Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Monica!

Yes, today is my birthday. At 2:38pm (or thereabouts) I will be officially 39 years old. It is currently 8 am in the morning and I have already received several special gifts this morning.

Both of my kids gave me big hugs and kisses - one sang the birthday song to me - the other criticized my wording when forced to sing it to myself --- I'll leave it up to your imagination to pick which child did which.

Remember that other famous song that says "sugar makes the medicine go down in a most delightful way"? Well, evidentially, Dexamethason makes the chemo go down with less chance of an allergic reaction. So I just had my first dose with my morning coffee. The real ride is about to start. Yeah!

But, the most surprising gift of all should have come with a Surgeon General's Warning:

Beware: Contents under pressure - and when partially frozen - become even more unstable!

This past Saturday night, a few friends gathered here to hang out, eat ribs, drink (a lot - mostly thanks to Judy) of wine and celebrate that Monica and I would be gaining a year of living today. Monica and her hubby, Shawn, were nice enough to bring a bottle of champagne. Unfortunately, it went into the freezer to chill down faster... and it stayed there.

How much wine did we drink? Well, no one remembered to get the champagne to drink, or perhaps to make a toast with. And, as I crawled into bed in the wee hours of Sunday, lights out and trying to get warm under the covers - I remembered something about a bottle in the freezer. I dragged myself out of bed to come check on it - couldn't find it - thought "oh well" and went back to bed.

Follow me back to the present - 2 days after the party...

I am making a grocery list and go into the freezer to check on the quantity of frozen waffles and notice a small, frozen puddle of an almost clear liquid substance on something near the bottom. "THE CHAMPAGNE" hits my brain. (A rare moment of clarity without a full cup of coffee.) I dig and sure enough, there it is, just waiting to be rescued.

I pull it out and sit it on the kitchen counter while I finish my breakfast and list. But I start hearing this odd hissing noise. Nope, not the lawn guys next door, it's coming from the champagne bottle. The cap has released a bit and the contents would really like to get out. (Which should have been obvious after finding the puddle - but remember - not a full cup of coffee yet.) So I casually go over to the bottle and put it into the sink. Then, I remember how Kevin has taught me to open a champagne cork. 'They like to fly so hold tight and you can pull it out with a small pop and you don't break windows.' I must say, that part went well.

What I didn't expect was that the actual champagne smoothie would come exploding out like the frozen version of Mount Saint Helens! Have you ever seen a crime scene wall with mega blood splattered and dripping down? Turn that into my kitchen window and frozen champagne. Quite the early morning surprise!

So, Happy Birthday Monica - thanks for the gift. It won't be this year - it may not be next year - but some Feb. 19th in the future - I will get you back :)