Re: Happy Birthday KatyCren

On Mar 22, 10:42 am, Pat Fleet <pfl...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
With all the focus & silliness of the birthday brothers writing, we forgot
to send you happy wishes on the 21st! Hope you had a great day.

Did'ya make a cake (or pie) in the new kitchen?

Thank you, Pat, Shirlee, Donz, Bill, Sally, Helen, Greg, Bob, Anthony,
Rod, and Kath for the birthday thread! It was a crazy weekend, filled
with eating, shopping, and the yearly Bunny visit, but I didn't have a
traditional birthday cake (or pie) this year. My mother was quite
upset about my cakeless birthday, but I assured her that the towering
cheesecake with strawberries dessert I had for my birthday dinner in
Athens was a celebration in itself.

I don't think my birthday and Easter have ever been the same weekend
-- at least not in my lifetime -- and I hope it never happens again.
I'll spare you the boring details, but it was part fun and part
grueling chaos.

Okay, did you really believe I would spare the details? Riiight... Go
ahead and skip to the end if you like. I won't mind. Really.

So here it goes.
Friday, my birthday, I worked until 4:30, then rushed to pick up my 10-
year-old and get him to a 5:00 piano lesson. After piano, we enjoyed a
casual birthday dinner at Fatz Cafe with friends, both his and mine.
As I uncharacteristically ordered a glass of merlot and a steak, my
thoughts wandered guiltily to JBB. I like JBB, I really like and
admire him, but I knew what he would say about that steak. (Lobster,
my traditionaly birthday splurge, isn't on the menu at Fatz, so steak
is my alternate "event" food.) And I was relieved that no singing or
hand clapping accompanied the delicious surprise birthday dessert I
mentioned earlier. Everyone had a great time despite the early hour.
(It's not that I'm *so* old -- it's that we all have kids.) Anyway, I
needed to get home and wash some clothes for the weekend.

Saturday morning, I rushed a very excited 10-year-old to register his
hand-painted "Obama car" for the Boy Scout Pinewood Derby competition,
then we raced to the inaugural Athens Easter Egg Drop where 20,000
prize-filled eggs were going to be dropped by helicoptor at 11:00.
After waiting in line for an hour with thousands of hyper children and
cranky parents, we were told by an Egg Drop volunteer in a golf cart,
"I'm sorry, we're full -- go home," prompting the 2,000-3,000
disappointed and angry children who had been turned away to start
sobbing, or trying to jump over the chain-link fence, or, in my son's
case, to begin ranting loudly about filing a lawsuit and writing "the
nastiest letter you have ever seen" to the newspaper. (Though he's
adopted, he seems to have acquired the family's legal disposition.)
After the Easter Drop debacle, we went to race the Obama car in the
Pinewood Derby, and my son, who went to the district level last year,
didn't place in the top three. Ouch. I wondered if that was a portent
of things to come.

While eating a quick lunch at home, we saw from the kitchen window a
large, black turkey vulture standing on the patio, right beside our
leafy, murky, uncovered swimming pool. My son ran to grab the camera,
but the bird flew into a tree seconds before I could snap the picture.
Hmm... I wondered if this could be a portent of things to come.
Brushing that thought aside, I packed our clothes and Easter goodies
and left for Atlanta, stopping midway at the Mall of Georgia in Buford
to buy my elderly mother (who says she has weak hands) a battery-
powered "One Touch" can opener at the Sharper Image "we're-closing-the-
store" sale. We arrived at Mother's house in Atlanta Saturday night
just in time to dye the eggs I had hardboiled earlier (I use the same
cooking method that Foxy posted), then it was off to bed for the boy
so I could fill all the plastic eggs and Easter baskets with candy,
coins, and toys. Of course, I had to make one last run to Kroger for
Starburst and bubble gum for my dairy-allergic son, plus red nail
polish and tinted moisturizer for myself. I was in the car again
before dawn to deliver the dyed eggs to my daughter's house in Decatur
so she could hide them in her backyard. I kissed the grandbaby and
hurried back to Mother's house to dress for church.

The church service began with an Easter drama. A woman, dressed in
Biblical garb, slowly walked down the center aisle to the front of the
sanctuary. She was soon identified as Mary, the mother of Jesus, as
she mourned aloud for her Son, nearly collapsing with grief on the
steps leading up to the altar. Mary's sorrow was heartrending, with
her trembling hands and quaking voice. I was trying to imagine the
pain of this mother's devastating loss when suddenly, to my horror, my
own son, who was seated beside me on the front row pew, began to shake
with not-quite-silent laughter. I elbowed him fiercely and shot him my
best "You had better get it together NOW or ELSE" look when,
thankfully, Mary realized that her Son had risen indeed and we all
stood to sing a hymn. Perhaps I sang a bit more joyfully than usual.

The service ended, and Mother remembered she'd forgotten some
medication from the house so back we went to Buckhead before turning
around to drive across town to Decatur for an Easter lunch with my
daughter and family at Watershed (http://watershedrestaurant.com). The
food was excellent but the service was very, very slow. Sam, my baby
grandson, nearly fell asleep in his highchair, munching on Cheerios,
and my son was getting antsy. It was a prix fixe menu and we were
determined to stay for dessert -- chocolate fritters and strawberries.
(I tried to ignore Mother's "What? No birthday cake?" ) Lunch was
followed by the first ever family Easter egg hunt at my daughter's
house. Sam is 10 months old now and isn't walking yet, so he didn't
exactly hunt for eggs but crawled around on the floor trying to bite
into anything colorful. He was dressed in cotton pants and a blue hand-
knit bunny sweater and, of course, was utterly adorable. Take a
look!
http://picasaweb.google.com/katycren

My birthday presents were mixed in with the Easter gifts, and my
mother forgot to complain about the absence of cake when she saw the
fabulous Vera Bradley floral duffel bag my daughter gave me. I even
remembered to bring my son-in-law *his* birthday gift -- only a month
late. Or maybe six weeks late. Not as late as the pie report, though.

We took Mother home and left an hour later, ordering Chinese take-out
as soon as we were 15 minutes outside of Athens. Finally back in my
own house, I got under the quilt with my son so he could read his
brand new book aloud to me. Moments later, fully dressed, with makeup
on my face and unbrushed teeth, I fell asleep.

Well, there you have it. Welcome to my world.

I woke around 2:30 a.m., turned on my computer for the first time all
weekend, and saw my birthday thread. What a lovely surprise! It almost
gave me enough energy to stay up and post a reply. Almost. But Monday
comes awfully early.

Thank you for the birthday posts. You're all so smart and funny, it's
almost too much to believe you can be sweet and caring, too. Really.

Love,

Kate


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Happy Birthday KatyCren
    ... and Kath for the birthday thread! ... prize-filled eggs were going to be dropped by helicoptor at 11:00. ... Pinewood Derby, and my son, who went to the district level last year, ... before dawn to deliver the dyed eggs to my daughter's house in Decatur ...
    (alt.fan.letterman)
  • Re: Happy Birthday KatyCren
    ... and Kath for the birthday thread! ... prize-filled eggs were going to be dropped by helicoptor at 11:00. ... Pinewood Derby, and my son, who went to the district level last year, ... before dawn to deliver the dyed eggs to my daughter's house in Decatur ...
    (alt.fan.letterman)
  • Re: Happy Birthday KatyCren
    ... and Kath for the birthday thread! ... prize-filled eggs were going to be dropped by helicoptor at 11:00. ... Pinewood Derby, and my son, who went to the district level last year, ... We arrived at Mother's house in Atlanta Saturday night ...
    (alt.fan.letterman)
  • Re: Happy Birthday KatyCren
    ... and Kath for the birthday thread! ... I don't think my birthday and Easter have ever been the same weekend ... prize-filled eggs were going to be dropped by helicoptor at 11:00. ... Pinewood Derby, and my son, who went to the district level last year, ...
    (alt.fan.letterman)
  • Re: This Mornings Breakfast
    ... there goes my chance of any easter eggs... ... I wonder who cooked up the idea of eggs coming from rabbits. ... My son ...
    (rec.food.cooking)