy Birthday to Me

Today, I've made it half-way to my target of living to be 108 years old! Actually, if that were seriously a target for me, I'd be living an entirely different lifestyle, devoid of booze, gluttony, and laziness. Well, since a target of 80 is not entirely out of the question, I'd better get in gear and try to rectify my lifestyle mistakes. Yes, that's it...after my cross-country automotive delivery from Florida to Texas, of course.

Today has started well. The temperature is 66 degrees, the skies are blue, and I am drinking some very good, very strong French roast coffee, a good chaser to the two eggs I cooked for breakfast (my lifestyle changes haven't started just yet). When I first checked my email this morning, I found a Rubber Chicken card from a sister-in-law, an inside-joke sort of card that has God talking to me, encouraging me to invest in pork-bellies. I believe in pork-bellies, I do. But they never encourage me to invest in God, so I don't.

Another card was waiting for me, too, this one from a long-retired association executive who I hold in high esteem in certain ways, despite the fact that he is the incarnation of rabid Republicanism and a true believer in the George Bush version of Iraq history, i.e., we had to invade, lest Sadam and his close Al Quaida affiliates launch the nuclear arsensal that they STILL TO THIS DAY HAVE HIDDEN. How I can find anything to like about the guy is beyond me; with all his faults, he has a good heart, at least where his friends are concerned. We cannot talk politics or religion, though; that would spell the death of friendship, because we're both absolutely committed to our opinions. The difference between us, though, is that my opinions are actually facts and his are symptoms of a deep, deep psychosis that has gripped him for a very long time.

I may have written about a website that features information about breakfast around the world, but if not, I encourage you to glance through it. For reasons unknown to me, I've always been curious about what constitutes breakfast in difference places and within difference cultures. The website has some fascinating information; I can only assume the author presents valid insights and did not simply make it all up.

Speaking of food, as I am wont to do, after my very long client board of directors meeting yesterday, I came home to my wife's suggestion that we go out for Ethiopian food, a suggestion I'm almost always guaranteed to accept. We went to a new place, a restaurant we'd noticed only a couple of months earlier during a visit to our of our favorite Indian food excursions. The place, called Addas Ababa (the spelling is theirs...I've not seen it spelled that way before), is very nice, colorful, and full of very pleasant and accommodating staff. The menu is very nice and has a huge variety. But, I was planning on ordering gored-gored...but it was not on the menu. Another dish made with raw beef, kitfo, was featured, but my favorite was absent from the menu.

In conversation with the waitress, she agreed to see if the kitchen would make gored-gored for me and they did agree to it. I also ordered an appetizer of kitfo, but it never arrived. My wife's yebeg tibs (sauteed lamb) was not particularly good. My gored-gored, while very tasty, was not what I was used to...not nearly as spicy as I like, but tasty nonetheless and worth getting. The fact that the people there were so pleasant is reason enough to go back. I'm confident we'll find something on the menu that hits the spot...at least we have to try!

We have not particular plans for today, other than to do a few errands and, much to my chagrin, spend a little time at the office getting some things done that we couldn't get done yesterday. Beyond that, though, we'll be carefree and spontaneous!