Twenty Eight: A celebratory post.

Its my birfday and while I might not be "in da club" we're still gonna party like it's my birfday. So for today I proudly present:

1. A new look - yeah. Been working on this one on and off again for a while. I really wanted to use Gitgan Green on my blog - I think the pink is a nice compliment to it. I'm 28 now, married, quite secure in my masculinity and let's face it Pink is the new Black. This new template is my birthday present to me.
2. Kirsten - With a post to rival some of my longest ramblings - my beautiful wife Kirsten has updated her blog. She wrote out her version of our story over the last two years dealing with infertility, God and the journey that we're on with adoption. A fine piece of writing with hyperlinks and everything. She's much more eloquent than I and fills in some of the gaps that I left in my post on the subject. If you read it, comment on it - I know she'd appreciate it. Grab a box of Kleenex and settle in. When I read it - it made water come out of my eyes.
3. Eric Robertson - I know I'm probably the only person that triple-clicks that paw print over on the right hand column but, if you do you'll probably see quite a few referrals from www.robertson-family.org/wordpress Why all of the sudden so many hits from that end of the internet? Well - Dude ripped off my post about the Ostovics moving to Troy, MI. If plagiarism is the highest form of flattery, then plagiarism + sending hits to my site = One flattered Josh. Thanks again!
4. Jeremy Bear - I was talking with Rockwood a couple weeks ago about this and we recalled Mr. Bear's vow to become the #1 Jeremy Bear on the internet. Well, after a bit of hate mail and a few years - He's done it. Check out the Google search for Jeremy Bear. On a different, but related note - it's been said that history repeats, but does it delete too?
5. Apple - as time passes and I use my Powerbook more and more I am only becoming more convinced that the Mac platform is the premier operating system. Not just because of the fun stuff in OS X 10.4 but because of the stability and total ease of use. I used Automator the other week for the first time. Never really played with it before and in 2 minutes I had automated a quite repetitive task and in the process, saved myself at least 45 minutes. And the coolest thing about this is that most Apple software is that easy to use. First time out of the gate and you're off.
6. Hands - At work we have this award that is given 4 times a year to an employee, nominated by their co-workers for some outstanding characteristic. It's the "Gotta Hand It to Ya" award and this time around I got it. Pretty cool too - well the award itself isn't. They took a rubber kitchen glove and filled it with plaster, let it dry, removed the glove and gold spray-painted the resulting hand and arm. Then mounted it to a small wooden pedestal. It looks a little creepy, but it's still really cool to be recognized by your peers. I thought the hand could use a little something - so I went to KB Toy Store and got some new hands - Hulk hands. So we had cake and celebrated it was very nice. Oh and I also got a Visa gift card - sweet!
7. Sneak Peek - one person from a state on the west coast got a sneak peek on the new look of my blog and even commented on a test post I put out there. More proof that if you write more often, people will visit more often.
8. Welcome - There's a new voice on the web, another screamer in - to borrow the term - "The Hive". Welcome Jenn & Nelson (but from what I understand - mostly Jenn) Lewis to the world of blogging. Her reason - she's gonna be a mommy! Congrats guys!
9. They won, and I helped! - My buddy Donny works for Evergreen Homes, they build homes in areas of Akron, Cleveland and Canton (I think) where the neighborhoods are in need of some sprucing up. They do an awesome job. A couple of weeks ago Kir & I went to the Cleveland CitiRama where Donny's company had built a home. It was easily the nicest one there and it won! I didn't stuff the ballot box but my vote counted. Don't you love living in a democracy? Congratulations Donny!
10. T-Shirts - The t-shirts for the upcoming contest are in. Watch for details in an upcoming post. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read this.
11. Three Days - See, the rule is when you have your birthday on a Friday, you get to celebrate it all weekend. Yes, three days of wild partying. As long as you define wild partying as a low-key Friday night, a baseball game on Saturday morning, hanging out with the in-laws in the evening and then an afternoon lunch with the fam. Yes, I know, not exactly wild but a lot of fun nonetheless.
12. Three words - nonetheless it's three words rolled into one. Who decides that is okay? Can you just randomly decide words should be stuck together? Ifthatsthecase then I think we'd all doitmoreoften.
13. Three more words: Mother-In-Law - all right, so this might be the part of the post that all of you find the funniest. That is until you stop and think about it being your mother-in-law. Let me 'splain it... So Friday is my birthday and it was moving along just swimmingly - at 3:00 pm I was to receive the Hand award at work other than that it was going to be a quite uneventful day. I ran out around a quarter till 2 to get the Hulk hands and I got back to the office around a quarter after. As I'm walking in I notice a red VW Jetta, that normally isn't in the parking lot, but didn't think too much of it. I go into the office, head to my cubicle and start to write some stuff down for the hand ceremony presentation. Just seconds after I start to write our receptionist walks over and asks me if I could help her in the kitchen with something - I say sure, but ask if it's going to take long because I wanted to prepare. She said no and I lead our way back to the kitchen. As soon as I get around the corner I see a face that isn't supposed to be in this realm of my life; it was the face of my mother-in-law(MIL), Maureen. But it wasn't just the face that surprised me, it was the singing. Maureen had either found or written a birthday song to the tune of Stars and Stripes Forever and was singing it to me, with a few of my co-workers looking on. Now it was embarrassing enough for me that my MIL was at my place of employment, but a singing MIL pushes you to a level of humiliation that is hard to surpass. Just when she gets to a part that I feel would be a logical place for the song to stop (or God to show me mercy via lightning bolt), The MIL launches into the instrumental section then the last verse. The whole time she's singing, the receptionist is taking pictures and people are sticking their heads into the kitchen to see what's going on. The whole thing was just surreal. I'm standing there, my MIL is not just singing to me, but staring straight at me while photographic evidence is being procured. The receptionist keeps telling me to stand closer to her so she can get us both in the picture. The whole song took around 2 minutes, I gotta tell you it felt much longer to me. I started feeling this uncomfortable queasiness in my stomach, a feeling that only shows up in situations like this or when someone uses the words "interpretive dance." Strangest thing about this was that it was entirely out of character for Maureen. I guess she's getting a little more free-spirited as she gets older. She said I deserved it, and while I'm not sure I'd wish that on anyone it does make for a good story and a memorable birthday. So, thanks Maureen, but really - you don't need to ever do that again. Really.
14. This post - while my birthday celebration stretched over three days, writing this post has taken much longer. And sadly I'm only halfway through. We must forge ahead though - because we don't do that "there is no Number 14" thing like some people I know.
15. Tennis anyone? - One of my birthday presents from Kirsten was a tennis racket. I haven't played tennis in a long time but I had fun when I did. She got herself a racket as well so we could "be active" together. We actually went out on Monday night and played at Keyser Park. We were going to just go to Valley Vista Park since it's closer to our house but when we drove past there were other people on the tennis courts and we didn't want to risk interfering with their game. It turned out to be a good thing that we drove a few minutes further north. We really were all over the courts, but hey - we had a good time and were "active." Speaking of active...
16. This year - in my 28th year of life I really do want to get into better shape. Not just because I need to lose a few pounds but because I want to be able to run around with our kids when we have them. So we'll be joining the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium once again. Hopefully this time I'll be a bit more successful at getting up and going in the morning.
17. So I got my hair cut - Last Thursday night I decided that before the golden hand was presented to me I should get my hair cut. I go to Best Cuts, yep - I trust my hair to only the best. I always have my hair cut short in the back with just enough in the front to stand up. Lately I've been pushing the sides in towards the middle - I think it looks kind of tough. If it were a little longer I might be able to call it a fauxhawk. Well, today I realized something. This is what my hair looks like now. My shadow looks like this: Which reminded me of this.. Which is this: Not so tough huh?
18. Good Goodbyes - As I mentioned before, Friday was pretty low key. We went over to the Tinkham's house for a Goodbye Open House for Derrak & Melanie Ostovic. It was really nice, we sat around the fire, told stories, laughed and listened to people remembering when. (Sounds like a song lyric, hmmm?) Derrak & Melanie - we only wish we could have gotten to know you sooner. Yes it was low key but, I couldn't have spent my birthday in a better way. Bonus: Got to hang out with everybody's favorite Chapman - Steve!
19. Speaking of Song Lyrics - I can't believe I'm posting this before my wife but, Sara Groves has a new album coming out this week. I'm really excited, I do like her music - but mostly I'm excited for Kirsten. This means she'll get to learn the entire song, instead of singing along to the 30 second snippets from her website, over and over and over again.
20. Oatmeal - Friday morning I had oatmeal for breakfast. I don't know why, but after 28 years it tasted good for the first time. Weird. Maybe 29 is the year of the asparagus.
21. Doh! - I got Season Six of the Simpsons from my younger brothers. Season six for of you that missed out because your parents took Dr. Dobson's words as gospel - was the season that concluded with the episode that asks: Who Shot Mr. Burns?
22. My bookmarks - I'm not sure why, but if you want to see what my bookmarks are you can see them at www.gitgan.com/bookmarks.html. The bookmarklets - for those of you who've never heard of them are little scripts that run when you click them. They do cool stuff like resize your browser window to 1024 x 768 or turn off the CSS on a page and show you the text and images.
23. Oregopia - check out the latest and greatest oregopia.com, the web home of Jeff & Leanne Becksfort. It's another site managed by blogger, with modifications by yours truly. While you're there - let them know how excited you are for them! What? You don't know? They're totally pregnant - because you can't be a little pregnant.
24. Blue Like Jazz - Ben got me this book for my birthday. I guess it's becoming all the rage. I'll post something about it once it has made it into my backpack.
25. Columbus - We'll be taking a little trip this weekend to visit The Feathers, and on Sunday - The Underwoods. I really like going to Columbus, getting away for the weekend is nice, kind of like a mini vacation. Only without the sun, sand and double digit travel times.
26. Mom & Dad's New House - It's being built and is really coming together quickly. Every once in a while I drop off empty boxes from work and their current house. I have to say, it will be weird when they move out but their new place is going to be really cool. They've done a ton of work at home and the place is just about ready to go onto the market. I'll post a link to the listing once it is up. The new place is out in Rootstown and it's supposed to be done around the end of December. So the holidays could potentially be really busy, leading into...
27. A busy January - Ben and Ashley will be getting married on the 7th. They're doing pre-marital classes at church now it addition to finishing up their schooling and looking for jobs. Engagement is a wonderful time isn't it! If you know of any businesses in need of a good graphic designer and communications person let me know and I'll pass it on to Ben.
28. Finally - on our family - we're still just getting started in all the adoption stuff. Lots of paperwork ahead of us and lots of friends filling out references for us now. We also have training and all kinds of stuff to go through but we're confident that God is taking us through them in His time. Check out Kirsten's blog for some more info on all this.

Whew man. Twenty-eight - I'm never doing that again. What's that - one to grow on? Maybe next year.