Almost a Third of a Century.

It'll be truly a third in another 120 days.

I had a great birthday weekend and I want to tell you guys all about it. (Mostly because what I'm doing at work, right now, is WAY boring.)

Saturday I took Nettie and the dog to the river. Honey swam and chased sticks and boats (and a seadoo!) peed on bushes/trees and generally had a good doggy time. Then we went to Roly Poly's (I forgot to get her a 'Mom's birthday' treat sandwich) and when we got home we watched TV for a while. Then it was time to get ready to go to Birmingham.

I went to a screening of "Love 'n Dancing" at Rhythm N Motion dance studio with a dance party afterwards. The movie was less sappy than other dance movies and the dancing (West Coast Swing) in it was great. Tomorrow is my last WSC lesson and it's been so much fun although watching the movie (and tape of the 2006 WCS championship finals) showed me HOW different what I've been doing and really good WCS is. Before the movie T.J. gave a quick lesson in salsa and hustle and after we tried out what we'd learned. The dance was less stuffy than the TBDC ones - younger, too. There weren't very many people but we had a good time.

Sunday after cake and cards, we went up to the Pelham civic center and skated. Matt met us there, he managed to squeeze us in between golf, hiking, and church. It felt so cool when we walked in the building and I even rolled my sleeves down before getting on the ice, but when I stopped to get a drink 5 min. later I rolled them right up again. Mom was sitting in the rink lobby with her shawl on and I, next to her, was sweating buckets. We had an octogenarian, pentagenairian, me, and a pre-teen on the ice.

So other than the dog being mad at me, it was a very nice weekend. And only Nettie thinks I'm OLD.

50.5 year run, broken

Matt had made it 50 1/2 years without a broken bone, but that streak of good luck is over now. I have a feeling it wasn't for lack of trying that him from breaking bones in the past. The boy had a black eye when he took first communion. (First confession may have gone like this: "Father forgiven me for I have sinned.This is my first confession...I put frog in my sister's bed...Sassed my mom...I got in a fight, yesterday...No sir, I wasn't trying to get all my naughtiness out before I officially knew the difference...")


So here he is out ice skating with his fifth meta-carpal of his right hand broken. It's hard to see but his pinky and ring fingers are in a soft cast/splint.


If I understood correctly he was cleaning up the downstairs, went to move some boxes, and something that was on top of the boxes (didn't catch what, we were talking across another conversation) fell on his hand. Definitely broken.

Here's some more pictures from the day.

Skating and Sunset