Invasion of the Fortress of Ineptitude

 Last Friday was my birthday.

I had the day off from work and had a fairly pleasant day.

I watched a random movie on TCM which is always a nice way to pass some time.

I went to Acme Comics to buy some comic books which I read most of them that afternoon.

Nothing says that a man is 63 years old than going to the comic book store and whiling away the afternoon reading comic books.

Andrea took me out to dinner for steak at Logan's where my waitress and the staff clapped and cheered for my 63 years of not dying. Normally I find such displays to be awkward and uncomfortable but I was determined I was not going to be a stick in the mud about. I clapped along with them and cheered as well.  

Andrea and I shared a free slice of cheesecake with strawberries that was quite delicious. 

Then it was time to go back home to the Fortress of Ineptitude for my favorite activity: watching TV.  

Which is what we were doing when around 10:30 PM, I heard footsteps, a noise at the front door and the door handle rattled.

I found this quite alarming. 

I've had nightmares about home invasions that played out exactly as this sequence of events.

I reached for my phone.

Andrea: What are you doing?

Me: I'm calling 911! 

Andrea: What?

Me: I don't know who that is! I'm not taking any chances! I'm calling 911! 

Andrea: No! Don't do that! 

As I said, I found this quite alarming. 

Oddly enough, my wife did... not?

She's the one who panics and worries at the drop of the proverbial hat with this slightest provocation. 

There's a stranger rattling our door knob seeking entry to our home and she is the one telling me NOT to call 911?

Entry to the Fortress of Ineptitude was achieved by...

Our son Dean, friend Jan and Rosie the dog.

Dean had texted Andrea to tell her they were going to make a trip to Greensboro to surprise me on my birthday.

So Andrea kept a secret from me.

Which she is usually rather bad at.  

Well, there's nothing like the real life occurrence of my recurring nightmare of my home being invaded to get my 63 year old heart pumping.   

Once I recovered from that shock, I was very happy to welcome these visitors.  

And I was extremely happy to see what Dean had made for my present. 

You're looking at already: a new banner for I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You.

I'm going to miss this old guy that Dean drew for me a few years back.

But this new banner is... Wow! 

There's so much going on here.

Days since last typo: zero! 

Yeah, that sounds about right.

And there's references to Doctor Who, Star Trek, the blog's editorial board, bananas and other fiddly bits associated with this fershlugginer blog.

A veritable "this is your life" Easter Egg fest. 

And an excellent work of art, Dean and I'm proud to make it a part of this goofy online enterprise.  

Meanwhile, the blog goes on.

We've got a Spinner Rack post tomorrow with some of those new comics I read on my birthday.  

Last Saturday, we went to see Project Hail Mary and I'll have more about that on this Saturday's Movie Time post.