Many thanks for the kind comments, friends! The birthday itself was great. Our daughter came in from Dubai (she lives and works there) and our son and grandson flew in from New Orleans.

My feeble excuse for being late acknowledging your notes is that the son bought some super cheepy airline tickets on an airline that is not exactly famous for being reliable (I'll supply the name of the company on request). I drove them to the airport only to learn that their return flight was cancelled. Short-notice tickets on another carrier would cost about 450 bucks each. GULP!

Well, son John is a Coast Guard officer and he had to conduct some sort of a big inspection in New Orleans the next morning. Grandson, who is the big stud on the Lakeside Swim Club age six-and-under swim team, had a meet that same day.

To shorten this long boring story somewhat, I stuffed everybody in my F150 crew cab and drove like a maniac to New Orleans. John made his inspection and grandson won four blue ribbons. I haven't recovered yet.

Jim