28.

My age as of yesterday.

It was a good birthday made wonderful by the happy happenstance of location of awesome friends.  Southeastern Minnesota has treated me quite well by the presence of many familiar and friendly faces.  You know these people well – I talk about them all the time!

I had lunch in Rochester with Karen, my pal at the synod office.  I arrived at the synod office after doing a  care center visit and the synod staff present sang happy birthday to me.  For cute.  Karen and I went out and about and had a long pleasant lunch, celebrating my birthday on the day and hers a week earlier.  She gave me a plastic gnome with a mushroom parachute.  More about that later.

In the evening, Mabel and I welcomed Paige, Lauren, and jD for dinner.  Remember that Thai chicken pizza I meant to make last weekend but work got in the way?  It was a group effort and even with four people, it took us longer than the thirty Rachael tells us it should.  In the end, it was worth every matchstick  cucumber and every zested piece of cheese.  [Zested because I don’t own a cheese shredder.  Now – twenty four hours later – I recall that my food processor can shred cheese.  Don’t tell Paige and jD.]  It’s a pizza with plum sauce, bean sprouts, scallions, and peanuts and incredibly delicious.  A definite to-be-made-again recipe.  [Got that, Lynn?  Give it a try!]

Following dinner, things got out of hand.  I had asked jD to bring his electric drill; I needed assistance hanging a heavy mirror in my bedroom.  Done.  We threw the tiny plastic gnome with mushroom parachute down the stairs [“This parachute is a napsack!”], and we watched Modern Family [our show of choice when gathered together], laughing at Phil Dunphy.  We finished off the birthday evening with a lemon cake Lauren made [so good!], many Friends references, and a game of scrabble that lasted us until 1am.

By way of birthdays, I give this one two thumbs up, one high five, seven fist bumps, and one complimentary “balls to you!”  

Here comes year 28; may it be a happy one!