In Which We Celebrate

 

My birthday is coming up soon and I will be 71 years old, to be mathematically exact.  I had thought I would start ignoring any birthday that doesn't end in multiple 0s, but Diane von Austinburg offered to come out to help celebrate, and any visit from her is always something to look forward to so I am pretending to be a good sport about the whole sorry mess, but there had better not be any choruses of Happy Birthday.  I hope she doesn't get caught up in the ongoing collapse of American airports.  It's only a 3-hour flight out here from Austin and I would hate for her to spend more than that long waiting in line. 

Another reason I am willing to acknowledge this anniversary is that my birthday this year falls on Easter Sunday.  This is only the second time in all these years that that has happened, but it has been a near miss before.  I remember when I was very young my mother made cupcakes that looked like little tiny Easter baskets 

Isn't that adorable?

That was absolutely remarkable because my poor mother, god rest her sainted self, was not a very enthusiastic baker. With four kids and a crappy oven, it's hard to blame her.  So yay for her cranking out a bunch of cupcakes with pipe cleaners as handles, jelly beans as Easter eggs, and tinted coconut as grass.  I don't remember anything else about them particularly and I also don't remember my mother's reaction when I announced I do not like dried coconut.  It's hard being a mom.

Also, completely unrelated to my birthday festivities, I wanted to mention that in comments generated by my recent post about the difficulty in understanding British accents, several of my English readers revealed their varying dialects.  None of them were defensive about it, because all my readers are very nice people, and I appreciate their restraint since looking back at the post I realize I was, uhm, a tiny bit insensitive.  I don't think I actually referred to anyone as having a speech impediment, but it was a near miss, so please accept my humble apologies.  Having read their very English blogs for years, I had always assumed somehow that they all spoke with the most refined, poshest, received pronunciation, Agatha Christie inspired, BBC shipping news articulation.  But it's a funny ol worl, innit?

Guys who need to be my birthday presents

Speaking of birthday cakes . . . .

Let's go for a ride.

Did I mention it's spring?

Spring has sprung.

Time to enjoy the great outdoors.

I'm sitting with all the windows open listening to the knuckleheads down on the street yodeling.

Even in permanently mild weathered San Francisco, we're glad to put winter behind us.