Happy birthday and all that jazz

Yeah, so now I'm 62! Older and older I get, and what a good thing that is. 

I had a very low-key birthday, just as I had planned. I made myself this beautiful cake. It's an angel food cake (from a mix), frosted with a mixture of whipped cream and lemon curd (inspired by a New York Times recipe). I cut the cake in half and put the cream-curd in between the layers, and then covered the top and sides with it and added a few raspberries for garnish. It was sooo good and exactly what I wanted for a birthday cake, something light and lemony and fluffy. It's what I want every year but this was the first year I'd been able to make it happen. I may do this again!

I've gotten six cards so far, and I assume this will be all, unless one more comes wandering in this week or next. But I think I was well remembered. My only gifts were a bunch of red roses from our sweet next-door neighbor and a mortar and pestle set from Rocket Boy's brother, which I didn't need, but it was a nice thought on his part. I told everyone I didn't need or want anything, and that was true!

I've had some moments of guilt about the low-keyedness of the birthday -- like, shouldn't I treat myself to something? When I was talking to my older sister on the phone that day, I mentioned that I had planned to wear my favorite shirt that morning, but realized I don't really have a favorite tank top (which is all I wear in the summer). So I wore a plain purple one, which was fine, but nothing special. After talking to my sister, I ordered myself three more tank tops from Lands End (the purple one is also from Lands End) as a way to "treat myself." They'll arrive this coming week. But now I feel silly. I didn't need three more tank tops and I doubt whether any of these three will become my favorite. It was an unnecessary purchase. Not expensive, because they were all on sale, but still. On the other hand, they'll probably fit and be durable, so I'll have them for years. But still. 

The fact is that I have still not figured out this birthday thing. But it was a nice day and it's been a nice week, and we'll let it go at that.

It seems impossible that Rocket Boy arrived just one week ago today. It feels like he's been here much longer, and I mean that in a good way. We are having a pretty nice time together. Last week he was working on a presentation for work that kept him quite preoccupied and I couldn't get him to do any of the house projects I wanted him to do. (He did clean off the back porch and do a barbecue for 4th of July, but that wasn't actually on my list!) Normally when he comes home he spends a few days doing all the little things I've saved up for him, but not this time. He just worked on his stuff. It's OK. I'm very happy he has this job. And we'll see if I have any better luck getting him to do my stuff this coming week. Or next weekend. Or next visit.

On Friday we did do one very important thing. For years and years, especially the last 14 and a half years since the twins were born, I've been trying to get us to make wills and set up a family trust. For years I couldn't even get Rocket Boy to talk about it. But after his scary episode of cellulitis last summer he started saying maybe we should do something about this. I got a few names of estate attorneys, but my heart nonsense delayed us further. Finally, finally, finally I found a firm I liked, paid a retainer, and set up an appointment. To prepare for the appointment we had to fill out a long, complicated (9-page) form with all our financial and other information, so on Friday afternoon we finally got our acts together and did that. We meet with the attorney on the 19th and we are going to try really hard not to suddenly die before then. I will feel so much better when we finally get this done.

I've been having mixed luck with trying to do FlyLady things while Rocket Boy is here. This week "we" (i.e., the FlyLady, me, and all the other flybabies in the world) were in the kitchen, in other words, I was supposed to be doing cleaning tasks in the kitchen, but I skipped most of them. Monday of course was 4th of July, and I didn't want to do the "house blessing" (though I did take out the trash, compost, and recycling), but I did the daily task, which was to clean all the stove burners. Rocket Boy helped me, so that worked. Tuesday was my birthday, so I didn't want to do the house blessing then either, and the daily task was to clean out the silverware drawer, which sounded hard, so I skipped it. By Wednesday I figured we'd just skip the house blessing this week and the daily task was to clean out the fridge, which I knew would upset Rocket Boy (he doesn't like to see food thrown away), so I skipped it. Thursday's task was to declutter my collection of foils and plastic bags and such, and that didn't really need decluttering, so I skipped it, and Friday I was supposed to inventory my cleaning supplies and decide what I needed to buy and I decided I didn't really need to do that either, so I skipped it too.

Fortunately, you're never behind with the FlyLady, you just pick back up again wherever they are, so we'll see what I can do this week. The rooms are going to be the bathroom and the office, so we'll see how that goes. The bathroom tasks I can probably do; the office is the tricky part. I'll try.

I did OK with other stuff, though. I followed my morning routine pretty well, kept up with the dishes and laundry, and even swished & swiped the bathroom so it looked good all week. And I spent my "15 minutes of decluttering" working my way through the pile of old New Yorkers on the kitchen counter. I think I read two each day for four days (it took much more than 15 minutes/day), so eight magazines, better than nothing. In the process I found two cartoons that I loved the first time I saw them and then couldn't find them later. I cut them out and put them on the fridge. I especially love the one with the tortoise, and I had looked through dozens of magazines trying to find it again.

Saturday it was supposed to be 100 degrees in Boulder (I don't think it actually got that hot), so we decided to go to the cabin. We left around 11 and drove to Bailey for our usual lunch at the Cutthroat Cafe. They had a singer performing outside in front (we sat indoors) and we thought he was pretty good, so Rocket Boy gave him $5. The Cutthroat Cafe had raised its prices, at long last -- after all, they live in this world too -- but they seemed to be doing just as much business as ever. As we approached Kenosha Pass we saw a lot of cars stopped up ahead. An accident? No, a moose! A big male in a mud hole. I managed to get a quick shot through the window (Rocket Boy was driving). We also saw one lonely antelope in South Park, lots and lots of beef cows eating grass, and one lonely deer on our drive home.

We stopped in Fairplay to swim at the rec center (since they closed at 5 pm, we wouldn't have enough time if we tried to go after the cabin visit). There were seven other people there, which is by far the most people I have ever seen there -- but we usually go late on Sunday afternoon, so maybe mid-afternoon Saturday is a busier time. 

We got to the cabin around 4:30 pm or so and spent a pleasant couple of hours relaxing. Rocket Boy did one tiny project and the twins mostly played on their devices and complained. I walked down to see the beaver ponds, and RB joined me. We didn't see any beaver, but there were fish jumping around, and the big beautiful ponds were evidence enough that beaver live there. You can't even see the river in this picture -- it's behind the ponds. We just caught a glimpse of it, rushing by. Rocket Boy said when he was younger you could walk right down to the edge of the river and jump in, but not anymore. They used to pan for gold (unsuccessfully) in the river! Try doing that now.

I'm glad beaver are living happy lives on our property. I sometimes feel guilty that we only go to the cabin once or twice a year, but I don't think the beaver mind. It's benign neglect on our part, and it leaves the beaver free to do their hard good work.

There were lots of wildflowers, probably not at their peak, but very nice all the same. This is some kind of groundsel, possibly Rocky Mountain Groundsel, that was near the beaver ponds. They were very impressively yellow. Usually we just get little bits of flowers here and there, not these dramatic big clumps.

And this is a somewhat fuzzy shot of, I think, Mountain Bluebell (ignore the Indian Paintbrush at bottom right). I don't remember seeing this before. It was in the "front yard" -- the land near the road, where we leave the car. I had a wild urge to pick it -- which of course I could, it's our land, but of course I didn't. If I leave it be, it might bloom another year too.

On our way out, we stopped at the former Brown Burro restaurant in Fairplay for dinner. It's now the Casa Sanchez Mexican restaurant, which has two other branches, in Leadville and Buena Vista. When I looked at the menu I was excited to see "Mole Enchiladas" and of course ordered them. I still don't have full sense of taste and smell, after Covid, so I never know how things are going to taste, but those enchiladas were delicious! I could definitely taste the mole sauce. Teen B was griping because they didn't have any ranch dressing for his chicken nuggets, and I'm sitting next to him in ecstasy over my mole. Oh well. I want to go back! (Today Rocket Boy and I had to go to Longmont to take his brother to the hospital, long boring story, and we had lunch at Aunt Alice's, so I ordered cheese enchiladas, still dreaming of the mole enchiladas the night before. They were a poor substitute.)

I was in such a good mood the whole day, even though by the end of the day I was sneezing like crazy -- something's in bloom and it affected me and both kids, but for some reason not Rocket Boy. I got myself into such an allergic state that I couldn't get out of it after we got home, even with two antihistamine pills, a nasal cleanse, and a shower, and I woke up this morning with a sinus headache (it's better now). So, yeah, you pay for joy, you always pay. But so worth it. 

I don't have many plans for the week ahead, other than FlyLady stuff. Rocket Boy will work, and he's getting a haircut on Friday. Oh, and the cats are going to the vet on Thursday, mustn't forget that (Baby Kitty to get his nails clipped and Sillers because she keeps pooping outside the litter box). I've finished the book group book (hated it) and am going to try to finish a couple of other books before I start The Makioka Sisters. I should try to think of any summer activities we might still want to do before we go to St. Louis -- because summer is going by fast.