Mets day 136 - let's do this every year

Yesterday concluded my three-day 50th birthday celebration.  It was a different experience for me -- in the past, I have met my birthdays with indifference, and my family has played along, sometimes going by without saying or doing anything.  And I was ok with that.  But this year Jennifer and the kids decided to do something different.  I wonder why.  In any event, it was nice to spend time with friends and family. 

Last night we got together with our good friends that I met on the first day of law school, exactly 27 years ago.  We were some of the few law students in relationships, and coalesced into a deep friendship.  Our study group became the set-up for a joke:  A hippie, a show girl, and a Mormon walked up the the bar . . . . 

The evening was capped by two wonderful gifts:  Bill gave me his 50 year old play-doh container, filled with 50 marbles, which he said he had carefully collected after I lost them, one by one.  At the bottom was a nut from his erector set, which he swore was to symbolize that I had a screw loose, and nothing to do with my broken erector set.  

Cynthia then read her list of "50 things we love about Ken".  We were all in tears by the end.  Here is page 1: 

and here is page 2:

Friends are the tonic of life.  Thank you.