Birthday celebration Saturday night pretty much a bust. The dance club must have been having a private event because I walked in (the doors were open) and a DJ was playing some ethnic dance music, but a bouncer told me they were closed and that I had to leave. Kinda sucked the flavor out of the night, but that's what happens when you go out with expectations. Lesson learned.

This morning I hopped on the bike and got lost in Parma. Happened upon a middle eastern restaurant called "Sittoo's (Grandma's)" and stuffed myself silly on a bowl of lentil soup with feta, a big ol' plate of hummous and pita, and a piece of baklava. Passed this church sign, and had to take a snapshot to show you.

HAAAAAleluja!

(get it?)

At a nearby international festival (which was your typical church parking lot carnival), people were reacting quite visibly to this inflatable slide, which does say "Titanic / Liverpool". I thought it was pretty damned tasteless, myself.

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The Olympics have ended, Bob Costas has given the final sign-off from China, and all I have to say is that American gymnast Shawn Johnson is the most adorable person on the planet. I don't mean this in any creepy weirdo ooh-la-la kind of way (she's a high school sophomore). She's just so damn cute when she flashes that big toothy smile. You just want to pat the top her head like a puppy.

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It's funny. I entered my 20s a newlywed Airman in the U.S. Air Force, living outside Kansas City, Missouri, and clueless as to what the future held. Well... here I sit a short decade later in Cleveland, Ohio with exactly four hours left in my twenties, no longer married, and just as clueless about what lies ahead.

I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age
The ending of an era and the turning of a page
Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here
Lord have mercy on my next thirty years

Lord have mercy, indeed, because I'm going to be living it up big time, man. This is gonna be fun. :-)