🎵 Happy Birthday Toooooo Meeeeee 🎵 Happy Birthday Toooooo Meeeeee 🎵 Happy Birthday 🎵 Happy Birthday 🎵 Happy Birthday 🎵Toooooo 🎵Meeeeee!🎵
Thanks for all the Birthday wishes I had a wonderful Birthday Weekend spent surrounded by people I love. My daughter Jennifer and her husband Christian, my Grandkids, Isabella and Christopher and so many of my musical friends and food, way too much food. And I'm not talking celery sticks and low fat dip I'm talking apple pie and ice cream, deep fried delectibles and Birthday cake and ice cream...... twice! Oh yeah and a kidney stone!
It was the one downside to an otherwise fabulous weekend. I had plans! There was no way I was going to let an object the size of a flea bring me to my knees, though it came close a couple of times. For me it mostly feels like someone is pushing their thumb into my lower back punctuated by mind searing jags of excruciating pain at the most inappropriate moments! None the less in the true tradition of the theater, the show must go on! By the way, I passed the stone about 4 am Monday morning. I would like to say if you can find a Newfie Doctor I highly recommend them. My Dr's prescription for kidney stones...one beer, two water, repeat till you pass the stone. I went straight beer, Bud light, I drink it because it's like sex in a canoe... fucking near water! I didn't think about it until Sunday fortunately there was some orphaned beers in the fridge. I'll come back to that.
My Birthday weekend started on Friday. We had planned on having dinner at Taqueria Tropical on 6th in New West, there was a 40 minute wait. Not happening! Two doors down we met Willy and Annie at the Rivers Reach. Most fortuitous since there wasn't a table open in the joint! We wrangled up a couple of stools and joined them and their friends Mike and Teresa at the tiny bar stool height tables. It was very cozy. Willy and Annie left just before our food arrived. Mike and Teresa are nice people heading down to Mexico for the first time. Pleasant conversation and my beef dip was beefy and dippable! Is that a real word?
We headed to Ukelinda's for a music party to celebrate our friend Rhianna's birthday. Bro Steve and Mark and Lea where already there when we wandered in an hour and a half late. The Ukelelians were there in full force. Suekelele, Maxelele and Wendelele with her way cool bass, the strings look like cartoon strings, it sounds great and Wendelele plays it really well. It was an excellent party. I saw people that I see all the time and also people I only see at these types of parties. All fine and talented humans creating joyful sounds with like minded people.Three hours later, with a head full of slightly fuzzy, herbal induced memories and a belly full of appies and Birthday cake......with ice cream the lovely Lisa drove us home. I guess when I think about it the ice cream might have been the healthiest thing in that sentence. We were up until about 3 am. That's incredibly late for The lovely Lisa. She's often starting work at that time! What a trooper. When I asked if she wanted to go she would say "It's your Birthday weekend. Whatever you want."
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| Go Eagles |
I was watching the Eagles game resplendent in my Eagles jersey when it happened. It seemed like I barely had a cup of Jo poured when the Grandkids poured into the house like ants on a donut! "Happy Birthday Eve Papa, Where's Nutmeg? Can we go play with Matty?" Bella sat with Nutmeg on her lap for a while. I watched the end of the Eagles game then switched to the Raptors game after the Eagles victory. Jen and the lovely Lisa did I don't know, nor do I care, what.
Watching a sporting event with Christian is a blast. He is so in to the action his and facial expressions and energy so animated it is as entertaining as the game. Raptors lost to Golden State by 2 points in a great game against the best team in the NBA and the Eagles won! Yay.
At this point the kids where running around playing laser tag. More than a little annoying. They basically stood two feet away from each other pulling the trigger repeatedly so the chest sensor would make a particularly annoying sound for 5 seconds. It was the shortest game of laser tag ever, Papa Squatch brought the hammer down hard and booted them outside. It was cold and wet up here. It was a short game of laser tag.
The lovely Lisa always the hostess started bringing out food. Tuna and avocado on fresh sourdough baguette, nuts, a cheese platter, fruit plate and buns for the ham she had cooked. She also made hotdogs for the Grandkids. We were having a few people over this evening and Jen and Christian were not staying for the song circle. We had a great visit and a great day full of sports viewing. They left as people started showing up. We will do our annual pilgrimage to Denny's for my free breakfast tomorrow.
I set up a circle of chairs in the living room with a microphone in the center and one by one everybody had the opportunity to choose and perform a song. Only the choosers voice was amplified.the rest of us accompanying and singing along.
We had Gerry and his sax and Mark with his Mandolin. Ukelinda and Suekelele were representing the Ukelelians. We had congas and drums and tambourines. Multiple guitars, Big Bill Frew and his lady friend Charlee, who has a fantastic voice, kept things country. The Martina McBride cover they did was excellent. Originals by Myself, Lea and Mark as well as covers of all genres. Willy Curley sang including an acapella version of Living Doll with Julia.
I had a great time and as most old guy events, it ended at midnight!
The lovely Lisa and I foraged/tidied up before going to bed. While the lovely Lisa was doing the dishes and putting away the used food for later consumption, I was filling my pie hole with, well....pie! Lea brought an apple pie made from apples off their own tree. I believed it was my
Hostly, another made up word, duty to consume the afore mentioned pie so obviously made with extra love! Oh how the human mind can so easily justify bad behaviour. I nibbled my way through cleanup and collapsed into bed back of 2 am.
"They just left Maple Ridge." were the first words I heard when I woke up on the first day of my 62nd year on planet earth. Followed immediatly by "Happy Birthday Honey" and a kiss. We have a family tradition.
On our Birthdays we go to Denny's for our free birthday brekkie. To be honest we only ever go to Denny's on someone's Birthday.
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| Jen and the Grandkids at Denny's |
I'm not sure if it's a family thing or a Scottish thing! "Yoo canny get no better than free ya daft bastards!" That theory falls apart when the cheque comes for the other five people. The Grandkids gave me their handmade Birthday cards which got forgotten at Denny's and a couple of gifts. More slippers! Yay! I have a bit of a slipper fetish.
After breakfast we had a short visit back at the house before the Chef Boy R Lisa and I went to do her work shop at Stuporstore. With the PVR recording the football game we had the shop done inside of an hour. Now I don't have to watch the commercials. I settled in to watch the game Pittsburgh started off like a replay of the Tortise and the Hare. The Jaguars totally dominated the first half. The Steelers came back hard. Scoring every time they touched the ball. The Jags were a head by less than a single score with the Steelers moving the ball... that's when the PVR ended. There were two more scores and Jacksonville won 45-42 which I didn't find out until sports center at 11!
The lovely Lisa was in bed about 6 pm with a wakeup call at 1:15 am. I had planned to go down to Roos Pub in Coquitlam Center for the jam but my stones were rolling and instead I pounded beer until I produced a near steady stream of slightly alcoholic urine! I must have peed twenty times including 4 am when I finally passed the stone.
Not much in the way of pictures. Hopefully my flowery prose puts a picture in your mind. If it does try to make me younger and better looking!
That's all I've got
Till next time
Peace Out Y'all
