07.26.07

The minor Two-Niner

Posted in random at 10:00 am by wendy

(Interspersed with pictures of a cactus at my Dad’s)

Yesterday was my 29th birthday, and despite being the first birthday without my Mom, it was a great birthday.

I got to spend nearly the whole day with Nick. He went to work with me, walked one of my favorite dogs around Lindo Lake while I walked Holly (who is like a giant Libélula, I love her so much, but being almost exactly like Libélula means she can never be home with us [it would be a supernova of bitchdom] but she makes you feel like you are the best human being ever, a superhero, the one she waits for, she is like my Wallyball was in this respect) and then we went home.

Nick’s family called to wish me happy birthday which was very sweet and I went briefly to the local spinning group. Nick washed my car and got flowers and we took our kids to dog beach. The weather was great, although the sun was so hot on the sand, Crivvie will need booties if we go around one again this summer.   I took off my sandals in solidarity (she sat down and kept lifting up each foot, she looked so pathetic) and we both toasted our feet a little bit. It was great to swim in the ocean, and Libélula swam a little too, although she doesn’t like ocean swimming. She’s a lake and pool girl. We stopped at my grandmother’s and caught up on a little bit.

Then we dropped the kids off and went to a bike shop and got my birthday present–a 2007 Marlin GS WSD, yay, bike! And a spiffy helmet since I left mine on a train in Oregon and Amtrak’s customer service regarding lost and found items is pretty much nil. Anything left on a train is considered sacrifice to the Commuter Gods. But this is a much nicer helmet than the one I left, so it’s a good thing.

After that, we went to sushi with my Dad and stepmom, my uncle and aunt, which was very game of them, as my Dad and stepmom have very specific culinary habits which do not include raw fish. And then, Nick and I came home and fell into bed, tired, but not too tired. It was a wonderful birthday and I feel very loved.

Today I’ll fly for the first time since the summer of 1998, (I solo’d but never got my license) and my first time ever flying the brick with wings they call the Cessna 152 (we were made the same year).

I’m nervous but not anxious, I’m curious to see how much comes back. Not much, I expect.

Nick and I have been going to ground school on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings, and I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve forgotten, and how much sounds new to me. We’re doing it with Golden State Flying Club–there are lots of places in San Diego to learn to fly, but I liked the structure they offer and the fairly relaxed but not careless atmosphere.

While we were out at Dad’s, we had a little visitor.  Sunny D was barking at something, and when we went out, we found a relatively little king snake.

These things bite like the dickens.

Not very big, and since they eat rattlesnakes, we just chased it off the patio.

Unfortunately, it seems our little buddy returned a couple days ago and tried to make himself at home amidst the finches inside the aviary.  My dad dispatched him and the finches ended up eating king snake instead of the other way around.   And so it goes.

In knitting, the sock has slowed down in the gusset, but progresses.  Just not a lot of free time with hands free for knitting.

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