40th Birthday

Saturday, I turned 40. I guess I was a little nervous about. But not too bad... When I turned 30, I nearly thought it was the end of the world. And then my life got turned upside down, and at 35, I finally realized what it was to live my own life!

In these last 5 years, I've met some amazing people that have all touched my lives in different ways. I was fortunate enough to have a lot of them come out and celebrate with me as well as a few friends that I've known longer.

Here are some pictures from the day....

I had flowers delivered in the afternoon from my aunt and 3 cousins. They were beautiful, and filled with daisies, which happen to be one of my favorite flowers! What a cheery way to start the day!

Paul's Restaurant, which I featured here, opened just for us to have our little get-together.

There was PLENTY of Corona Light on ice, just waiting to be consumed. I did MY part!!!

It was decorated with all of the obligatory black balloons, and the place look great!

More decorations...

The best part, however, was EVERYONE! So much fun to have so many important people there to help me bring this decade in with style!

Of course, the CAPTAIN and his PRIVATE STOCK showed up, too. He's the BEST!

And the cards! I've never laughed so hard... Who knew that a bunch of over-the-hill cards could be so funny. Especially after the first few.... But they were all GREAT!

Definitely a night I will remember forever...

Thanks everybody! My bucket overflows!

AMW

Completely Random Update

Well, I sure have been delinquent in my blogging, haven't I?  Have I lost all of my readers?  All 2 of you?  LOL!!  Kidding!  I hope there's at least 3...

This is likely to be a complete hodge-podge random update.  

It's been an extremely busy summer!  A friend is staying at our house for a bit, so there is the dynamics of a third person.  Kind of strange, as there have only been two of us in the house for 3 years.  We're adjusting.  I'm not sure if I've ever lived with someone that shows signs of ADD and OCD.  It certainly makes for an interesting combination.

Since it's summertime - there have been lots of "gatherings"!   Several have been birthdays with pool parties that have been fun beyond words.  There have been impromptu "porch" nights, dinner at friends houses, and a near-weekly breakfast at Paul's Restaurant.  (I promise a FULL post with pictures about Paul's in the not-to-distant future.)

Our ADD/OCD houseguest has an over abundance of energy, and has a list of projects she's working on at our house.  She just re-roofed one of our sheds, edged the front brick walk with a shovel, cleaned and re-organized the back patio, and has dug up an overgrown flower garden, complete with pulling out bushes with her truck.  Did I mention she's only been with us for 3 weeks???  For her next trick - she'll do cartwheels while simultaneously cooking a gourmet meal for 100 of our closest friends in between re-grouting all three bathrooms!  She moves too fast for pictures, so there will be no photographic evidence.  

Work has been a bit on the stressful side.  Without dwelling on it too much, I'll just say that even though I own my own business, I still have to do what others tell me to do.  The owners of the building that pay my contract have had some requests lately that are affecting business.  And since business is already slow due to the economy, well, let's just say that it's nearing the painful stage.  I'll get through it.

My Casey-Dog (who is 13, by the way!) has started having a little more issues.  Her hips are bothering her more, and she's taking to chewing herself raw in spots.  And this is a dog that doesn't take kindly to your trying to help her.  If you try to clean a sore spot, she's likely to turn around an nip!  I've never bathed her...  I've always taken her to a groomer.  And clean her ears?  No thank you!  They can muzzle her at the vet, or they can risk the nibble that she'll give them.  So imagine when we take her to the vet, and the vet says to clean the area twice a day, and apply this cream.  Oh, and don't let her lick it.   Hmmm....  This poses yet another problem!  We all know that most dogs dislike the plastic collars, but my dog FREAKS.OUT.  Yeah, having her die of a heart attack from the stress of a plastic collar kinda defeats the purpose.  So I've tried just about everything!  What works?  When we're home, we keep her on a leash, so we can monitor her every move.  When we go to work, I put a doggy diaper on her that covers her raw hip, with a piece of gauze under it for a little more protection.  That was after trying a t-shirts (put on her backwards), and soft collar, and self-adhesive gauze.  All of those were not pretty either.  She's not thrilled with the doggy diaper, but she tolerates it.  We go back for a follow-up visit today.

Overall, the summer has been fantastic!  There are still more parties to attend before the summer is over.  We got invited to THREE for this Saturday, alone.  We can only make it to one, which is a bummer, but there are more lined up!

And then......  BOWLING starts up!  I know you can hardly wait for the weekly bowling updates, can you?????

What summer fun have you been up to?  Leave a comment here for me!

AMW

Progressive Dinner Update

Last week I mentioned that we had a Progressive dinner coming up.  Well, it was last Saturday, and it was a ton of fun.  We started out at R&E's house.  They have a new kitchen/sunroom combo.  They live in an older home, and their previous kitchen was slightly larger than a closet.  It was small.  They had kind of a closed in back porch as well.  They combined the porch and kitchen and created an awesome space.  So nice to see it all done, and to have appetizers there.  

M&M handled dinner, and it was nice because it was right next door to R&E.  There are two kittens that are just about a month old that have their own private room upstairs with their mommy, so we just had to head up there and visit.  Good food and good conversation ensued there...

K&L hosted dessert.  Awesome, because they are our NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS.  So we got to park at home, walk over, and spend a worry-free evening.  Many yummy desserts to drool over, but the hit of the night was the Rock Band game.  Set up with a guitar, drums, and vocals, we set about playing this game on the playstation (or was it an XBOX, not sure).  Lots of laughs, plenty of groans, and some out of tune singing made for a fun night...

Can't wait until next year for this fun event.  We may even be hosting part of it again.  Who knows....

AMW

Saturday Surprise Party

Saturday night, we went to a surprise party for our friends B&B.  Their birthdays are just a couple of days apart, so a combined party was the way to go.  They thought they were meeting at another friend's house for drinks before heading out to the Hibachi place for a b-day dinner with another couple.  They were, in fact, coming to the house for the party.  And they were late for their own party!  Quite comical.

The group of folks there was very diverse, and a lot of the folks were people we already knew.  We did meet a few new people from as far away as Maine and Boston.  We also met 3 new dogs, Abby, Axle, and Major.  

All of the people that I bowl with were there, of course, 2 of them being the guests of honor.  I'd say all in all about 30 folks.  

At one point, someone we had just met, "A", decided to tell us their life story.  Their partner, "P", was with them, and A told us that they were going to break up with P in two weeks.  I have no idea how or why they felt comfortable telling us this, and we were certainly surprised.  Um, what are we supposed to do with that info???  Anyhow, P engaged us in darts.  D was a natural, and won the first game by a landslide.  P was very nice, and I hope they will find someone to make them happy, as it sounds like A is not the one.  

Another friend confided in us, that they had leftover Obama campaign signs that they put into the yard of the 2 guests of honor, who were big McCain supporters.  I have no doubt that was an additional surprise for them when they got home from the party.  I also find it quite funny that people will confide all sorts of things in us...

A dancer was brought in (who was actually there the whole time appearing as a friend of a friend), and performed for the b-day guests.  I think that's who it was originally for anyway.  It seemed that just about everyone there enjoyed the dancer for quite some time.  

Lots of alcohol was consumed, lots of laughs were had, lots of food was eaten, and some interesting conversation, to be sure.  And who knows what happened after we left.........

AMW

Buckets

Yep - Buckets.  

My friend K has been reading a book called "How Full is your Bucket?"  Over dinner one night, she explained the basic premise of the book, and that is we all have a bucket.  When you are nice to someone, or they are nice to you, they fill your bucket or you fill theirs.  When someone is negative to you, or you are negative to someone else, a dipper removes from the bucket and diminishes their(or your) positive outlook.

K is a very positive, energetic, and generally "festive" person.  She regularly fills peoples bucket around her (and even those of complete strangers), and it's always fun to hang out with her.  So, a few of us (later named the "bucket brigade") were able to join her on a "booze cruise" to help her celebrate her birthday.  One member of the party actually went so far as to get her an actual bucket for her birthday, that we all signed with birthday wishes and filled with trinkets from the night.  I enjoyed filling her bucket on her birthday, as I know everyone else did too.

Unfortunately for K - someone she cared for KICKED her bucket.  Yep - emptied it, so to speak!  And doesn't seem at all bothered that they did it.  

I hope that the coming weeks get better for her, and all her true friends start refilling her bucket.  I'm sure D and I will do our part too...

Go fill a bucket!

AMW

Suprises

Have you ever tried to pull off a Surprise Party? Wow. It's a lot of work! I've done a few of these, and each time, I'm sure that I've been found it. This time was especially tough, as I didn't know how to get in touch with a few folks. I had to rely on help from someone that I don't know very well. Also, the guest of honor "D" wanted to go home about 3 hours early. I'm used to being there, getting things ready, decorating, setting food out, etc... I had to leave this to other people to do this time. They did a WONDERFUL job, and I didn't have to worry after all. Lots and lots of folks helped out for this one, and the surprise was a hit. I think D was truly surprised and touched that so many people came out to wish her congratulations. In the end, a fun time was had by all, and the surprise was safe.

AMW