Birthday Week

The birthday celebrations continued this week on Sunday with a delicious dinner at Cortney's parents' house with Patty and Curtis. Dad H provided the smoked ribs and Mom H provided the chocolate/whipped cream cake roll. Jon thanked them for the special menu and for the gifts: a one-of-a-kind safari-themed shower curtain and—at last—a replacement for the garage door opener we lost  awhile back. On Monday, just the two of us marked the occasion yet again with a dinner out at Red Lobster, where the waiter revealed the secret of their cheesy biscuits: just Bisquik, cheddar, and Italian herbs.

On Thursday, we got tickets to see soprano Renee Fleming at Hill Auditorium, which we preceded with dinner at Cottage Inn. Fleming was performing the title role in a concert presentation of Richard Strauss' Daphne. We were especially interested in this performance because we were in the middle of reading her autobiography. Indeed, we were very glad to hear the beauty and finesse of her voice.

Birthday Tailgate

How many Michigan fans have an October 10th birthday? We had four to celebrate at the tailgate today: Jon, Curtis, Bobbi, and Tom and Carrie's baby, who is to be delivered on Monday! Cortney made some tasty peanut butter brownies, and planted maize and blue candles for each of the birthday folk in them. Of course, that wasn't the only food on the menu.  Judi's sweets are, of course, always the best.  Bobbi brought the tastiest taco dip ever (we've requested that again for next week), and someone else brought pretzel jello - never heard of it, but it was really good.  Cortney's mom's chili and Charlie's grilled hotdogs were the party food du jour, and were a welcome warm treat during the cold snap. This was the first football Saturday of the year to really feel like fall, at around 50 degrees. And to think that it was 80 degrees just a few days ago!

Notice that the only discussion here is of the tailgating menu.  We won't be discussing the game.  After all, Halloween isn't for another few weeks, so there's no sense in scaring everyone now. 

A visit from the west.

Cortney's Aunt Cookie and Uncle Michael flew in today from Washington, so we skipped choir in order to have dinner with them.  We always have a good time seeing them, which just doesn't happen often enough.  We had a great dinner with them, got to see some amazing pictures of Uncle Michael with an enormous fish (which he caught himself).  While here they also got some advice from Patty for their upcoming trip to Peru.  By the way, food is clearly a social event in our culture.  Tonight we tried multiple cheeses from around the world, had Cortney's dad's famous ribs, and topped it off with a Muscat (a dessert wine).

Just checking in.

Wow it's been a long week, and yet there really isn't a whole lot to say.  Yes, gone are the days of summer when being busy was accompanied by suntans and photographs.  That being said, we do have a couple of pictures to share from last week's tailgating party. A funny story, in fact, attested to by the pictures.  We had a lot of stove trouble this week, so yes, that second picture is all of us at someone else's party.  We did not go hungry, and the tailgating is by far a highlight of our fall weeks, thanks to the whole crew.  Go pink flamingo!  "Go Blue," however, was a little lacking.  The game was such a disappointment (who let them put a high school quarterback in for such an important game anyhow?) that we decided not to bother writing about it last week.  The Ohio State game was just as disappointing if you are a Big Ten fan, but oddly exhilarating if you are purely a Michigan fan.  But the tailgating was a riot. 

Please continue to pray for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and give if you can.  The road to recovery will be a long one for many.

www.salvationarmyusa.org

A day without a Mexican...

restaurant, that is. We had a welcome-home from Peru dinner for Patty, Curtis' girlfriend, and the only reasonable, sit-down dining place with Mexican flair available was the chain-errific Chili's. It was also the first time we really got to meet Patty's family, as well. Patty's generosity and thoughtfulness was wonderful, as she brought back a Peruvian gift for each of us. For Jon, she brought a set of pipes of pan (as if he wasn't making enough noise already :-) ), and for Cortney,  a decorative mirror. The margaritas and fajitas were plentiful, and, while cross-table conversation can be quite a challenge with such a large group, we really had a great time.

We continue to pray for those affected by Hurricane Katrina.  www.redcross.org