Folks,

Dux:

Many thanks, indeed we did stay home to celebrate this year although I had planned to enjoy another sumptuous meal at the Lizard Lick Zeppelin Aerodrome, Hair Salon and Tire Store. Sadly it was not to be...my dear frugal wifey eschewed such wanton ostentatiousness. Pity, a can of Vienna Sausage and a few saltines washed down with a frosty can of vintage grape soda as we watched a few well made 'touch and goes' on the active runway would have really hit the spot ... Instead, we settled for a succulent and perfectly barbecued chicken dripping with my own award winning barbecue sauce accompanied by all the customary trimmings. All this was pleasantly washed down by a well aged bottle of Château Thames Embankment Vin. 2 weeks ago. We do pamper our ladies do we not?

We certainly understand about helping the kiddies move. We've been through that several times with our own son. The enjoyment of it does not seem to improve with increased repetition.

I quite agree on your description of 'retirement'. Like those artificial ice cubes...it ain't what it is cracked up to be. Having said that, one does find that there are often bags of free time once the inevitably long list of chores from wifey has been checked off one by one ... or on the infrequent occasion when the despised list has somehow been misplaced. Yes, that does happen however one must take special care not to misplace that list too often lest 'she who must not be named' might reasonably call into suspect one's innocence when the missing list is once too often brought to her attention. Should that ever be the case, woe be unto ye, for it has been my painful experience that all too soon a new and even longer list will then be provided that is sure to include several of the most punitive and detestable jobs imaginable even by the fertile female mind.

I am not so sure that C51 will require any assistance however I surely did. At first I rushed to peruse my dog-eared copy of Gresham's 1000 Tediously Fatal Diseases and Horribly Grievous Ailments of Man, 324th Edition, leather bound with hand tooled spine, lettering carefully inscribed in purest gold. To my complete dismay that was no help whatsoever.

My learned wife suggested that I might find that searching terms Ornithological should be more fruitful. I poo pooed that immediately. What did she know? I finally had to admit that it was a good idea yet I sneered at her anyway as I moved to another section of my bookcase. The heavy, hernia promising 4-volume set of Audabon's Birds of North America was no help ... Roger Tory Peterson's large tomes on "American Song, Game and Garden Birds" also failed me, as did several profusely illustrated books on "Little Known Fowl of the Presently Explored Globe" published by The National Geographic Society. Searching those particular volumes took an inordinate amount of time. Who knew there would be so many pictures of naked ladies in a book about birds?

Just as I was about to give up and mercilessly rub it in that my wife had been wrong for the first time in her life, when she gleefully snatched up a nearly forgotten copy of Snyder's "European Birds that are Devilishly Hard to Spot". It was difficult but somehow I managed to endure it as she found every darn bird you mentioned and a bit too cheerfully pointed each of their photos out to me. When last I looked in on her that large smile of triumph was still on her sweet face. Congratulations Pal, well done. This will be an anniversary she will never allow me to forget.