birthday of regis 2010

We celebrated the birthday of Regis yesterday with what was intended to be a small barbecue on the patio. The last few years, we've made it more of a bash but for lots of reasons, the crowd was smaller this year. the mosquitoes have been like a plague, too, so that convinced us to send the birthday boy out to do the cooking while the rest of us relaxed in bug-free, air conditioned comfort. This photo is Bob and Emily, Alex and Ella waving good-bye at the end of the evening.

Our friend Vickie came to help celebrate. The three girls sat at the table and Ella did our nails and showed us how she can write her name. Vickie brought the always popular cheese potatoes.

Alex has learned how to wink which amused his Popop greatly. He has also learned to make some great monster noises and I think in general, to get people to laugh. Ah, that is one of the great pleasures of life and he's learned the lesson early. Good for Alex.

Ella was most interested in eating bread and popsicles last night; not so much in eating food with any real nutritional value. Well, you don't come to birthday parties every day so why not eat your favorite things?

I made two desserts: one made of peanut butter chocolate ice cream sandwiches, chocolate fudge, and peanuts and the other made of raspberries and oatmeal crisp with very little sugar. Guess which one all the guests picked? Not even a contest! The raspberry crisp was delicious, by the way.

All in all, we had a good time. We missed Tiffany and Elliot, Regis and Amber, Betty and Tom.

This morning is my first day of real vacation. I don't plan to do much but I do plan that every day this month, I am going to do something fun. I decided what that will be today...but something.

Regis has been working on this picture of me ever since I ran the 5k the other day. Three miles may not be exactly Rocky Balboa material, but it seemed like it to me. Honestly, I got a little choked up as we came down Third Street. That I would ever run down a public street with a bunch of other people that I consider athletic was amazing to me at that moment. For most of my life, except for brief periods of energetic spurts, I avoided walking too far. I was what Bill Bryson calls a waddlesome sloth.

I have a big pile of dirty dishes to do this morning. We don't have a dish washer and I suppose it would be cruel to make the birthday boy get up and do them. Better get at it.