Turning 50 in "The Jing"

Well, here it is 50 trips around the sun! My body is telling me that I can't do the things I used to do, but my mind says "Aw come one, give it a try!" which certainly explains my knee injury! ;-)

There was a big celebration last weekend between three of us friends who all had June birthdays. We celebrated on the rooftop of a place named "Obiwan" (yep after the character in "Star Wars"), it's located in a place called HouHai about 30min from my apartment. We had the place to ourselves, well and about 25 of our friends, for about 4 hours and it was a good time.

Here's a photo of the three of us.

That's Scott to my right and Aaron to my left.

This is a shot of me, my friend Phil, and my Deutsche friends Kathrin and Peter.

I quietly celebrated my real b-day last night, over dinner, with Kathin and peter at a nice German restaurant named "Schindler's Anlegestelle" (Their Sauerbraten and red cabbage is awesome!)

Not missing an opportunity to make connections, this is yours truly and Josie (one of the managers of the place)

It truly was a grand night with good people, conversation, music, and drink. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a 1/2 a century here on earth, other than the fact the Lightnin wasn't there! (To qoute "3rd Eye Blind": "I've never been so alone, and I've never been so alive!")

My actual birthday is today. I celebrated in a rather lay-back fashion by cooking myself some spaghetti with a basic meat sauce. (sorry no photos yet 'cause it's still cooking).

It's a bit of a bummer because it's cloudy, foggy, humid, and cool yet again today! This is a bit unusual for this part of the world, it should normally be hot, dry, and sunny right now. I mean come on, I was hoping to catch a few rays out on my balcony today. Oh well you can't have everything, and besides I've got some good music on and the place has the smell of oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, tomatoes, onions, and garlic (hungry yet?).