Monday, Jan. 10

Today is my birthday. I'm sixty-something-something-something, etc., etc., etc. Happy Birthday to me.

Woke up around 8 a.m. to a snowy day. We only got one or two inches of the white stuff, so it didn't create quite the winter wonderland that happened in the central and southern parts of the state. But it was enough to cancel school, and therefore my tutoring session tonight.

I started my day with a treadmill session and resistance exercises. Once I was ready for the day, I uploaded photos of the trumpeter swans, and of the Saturday birthday party, to my social network page.

Then I gathered the leftover chicken noodle soup and boiled chicken and went to Mother's house for lunch. While she heated the soup, I grabbed my camera and went outdoors to take snow pictures.

The soup was good again on this chilly day. Mother had made a from-scratch chocolate cake for dessert in honor of my birthday.

Afterward, I went back out to look for more photo opportunities. Back indoors, I uploaded the snapshots to the social network page.

Besides shooting pictures and visiting the social network page, I didn't accomplish much beyond doing a couple of loads of laundry, and calling Mother's doctor to re-schedule her fasting lab test from tomorrow to Thursday, and contacting the Literacy Council director to get a message to my student that we would not meet tonight or tomorrow night...tonight because of the weather, and tomorrow night because I have two meetings to attend. The Literacy Council director gave me the lady's phone number, so I'll contact her myself tomorrow to re-schedule to Thursday night.

Later, Hubbie treated me to dinner at a local steakhouse. We shared combo meals of steak and shrimp, and chicken and ribs, with sides of okra and a baked potato. Just as we'd finished our meals, a huge noise erupted from around the corner, as three waitresses shouted and rang cow bells. As they marched around the corner, I must have jumped a foot out of my seat. I let out a shocked cry and clutched my chest. The waitresses apologized for scaring me, but they went on to call out to the other diners that it was my birthday, and then they sang to me, and presented me with a white cake/ice cream/chocolate syrup/whipped cream dessert topped with a cherry.

Our waitress came back later, laughing about my reaction. She said that most of the time, folks know that that's going to happen, but it's a lot more fun for the wait staff when folks don't see it coming. "You're reaction was a classic," she said.

I've had a wonderful day, including lots of nice comments on my social network page, and special birthday cards in the mail.

Special birthday gifts these past few days: visits from Sis, Son, Daughter-in-Law, Grandson, Daughter, and Great-Granddaughter; a Tinker Bell balloon; a flashing rose; a garden stone; homemade coffees from Sis; a telephone call, card, and e-card from Son; birthday cards and letters from friends; a coconut cream pie and a chocolate cake from Mother; birthday wishes from friends and family at my social network page; dinner out and a birthday song by wait staff; and the promise by Hubbie to buy me a new bicycle as soon as we're in a town with a bicycle shop. I'm truly blessed.

Tonight's TV fare was the 1992, R-rated, movie, "Thunderheart," starring Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, and Fred Ward. An FBI agent, part Sioux, is assigned to participate in the investigation of a murder on a Sioux reservation. The story is based on real events that happened in 1975 in South Dakota.