If I could have time in a bottle....

I couldn't take it anymore. I don't know if it was the crappy weather all weekend, the fact that I stayed in Friday and Saturday, or that the Eagles once again lost, but last night I had to get out of my seclusion and venture out into the great wide open.

Or in this case, head to Pie-Casso for a pizza for dinner. Which is just what I did.

And what is pizza without beer I ask? So the flavor-du-jour was Stella Artois. A fine beer and one I'm used to drinking from the draft or if you prefer, draught. Last night, it came to me in a bottle. This gave me the opportunity look over the label. It seems those crafty monks in Belgium have been brewing beer since 1366.

And the 1366 really caught my eye. As it turns out, myself, my friend Hari and Stella Artois were all born in the same year. Ok, technically Stella is 600 hundred years older than the two of us, but we were all born in '66.

This year Stella turns 640 years old, or perhaps already did? Later this year, and there isn't much of this year left so later is right around the corner, Hari and I turn....well, you can do the math.

Ok, I'll say it, the big FOUR-O. Not really old by brew standards or redwood trees, but in human years we've reach that all too significant midway point. And I've been waiting a long time for this.

You see when we were younger, Hari could always hold it over me that he was "older than me." And when you are young, you want to be old. And when you are old, you want to be young. Now the tables have turned. No longer is Hari "older than me"...ok, well he still is, but now "I'm younger than you!" That is the important part. And for the rest of our lives I will always be "younger than you."

So I know it's a bit early, but let me be the first to say Happy Birthday Hari - you old man, from one-not-quite-so-old-man.

You too Stella.