Birthdays and other things - January 2019

 January is my birthday month - Mother Nature celebrated by having the snowdrops bloom early!

My spinner guild met on the day of my birthday, so I brought cake.  My favorite? Chocolate cake, raspberry filling and whipped cream icing.  Literally, I could eat the whole thing! 











The Shepherd & I went to The Outback Steakhouse in Burlington for my birthday dinner - which included a trip around the back roads to see swans and snow geese.

So pretty and SO NOISY!  

And eagles - we were lucky and got down there in the afternoon feeding time.  Lots of birds in the trees!













 And flowers for my desk at work.  Never too old to celebrate a birthday. 

Ho, ho, ho - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Well, it's that time of year again!  The witch hazel is blooming,

and,

it's my birthday! 

Thank you to our friend Michelle for the pretty Jacque Lawson birthday e-card. 

The promise of longer days is holding my attention right now, and looking for some of my favorite spring flowers.

On Pinterest......

I don't know if it is a better addiction than computer solitaire or not???

 My oldest sister, the rat, is in Hawaii...

Eating cocoanut shrimp at the Kona Inn.  I'm sorry, cocoanut shrimp is just wrong in so many ways - however my next oldest sister and I decided that the reason I don't like cocoanut shrimp is that I prefer tarter sauce with my shrimp and we decided that, yes, that was disgusting.

The Shepherd & I went to dinner tonight with a long time friend from church that we don't see very often any more.  It was lovely to spend time with her.  We had Thai food - I had Prawn Pud Thai - it was delicious! 

And tomorrow, I am going out to lunch with some other long time friends who I used to work with - we've been going to lunch about every other month for at least 10 or 12 years now - maybe longer.  It is a comfort to have such long time friends.  

One thing that is different this year is that there is no snow on my birthday.  It used to be something that I could "count" on - but no snow tomorrow. The weather man says that there is a "0" percent chance of precipitation tomorrow!  Yeah!  


We had a quiet Christmas and a quiet New Year - spent New Year's Day at our friend Nancy's annual brunch.  Not as many people there as previously - many have moved to be closer to grandkids (!) and sadly some have passed away. 

But the food is always good and the music is even better.  And every year, new people come.  It is a fun tradition. 

I'm just finish up my "treats" to take to work tomorrow (when it is your birthday at our office YOU bring the treats)  I made Traditional Chex Mix - but I put Fritos and Cheetos in it as well as all the other goodies and double the sauce AND this year I put some Chipotle Tabasco sauce in the mix so it's got just a little bit of heat to it.  Yum...

To counter the heat I've also made some Caramel Chex Mix - instead of the Cheetos, it's got popcorn and I put some little bitty green M&M's in it - I'm going to finish it off with a drizzle of  "white" chocolate that's been tinted blue - - -

Can you say Seahawks colors???  One game separating us from Superbowl 49.  WooHoo!

Have a great day out there!  




.

I've got a lot of catchin' up to do...

Well, it seems like time has just flown by - I can't believe that the last post I did was before the end of the year!

I have done a bunch of posts "in my mind" - ha - unfortunately they didn't get transferred to my computer -

The first one was "Now you see it , Now you don't" - that was for the snow that fell on my birthday -The temperature dropped and about 6 inches fell the night before - On my Birthday morning, The Shepherd got up at the crack of 0 dark thirty as normal -but with 40 degree temperatures, the snow was going to go fast. He did however shovel a path to my car for me and I headed in to work - The pictures are of the lovely bouquet that he sent to me (from my favorite florist) for my b'day - by the time I remembered to bring my camera to work, they were almost a week old, but still look pretty good. I think the use of the winter cabbage as a "big white rose" is really cool - it most be a new "style" because since I have seen a couple of other arrangements using them.

Anyhow - back to the snow - I was supposed to go to lunch with some friends, but because of the snow their kids were out of school and they couldn't get off - so I called Domino's and ordered in a couple of pizzas and some cinnamon stix. I was busy with payroll, so it really worked out for the best - and I had the left over pizza to share with my co-workers (in our office, if it's your birthday, you bring the treats...- left over pizza qualified as far as I was concerned...and they didn't say no to it)

During the day, the temp kept going up - probably ended up at about 46-7 degrees for the day, and the snow? It was all gone by the time I went home.

And I'm sure the inquiring minds out there want to know...I'm "almost 60".

"Well, it's my birthday too -- yeah"

Hidden behind all those trees are the houses I grew up in. On the left is the house where my dad was born, where my grandparents lived when I was growing up. On the right is the house where my family lived. A dad & mom & 4 girls - a very "50's" type of family. It was a good place to grow up.

My grandma kept a daily diary - (I suppose you could call her an "early blogger") Every year, she would get a date book from her insurance company - it would have from six lines to 1/2 page for each day. And each day, she would write - about the weather, how many eggs they got that day, and short bits of "personal" info - "ordered seeds for next summer's garden" - "Wallace & Viola (my uncle and aunt) were by for supper" or "Went to Garden Club at Ida's today"

When we cleaned out her attic after she and my parents had all passed away, we found boxes of these yearly date books. I was most interested in finding the 1952 book. What would she have said about my birth?

Well, there it was - January 12, -(a RED LETTER day, you know) and there I was - sandwiched in between the weather and a Pamona Grange meeting. "Reid took Glennie to the hospital today. She had a baby girl. They are going to call her Tina" What? That's all? Yup. My grandma was not one to "wax poetically".

And here I am 56 years later. I got flowers from The Shepherd at work today. I brought them home so I could enjoy them over the weekend - and this afternoon, our good friend Diane brought me a lovely piece of Tiramisu cake with a candle in it. Since neither my office mate or The Shepherd like coffee flavored things, I had to eat it all myself. Ha, Ha. The Shepherd and I always take the other out to dinner for our birthday - we're going to The Black Angus this year. (Actually, if we had an Outback Steakhouse in town, that might be where I'd pick, but the closest one is 30 miles away in Burlington - so the Black Angus will do just fine.)

What? You forgot to get me a gift - well check out our On-Line Auction to benefit the Black Sheep Creamery. You are sure to find just the right special item - (OK, I was just kidding - it was simply a shameless plug for our auction)



"You say it's your birthday
Well it's my birthday too--yeah
You say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you"



(The Family Shrine, as we call it - my picture is the girl in the green dress

And we are ever indebted to John Lennon & Paul McCartney (yes, the one who was in the other band before he was in WINGS) for one of the most rockin' birthday songs around.