Some gladness and some sadness

It's the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML's birthday today and that's the gladness.  It's been a pretty low-key celebration, which is entirely my fault.  Sometimes the best-laid plans go awry.  Horribly so and today's been one of those days. 

I'm not much for romantic gestures.  It's just not how I'm wired, I suppose.  But I did order flowers to be delivered at her office today.  Guess who had fewer patients than usual today and got to leave early?  Guess who wasn't in the office when said flowers were delivered?  Yeah, couple of strikes there.  And then we'd hardly had time to talk about dinner plans.  CAL, the Boy, and I were able to throw something together, but I'm sure it wasn't the birthday dinner of her dreams.  I'm hoping to make it more of a birthday celebration for the rest of the week.

And now for the sadness.  Most people of my generation were influenced for better or worse by this:

Start singing the theme song...now

Of course, it's "The Brady Bunch" and today, its creator, Sherwood Schwartz, died at the age of 94.  He also gave us "Gilligan's Island" among other things.  "GI" was an afternoon TV staple as I was growing up and I recall having a plastic boat replica of the "SS Minnow."  Schwartz' opus, his "Mona Lisa," was the story of a lovely lady, raising three girls all alone and a man named Brady, raising three boys all alone.  Well, not so alone, thanks to a live-in maid who apparently worked for nothing and didn't mind living in the laundry room.  How insane was the Brady Bunch?  Off the charts, but I defy you to find anyone who grew up in the late 60's/early 70's that can't sing/hum the theme song or recall a favorite episode. 

Yeah, for better or worse, Schwartz made an impact.  Good for him.