Happy Birthday!

As your youngest brother, I would like to thank you for paving the way to 40.  It will be over 8 LONG YEARS before I reach this milestone.

Throughout my life you have taught me more things than I can possibly count.  How to shoot a basketball, how to throw a football, how to lick forks to see if they're metallic-tasting.  How to put the forks back in the drawer after I determine they are too metallic-tasting.  I learned that Mom "Does not sound like that!", and started a lifelong love of Duke basketball because my you happened to play against Christian Laettner a couple times.  I know I will talk to you on NFL Draft Day because, for some reason, you and I still give a shit about the Bills.  I call you whenever I'm in a new stadium, and have come to expect pictures from Fenway, or the Bills game, or Lambeau.  My friends still don't understand why I pay any attention to hockey, and "Who the hell is he talking to?" is a common question during Sabres playoff games.  I've never met a Saturday morning breakfast run I didn't like, and I say "oh really" all the time.

Most importantly, I learned that Loyalty trumps all else in friendship, and I know that a certain "Snake" is in attendance this weekend because he absolutely, 100% would not miss this event. 

I'll never be an oldest brother.  I'll never know what it's like to have 4 kids born after I was born.  However, if anyone ever asks me what a perfect oldest brother is, I will simply point at you and say "Mike Graber."

I love you Mike.  Happy Birthday.   

b.