That's not so bad...

On Friday night, Jessica (former roommate) took Emily to her house for their very first sleepover, so my best friend Jena came over for dinner. She, my mom and I got so involved in our conversation that we forgot to check on the pool and overfilled the deep side. Then my mom moved the hose to the shallow end and we did it again! Here is our way-too-full swimming pool:

After dinner, another friend came over. The four of us scrapped well into the night with many bottles of wine and one EXCELLENT bottle of champagne (thanks, Jena!). And I got presents, too (again, thanks Jena!). Oh, and cake. We had yummmmmy cake.

The next morning, my dad called. He was North of me by about an hour (huh?) and wondered if he and his wife could come spend the day and night with me. Well, yeah, I guess so… It was a little weird and I had to cancel my plans to go to another friend’s birthday party, but it turned out to be quite nice. They walked in with a HUGE bouquet of white roses (my conventional favorite), as well as a funny card which contained a check for $100.00 (so I can buy new glasses before my insurance runs out in 2 weeks). Thanks, Dad.

Oh, then after dinner, stayin’ in the “helpful” mode, my dad washed the dishes:

Later that evening they continued to help by trying to create some calm quiet before putting Emily to bed:

It didn’t work, but who really cares? She was excited to have her Papa and Debba D there. Eventually she fell asleep.

In the morning, we were going to go out for breakfast for my birthday but no one really felt like getting dressed, so my dad and Deborah made bacon and pancakes instead. But before cooking, they initiated my daughter into the family tradition of Sunday morning crosswords:

We had planned on having steak and artichokes for my “special” dinner, but we ended up cooking them the night before for my dad and Deborah, so after they left, my Mom and Em made me some fried chicken. Em wasn’t supposed to put the chicken in the pan, she was only supposed to flour it. She floured an awful lot of stuff in that area of the kitchen, and she also burned herself a little bit—she actually did put a piece into the pan and the grease splashed up on her. Oops. Here she is helping with the chicken—you’ll note that she’s crying, but also note that she's dressed in honor of the special occasion (that’s her Jasmine costume, if you don’t recognize it):

Later in the day Mom and Em made me a cake but I was so involved in my book I didn’t get any pictures of them cooking.

Jessica came over to have dinner with us—she thought we were having a party and was a little weirded out I think when she discovered that we really were just having her over for dinner. It was strange that she knocked on the door when she arrived. That might take a while to get used to.

Not much else happened for my birthday. It was pleasant. I wasn’t expecting much and I wasn’t disappointed. I love the things I got and perhaps I’ll show you pictures of them later. But not now. There are enough pictures in here already.

I’m desperately trying to get over my foul funk-mood. Varla Vixen is coming over for dinner on Thursday evening. Maybe that’ll help.