March 12

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my birthday shindig this evening. I just had a few friends over for a Mexican casserole and angel food cake (actually, I made cupcakes - no candles!) It was really fun, and I'm so glad everyone was able to come and celebrate with me.

Tomislav and Petra with their kids Daniel and Petar

Dragica, Me, Anita

Sanja, Boris (her boyfriend) and me

Me (again), Ivana, and her husband Zoran

This is my favorite picture of the night... The two pictures I took before this one were so funny. In one Tomislav was smiling and Petra was frowning. In the other, Petra was smiling, but Tomislav was frowning. I was trying to get them to smile at the same time, when Petra said "How can we both smile with the kids acting up?" So I said, "Well, think about when they are 18 and not living at home anymore." As you can see, both Tomislav and Petra perked right up!

Petar's "No, I'm not on drugs" look

All I asked for was a smile - it was a little tough for Zoran, but Ivana is radiant! :)

How did you know I bought chocolate ice cream for the boys?
And Petra is just so pretty in this picture.

Can you believe one of the boys is actually smiling???????

Sanja and Boris

And this is how I feel about now, so I'll probably wrap this up and head to bed.

Oh, yes, we couldn't forget Skoobi's traditional piece of birthday cupcake!

And some random facts of the day...

As of 3/12/2008 9:21:51 AM EST
I am 36 years old.
I am 432 months old.
I am 1,878 weeks old.
I am 13,149 days old.
I am 315,585 hours old.
I am 18,935,121 minutes old.
I am 1,136,107,311 seconds old.

Those 36 candles produce 36 BTUs,
or 9,324 calories of heat (that's only 9.3240 food Calories!)
You can boil 4.23 US ounces of water with that many candles.

Celebrities who share my birthday:
Darryl Strawberry (1962) James Taylor (1948) Liza Minnelli (1946)
Barbara Feldon (1941) Al Jarreau (1940) Andrew Young (1932)
Edward Albee (1928) Jack Kerouac (1922) Gordon MacRae (1921)

Top songs of 1972:
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack
Alone Again (Naturally) by Gilbert O'Sullivan
American Pie by Don McLean
Without You by Nilsson
I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash
A Horse with No Name by America
Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me by Mac Davis
Me and Mrs. Jones by BillyPaul
The Candy Man by Sammy Davis, Jr.
Lean On Me by Bill Withers

My age is the equivalent of a dog that is 5.14637964774951 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

And some interesting historical facts other than it being my birthday...
0515 BC - Construction is completed on the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
1664 First naturalization act in American colonies
1737 Galileo's body moved to Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy
1755 First steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine
1881 Andrew Watson made his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain.
1884 Mississippi establishes first US state college for women
1888 2nd day of the Great blizzard of '88 in northeast US (400 die)
1894 Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.
1917 Stalin, Kamenev & Muranov arrive in St Petersburg
1918 Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint-Petersburg held this status for 215 years.
1934 Josip Broz (Tito) freed from jail
1945 USSR returns Transylvania to Romania
1964 Jimmy Hoffa sentenced to 8 years
1994 Church of England ordains first 33 women priests
2006 Slobodan Milosevic died