Fifty Two .....

.... ugh.
Fifty two sounds a lot worse than it feels.
Mostly.

Today I am 52.
It's been a quiet day.

I went to my acupuncture appointment (saw the R.A. dr. yesterday and we decided that I am stopping the Methotrexate, which was starting to have wicked side effects, and will continue with acupuncture, hoping that it will keep the pain at the level it's currently at .... or even improve it.  I think he's less certain about it, but thinks it's worth a try).

Then I went out and got some stuff for my bedroom.  I decided to re-do it .... as it's the one room that hasn't changed since Jim died.
I got new, more feminine furniture (thank you, Pier One .... LOVE that store!) yesterday and today I got some accent pillows, lamps, pictures, etc. to pull it all together (thank you, Home Goods ..... TOTALLY LOVE that store!).
I love the new look ..... however, I was hoping it would work with the current color of my walls.  Alas, it does not.  Not in the least.
As Son #3 said, "The walls used to look greenish .... now they look puke."
Indeed.
That's why I'm not posting any pictures.
I'm hoping to find a paint color ASAP that will work.

So that's how I spent most of my day .... fixing up, changing out, my room.  It was my birthday present to myself.
Tonight I'm going out with friends for our monthly wine-tasting event at a local restaurant.  We always have fun being together.

Yesterday was much more exciting.
I was woken up around 7:30 by my cell and the house phone, by a frantic tennis captain who needed me to sub for the match.  We were supposed to meet at 8:00.
I moved quite quickly.
We drove across town for the match.  I'm glad that I went .... we won our match.  Woot!
We lost the first set 3-6.  Then we decided that enough was enough and we got to work.  We won the second set 6-3.  Then we played a tie break for the 3rd set (which is what you do when you live in hotter-than-hell Houston) and we won that 10-3.
It was a good tennis day.  :)

Then Son #3 cooked dinner last night.
For Mom and D and for our friends who live down the street (and always have us over!).
He grilled on the Green Egg.
He grilled quite a lot.
Like .... tons.

His goal was to show everyone what a difference this grill really does make, so he grilled several different items.
And here they are!

He is a grilling maniac.
And he's very, very good at it.
He did a wonderful job and everyone loved everything he grilled.

He was worried that we wouldn't have anything else to eat, so I helped him out with a couple of sides:

 See those pepper slices (or what's left of them) at the top of that picture?  Hopefully they were worth the deep slice into my finger that occurred when I was preparing them.
Deep.
As in, oh-my-goodness-I-can't-breathe-deep.
No one can say that I don't sacrifice for guests.
:)


Yes, this is just plain ol' mac and cheese.  There were four people under the age of 18 eating.  Thus, mac and cheese is a must.  And it's filling.  :)

I was very proud of the job he did.  And he think he was proud, too.  :)

My Mom brought her much-loved strawberry pie.  It's my favorite birthday "cake".  OK, it's not cake, but I prefer her strawberry pie over any cake or any pie.  Anywhere.
Yes, it's that good.

So we kind of had my birthday dinner last night.
It was fun.

And now more fun tonight.
Well, as much fun as a 52 year old can have.
Which is a whole let less than it seems.

Happy Thursday, Peeps.
And yes, I'm still messing around with the blog template.
Patience, patience.
:)