Happy Birthday, Dad!

December 11, 2007

It’s my Dad’s birthday today. I believe he’s 66 years old (he always said he was a year younger than my mom, but I don’t think i’ve ever seen his actual driver’s license or anything to verify it). my dad doesn’t read my blog, at least not that i know of. he does have email– I know because he occasionally sends me bad jokes about Hillary Clinton and those silly urban legend things like “be sure to lock your car doors because a man, dressed up like a woman with a hatchet under his housecoat was found hiding in a woman’s car at the supermarket…” –stuff like that.

when i was looking for a B-Day card for him i ended up buying a bunch of cards just for the helluvit. sometimes I do that: buy a bunch of cards so that i have them for any occasion.

I found this one with the frowning boy that I thought was pretty cool looking. I love the look on the boy’s face, his little dippity-do wavy blond hair and the colors–yellow, and the powder green of his sweater. Inside it says, Bummer. Keep your chin up. I bought two. Maybe i’ll make something out of them.
This isn’t the card i gave my dad (that one said something like “Here’s 20 bucks for your birthday!” and inside there is a pop-up chicken and the word “buck” repeated like 20 times (“buck buck buck buck buck buck buck…” you get the picture). It seemed like something he’d laugh at–he’s like that. Always telling corny jokes or saying some smart ass thing about us– but in a nice, gently teasing way.

It wasn’t always like that. We’ve had a rocky relationship. But time mellows people out– both he and I are a lot mellower now. We’ve grown to understand each other a bit better. And we’ve come to the realization that we love each other regardless of our differences. That we’re each other’s flesh and blood, no matter what. Plus he seems to really like Ted. A lot. Which is pretty good for my dad. I’ve seen my dad more in the 6 years that Ted and I have been together than I probably did for the ten years before that. That’s pretty remarkable, really.

I think i’m starting to look a little like my dad. I see his face sometimes when I look in the mirror, see his face in mine– his nose and his eyes. He was quite the looker twenty, thirty years ago, with his handlebar mustache and leather motorcycle jacket. luckily I didn’t get his baldness –not yet anyway. Or his love for velour and Hawaiian shirts.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Dad!

***

On another note, i’m finally getting some Christmas shopping done. I don’t really do a whole lot of it. Mostly just for my immediate family, Ted, and a few friends. But I love finding cool, creative, personal gifts for people (especially for Ted). I’m also a nut for online shopping– and again the really funky, fun, cool websites with zany, kitschy stuff.

Some of my favorite online stores/sellers/websites include:

of course, Etsy.com– but but one of my new favorite people on Etsy is

Tonya over at Happydashery –also check out her super blog, which features her A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E son! (I promise i’ll follow through on your meme soon, Tonya!). Look at this hilarious BUN WARMER (that’s hotdog BUNS, ahem).We had one of these growing up. We also would warm up dinner rolls at Thanksgiving and Christmas in it. I’m sooo tempted to buy it. Ha ha!

The Curiosity Shoppe (I’m digging this campfire tealight)

Reform School (really fun store in Los Angeles, on Santa Monica Blvd. Got to get there someday so I can get this funky Plywood Roedeer! What is a Roedeer, anyway?).

Ferdinand Home (this is where I bought those awesome pot holders last year)

Fly Bird (where I got these nifty rodeo notebooks a couple of years ago)

and,

Threadless, naturally (i’m still digging this shirt–AND they are still having their $10 T-Shirt Sale!)

sigh. So many shops. So little time money.

**Coming Soon– MY Christmas List!