Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is the last of our summer birthdays....Torrey starts the ball rolling on July 19, and then we move on to a nephew, the grandbaby, the Timster, Jill, my BIL, and finally, my birthday which has always marked the end of summer. That was back in the days when school didn't start until the Wednesday after Labor Day. Now summer ends a lot sooner than August 25. For my sister, a school nurse in Mississippi, summer ends with the end of the first week in August....

Nope, I'm not going to divulge which birthday this is, as I've been XX and holding for quite some time. Hmmm -- XX could be 20. It could be a double cross. It could mean Extra Crabby....maybe we'll just leave it at that.

Bob offered to take me out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants tonight, but I suggested we wait and celebrate on Saturday night when we pick up the Timster from O'Hare after his month in Ireland and his week in Montenegro. I thought he was going to Croatia, but no -- his last (and only) e-mail since leaving Dublin put him and his buds in the former Yugoslavia. I had to look the whole thing up on a map, being that I am geographically challenged.

But I am getting a manicure and pedicure in preparation for our week in the Outer Banks, and then having lunch with two dear friends -- one of whom recently had the NERVE to leave us and move to be near her three daughters and grandchildren in Minneapolis. How DARE she! After all, she's known us longer than she's known either her husband OR her children!! The three of us were in nursing school and attended Wheaton College together, and we've been having lunch once a month for years....

I got my birthday present early from the EC when they were here a couple of weeks ago -- did I mention that? It's Trivial Pursuit -- Book Lovers Edition. Sample question: "What Gregory Maguire novel sets the Snow White story in 16th-century Tuscany, under the sinister rule of Cesare Borgia?"

Answer: "Mirror, Mirror."

I didn't know it either.

No one will play it with me however, so I amuse myself by periodically playing it by myself and congratulating myself when I know the answer -- which is less frequent than one would think, given how much I read.

Speaking of reading, I am currently rereading "Vital Signs" by Barbara Wood -- love those medical novels, especially the ones set back in days of yore when I was in nursing school and early in my career. We have come a long way in medicine. And I just finished "Out of the Question...Into the Mystery: Getting Lost in the Godlife Relationship" by Leonard Sweet. Most excellent. Lots of good food for thought there. No more MOB books -- I'd need to win the lottery to be able to afford the kind of weddings they are talking about. (Which is difficult given that I don't ever buy tickets).

I'm stockpiling books to take to the beach. Bob and I will be there with my two partners in my teaching practice and their husbands. This will be one of the first years that we won't have any children -- imagine, just six adults! Linda is a MOG -- her Adam is getting married Nov 19, two weeks before our wedding. They are doing a destination sort of wedding at the Biltmore in Asheville NC. And Carole's daughter just got married last year in the Outer Banks -- such a fun wedding! So there will be plenty of good conversation and most wonderful food. The four of them are marvelous cooks. When it is my turn to cook, we take everyone out to eat.

I don't cook. I apply heat to food.

We are looking forward to another incredible week -- we'll do our annual summer board meeting there, and spend time on the beach -- that is, if Katrina doesn't rain on our parade.

And IF the invitations arrive in time I'll take envelopes with me and do some addressing.... (see, I did get some MOB content in this post after all!)