Mom's birthday

I woke this morning to a call from a tearful Miss V, who was having trouble with her day's plans. Between her grandma and me, we managed to get her calmed down and right side up again. Had a leisurely breakfast and chatted the morning away. Eventually I got on the stick and got showered, dressed, put on my Yoda earrings and we were off to see my brother and his family.

It was time for a barbecue. We ate grilled pork chops, a plethora of homemade salads, balsamic sweet onion potato chips (thumbs up), and sodie pop. Then a chocolate cake and frozen yogurt in honor of Mom's birthday. Curlygirl and Easy Reader both wanted to play with their Auntie Soozcat, which led to some minor territorial struggles, but I think it all worked out in the end.

This evening, among other things, I've been showing my mom how to use her digital camera.

Clearly I need some more practice.

ETA: When we came back from the party in Mom's honor, I entered the house and immediately saw a blur of unfamiliar movement in the air. A small bird (it looked a bit like a meadowlark, but its coloring was more drab) had gotten into the house while we were gone, and kept dashing itself against the front windows, desperately trying to find an exit. I tried to herd it through the open front door, but it wasn't having any of that, so I opened the French doors in back and moved away from them. It soon got the idea and swooped out, flying up the hill and out of sight.

Believe it or not, I had forgotten all about this incident until I went up to bed. I had spread my towel out to dry on the bed, next to the uncovered window. The towel was covered with bird poop. Obviously the critter had flown down the chimney in my mom's room and had headed for daylight, bonking itself against my bedroom window several times before flying downstairs and trying to escape from there. I hope this incident doesn't shorten its lifespan.

Actually, yesterday on the way back from the airport, my mom stopped into a Super Target and we noticed there was a bird loose in the store. So if there's a theme to this trip...