It's great to be alive !!

… no, I didn't just survive some sort of death-defying event; I just feel like "It's great to be alive on this Sunny day in July!!" — on this my 57^th birthday — even though (at least so far) it's rainy and drizzly outside my window. I just know it's going be a great Sunny day… especially when I see it that way.

On the left is a recent picture of "Mr. K, on my birthday" (actually created via the Digital Media Magik described here), on a trip we took last weekend to my sister's place in Ontario for an extended family party. We had such a great time visiting Nanci, seeing my aunt Marion, Karina, Nanci's daughter Miranda and her husband Ralph (visiting from Australia for the first time in way too long), celebrating the recent birth of Nanci's first grandson + the proud parents, and — of course — I created this Flickr snapshot album (or SlideShow) to capture all the festivities. On the trip up and back we (traveling with Jillian and her beau) stopped in Niagara Falls and totally enjoyed the scenery — including fireworks; see my Niagara Falls Flickr album (or SlideShow) for details.

One of the highlights of the trip was the couple of hours we spent at St. Jacob's market — home of the Mennonites — shown in the panorama on the right. In the market, near where I took that panorama — shown here in "360 ° rotation form", I also captured these enduring sounds of "Amazing Grace" (on YouTube) of Fernan Enriques playing his Pan Flute and woodwinds of the Andes. I also bought two of his CDs "for my birthday". And as if that wasn't enough YouTube for the day … a friend sent me this Happy Birthday (Beatles) reminiscence.

I am indeed a very happy, almost-aging baby-boomer, on this, my day — my 57^th birthday, July 24^th, 2008.