The Perfect Birthday (or any other day) Drink...

Amira ordered up Grapefruit Margaritas for her recent party.  Highly recommended.


INGREDIENTS
(Note:  this makes 2-3 servings)

3 oz tequila

2 oz orange liqueur

2 oz fresh-squeezed lime juice (2 limes)

6 oz grapefruit juice

Salt for the rim

Grapefruit wedges (for garnishing)


INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Shake or mix together tequila, liqueur, lime juice.

2.  Rub grapefruit or lime rind around rims of glasses
 and then dip rims in salt.

3.  Fill each glass with ice and pour.

4.  Drink.

5.  Refill as needed.

HB, Amira!

Ann Arbor, MI, circa 1988


Ahhhh...Dreamland...all in a day's work for onesie-wearing, blankee-toting,
Gerbers-gobbling, Pampers-loading newbies. Protesting vehemently (as they
generally do) to being sequestered in their jail-cell-of-a-crib for the detested
naptime (and thus being ruthlessly removed from "all the action"), soon their
red-faced protestations have subsided, their tears have dried, their breathing
has steadied, and they are angelically out, refreshing themselves for yet
another energetic round of world exploration.

All the Best on Your Big Day, Amira!

And may you sleep just as soundly tonight in the wake of your celebration
(though I strongly suggest that you refrain from employing the sideways-on-mattress,
legs-up-on-wall approach).

HB, Richardo!

Photo copyright 2012, JPM /WOM Enterprises

The Birthday Boy, seen here last winter in Dr. Cornelius McGillicuddy's Amazing Golf Shot

Straightener Machine that he bought at a garage sale for $8.  This contraption was all

 the rage in 1906 but fell quickly out of favor after several inadvertent electrocutions.  It has

been called by some watchdog groups "almost as dangerous as jarts."  This is thought

  to be the only one remaining in the U.S.  (Two still exist in Scotland.)

Some guys will do anything to improve their game, especially RJ.  Let's

hope it works.  All the Best on Your Big Day Brother!

HB, Michelle!

It’s common knowledge that Michelle is a picky eater...

Still, we fervently hope that this isn’t how she got

  her reputation.

All the Best on your Big Day, young lady!

 

(But now that you’re a full-fledged, card-carrying

 adult, better go easy on the "finger foods.")

A Peek at Paris...

April 21, 2012 - Amira and I climbed the steep, twisting, very narrow staircase to the top of the
 north tower of Notre Dame Cathedral and were rewarded with this majestic view. 
Now we know why Quasimodo chose to live up there....

HB, M.E.!

Photo by Luigi Forentino, Vatican Enterprises.  All
rights reserved.

Now that this gem of a shot has been unearthed,

please be advised that henceforth, these are the only

approved cuss words that can be used in the presence

of Her Holiness while her application for sainthood

 is being processed by the church:**

Shoot

Poop

Dang

Doggone it

H-E-double hockey sticks

Frickin’

Flippin’
Freakin'

Fuddrucker

Heck
Son of a pup

Oh my gosh
Gosh darn
Goldurned

Crud
Jiminy Christmas

Arse

Dangit

For Pete's sake
For cryin' out loud
Golly
Gosh golly
Oh sugar
Stinkin'

Fudge

Fiddlesticks
For heaven's sake
What on earth...!
Dagnabit

Geeze

Geeze Louise (preferred)

______________________________

All the Very Frickin Best on Your Big Day,

Mary Ella! (Now get out there and have
gosh darned good time for heaven's sake!)

**(NOTE: This can sometimes take 2-3 centuries.)

For those who are stressing out about exercise...or your lack of it.

____________________________

Heard this woman on Fresh Air.

  I like the way she thinks.... 

Click HERE.

__________________________________________

HB, Julie!

The Birthday Girl at 6 with pensive younger brother (that would be me)

 looking on pensively. Not certain what she was so sweetly wishing for

 (maybe a Betsy Wetsy?  Another brother?  Or two?  Or three?).
But we feel quite confident that she got it....

(Ed. Note:  Today, in honor of our celebrant, we are using

Large Type, appropriately called Elder Font.)

It’s the perennial paradox. A mere

handful of candles for a child in the

bloom of youth with unlimited lung
 capacity and overwhelming eagerness
 to let loose.

  And, on the other hand,

 a virtual shitload of flickering flames contaminating the surface of the

 oxygen-deprived pensioner’s cake
(whose enthusiam for the occasion
is generally diametrically opposed to
her 6-year-old self's).

  If the flames or pulmonary and 

coronary exertions don't get her,

then the sugar just might.

But all that said, we won't let such
 concerns sully the occasion. Instead,
we wish you All the Best on your
 Big Day, Julie! (And still feel quite
 confident that your fondest wish
 is soon to be yours.)  

Party like it's 1999, er, 2001!

Avalon, NJ, Summer 2001

With early-adaptor-vegetarian Amira circling in the

 background and watching with approval, today's Birthday Girl and Boy,

 Mavourneen and Chris, prepare to stuff  themselves silly in this

 vintage Hidden HackFest Cam shot. 

The very idea of  mixing taboule, pasta salad, pita bread, hummus,

 ice cream, and chocolate sauce - all topped off with whipped cream

and pine nuts - into a dessert bowl would be repellent to most of

 humanity, but not to these two adventurous, discriminating teens. 

All the Best to You Both on Your Big Day! 

(And may your birthday dinner reach similarly lofty heights.)

H.B. Alayna!

Sometimes, people have secret sides of themselves that
they rarely,  if ever, show...

Thanks to the Hidden HackFester cam and inside information, we can plainly see

that Alayna, for instance, has her Mormon side.  Wearer of long, modest dresses

 that say “I’m married;” hair pulled back severely, so as not to obscure her vision

 while sweeping the porch; on this summer’s reading list: The Book of Mormon;

 one of the rare women who actually admires robotic Mitt Romney; secretly

 dvr’d every last episode of Big Love and watches it when nobody is around;

an unspoken yearning for a Sister-Wife or two; the desire to be around

 many children, most of them not her own, etc., etc. The signs are

all there…how did we ever miss them?!

All the Best on Your Big Day Alayna!  (We raise our cups of coffee, tea,

coke,  beer, wine, etc. to you even if our indulging in such evil

 beverages does make Joseph Smith roll over in his

creepy Mormon casket.)

Mormon Gals:  Role Models?

On Spring Sabbatical....

Back at the end of the month, y'all!

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday, circa 1965, somewhere in sunny SE Florida

(l-r) WO, Aunt Kitty, Uncle Judd, Martha, RJ, Johnny Mac, Mick-Mouse, Julie, JP

"Everybody ready to cram into the pre-baked, unairconditioned car and go to church?!"

"Hell Yeah!"

It's Official...!

Fresh from France...

M. et Mme. Pierre Carpentier

or

M. Pierre Carpentier and Mme. Amira Marion, couple marié

(However you spell it or slice it, they are now joined in matrimony!)

May for better or worse always and forever

 be far better than worse.

Break out the Bubbly! (Well, almost.)

At this writing, Amira is still single, but in about

11 hours, all that will change.

Stay tuned for updates on the blushing bride-to-be....

HB, Jason!

Jason (with his carry-on bag) and Mira

The Hackfester Insider has learned that Birthday Boy is so amped up

 about  his impending journey to Italy (9 days and counting!) that he

 has taken to pacing about the house with his carry-on luggage slung

 over his shoulder (as seen above in this exclusive Hidden HFster

 Cam shot) in order to "get used to it."  

Additionally, we've been informed by trusted sources that he has

 already completely packed (and repacked) his bags

and is apparently "greatly looking forward" to getting to

 the airport and having every last one of them "shrink-wrapped" in

plastic to ensure that nothing falls out along the way and that nobody

messes with his personal stuff.  Good plan! 

J's luggage: packed and stacked by the front door.



Baggage-Wrapper Technician at Metro Airport.  Says he's prepared to wrap
"every last one" of J's bags. Also says he picks up chicks at bars by claiming
to be a well-known "Wrapper." 

All the Best on your Big Day, JaSON!