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You may wonder what the title means, well to put it simply - it's just a few more days before I turn 50, the same age as AARP and Kevin Bacon, Anita Baker, Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett, Annette Bening, Tim Burton, Kate Bush, Brett Butler, Drew Carey, Sean Cassidy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ellen DeGeneres, Jeff Foxworthy, Scott Hamilton, Patricia Heaton, Holly Hunter, Ice-T, Alan Jackson, Michael Jackson, Andie MacDowell, Madonna, Gary Oldman, Prince, Tim Robbins, Sharon Stone, Tanya Tucker, Keenen Ivory Wayans - just to name a few of the famous ones.

Yes, I decided to go for the larger type because these darned screens can be difficult to read when you wear bi-focals!

The past year has been quite different:

• In January, I accompanied my parents for a trip to celebrate their 55th Anniversary and a pre-50th Birthday for me. We went where every kid needs to go (at least once), to Disneyworld and it was my first trip! Had a blast.
• One week after returning, my partner and I acquired the first floor where I had been living (in the lower level only) and now have a spacious 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in Baltimore.
• In April, my mother had open heart surgery. She's doing great, had the Aortic Valve replaced and better than new!
• In June, I got a promotion at work. I'm still figuring out what this "sales thing" is all about, but doing ok for the new kid (yeah kid and he's almost 50) on the block.
• In August, my partner and I took our dog and we ventured north...to Jamestown, NY where Lucille Ball was born. We didn't get there for the big Lucy-Desi festival, and we still had a great time.
• That brings us up to the month of September, where on the 26th in the Year of the Dog (a.k.a. 1958) I was born.

I am sure the best is yet to come! Wishing everyone that reads this message all the best too!

Now the quote, from Mark Twain: "When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.