If it's Leap Year, it must be time for a presidential election in the United States and another Summer Olympics.

But for some folks -- like Josephine Abeita of Isleta Pueblo -- today is the day to celebrate a very special birthday.

Abeita, who has lived through 100 circuits of the Earth around the sun is celebrating her 25th birthday today as grand marshal of the Worldwide Leap Year Festival in the twin towns of Anthony, New Mexico and Texas, according to this morning's Albuquerque Journal.

Elsewhere in New Mexico, Deming resident Barbara Miller plans to celebrate her "21st" birthday by skydiving Saturday over Santa Teresa, the Deming Headlight reported.

"I am really 84 years old, and I only celebrate my birthday every four years, this means I only am 21," said Miller, a native of England who came to the United States in 1945 and has lived in Deming for the past seven years.

And in a historical footnote, it was on Leap Day 1908 -- 100 years ago today -- that the legendary former Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett, who may or may not have gunned down Billy the Kid, was himself shot to death east of Las Cruces, according to the Carlsbad Current-Argus.

Cowboy Jesse Wayne Brazel turned himself, claiming he shot the 57-year-old Garrett in self-defense, even though Garrett had been shot in the back. But thanks to the backing of people in the area who hated Garrett, Brazel managed to be acquitted after a jury trial, the Current-Argus said.

Other leaplings celebrating birthdays today are beloved old character actor James Mitchell and the lovely French actress Michele Morgan, who are 88 years old but just 22 in leapdays.

Actor Dennis Farina, who unaccountably disappeared from the cast of "Law and Order" (but not to run for president, like Fred Thompson), is 64 in real years, but will blow out 16 candles today if he wants to be perfectly accurate.

So, what do people with Feb. 29 birthdays do in non-leap years? Why they celebrate on Feb. 28 or March 1 -- or, if they're lucky, on both days.

Long before Al Capp and Lil Abner gave us "Sadie Hawkins Day," Leap Year has traditionally been the only time women may make a proposal of marriage to men, and that has been further restricted over time to Feb. 29, according to Wikipedia.

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