Okay, friends, since this past week was my birthday week, and since my sister Heather says you can celebrate for 30 days before and after, I thought I'd show you a bit of the celebrations that I've just enjoyed. 

 

Before I go further, please excuse my tardiness in delivering this newsletter to you.  I've been away and though I thought I had all necessary computer parts, I did not.  I left one specific cable at home.  I left one specific connector at home.  My sister's wi-fi was very lazy and it was more like why-NOT-fi, thank you very much.  ARGH.

 

Anyway - it is now Sunday night and I have figured out how to get pictures from my phone onto this computer and have managed to also figure out how to make them display straight up and down, not sideways.  It has taken a lot, but I've managed.  Go me!

 

I was out in California for my actual birthday.  My godson graduated from Law School (I really remember watching him take his first breath) and that became the initial reason for my jaunt. But I extended the week and had the very best birthday week ever.

 

We make dinners to go Monday through Friday.

 

Call 252-1500 by noon or so and then come pick up your dinners between 3 and 7, when we close. Add a salad for 3.25 or bread for 1.25.

 

Monday, May 21

Lemon Tarragon Chicken with Farro Pilaf 8.25

 

Tuesday, May 22

Pasta Alfredo with Swiss Chard and Musrhooms 7.95

 

Wednesday, May 23

Braised Lamb Curry with Basmati Rice 9.25 (GF)

 

Thursday, May 24

Crabcakes with Maple Cole Slaw 10.25

 

Friday, May 25

Call by noon and then come pick up between 3 and 7

 

Wednesday, May 23

  Chardonnay Chicken with Carrots and Wild Rice

  Whole: 35 Half: 17.50

 

  Friday, May 25

  Traditional (Local) Beef Lasagna

  Whole:59 Half: 29.50

Back at my sister's house we had a wonderful birthday dinner for her, cooked by her beau.  He also grew the lettuce, the flowers, the peas, and the chard.  The gardens did not exist last year.  Now he has irrigation systems and raised beds and gutter gardens and all sorts of cool handy-fellow inventions. 

 

By some stroke of fortune I had watched the Kentucky Derby.  If you had too, then you would know that Bodemeister, the favorite, was beaten at the very end of that race by I'll Have Another.  I NEVER know about all of this, but I did, somehow, keep these two horses in my mind and bet on them in the Preakness.  Horse # 7 and Horse #9.  $2.00 bets on each to win, place, and show. 

 

And, as luck would have it, the race was almost a repeat of the Derby.  Bode got beaten at the line.  I, for my $12.00, ended up with $21.00.

Hiya.

 

I hope you had as nice a week as I did for my birthday.  I can't imagine it possible that you did, but I can still hope.  As you see, my week was filled with color, food, friends, family, excitement, adventure, and, um, not much work.

 

What you don't see is the thinking.  I did a lot of thinking.  All the time all the computers were not working I was thinking.  And all the time I was meeting culinary icons from here and there, I was thinking about my book. 

 

But really, a vacation is not about work and I did remember that it is okay to go very slowly (though my week was very full) and savor the minutes that crept by.  I did, somehow, manage to make time go very slowly.  I was gifted with a couple of long, slow spa treatments; a few deliciously long meals; a number of long evenings of conversation; some delightfully long drives to very beautiful places. 

 

I struggle with "you deserve it," but I guess I can admit that these gifts and times and meals and visits and such were really the very most perfect way to celebrate the conclusion of one of the most extraordinary years I have ever had. 

 

I am so grateful to feel as good as I do.  I am so grateful to have been graced with such an incredible assortment of the most caring doctors and nurses and caregivers.  I am wordless as I think of what my sisters gave me this year.  Heather came to every single appointment and treatment with me.  Lucinda called almost every day and came in person when things were really scary.

 

And YOU!  How could I have done this year without you?  Without your notes and your letters and your cards and your prayers.  I've never been much for praying, but I felt surrounded and lifted up and so blessed.  I still do.  I still do. 

 

So now I begin my next year.  I have my book project.  I have my bike ride to do, my body to get in shape.  A major glass creation awaits.  I have some travel in mind.  Some planning.  And a big fat tree fell down in my yard the other day so, in the very near future, I need to get someone to help with that.  My house is full of dog hair but that can wait until tomorrow. Some friends are coming later in the week.  I have some doctor appointments this week and next (no, that's not quite done yet) and there are some other things that I need to attend to.

 

But mostly I want to express how moved, how deeply, deeply moved I am to be here, writing to you on a soft night, next to a sleeping dog, a couple of hives full of bees, and an enormous amount of adventure and potential on the horizon.  It's a fine day and I had a spectacular birthday.