And a very happy 50th birthday to my dad!

[cerealjoe]

Today is my dad's 50th birthday! If there is anyone in this world who makes 50 look young, that's my dad!

So Happy Birthday Dad!

At first I was going to post a picture of either my sister or I with my dad when we were babies but I can't find the photo anymore... oh well. In case anyone is interested, here is a photo of us 24 years later, taken this spring. In terms of people who have heavily influenced my life, my father is right there at the top. I doubt I would have gone into research if he wasn't in that also. I certainly wouldn't know what GABA receptors and NMDA are if it weren't for him... He's done some crazy things with me, he's run the Marseille-Cassis a bunch of times just to help me stay motivated even when I was ready to give up at 100m away from the top. He's reworked the whole garden at the house, he's completely rebuilt the shed there. Hopefully sometime in the next year we'll be able to go climb some ridiculous mountain, I suggested the Kilimanjaro or trying for the holy trinity of Japanese mountains. I think the highest we've ever climbed together was somewhere around 3500m or so which in the end isn't that much compared to what's possible out there. Still, he's climbed about every mountain in the ex-USSR in his youth, that's how awesome he is! Bah. That also means that I'm turning 25 later this year and I should really start thinking about acting my age... but instead I just told my whole family that we're going to Parc Asterix because I haven't been there in ages. How's that for acting like a grown up?