"WHERE THE ANIMALS ARE SERVED FIRST...AND AREN'T ON THE MENU!"

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Happy 49th Birthday to Dan in Heaven

Dan with Karina, 1985
HAPPY 49th BIRTHDAY today to Dan in Heaven!!! I thought of him the minute I woke up. I hope he's enjoying a huge slice of birthday cake. As a matter of fact, I bought a slice of vegan cake- actually, two- one for myself and one I dropped off at Snap's house- in his honor. I'm not sure he would have been thrilled with the chocolate-mint vegan cake (it was just o.k.!), but it is the idea that counts. I had a very interesting "thing" happen today- I was thinking about the fact that when I wrote Dan's obit, I did it in letter form...it began "Dear Dan..." and was very easy to write when I thought about it being a letter to him. So late this afternoon I was thinking how cool it would be to write and send a postcard to Dan in Heaven...I googled "Postcards from Heaven" for fun and came up with a website advertising a book...and then really got a shiver (of the good kind) down my spine when I read the name on the photo/banner on top of the website, which began: "Dear Dan"!!!!!!!!!!!! This is one of those meant-to-be types of moments. I'm going to order the book from Amazon. I already tried to reserve it online from the library, but they didn't have it. I think this will be one book I'll want to own, anyhow. Happy Birthday, Dan. We love you!

POSTCARDS FROM HEAVEN: MESSAGES OF LOVE FROM THE OTHER SIDE
by Dan Gordon (note the name of the author!)


Dan and Karina again.
Dan prepares a kite for flight while Snap watches and Karina "helps"!

Dan with the ridiculous stuffed animal called a "Zwibble".



Click on the above to see it larger...and you'll see why I had my shiver-down-the-spine reaction when I saw what was written in the right hand corner!!!

My slice of birthday cake in honor of Dan. Bravo is oh, so hopeful he'll get a crumb.

The foreman fells (fell?) an oak tree.

Paul returned our truck he'd been borrowing- and the animals were thrilled to see him!


They love unexpected visitors.


Sometimes the grass really IS greener on the other side!

I just love this inbetween part of getting up...it always looks like such an effort.

Lounging in the morning.
I've noticed that horses and cows get down in the same manner- front legs fold first.
Two cute donkey heads!

Look what came in the mail today- the first batch of Fly Predators of the season!

Boulder could give a hoot about Fly Predators.


Toby comes bounding around the corner with the silly stuffed bone toy.

Paul says hi to Boulder.

And to Bravo!
These next few photos are out of sequence: I thought I loaded them in the proper order, with Bravo first looking at the tortilla chip in Paul's mouth before bravely taking it away!!