It was My BIRTHDAY!!!!

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of my arrival upon this stage and I spent the evening alone by choice.

I wasn't grumpy or feeling sorry for myself - my husband has been spending weeking at the hunting camp and there are only few weekends of hunting season left so I gave him a guilt-free pass to the woods. He gave me a really nice fat Bed Bath and Beyond gift card and brought me a bottle of champagne and some soup from my favorite restaurant to have for dinner.

My BFF stopped by and had a glass of champagne with a float of Chambord across the top then it was just me, the cats and the television.

The rain kept the cats inside and since they couldn't run around outside to play, they tore around the house like furry Gran Prix racers. I left the back door open in hopes that they'd run around on the deck but I didn't get many takers. I stepped out the door myself to try to encourage some of them to follow me and admired the bounty of my calamondin tree's fruit. It was hard to get a good picture, but imagine the fruit you see above covering the whole canopy of the tree. The fruit are small, the size of a jacks ball (remember playing jacks?) and rather like kumquats. The peels are sweet-tart and the flesh will make your mouth pucker!

I've got a jar of liquour I made with them and some oranges from a neighbor's tree 'curing' in the refrigerator.

There was a 'Murder, She Wrote' marathon on and I got hooked into that until about 3 am at which point I decided that my birthday was over. I then slept until about nine, decided I wasn't really through sleeping, and snuggled down again until noon-ish. I had to get up and dress then in order to get some food for the cats. I tried to get them to eat some of the Old Roy dogfood I bought for the possums and that was a no-go. I even sprinkled cat treats on top, but they just ate those and then glared at me.

I brought home acceptable food and the cats were pleased. I can hear one snoring now:)