Happy Birthday David!

I know I said I'd dedicate this blog to my experience in Sweden, but sometimes something happens back home that is too important to ignore. Today that something just happens to be my brother's birthday. Coincidentally it's also Europe Day, but that's just a boring non-holiday, so we'll ignore that and make David the focus of today's blog.

David deserves credit for a lot, but I'll just mention the Sweden specific things today.

First, he moved to San Francisco in 2005. He has since moved with his girlfriend Brooke to Chicago and then to Portland, where the photo at left was taken. How is that related? Well, I had wanted to move to Europe since high school, but at some point decided it wasn't going to happen. Seeing David sell everything, pack up and go (and then seeing my sister follow a little later) reminded me that if you want something badly enough it's really not that hard to make it happen. Even though I chose my own direction, I still think it's safe to say that I followed his lead.

Second, he's the only reason we have wireless internet here in Sweden. I bought the wireless router, hooked up the wireless router, then failed to get the wireless part of the router to work. He didn't guide me through the setup. He remotely seized control of my computer and did the setup himself. Simple for him, but I still think that's pretty cool.

Third, he totally got me hooked up with Skype. Our phone number was a birthday present from him. It's great. I love being able to communicate easily with people back home, and I know there are others who love calling us for free.

Fourth, he gave me a PSP and sent me a map program that totally rocks. It takes five minutes for me to download the a map of the area before I leave the apartment, then once the map is downloaded it's nearly impossible to get lost. Without the mapping tool I never would have found the bike shop where I got Miranda's bike...it was seriously in the middle of nowhere. I also managed to pull off a twelve mile bike ride the other day, eleven miles of which were in an area I didn't know existed...the map totally saved my otherwise would be lost self. The gift is awesome. Thanks Dave.

Fifth, he designed this cool blog template. Need I say more?

So yeah, it's Dave's birthday. I owe him a gift, but being the horrible brother that I am I just wrote a post about him and posted a picture. Whoo-hoo! Hopefully that will suffice until I can find a cool gift for him to enjoy. Happy birthday David!