We are all born naked and screaming
and if you’re lucky that sort of thing won’t stop there.
~ Unknown
I feel as if the the hamster running in the wheel of time has been given speed or something…time is flying by unnaturally quick! I cannot believe November is almost over, tomorrow brings Thanksgiving, and today I turn another year older.
Before I go any further, I must explain the cake, pictured above. Jamie, Nancy and Pat, dear friends and co-workers, pitched in to get me this marvelous cake. Jamie did the planning, knowing just what I love. Neverwhere having significance because that was the book with which I introduced her to Neil Gaiman. The cake was made by Samantha Combs, an extremely talented confectionary artist whose work can be seen, and ordered, here. It was such an amazing cake and I am sooooo thrilled with it. It was almost a travesty to cut it and dig in…but the cake was darn yummy, so that took away some of the pain of marring the design. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jamie, Nancy and Pat. I am still smiling today about this one. A cake with my favorite live author, favorite deceased author, and favorite artist represented? What could be better?!?!? 🙂
39! Wow! One last year of being ‘thirtysomething’. It should be a very interesting year. I feel like I’ve learned some interesting life lessons over the past couple of months which I intend to post this weekend over on Poppet Planet. I certainly don’t wish this coming year away by any means, and yet I look forward to marrying some of my current revelations about myself to the ‘old me’ to see what emerges. Fear not, though I appear to be starting to grow up at age 39, I am certainly not outgrowing my youthful loves and passions. They’ve just been overwhelmed by work lately.
Those whom the gods love grow young.
~ Oscar Wilde
I took this past Monday off to celebrate my birthday, giving me a long weekend to celebrate my birthday. My wife and daughter indulged what is becoming a yearly tradition to watch the LOTR extended films over my birthday. We watched one film each night, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Last night I pulled out Return of the King, the novel, and read passages to them as neither has read the books. I read the Houses of Healing Chapter and the further chapter when Aragorn returns to Minas Tirith triumphant to become king and Faramir and Eowyn hook up! 😉 I read to them the last chapter, The Grey Havens. I then read passages out of the appendices so that they would know what happened to all the main characters. Finally I pulled out The Silmarillion and read to them the section on the creation of the dwarves. Needless to say it was quite fun and more than once I had to stop myself from getting choked up. It is such an emotional story, especially once you’ve made strong connections with the characters through the books and/or films.
Today it is a short work day complete with an adjustment from 70 degree weather to 30 degree weather, with rain and snow in the forecast. Winter has come!
I look forward to the long weekend and hope you all have a long weekend coming your way as well. For us it will be stuffing ourselves with Thanksgiving delights followed by putting up the Christmas tree and finishing up the outside decorations. And if all goes well, Grave Times just might make its way to your doorstep…er, computer screen…you patient R.I.P.ers!
Have a warm and wonderful weekend with those you love, and don’t forget that much love is coming your way from the Rat here in Kansas City.
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
~ Abraham Lincoln
A book cake! That is so lovely. I like the chubby Poppet, too (perhaps it’s been snaffling stray bits of frosting?)
Happy birthday, and many happy returns of the day.
I’d been meaning to ask you which version of LOTR you preferred, the cinematic release or the extended! My question answered. (I no longer have a set, and I need one! But I haven’t seen the extended version so I don’t know which to get.)
What a wonderful cake! Happy Birthday!
wow.. Happy 39th Carl! Or should I call you Jack Benny? (gunna stay 39 from now on??)
That cake is awsome! Not only is the cake special, but having friends that actually listen when you talk and take the time to know what would really make you happy.. even things like “a book cake!”
I hope you get back to normal soon!!
I’d still like to read the tiny stories and see all the photo’s that everyone took for Halloween!
But of course, not before you eat lots of good stuff for Thanksgiving and have a wonderful B’day and Holiday!!!
Eat, drink and be Mary.. err.. merry!
Happy Birthday, Carl!
wow…that is the coolest cake I have ever seen! You have some amazing friends 😀
That is such a great looking cake. Glad to hear that it was yummy too.
Happy Birthday, sounds like you had a blast.
Happy Birthday!! Your cake is awesome & looks wonderfully delicious – yum!!
I hope you have a fantastic birthday, even though it sounds like you did the fun
stuff on Monday. I love you very much & hope you truly enjoy your last year of
being part of the 30-something decade!! Don’t stress, I heard turning 40 is a
lot easier than turning 30 – something I am dreading!!!
Love – your sister!!
Or maybe is was turning 50 was better than turning 40 ?!?!
Happy Birthday,Carl. Hope you have a great day! What a neat cake!! Dad and I love you and are so proud of our creative son!! Be careful playing football tomorrow-you aren’t getting any younger-ha!!
Happy 39th Carl! What a gorgeous cake that is!
Happy, happy, happy birthday, Carl!!!! Hope it continues to be as fabulous as it started out…sounds like a wonderful weekend!
And whoa…what a cake! I’m not sure I could have cut it. What wonderful friends you have there!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
Happy Birthday! What a marvelous cake; I can understand the reluctance to cut it, but that’s what cameras are for–preserving the memory. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Such a cool cake! Wow!
And Happy Birthday and Happy Thanksgiving!
Kicking K, the extended editions are the only ones to own for true LOTR fans. Theere are so many added scenes that tie in to the books. They are amazing. And the documentaries on each set are to die for!
And yes, the red poppet is a bit on the plump side, ain’t he? 😉
Deslily…I’m not sure I ever was ‘normal’ 😉 But I hope I am back to normal now myself and all should be cool with me from now on. I am working on the R.I.P. round up post so will definitely have the pics and stories up. I have been given the winner of the pics contest and am waiting on the tiny stories winner (which is behind because I had been too busy to get them all together for Colleen Gleason to judge) and am ready to announce the other prize winners as well. It is indeed great having good friends, and I count you blog friends among that list!
Thanks everyone, I’m so glad Jamie was on the ball and had her camera so that I could get pics of this…if she hadn’t I may not have let anyone eat any of it! 🙂 This is certainly the coolest cake I have ever had for a birthday and possibly the coolest cake I’ve ever seen! So perfect for me!
What a fantastic cake!! Your friends are very special to know exactly the kind of cake to make for you!!!
Happy Birthday! And Happy Thanksgiving, as well!
Beautiful cake! Happy Birthday! Sounds like it was a good one.
Happy 39th, and that’s the BEST CAKE EVER!!!! Love the addition of the poppets.
That is an amazing cake! What a wonderful gift. Happy Birthday!
I was seriously like a kid in a candy store awaiting Carls birthday. I wanted to explode I was so excited to see how it turned out! It turned out beautifully. Thanks Carl for all the great movie talks and book talks. Mary and Tori you guys are lucky to have him, you guys are like the perfect family! Mom, like everyone else, thanks for blessing the world with such a creative mind.
Happy Birthday Carl!
Happy Birthday Carl!!!! It sounds like you’ve had an amazing birthday celebration so far and that cake! Oh the cake! I’ve never seen a cooler cake in all my life! I don’t think I could’ve cut it 😉
Lucky for you, we only talk over the internet otherwise you’d have to be put through the torture of hearing me sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to you 😉 Enjoy the rest of your birthday and your Thanksgiving!
Hi, Carl just checking in and saw you had a b’day. 39! Wow, that seems eons ago to me. I would be happy to just be 45 again but enuf of that, I sent you an email about the jenn/heart challenge but you seemed out of the loop at the time. Should I resend?
Hapyy Turkey Day! Cynthia
Happy Birthday, Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you have a great long weekend!
Cynthia, I finally got through my 500+ emails the other day and set the important ones aside, yours included, and will get back to you this weekend. You and yours have a Happy Turkey Day as well.
Melanie, I am looking forward to a loooong weekend. Hope you have a great one as well.
Chris, one of my employees did the Marilyn Monroe Happy Birthday for me today. He was quite funny. So I think I could survive your singing. 😉
what a lovely way to spend your birthday – watching the films and reading chapters to your kids! it sounds just perfect! 🙂
HAPPY HAPPY 39th! And congrats on surviving the accreditation. Just be sure to back up all of those data files in several DIFFERENT locations. 😉
What a fabulous cake! Wow.
It was great JP…but that is kid, singular. Tori is my daughter, Mary my wife. Just one kid…oh, lord, unless you know something I don’t know… 😉
We did this time laura, thanks!
Eep!
haha! i thought you only had one daughter – i don’t know why i thought i read “daughters” haha!
so don’t worry, there isn’t something that i know that you don’t know 🙂
Whew!!! I love me some babies, but I am certainly not ready to tackle fatherhood from the beginning all over again!!!
That cake is fantastic. I am so sorry I missed seeing it in person. Isn’t it neat the number of people walking around out there who were introduced to Neil Gaiman through Neverwhere. It was the first one you introduced me to and I’ve passed that book on to a number of people. It’s an exciting process. Thanks for the pictures, Jamie.
What a wonderful cake – happy belated birthday 🙂
Carl,
Just thought I would let you know that while planning your cake I saw a Neil Gaiman book at the library (American Gods) and thought I’d check it out….so glad I did. Can’t wait to read more 🙂
~Sam
That is awesome Sam, can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it! And mad props on the cake, you did such an incredible job on it. I am still in awe. Thank you so very, very much. Can’t even begin to tell you how excited that made me.
Happy (belated) birthday!
A belated happy birthday to you, Carl! Wow, Stephanie the cake baker is really a genius! I’m heading over to her site.
Thanks Dew, It is Samantha, however, and not Stephanie who baked the wonderful cake.
Carl,
American Gods was amazing, had to go get Anansi’s at Jamie’s request, it’s good too! Thanks for sharing, I am a book-o-holic and we could all use ANOTHER fav author! 🙂
Sam, I suggest picking up a copy of Fragile Things. It is Neil Gaiman’s latest collection of short stories. Smoke and Mirrors is his early one and it is fantastic. The reason I suggest Fragile Things, however, is that the final story is a novella featuring Shadow that occurs awhile after the events in American Gods. I’m so glad you liked AG, by the way. I would of course suggest picking up Neverwhere, my favorite Gaiman, and Stardust as they are both wonderful novels and are different enough from American Gods that they would be interesting reads on their own.
Beyond Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Carroll is a very interesting author with some similarities to Neil. His books Land of Laughs and Bones of the Moon are both ones that I have read and really enjoyed.
Susanna Clarke is an author Neil Gaiman highly recommends and her magmum opus, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is one that has garnered alot of praise.
You might find the book I just reviewed today, The Brief History of the Dead, interesting.
And I always recommend The Thirteenth Tale and The Time Traveler’s Wife to everyone, they are among my favorite books.
That is an awesome cake! Neverwhere is my favorite because that was my first Neil Gaiman book as well. Thanks for showing me this post!