Another day, another birthday

Today was Joey's 39th birthday. Yes, he is really 39 - not 40 and trying to hide it. This is the glorious day I have every year where I get to be younger for a whopping four months, and I enjoy the hell out of it.

We just rolled in the door from spending the evening with David, Yvonne, and their daughter downtown where we ate, drank, laughed, and played pool. It was fun, and just the kind of birthday that Joey likes. Whereas I like having a big party and having all of the attention focused on me (because as we all know, it's all about ME) - he prefers something low key. Really low key. So other than a Virginia Tech birthday cake, we kept it just the way he likes it.

Happy birthday, babe. I love you more than I can ever say.

*****

The weekend visit to the 'rents went extremely well, and I came back exhausted. Those old people tried to run us into the ground!

The highlight of the weekend was my dad taking us to the tank museum. Since he is the veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, he has lots of stories and kept us enraptured the whole time. I couldn't even begin to try and retell any of the stories, but usually they are of the nature that make the Hogan's Heroes crew look like a bunch of brainiacs. He was hilarious.

The next blood test is six weeks from now, and we'll see what the status of the cancer is. At least we'll get through the Texas trip before we have to go through that. He looked good, though, and my poor mom actually got caught up on some sleep. I think it helped her knowing there was another adult (and light sleeper) in the house in case something happened. Either that or she was just that worn out, because one morning she slept in until 8 AM. Seriously, I have NEVER seen my mother sleep past 6 AM in my entire life, so I was starting to wonder if I needed to check her pulse.

On a sad note, my aunt - my mother's sister who lives next door and our family was estranged from for 18 years before they made up last year - has Alzheimer's. It has come on so strong and so fast that she doesn't know who I am anymore, even though she did just a few months ago. And in all ironies, my mom is having to care for her. Kind of bittersweet. I'm just glad we got to talk again before her mind started to go.

And I had a great visit with my cousin, Laura. She lives right across the road from my parents and we don't always get to see each other, but when we do it's like no time has passed at all. We got to looking up classmates on Facebook and giggling just like we did back in high school. It was freaking awesome.

*****

This week is shaping up to be a ball-buster. I'm hoping to post every day, but if I miss a day please don't flog me too much. And I'm still trying to think of a good nickname for my new team member, but the right one hasn't come up yet. I have an idea, but I need to think on it a few days.