Birthday Wishes for My Brother

Today is my brother's birthday.  I was thinking how I could really convey his essence to this audience while giving him tribute.  It was difficult, but here are my top 10 favorite brother moments!

10.  He dresses as an elf to humor my toddler son one Christmas.  Note he wore green tights and very skimpy red speedos, not to mention the point boots, hat and little jig performance.

9.  While traveling back home from South Africa for work, he failed to call his wife noting he would be late. This prompted an all out family distress search including contacting his boss, the police and even the state department.

8.  He has a great fear of his own blood, therefore a carpentry accident causing a chunk to be removed from his finger, also resulted in the big guy passing out.

7.  As a kid he would sneeze uncontrollably with just a sniff of pepper.  One Sunday dinner, his sisters made him sniff the pepper shaker.  Although this resulted in a a punishment for all of us, we could not stop laughing as he could not stop sneezing.

6. He is a great dad; throwing fully themed birthday parties, building zip line connected tree houses and basically being a kid himself.

5. When his wife was still his girlfriend, she broke up with him.  That year he wrote us all sincere, thoughtful poems.  What a sensitive guy.

4.  Never afraid to play with his appearance:  Dyed his hair platinum, pierced his tongue, tattoed his arm/calf.

3. Ridiculous business opportunities from kitchen remodeling to using the kids as slave labor in a water scheme.

2.  Coffee dates. He drinks vanilla cappuccino with three sugars.  He listens, gives advice even if unsolicited and basically makes me feel better.

1. Lunch.  Lunch with him, any time, any where results in consuming great wine and laughing hysterically.  Present a photo to any waitress in the Amherst area and they will recognize him with a smile.

Happy Birthday luv!