No, I don’t mean that we are basketball players, of course, you could guess that at one time in my life I did play a few hoops. I’m sure I have my team shirt from 1959 alive somewhere in my memorabilia. I mean a few immediate family birthdays and my favorite day, St. Patrick’s Day. The Tip Off is my bride’s birthday. She always starts everything. My day starts out at the ACME for a card and flowers. She always tells me not to spend too much. What do I know about flowers, so I find a helpful lady and she sets me up with an appropriate bouquet - cheap. I’m on a fixed income you know. That was the easy part. Now I get to the checkout. All the senior citizens are out with their coupons. I get in line behind a lady with 50 coupons and an item that doesn’t scan, so I have to wait for a runner to find the price. Her coupons didn’t match her items and some were expired also. All I want to do is get a bunch of flowers. After what seems like an hour in line, I finally get to the checkout and the flowers have no price. Do I have a sticker on me saying "Get Larry". Is it happy hour yet?

Moving right along, I call my bride at work and she tells me that her colleagues treated her royally for her birthday. Now I’m going to pick her up after work and take her out for, yes, a birthday happy hour. You know me by know, save a buck Larry. She informs me that she will be the one with the balloons. Lucky for her, I got there just in time before she took of like Mary Poppins. Now, we have to try to get the balloons in the truck. Geez, my coordination was not working top speed, almost lost her again! Fortunately, the wind was in my favor and I managed to get the balloons in the trunk without losing any balloons or my bride. Finally, off to happy hour at Nick’s Roast Beef. Now my car, light with balloons, we felt like singing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Because the balloons were in the trunk and the car has front wheel drive, we made it to Nick’s in record time and saved fuel. The bar was crowded, so we opted for a booth. Soon the party revelers arrived. Our waitress served up some great appetizers and huge pitchers off beer. Our celebration was interrupted by a billowing sound that rocked the place. "We have a birthday in the house." As everyone broke into song, my bride became 29 again. As the birthday girl got up to blow out the great number of candles on her cake, her foot caught the chair and she fell into the cake. You have to picture this, cake, flowers, balloons, legs flying everywhere. Fortunately, all that got broke was her 29 year old ego, a few popped balloons, and the cake. Well, it will take months for us to get it out of our ears. Huh? What did you say?

When thing settled down, we couldn’t leave without tasting Nick’s famous roast beef sandwiches and they are as good as everyone who ever had one says they are - even if ours had a hint of cake in it.

One birthday down and a couple to go. The madness marches on.