We Can All Thank David!

As most of you know, the mean streets of Minneapolis claimed my iBook (and assorted accessories) two weeks ago tonight, taking away the greatest American novel (only about two weeks away from completion), enough music to last fourteen days, seven hours, and thirty-four minutes (found that out the hard way), detailed accounting records (with only minor reported earnings inflation), and the all-time record for Super Mario All-Stars "The Lost Levels" (you'll have to take my word on that one).

So in the two weeks since losing the iBook, I've gradually resigned myself to the fact that all this data was gone, the writing and pictures being the pieces impossible to duplicate. And of those two, I think I was saddest to lose the pictures.

Last night, then, when I realized I had a recent (September 2005) backup of my pictures and writing you can only begin to imagine how happy I was that David had brought along his DVD drive and convinced me to make a copy of the stuff on my computer. There are, of course, some things I've done since September that are irretrievable, but that DVD had a lot of stuff on it. Including what may be my favorite picture of all time. It seemed only appropriate to share this post-birthday pic at this time of year. And, Lisa, if you think this looks funny, I could post a few of you. Oh yeah, you know what I'm talking about.


Edit: It seemed a little mean-spirited to repay David's kindness with a photo as unflattering as that last one. So I'll give you all the "before" to what was most certainly an "after" pic. There's also more than a sixteenth of Daniel in this one. And, Vicky, just in case you read this too, licking the frosting off the bottom of the candle is a prized honor, similar, perhaps, to achieving knighthood or the legion d'honneur.