Birthday Extravaganza!

Prince Charles, Billy Joel, Ozzy Osbourne and I all reached our three-score-and-ten-year mark in the past two or three months. Mine was yesterday - January 28 - and, though less publicized than the birthdays of those other three septuagenarians, it was grandly- and well-celebrated.


It all began last Thursday, when we met our friends, George and Twila, at Olive Garden for a dinner celebrating both my birthday and George's. George's birthday was a week earlier than mine, but his birth-year was three years later. After dinner we went to their home for birthday cake and to play some card games. We haven't known George and Twila for long, but are really enjoying getting to know them better.

Twila cuts the delicious birthday cake she baked for me!

The weekend arrived, and along with it came Chris, Kelsey and the children. Though not here specifically for my birthday, they did treat me to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse, a bouquet of flowers and a Hobby Lobby gift card!

What actually brought them to Temple was a concert, on Saturday evening, showcasing the Temple Symphony accompanying The Fab Five, a Beatles tribute band. Nine-year-old grandson, Robert, is a throwback-Beatles-fan, enchanted with their music and knowing the lyrics of their repertoire - the same music his grandparents loved way back in the 1960s. Clara, on the other hand, continues to play her violin in her school orchestra, and got to experience the sounds of some outstanding professional orchestra musicians.

Robert is captivated by Pokemon.

On Sunday evening, we went to the home of Charles and Patti to meet with our church small group. It's hard to keep a 70th birthday a secret, I guess, because awaiting me there was ANOTHER birthday cake, a rousing refrain of "Happy Birthday," and a card signed by all.

All of the above happened before my birthday. On Monday morning I missed a call from Tim, but he left me a voice mail - his rendition of "Happy Birthday." Now THAT was special! Later, Kay and Andy orchestrated the birthday grand finale! We started off, at 2:30 in the afternoon, with Andy driving us to Austin and giving us a grand tour. He grew up there, so knows all of the streets and landmarks intimately. He has a million stories about his early years there and a wealth of tales of famous, historic people and places around the city. When dinnertime came, we drove to south Austin to dine at Matt's El Rancho, Kay and Andy's favorite Tex-Mex spot. And now it may be MY favorite one, too! So full we could hardly waddle to the car, we left Matt's to find, of all things, a dessert place that Kay had discovered on-line. It was called The 85ºC Bakery Cafe. I've never seen anything like it before! It's known as a culinary phenomenon, with cases and cases of fancy desserts, forming a winding path to the coffee/tea station.

By the time we got back to Salado, where we said good-bye to Kay and Andy, it was getting late. I went to bed Monday night moaning over a too-full stomach, but happy and thankful for my friends/family and their thoughtful and generous hearts. I doubt that Billy Joel, Ozzy Osbourne or, even, Prince Charles felt this much love on their 70th!