My friend Megan is coming to town this weekend and we’re all going out to dinner somewhere. I’m sure I won’t be able to follow the guideline, “What Would Mark Eat?” I’m also going out to my yearly (now like 4-times yearly) trip with my buddy Il to RingSide because it’s my birthday. I just stepped on my ultra-accurate bathroom scale and noticed I’d lost a few pounds (like 3 or 4) but I’m sure I’ll erase any of those gains this weekend. My mom’s buying me doughnuts, too. Some help she is.

Il’s mom passed away a year ago on the 13th and my dad passed away a year ago on the 15th. They both missed my birthday, which also happens to be Il’s brother’s birthday, and my dad died on an already inauspicious tax day. So I figure we have reason to at least mark their passing and, if nothing else, that’s a reason for us to go to Ringside.

I should apologize to my friend Mr. Slab the photographer for stealing this picture of my dad and posting it without permission. The Slabs went out to lunch with him at Wan Q in Beaverton. My dad always wanted to eat what someone else ordered, so very often he’d finish what my mom was eating so I wonder if that big bowl of noodles was what he actually ordered. It’s hard to know.

I’m not religious and I don’t really believe in the afterlife, but sometimes it makes me happy to think of my dad still doing the things he liked to do. Maybe not in his last few years where he just seemed to sleep a lot and watch re-runs of M*A*S*H all day and night, but maybe more like when he would do bonsai and make model boats and airplanes and actually putter around trimming the trees outside. Or the guy who filled up his room with toy cars and “Hello, Kitty” crap. Maybe I’m wrong and he’s somewhere finally figuring out how to run a video camera or computer he just bought. I guess I’ll never know.