Special birthday- Yr 1, Day 261

Arcadia, FL

It was a really nice day, ending up as a really special evening!  For starters, I felt so loved by all my friends and family on Facebook -- there were about 50 birthday wishes!  It made me feel good to know so many people were thinking of me and took the time (even if it was only a few seconds) to type the 2 words Happy Birthday.   Mitch also pampered me a little more than usual (he made breakfast and picked up the step stool every time I had to climb into the truck.  I usually do that with my cane and it's a royal PITA).

My workload was pretty quiet.  We took a ride into town to buy tickets for the RODEO which takes place on Friday.  I can't wait!  I've never been to a rodeo before and it looks amazing. Watch for lots of pics on my next entry.  Anyway, we returned home and vegged out in front of the tv for a few hours.  I was supposed to have a potential new client interview at 4:30 but somehow the technology got mangled and it was postponed to tomorrow.

So, what made the rest of the day really special were that my good friends Maria & Ron, and DawnRaye, who are now staying about 20 miles away from here, drove all the way down to join us for dinner (we went to Chili's as it's the only non-fast food place around here).  Here's the gang:

(from left) Ron, Maria, DawnRaye, Me, Mitch

Maria, who is beyond talented in making all kinds of crafts from scratch, spent the day creating a bag, a card (which is on the level of those hand-made, layered wedding invites), and beautiful embroidered dish towels (sorry, Maria - they are only for show; I will not be using them!  They are too beautiful to ruin).  DawnRaye gave me a card with such a beautiful and touching note inside.

Maria also bought me a big, beautiful cake (what's a birthday without cake?!)  I don't know how she knew that carrot, and not chocolate, was my favorite!  So we returned back to our "house" after dinner and enjoyed the cake and some Bailey's in front of a campfire - at least until it started to rain about 1/2 hr later.  All in all, it was GREAT to spend my birthday with special friends.

Update on the parts:  the steps arrived and there's a 50/50 chance they can be installed Fri. morning.  The pin box will be delivered on Friday so it will be installed one day next week.  Not sure when yet.