Lordy, Lordy!

Well, I'd intended to post this on my birthday (yesterday) but I was so dog-tired after only getting a few hours of sleep the night before and a crushing week at work I just came home and collapsed. I haven't been working late but eight hours per day have been somehow more demanding this week. The lady I share my account with is out on vacation and the account itself has really revved up lately. I'm not complaining though. Again, I wasn't working late, for which I'm extremely grateful. Plus...I have a job. That's a real plus these days.

Thanks to everybody who wished me a happy birthday. Chris, you made me laugh out loud. I am feeling rickety this week. My mother-in-law says you're only as old as you feel. Well, I feel fifty. Todd and Renee, thanks very much for the e-cards. They got to me just when I needed them and brightened my day.

Suzanne and my parents reeaally went overboard with the presents this year and made me feel like King-for-a-Day. Mom and Dad took us out for sushi and I really packed it in. I'd go into detail about the loot I got but that always feels like...I don't know...boasting. (Although I sent Christian an email doing just that.)

I have to tell you, though, that Suzanne got me the most amazing gift of all time. This past year at Heroes, when the HERO Initiative was auctioning off pages from the WHAT IF? tribute to Mike, I wanted to buy page eight. That was the last thing Mike ever drew. It never made it past the layout stage but Mike's layouts were extremely tight and Karl Kesel was able to ink from that. The layout was what was on Mike's drawing table when we all got down to Durham that night. Anyway, it seemed very important to me that I own that page. Unfortunately, the auction was a little awkward, with the police and all, and it was cut short. So I wasn't entirely clear what had happened to the page. We'd sort of overextended ourselves on the trip anyway and I felt like maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Well...it was. Somehow, Suzanne managed to get her hands on the page. More impressively, she kept it a secret for three months and was able to keep Christian from telling me. When I opened that box and found that page inside, it took my breath away. I was speechless. Mom and Dad were there when I opened it and it sort of made Mom go off on a crying jag. She knew what it was and why it was important to me and she couldn't help herself. Anyway, it wasn't as big a downer as you'd think. Mom cheered up eventually and we had a good morning.

I drew the sketch at the top of the post during a few minutes of downtime the other night in anticipation of my birthday. It doesn't really have much to do with anything but it seemed appropriate at the time. My hair looked like that when I was a toddler (so blonde it was almost white) and I'm sure my finger found its way up there from time to time. It felt good to sketch something spontaneous for a change after so long. I hope you like it.

Next time, I'll go into Charlie's Godzilla-poop on the way to the beach. Oh boy!