If you haven't seen October, and care, there are some updates there about ultra-cool trips to Vladivostok, Russia and Kiev, Ukraine (just click on Last Month button above).

Mumbo Jumbo has a tradition of a company bake-off, in which everyone (those willing) bakes something and vies for a prize (this year = a Wii, Guitar Hero 3, etc.).  A few days before, Ron and Mark explained this contest, to include that they would be taste-testing each entry to determine the winners.  They also warned that they would select one of us as a third tester, just before the judging.  Like Tyler Durden, they were worried about poisoning and pissing ;)

Well, came the party and the taste-testing.  The entries all looked good.  There was like 17 of them!

That's a lot of tasting!  Somehow, they did it, ...Ron, Mark, and Roger.  The one entry that didn't win, to my surprise, was the Tuna Fish Jell-O Casserole!  I guess the inclusion of a third tester didn't make for complete protection against baking artists ;)

I expected the same on this 50th birthday, but it was quite the opposite.  I feel like I'm wearing a ribbon or medal whenever I say "Ya, I'm 50.".  Plus, with two doctors' and a dentist's recent confirmation, I'm still quite healthy.  Maybe I never expected to live this long, so I feel accomplished, just for surviving.  I remember, back in the 1980s, hearing an interview with Joe Walsh when he said "If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself!" ;)  Maybe it's time to start thinking about that for real.

I have also spent more than a few moments lately trying to revision my image of my parents when they were this old.  That would also be back in the 1980s.  They seemed so old to me then!  Not in any derogatory sense of an image, just relative to how I saw myself at the time.  Now, here I am, at that same age, yet I feel, for the most part, just like I did then.  There seems to be a never-changing image of myself, even after so many years.

On the other hand, though, when I looked at a 30-year old woman back then, she looked prohibitingly old.  Now, that same woman, at that age then, would look very appealingly young to these "same" eyes.  So, something in me has changed more than a bit.  This duality is strange to me!

Rob organized a company-wide birthday party.  Birthdays are special to me, but only mine.  Others' are always forgotten; there are too many of which to keep track.

This was very cool, though!

Rob and Candace got he a hammock!  I have wanted one of these for years, ...well, almost ten years, since I bought this house.  I've already spent three afternoons in the hammock, ...slowly swaying in the crisp, cool Winter air.  My yard was made for a hammock, too!  A huge Elm tree covers most of the yard.

Hammocks also have a certain nostalgic value for me.  I remember the one we hade in New Haven when I was a kid.  So many hours spent there, mostly playing and trying to get the thing to swing around a complete 360 degree spin with me or Charlie inside.  It's amazing limbs weren't snapped as they would often get caught in the netting.

Ron and Christina got me a top-of-the-line Hirobo remote helicopter!  Another toy I have wanted for years but never seem to actually buy myself.  I never realized how difficult flying a helicopter is!  ...maybe I don't want to get a license to fly a real one! 

I vowed that night to not eat for a few months, but, of course, then came Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

I brought the balloons home from the office party.  The regular ones deflated within a few days, but the Mylar ones lasted for weeks.

I put them in my bedroom, which is at the end of a long hallway.  At the other end of the hallway, there is a small bedroom that I use for storage.  This room is filled with all the toys and childhood memorabilia I have bought on eBay and elsewhere over the years.

Anyhow, after a few weeks, one of the Mylar balloons disappeared.  I figured it had finally lost its helium and fallen behind a dresser or someplace.  A few days later, I went in that smaller bedroom and, strangely, there was the missing balloon!  Beside traveling out of my bedroom, down a long hallway, and into the small bedroom, it had also, somehow, negotiated the door overhangs for two rooms.  I mean, the balloons hover at ceiling height, yet somehow it had ducked the door overhangs, twice, along this venture.

The traveling balloon was the one that had a picture of The Reaper with him saying "Relax!  I'm just here for the cake!".  It was hovering over my "I Dream of Jeannie" collection, just I would, if I had to pick a favorite spot in the room ;)  I took of these as signs.

Both Ritual and Mumbo Jumbo were acknowledged.  The timing of the celebration was very fitting, considering our recent mergence of the two companies.

The event itself was great, and the celebration dinner was even better!

First up to bat, ...Roma (my Russian Instructor Extrodinaire), his mother Tatyana, and his step-father Steve invited me to the Meyerson Center to see a one-night-only performance of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and Academy of Russian Choral Music, led by Constantine Orbelian and featuring Metropolitan Opera Star Dimitri Hvorostovsky.

It was an incredible night.  I love going to shows, ...whether opera, musicals, or symphonies, ...but this was very cool.  The first half of the show was great, but the second half was the ultimate.  The first half of the show was very conventional, with selected Russian pieces played by the orchestra and sung by Hvorostovsky.  The second half was exceptional, with the inclusion of Russian balalakais and domras.  These songs were very Russian in flavor, and I liked them the best.

What I don't understand, and it seems to happen more and more as the years go by (I do have an extended history with shows, since I was a small lad) is this now seemingly-endless clapping audience participation thing.  It grows and grows until now, I am completely disgusted and bored with it all, ...well, most of it.

I don't mind celebrating a song or piece when it is done, and then, only once.  Lately, though, it seems the selected guest or maestro only needs to drop a sheet of music to merit a 5-minute long applause.  There are also all these faked exits from the stage, and inevitable returns for more clapping.  Must be me, because the rest of the audience seems so entertained by all this.

As I described this exquisite and expensive porcelain, Sergei smiled and asked "Where did you get this?  Ekaterina?".  I said "Yes!".  He then asked if I remembered talking to a "Sergei" sometime after ordering the porcelain.  This is museum-quality stuff, so the sellers make sure all is okay after they deliver the goods.  I had talked to a "Sergei" for almost an hour (most of this time spent chatting and trying-out my Russian lessons;).

Well, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, this was the very same Sergei that I had spoken to on the phone six months ago.  It just seemed very weird and very it's-a-small-world kind of thing.

If you ever want some of this fine porcelain, and want the best of treatment and price, go visit Ekaterinas.com!

Also worth mentioning - this symphony from Moscow seemed to draw every Russian in the Dallas area and many of my friends that I've over the years.  While roaming during breaks, there was nothing but Russian being spoken by the crowds.

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