Happy Berated Birthday.

Last week I had, for the first time in decades, a birthday party! Sure, only a half dozen showed up and two of them skipped out after dinner, though it was considered to be a natal anniversary for me. (#65, don't ya know, so I didn't want it to pass in silence.)

I was even given a few prezzies. A care package of cookies and treats including the following:

The top three items are almost finished, I have yet to sample the others. Best present of all was a Piggiless Bank. I'm not sure how Zane knew I'd like it.

If you click this link, you can see it in action.

After dinner, we went bowling and I am definitely out of practice! The other attendees skipped a trip to the pub, but Zane was kind enough to buy me a beer or two. Two young lads got chatty with him, though once they slithered away, I decided to take my celebration in my own hands and convinced some lassies to take a photo with us.

When their third pal joined us, they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me and we left shortly thereafter (sans ladies, alas.)

I grabbed a cake on the way home and sang the tune again, solo this time.

I held off writing about my prezzies until now for yesterday, another friend who was visiting her daughter in Okinawa, gifted me with these:

I am very pleased with this mascot, ルーティ (Rooty) and she brought me an Orion beer 

SO, Happy Birthday to me!

My New Years was wholly uneventful by choice. I watched a dorky movie

and drank a few brew.

Unfortunately, Bib flew off the handle when I was washing him. Sigh.

New Year's Day was spent hanging around the apartment and I broke out a couple of my Dragons. 

Happy Ryu Year! (Ryu = 竜 = dragon)

Hey my blog is approaching a million hits! I need to figure out how to monetize this. (Sure most of the hits may be Bots, but it still seems impressive!)

Have a great 2024, cuz 2023 sucked big time for me!

What? No Poutine?!?

A pretty good day today! Taught downtown subbing for a friend out with the flu. 

Saw a horsey!

Afterwards, I had an hour to kill and tried to win this to no avail.

I didn't even bother trying for this giant turkey, wherever would I cook it?

Then I made it to the Koyo Grande Hotel for a Christmas party, Tohoku Electric Friends of Canada! I was, of course, Santa and aided by fellow Canuck, Alex, the Tree-boy. Alas, I don't have any photos of us!

The other entertainment besides we two was a Men's Choir that was pretty awesome.

I forgot take pictures of my plates, except these two.

I decided then to snap some pics of the food. I sampled all of the following:

Everyone was given a present by Santa. Except me! They felt sorry for me and found a box for Tree-boy and myself. These should last a while and I have a cool cookie tin to keep.

I was trying to think of a cartoon that'd encompass all the food above and Garfield came to mind. He eats a lot so here's his special. (Needs more lasagna!)

My thanks to Tree-boy, Tohoku Denki and the Monkey Magic lads who made a quick video with me wishing Merry Christmas to my boss. (She's a big fan.)