Originally Posted by stapfam
Hitting 60 this month did not make any difference to me- Only problem I had at 60 was the Heatwave. The heat generated by all those candles meant I had to shed a few layers.
Here's an idea. Wise 50+ers use the binary method for candles. It may be a bit nerdy because it was invented by computer programmers. But it's much easier to blow out. All it takes is 7 candle holders and up to 7 candles.
Place all the candle holders in a row on the cake. The left most holder represents 64 years, the right most represents 1 year. Or...
64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1
The hard part is figuring out your age. But doing this is a good exercise to keep the brain sharp. My age is 53.
How many 64s in 53? 0.
How many 32s in 53? 1.
Subtract 32 from 53 and you have 21. How many 21s in 16? 1.
Subtract 16 from 21 and you have 5. How many 8s in 5? 0.
How many 4s in 5? 1.
Subtract 4 from 5 and you have 1. How many 2s in 1? 0
How many 1s in 1? 1
So 53 in binary is 0110101. So now, for every zero, you leave a candleholder empty. For every 1 you put a candle in the candle holder. Be sure to put them in the right place or you could add years to your age.
So on my 53rd birthday, I only had to blow out 4 candles to get my wish.
If the math is forbidding, take heart. Many calculators have a decimal - binary conversion module. And this link has a chart doing the conversion.
http://www.dewassoc.com/support/msdo...exadecimal.htm
Here's the cake for my 53rd birthday. We didn't have any candle holders so we just put a gap between the candles. But you can see the pattern... 110101 or 11 1 1.