Thanks for all the wonderful Happy Birthday messages. You have all made my day. I can see some of you know how much I love flowers... Kathleen, I know you didn't realize it but that song sung by Pink is one of my favorites. It really gets me in the mood... not saying for what. Sol, Nancy of the North was so excited to see that menu. She was having "Chunk of Skunk" for dinner tonight! Can definately relate to "smear of deer", since one of our cars is waiting on parts right now. Pam....think Northern Michigan instead of New Mexico......hehe. Betcha didn't think I'd catch that. Well, I've had a great Birthday! Didn't end up going out tonight, Kim really did want to make dinner for me. I picked a simple menu of some of my favorites. I'll post dinner on the WFD thread. We have been planning on a little shopping as Annie suggested and along with that a get out of town... but the weather might not cooperate. Guess we have to wait and see. Nancy

Thanks for asking Annie. I'm one of those people that spend a week celebrating. This past Sunday was my biological family. We had lunch out and then cake at my mom's house. Tuesday night was the big night out, that in the past would've been my husband (still not ex) and son, but since I am separated, just me and the son. We went to Ja Alexander's and had grilled artichokes, baked chicken and smashed potaotes. I had a cappuccino and carrot cake and he had carrot cake. :) Wednesday was lunch with the work friends, emails from friends accross the US (including here on GardenWeb (((big smiles!!!)))), and the research nurses, lab, and my counterpart had two cakes (my counter part's birthday is today). I did't do anything last night but slay the cake dragon. That is, I made the cake with too much baking powder again with less baking powder and upped the butter on Sol's suggestion. It actually looked like a cake! I ate horribly and loved every morsel. Gravy covered livers in a crispy coating, bad girl! Mmm. I'll probably do one more big night out with my mom who wanted to take me out last night, but I didnt' feel like it and she needed to meet with a realtor last night anyhow. She seemed disappointed, and I think that her not coming over was why. It's been nice, but I am getting so much sugar I am ready for some veggies! I appreciate all the nice wishes. I really do. Thanks

Thanks to all my pals! Jessy, muchos besos a tí también querida, pero no lengua, por favor ;-) David, my friend, I'll take the Romeos right now, and smoke whatever you got [G] ¡Sharon, mi amiga, muchísimas gracias a tí por la magnífica foto y todos los abrazos! Annie, yes, my mom is still here. Which reminds me, anybody got change for a 71 year old? Don't you Ohhh me. She's kept me beyond busy, and it took all I had to make my escape, long enough to drop in here. Tutti insieme! Luigi, you brought your band di cantanti ranas in fila out of retirement just for me? Grazie Mille! This is indeed an honor! Benissimo! Thank you guys very much for the best birthday wishes and smiles I've ever had! Squeeze. Sol

Oh c'mon Jessica! Sin lengua? That's not what you said last year! Tease. How my day began... Do you ever wake up in a panic, after having slept on your arm all night long? Well, my day began when I was awakened by a persistent little itch on the tip of my nose. Let me tell you, it was hard trying to silence the left side of my brain from shrieking because it couldn't find my face. But, once the floppy arm beat the living daylights out of meÂtrying to make contact with my noseÂI bolted out of bed, ready to celebrate my (ageless) birthday. That event set the tone for the rest of the day. Thunderstorms hopscotched all over the state, until about 6 p.m. So I was able to go out to dinner with my two favorite men. Gifts were a couple of cookbooks. And (squeal!) I have a Vitamix on its way. Who needs jewelry and fancy perfumes, when I can have a blender! Did that statement make me sound certifiable? And Thumper (bless my little hooligan) gave me an invaluable book of coupons he made himself, which include... Housecleaning coupon. Feed The Dog and Cat coupon. Shut up and Sit Down coupon. Fine, I'll Kill the Spider coupon. Moments like these make up for getting old. Oh, and something really significant happened yesterday too, but I can't remember what the hell it was. In any case, Thank You my dear foodie friends for making a great day, even better! Sol