Weekend Photos in Review

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have caught wind that my birthday was coming.  I started celebrating last week.  You know, birthday week.  But then Mystic had to get all practical.  “You know, since your birthday is actually on Sunday, and since Sunday is the start of the week TRADITIONALLY, your birthday week actually starts on the 31st.”  Men!  While he may be right, Nick’s birthday is this coming Tuesday, and I don’t want to intrude.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I have accidentally on purpose found a ton of different food ways to celebrate over the weekend, starting with a kick-off lunch with Patsy on Friday, dinner/movie with a girlfriend Friday night, lunch and dessert with Beth yesterday, dinner and a movie with Mystic last night, breakfast and lunch with Mystic today, and dinner at my parents’ house tonight.  Phew! I haven’t cooked since, um, last Wednesday and that is a pretty excellent way to celebrate, if you ask me.  That and with friends and family, of course!  In all the birthday festivities, I think it netted me another four spots to review as well – holla!

In photography terms, this is what’s known as “sun flare,” and I hardly ever get a shot with it, so this one had me pretty stoked.

Mocha Coconut Frappuccino at a Starbucks near you, my current favorite. Tastes like an Almond Joy. Love.

When my Mom found out I didn’t have plans for dinner on my birthday (Mystic and I celebrated the night before), she invited us over for dinner. She makes this delicious salmon risotto dish. She hasn’t made it in years, a recipe she learned when we lived in Italy many moons ago. It’s still one of my favorite recipes that she makes, and today she actually gave me the recipe, along with making it for dinner. Score! Dinner was followed by my favorite cookies ever. I first discovered a very similar cookie at Governor’s in Maine, while my sister was in college years ago. Come to find out only NOW that my mom has her own recipe for them that she made when we lived in Alaska, some 32 years ago. I didn’t know that I liked them then or even knew about them all the way back then, but now I have an even better recipe than the one I’ve been using. Coming soon to a web site near you! The only unfortunate part is that tonight we found out that the kids like these cookies as much as I do, so I’ll have to share.

Some years ago (five maybe?), my grandmother died on my birthday. Although we didn’t get along so well, it definitely made the day a tinge of bittersweet. Unfortunately today was no exception. Although Eli is still here, it was not a good weekend for him. I have a call into the vet and am waiting to talk to them tomorrow morning. At this point, unless there is an incredible miracle, I will need to put Eli down tomorrow. It’s been a rough day. He cannot walk unassisted, and even then, he collapses after taking a step. Don’t mean to be a downer, but I know a lot of you love Eli, so I’m sharing. I have always been completely upfront, or as much as I can be, with Nick. I don’t think surprises, the negative kind, are the way to go, so tonight I told him about Eli’s weekend (they had been with The Ex). I wanted to make sure he could say goodbye to him. They have literally grown up together. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do and it breaks my heart on many levels. Nick knows this is the right thing to do, because I’ve explained that it’s important that we be unselfish and do right by Eli right now. But I am totally dreading tomorrow.