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edenfallingBirthdays become much less of a Thing as one gets older, which makes sense since they stop being so unique after you've had a whole bunch. But they're always a nice excuse to see people one enjoys and go out for a nice meal. :)
Anyway, Mom and Dad drove up for a quick visit, which involved Saturday dinner, Sunday brunch, and a bit of general hanging out Saturday evening. Then they had to leave by noon today in order to get home in time for various obligations.
We had dinner at Ciao!, which is a local mostly-Italian restaurant. The food is surprisingly cheap for the quantity and quality, and their wine list is similar. We split an appetizer of fried calamari and fried breaded zucchini spears, after which Mom had chicken piccata, Dad had the Tuscan steak and shrimp, and I had the steak and Gorgonzola pasta.
Back at my place we had the peace and blueberry kuchen Mom had made, after which I opened a small handful of presents and cards and we talked for a couple hours about this and that. Mom and Dad got me twelve boxes of brownie mix and a bottle of canola oil, which is both useful and hilarious. Susan got me a nifty vegetable-growing kit with some seed samples I have never worked with before. I'll have to read the instructions carefully and plant them at appropriate times in appropriate places. Nick got me a silver-colored glass tealight candle-holder and a very nice square white flowerpot to complement the pink tealight candle-holder and circular green flowerpot he got me for Christmas.
This morning we had brunch at Cafe Dewitt, which does a very nice spread. I got French toast stuffed with vanilla ricotta and topped with strawberry slices, Dad got lemon souffle pancakes with blueberry sauce, and Mom got the morning glory sandwich. Hers was the only one on the regular menu; Dad's and mine were specials. Then they headed home.
I spent the afternoon doing two lovely and much-needed things: namely A) a two-hour nap and B) ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Generally when I find myself doing nothing, it's a guilty sort of nothing where I really ought to be doing other things and am either having executive function issues or just being avoidant, but today I gave myself official permission to DO NOTHING as an actual task, and it was glorious. :DDD
(I then did laundry in the evening, and had a two-hour phone conversation with Cat, but the conversation was also lovely and I did most of the laundry while on the phone so I didn't mind it much at all.)
And that is how I spent my birthday. :)
-----
*Note: for those wondering why I tend to include detailed restaurant order writeups when discussing family visits, it's because my mom likes to talk about past meals and hotel stays and such, whereas my memory for those things is a sieve. If I don't have a written reference, I will basically stare blankly at her and say, "Uh, I assume we went to a place and ate some food?" or "Well, I assume we slept somewhere?" which is not conducive to conversation. *wry* So I make myself cheat sheets and am then able to change the subject after making a few useful responses.
Anyway, Mom and Dad drove up for a quick visit, which involved Saturday dinner, Sunday brunch, and a bit of general hanging out Saturday evening. Then they had to leave by noon today in order to get home in time for various obligations.
We had dinner at Ciao!, which is a local mostly-Italian restaurant. The food is surprisingly cheap for the quantity and quality, and their wine list is similar. We split an appetizer of fried calamari and fried breaded zucchini spears, after which Mom had chicken piccata, Dad had the Tuscan steak and shrimp, and I had the steak and Gorgonzola pasta.
Back at my place we had the peace and blueberry kuchen Mom had made, after which I opened a small handful of presents and cards and we talked for a couple hours about this and that. Mom and Dad got me twelve boxes of brownie mix and a bottle of canola oil, which is both useful and hilarious. Susan got me a nifty vegetable-growing kit with some seed samples I have never worked with before. I'll have to read the instructions carefully and plant them at appropriate times in appropriate places. Nick got me a silver-colored glass tealight candle-holder and a very nice square white flowerpot to complement the pink tealight candle-holder and circular green flowerpot he got me for Christmas.
This morning we had brunch at Cafe Dewitt, which does a very nice spread. I got French toast stuffed with vanilla ricotta and topped with strawberry slices, Dad got lemon souffle pancakes with blueberry sauce, and Mom got the morning glory sandwich. Hers was the only one on the regular menu; Dad's and mine were specials. Then they headed home.
I spent the afternoon doing two lovely and much-needed things: namely A) a two-hour nap and B) ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Generally when I find myself doing nothing, it's a guilty sort of nothing where I really ought to be doing other things and am either having executive function issues or just being avoidant, but today I gave myself official permission to DO NOTHING as an actual task, and it was glorious. :DDD
(I then did laundry in the evening, and had a two-hour phone conversation with Cat, but the conversation was also lovely and I did most of the laundry while on the phone so I didn't mind it much at all.)
And that is how I spent my birthday. :)
-----
*Note: for those wondering why I tend to include detailed restaurant order writeups when discussing family visits, it's because my mom likes to talk about past meals and hotel stays and such, whereas my memory for those things is a sieve. If I don't have a written reference, I will basically stare blankly at her and say, "Uh, I assume we went to a place and ate some food?" or "Well, I assume we slept somewhere?" which is not conducive to conversation. *wry* So I make myself cheat sheets and am then able to change the subject after making a few useful responses.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-11 05:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-11 02:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-11 08:11 am (UTC)That said - happy birthday!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-11 02:28 pm (UTC)When I've had the luxury of arranging my schedule (or at least telling my manager "hey, don't schedule me on Day X please") I have given myself my birthday off as a combination of mental health day/family visit day. Otherwise we just go with the closest day off, because exact dates aren't that important. *wry*
(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-11 12:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-11 02:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-11 02:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-11 03:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-12 03:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-02-12 03:25 pm (UTC)