What Your Parents Were Doing New Year's Eve

So it turns out that there's a statistical bump in birthday distribution.  More people, at least in the US, are born from late September through early October.  Now, some reports about birth rates going up, say after blackouts in major cities, are urban legends.  But the September-October bump is true.  Why?  Simple -- look back nine months, and you see it's New Year's Eve.  As the Ds would say: gross.

But we had a few birthdays among close friends to celebrate, and we did it well.  First -- Friday night we drove to an old part of Miami, now known as MiMo (for mid century) and met Paul, Patricia, and Allison.  Allison chose the Vagabond for her celebration -- built in the 50s, and a major hangout for Sinatra and his Rat Pack.  In the 70s and 80s, the Vagabond and surrounding area became Miami's 42nd Street.  In fact, when I was in college, "Where'd you find her -- 79th Street?" was a well used phrase -- meaning a dude's date was bought and paid for by one of the streetwalkers along Biscayne and 79th Street.

Not no more!  The Vagabond is now very cool and upscale, and we enjoyed a great dinner and drinks.  Allison was beaming -- surrounded by, as she told a fellow she's dating who joined out table -- her inner circle.

The birthday celebrations continued Saturday.  Paul's boy Alex had his final, pre-40 day.  He and his Dad and 2 beautiful kids stopped by, for Joanna's sandwiches, and time in our pool.  Wifey is SO ready for grandkids -- she beamed in the presence of Enid and Roger -- and the kids had an awesome time.  Wifey had bought a Carvel ice cream cake at Publix -- I didn't even know Carvel was still in business -- and Alex loved it -- the cake of his birthday youth.

They left, and I cruised over to Mike's -- he hosted a watch party for the Canes/Noles.  It turned out to be an epic game -- the Canes won in the final 6 seconds -- finally ending the Noles' 7 game winning streak.  There was much rejoicing.  Our team is back, finally.  We yelled so much our voices were raw.

I came home to another birthday party -- Wifey's friend Jeannette's.  Edna and Marc had arrived from Atlanta -- and D1 and Joey were there organizing wedding gifts -- many of which have been living in our garage for the past month.  Many will be returned, of course, and a few kept.  The young folks left, and we sang HBD with another Carvel cake.  Jeannette loved it.

Yesterday am, Wifey and I dropped Marc and Edna at Miami Jewish -- Edna's parents are still living there, and drove to Morningside to join Joey and his family in looking at houses.  D1 and Joey want to live there -- Joey's brother and sister in law already do.  It's a terrific place -- huge city park on Biscayne Bay -- old houses with true character being renovated.  D1 and Joey, like me, can't stand cookie cutter places -- we feel claustrophobic in them.

But the cookie cutter places are cheap -- Morningside is NOT.  The houses we looked at are 10 times more expensive that Wifey and my first place.  The already renovated places are getting top dollar -- the ones that need the work are, of course, cheaper.

My advice to D1 and Joey is that they decide themselves -- we all have strong feelings about houses, and need to keep out of their decisions.  My favorite was an early 30s place -- with a writer's office overlooking a tree shaded street.  Joey's Dad preferred the newer place.

As I told Joey when we left -- may ALL their life decisions be such happy ones.

We left Morningside and fetched Marc and Edna, and then went to Cafe Royal, a historic restaurant in an old coral rock pump house.  We had a delicious brunch.

We came home, and Marc and I watched one of the most boring Dolphins games of all time.  The Fins won -- I didn't even care.  Edna and Wifey napped, and then we left at 6 for Brickell City Centre.

We met Deb and Norman, and ate and drank well, and then we visited the rooftop bar Sugar.  It really reminds me of Tom Petty's "Room at the Top of the World."  Last year the six of us were on a Maritimes cruise -- last night here, to celebrate Edna's 61st.

With our close ones close, we were truly on top of the world.  Happy birthday products of New Year's Eve action.