Not only have I been a little busy lately, but I also could not share with you what I've been up to either. Just in case my husband read my blog I did not want to write about the little birthday party I was planning for him for yesterday. It started a few weeks ago. I thought it might be nice to have a small little birthday party for him after all he was turning the big three oh. I just invited the family and planned on telling him about it the morning of. I was going to make the giant barbecued turkey legs and have people bring stuff for sides. I also made a huge green salad loaded with veggies. Instead of getting a cake I made brownies and chocolate chip cookie bars and had my sister bring some Haagen Daz Vanilla to serve with it. I asked my mom to make her awesome potato salad and I asked my step-mother-in-law to make pistachio salad. Everything went fairly well after hubby got out of his crabby funk and relaxed when everyone came over. What really stunk was that the turkey legs were horrible. I don't know for sure but I think the meat had been frozen and thawed a few times cause I've made them before and the meat was never so tough. I have a pretty good knack for making chicken drumsticks too. Whatever happened, it was a complete disappointment. I immediately said, "Ooh, these are awful, sorry everyone." So no one would feel like that was my fabulous cooking . . . . . . NOT! Plus I didn't want anyone to feel obligated to eat them, blagh, they were that bad.
I got my husband a bottle of Burberry's London, a striped polo-type shirt from Kohl's, and I Freecycled a used men's bike and a child's pull behind bike trailer for him so we could go on family bike rides. The bike will need a tune-up and new inner tubes and the trailer is fine. I was so excited and was shocked I actually got replies for both items.
The day went well. Little buddy went down for his nap and the women-folk headed to the deck and all sat around the patio table under my (garbage picked) umbrella. I want a black market umbrella with a tilt mechanism to hide from nosey, noisy neighbors, but have to wait for a sale or end of season sale. I was desperate for a patio umbrella so we could have possibly ate outside or sat out there if it wasn't too hot or rainy. I saw one in a big garbage pile while driving down a road one day. So I picked it up and had to glue one of the wood parts that holds up the fabric part. It was raining so we ate inside but all the women sat out there for girl talk for near 3 hours. It was heaven. Being a mom I forget what that's like, at least for any length of time.
The bike is in Bernie's (handicapped neighbor) garage. I feel so bad for him. He has lots of health issues and only has sight in one eye. He had a cataract so he had surgery on it a few months back. Then shortly after he recovered from the surgery he had a hemorrhage in his good eye which made him blind. It was horrible. We tried to help him as much as possible. He did regain his sight after a few weeks. Then I started to help him clear some junk out of his house by Freecycling things that he wanted to get rid of. Shortly after bringing me his house key so I could let some Freecyclers in his house to pick up a giant laser printer he had another hemorrhage in his recently healed eye. So he is back to square one. I go there almost daily and try to help him as much as I can. I have picked up his groceries, done his laundry, made him food, helped him call his insurance, etc. I feel so bad for Bernie. Appreciate your sight, without it, life is an enormous challenge.
Oh, and little buddy learned how to drink through a straw. Yeah, thanks Aunt April!
