The Four Birthday B's

B number one: BILL. I love this man. Celebrating him is easy. Celebrating him only once a year is hard. (I guess that is why Father's Day was invented- in anticipation of Bill's birthday not being sufficient to properly exalt all the virtues of Bill. We get a second attempt in June.)


B number two: Biking. I can't believe I had to talk Billy into taking the day off. He has only worked once in his whole life time on his birthday. The day arrived right after he was promoted last year. He didn't know his new boss and wanted to prove himself and worked right through the day of his birth. It sucked. He hated it. Why would he do it again? Whatever. He came to his senses. Part of his present was having his bike all tuned with new brake pads for his Mueller Park 3 hour ride. What a wonderful view to start his day.


B number three: Blast off! Bill's parent were in town last week and brought with them his old model rocket kit. Blasting it off with his young ones was top on his priority list. After going through the old kit, it was apparent it wasn't totally complete. But that was soon remedied with a trip to Fred Meyer (Ok, Smith's Marketplace, but I think that name is too stupid to acknowledge.) 3, 2, 1... lift off.


B number 4: Boys. Boys who worked hard all morning making their Daddy the perfect cards. Boys who could not wait until dinner to give them to him.




Boys who think their Dad is a super hero. William drew a wonderful picture of Bill as Superman and Romney made one that looked suspiciously like his favorite Marvel hero, Wolverine-- with the addition of facial hair (like his Daddy).


What do you get the man who has everything? Nice home, great family, more electronics than we can count. Yeah, I don't know either. It is always a trick trying to find something thoughtful for Bill that he didn't even know he wanted (because if he had, he would have already bought it for himself.) This year, at the 11th hour, I found a great piece of bike themed art as well as the perfect frame and it all came together when it actually showed up in the mail today in time to wrap and present Bill his second birthday present.


But in all honesty, I think that no matter how much money I had spent or how many hours I had scoured the internet or stores I could never have found him a better present than this. 2 Barber boys with giant smiles, hugging the stuffing out of their Dad. (I am sure I will be framing this photo as a reminder of the "good ol' days" on his 90th birthday.)