Friday, Jan. 10

Today is my birthday, and it has been a good one, despite the gloomy, foggy, rainy weather.

Slept late, until around 8:30. Did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30. Both of them presented me with beautiful birthday cards, and gift cards.

When I checked my social network page, I found that I had many birthday greetings from family and friends. While I responded to those, Mother went to her jigsaw puzzle.

I dilly-dallied all morning, not accomplishing much, and not getting dressed. Later, Hubbie went out and picked up the mail and the newspapers (both yesterday's and today's state and local editions came). There was a very pretty birthday card and short letter in the mail from my friend who lives about an hour away.

At noon, I fixed lunch...Ramen noodle soup for Mother, leftover Salisbury steak, gravy, and mashed potatoes for Hubbie, and cream of mushroom soup for me.

Afterward, I finally went upstairs and got ready for the day (which was now half over). While I was up there, Hubbie's daughter called to wish me a happy birthday. I couldn't go to the phone, but she relayed the message through Hubbie.

While I was upstairs, I tried on a swimsuit I ordered online and that arrived yesterday. Actually, I ordered two of the suits, since they were on clearance. Unfortunately, though, they are ill-fitting, so I will send them back for a refund.

To do that, I had to go to the website and print out a mailing label, for which I'll pay a fee, but which will cover the cost of shipping the suits. Because I ordered two suits, there was no shipping fee to sent them to me. But what I saved in receiving the suits, I will lose in sending the silly things back.

Back downstairs, I whiled the afternoon away reading two days of newspapers, playing on my laptop, and reading my John Grisham novel.

Later, for supper, we went to the Japanese restaurant. I enjoy watching the meal being prepared on a hibachi grill. It wasn't the pleasant night for getting out, though...very rainy...which made it a little more difficult to get Mother in and out of the van, and in and out of the restaurant.

But it was an entertaining time, anyway. I asked our cook how long it took for him to train for the job, and he said about three months, which seemed like three years. The training is grueling, and nothing short of perfection is accepted. He said if a student makes it right to the end of a lesson, but then blows a detail, he has to go back to the beginning and repeat the lesson. He trained at a restaurant in the capital city.

He asked if any of us had ever been to Japan. When we said no, he said, "Neither have I."  He's an American from New York, he noted. He was interested to learn that Mother and I came from there, too.

As usual, we were served way more food than we could help eat. Our server brought take-out boxes before we even asked for them. I commented on this, and he said not many people are able to finish their meal. We brought home enough for another meal. It'll be our supper for tomorrow night.

As soon as we got back home, Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house. While he did that, I listened to a voice mail on our land line. His daughter called to let him know how his sister's tests went today. He called her back right away and learned that her endoscopy revealed several large ulcers in her stomach. They were biopsied, and she'll learn the results next week.

Tonight, I got a call from my friend in Texas. She usually calls on my birthday, and we spend a long time catching up on each other's lives. We talked about 30 minutes, I guess.

Watched TV after that until bedtime.