A Very Merry Unbirthday

Ben turned seventeen this weekend.

He's now at that age where he's too old (says he) for birthday parties. He did not want a cake, he did not want a party, and he absolutely did not want anyone to sing to him. He finally agreed to have a few friends over for an ice cream cake (no candles) but told them not to bring presents and he insisted on opening his presents from us before anyone got here.

Just for the record, I still want everyone to throw me a party on my birthday and I want presents and lots of them.

Katie drew a book for him which is about a girl with a magic flute which magically makes a birthday cake for him. He promptly tossed it aside in a big brotherly fashion. I thought it was adorable and I'm saving it for later. He'll appreciate it more when he's forty or so. I'll give it back to him then.

Emily crocheted a birthday cake. That girl is all kinds of talented. I can't even crochet a string.

Ben has a really quirky sense of humor so we always try to get him a few oddball things. He's a pickle fiend (all my kids are) so we found him some pickle flavored mints and pickle flavored dental floss. I know you all are going to run right out and try to find some for yourselves. It's available on Amazon.com.

You're welcome.

Because he is a bacon fiend, we also found him a wallet which looks like it is made of raw bacon. We gave him bacon scented soap last year but he said it just made him sticky.

I asked the girls to wrap Ben's gifts. They thought it would be amusing to wrap one of them in ten layers of colored duct tape.

He had to unwrap each layer a little at a time.

He unwound and unwrapped. Unwound and unwrapped.

And while the girls were greatly amused, I could tell by the expression on his face that their joy was completely wasted on him.

His new tee-shirt pretty much summed up his feelings about the entire event.

Comments

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...

Mama On The Move

Search This Blog