It’s that time again. Time for the monthly acknowledgment of special events in our families.

	Sept 11, 1909. This was my Nanny Rose’s birthday. Nanny passed away in 1984, when I was 17. We miss you and we love you, Nan.
	Sept 10. Happy Birthday Melissa! All our love to my one and only God child!
	Sept 14. Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law, Debbie (on the right).
I don’t have a photo of Faythe and Harry! Can someone send me one?	Sept 20. Faythe and Harry are the twins born to one of my other sis-in-laws, Maxine. Happy Birthday guys!
	Double Whammy here. My sis-in-law Mary (on the left) is (mumble) years old on Sept 21. My other sis-in-law, Connie, celebrates her birthday on Sept 26. This year is the last year she will get one year closer to 40…Can you guess their ages?

August. This month brings hot weather, leisurely vacation, and special occasions. Not as many as last month, but certainly not less important!

Here they are:

	August 3rd: Uncle Pat’s birthday. He passed away a couple of years ago from Huntington’s Disease. We miss you Uncle Pappy! He is pictured here many moons ago with his two sons, Billy and Jamie. Aunt Jean is missing from the photo… someone had to use the camera I guess!
	August 3rd: My sister-in-law Sharon Melee. This picture is about 23 or 24 years old… Sharon is holding Renee, my parents’ first grandchild. Happy Birthday Sharon… be well.
	August 11th, Katie Greene and August 23rd Madison Stanley. Hope your days are super girls!
	August 11th: My parents’ upteenth anniversary. Is it 45 years? Yes, i think so… Happy Anniversay Mom and Dad! We love you.

I’m beginning to think that most of my posts are dedicated to birthdays and special events. I may even be beginning to use such events as a crutch to help me through my frequent episodes of writer’s block… so, I’m going to switch to a different approach. I’m going to wish best wishes to y’all on a monthly basis. Somewhere near the beginning of any given month, I’ll make a summary post for all these events.

If any of y’all have any events or birthdays you’d like me to add to my list, just leave me a comment or send me an email at steve(at)ohmenerves.com Include a picture if you want. The more embarrassing the better!

So… here’s goes for July. I’m going to include a couple that I missed for June though.

		June 23, Michael Williams. Happy belated birthday dude!
		June 30, Andrea Hussey.My favourite Cape Breton Island niece!
		July 4, Michael Spurrell. Have a good one Bud!
		July 15, Meaghan White. Happy Birthday… don’t kick too much ass out there in basic training. The other lady in the pic is Mackie Cooper, Donna’s sister. She turns the big five one on July 31.
		July 7, James Rose. Jamie is 39 for the first time today!
		July 9, Aunt Jean. God bless you. I hope your day is wonderful!
		July 20, Lois Williams. Got any DVDs for me?…
		…and our wedding anniversary:July 11…Happy Anniversary, my darling. Has it been 9 years already? I still feel like a newlywed.

Seems as if all my posts these days are birthday posts.  I've been wondering if I should put birthday wishes aside, or summarize them in single, monthly posts or something.  It's a dangerous thing, wishing "happy birthday" to people… next thing you know, you have left someone out, or you post an unflattering picture, or two and folks get pissed or miffed or even entertained, God forbid.

But before I make any drastic changes, I have to ensure that I put due effort into the two special birthday babies in my life who were born on June 23.  So, here goes. 

Happy Birthday to Mary Williams, my darling mother-in-law.  If you are counting on a great batch of homemade bread, or flipper pie, Mary's your gal.  For a young woman in her 70's, she certainly has a lot of energy.  She can run circles around most men I know half her age.  I think it's her energy that keeps Harry young.  Happy Birthday, Mary.  I hope your day is a special one.

Next, another very special birthday wish.  This one goes to my cousin Bill Rose, who turns 40 today.  I really should call him my brother…  we grew up together.  Our birthdays are only a couple of months apart.  We practiced (and perfected) our delinquency together, got into trouble together, we sometimes even kicked the shit out of each other.  He really is a special kind of guy and in more ways than one, he makes me feel VERY lucky.  You see, he was unfortunate enough to be inflicted with Huntington's Disease.  (I've posted about Huntington's in my family before.)  He was always a very strong person, active in sports, active socially, well-liked and popular.  For most inflicted with this disease, it starts manifesting itself when they are in their 40s and 50s.  For Bill, it hit in his 30s, I think maybe even in his 20s.  Not fair, not fair at all.  Anyways… enough of that.  This post is about celebration… Happy Birthday Bill!  Have a beer for me!   (Or I'll have one for you!)

Ronnie sounds so young, doesn't it?  It's as much Ronnie to you now as my name is Stevie, eh?  You are tolerant of those of us who are in the habit of calling you "Ronnie", but you probably prefer "Ron", I suspect.

Or, you don't care either way and I'm just typing this stuff in for filler on the blog, wha?

Either way, bud, Happy Birthday!!!

From left to right, Melissa, Deb, Ron, and the birthday boy Ronnie. 

Just like to wish a very happy birthday to a buddy of mine, Paul.  He turned 40 today and in my opinion he doesn't look a day over 50. 

His wife, Maureen, arranged for a surprise party for him today at another friend's house.  As with all surprise parties, there must be a distraction, a bait and switch of sorts.  The person must believe he is setting out to go somewhere unrelated to any possible party-like situation only to find himself in the midst of a heart-stopping "SURPRISE" when he least expects it.  Well, Maureen's distraction was telling Paul that they were going to Montana's restaurant to celebrate his birthday and that maybe a few friends would join them.  Behind the scenes, Maureen was making arrangements for the surprise at Guy's house.  In the meantime, Paul was inviting folks to join them at Montana's to celebrate his special day.  What would have been funny is if Paul had invited someone to Montana's that Maureen hadn't invited to the party.  Some loser would show up at a restaurant where there was no party only to discover that they weren't invited to the REAL party!  Ha! That would be funny… some loser sitting around waiting for a party to show up.  Funny… on a side note, I really enjoyed the food at Montana's tonight.

A couple of times tonight, when we made fun of Paul for turning 40, he clearly stated that he was STILL younger than most of us.  Listen here you young whipper-snapper… the secret to longevity is to not piss off your elders! 

Happy Birthday, dude.  May you live to be a hundred, and may I be there to celebrate it with you.