Good Morning!

Ok, I know – it’s already the afternoon. But, I had a good morning, did you?

It’s my birthday today – – and thanks to everyone who stopped by in my previous thread and left birthday comments. You guys are just too sweet – – yes, Tim . . even you. I’m really 37 today – – not 28. Aging doesn’t bug me in the least. Of course last year I said I was 21 – – guess that makes me a dog, since I’ve aged 7 years in 12 months! (go ahead, astro – – take yer best shot!)

That adorable man of mine surprised me with one of these. I’m super thrilled about it, too. I didn’t even know that I wanted one! But I’m always and forever driving his truck, instead of my car, because his truck has XM Radio in it. And everytime I ask him for his truck keys – he says, “Are you ever going to drive your car again? You haven’t driven it in 2 months??” and I say, “Yea, but your truck has XM in it – – my car has just a plain old FM Radio.” (whine, whine, whine). So – he got me the XM MyFi . . so I can take the satellite radio with me wherever I go . . including my car and play it through my radio. Hmmm . . . now I have to come up with a different excuse to drive his truck, as opposed to my car…..thinking……

My son presented me with a gorgeous vase filled with silk Orchids. I adore Orchids . . love them, actually. One year, about 2-3 years ago – I decided that I would grow Orchids here at home. I bought a gazillion potted Orchids in various colors, shapes and sizes. They were gorgeous! A month later, they were all dead. So I bought more and tried again. A month later, they were all dead.

Ben would forever tease me after that about being an Orchid killer. So, now I have fake ones . . . if I kill those, I’m a lost cause for sure.

From Missy, I recieved a chicken dressed up like a chef.

There is a story behind this. We call it the “Chicken Fried Chicken” story. It’s kinda goofy – – in a “ya-had-to-be-there” sort of way. See, one night when Chris was travelling on business, I didn’t feel like cooking. So the kids suggested we order takeout from AppleBee’s. MissyMelissa loves their Chicken Fried Chicken.

Applebee’s now has car-side service – – if you place your order, you pull up in a designated spot in their parking lot and they deliver it out to you.

This particular evening, it took them a very long time to deliver the order out to the car. So we had to entertain ourselves while we waited.

So I say: “Why do they call it ‘Chicken Fried Chicken’, anyways?”

She says: “I dunno, Mom – it’s just a name”

I say: “Doesn’t the name imply that the chicken was fried….. by a chicken? I mean they don’t call it “Chef Fried Chicken” . . and if it was fried in an oven . . it would be called “Oven Fried Chicken”. But no, instead they call it “Chicken Fried Chicken” – which makes me think that a chicken fried it.”

She says: “You’re weird, Mom”

I say: “Well? Makes sense, doesn’t it? I think Applebee’s has a Chicken in the kitchen FRYING OTHER CHICKENS!! What a scandal!”

She says: “You’re a dork, seriously.”

This conversation went on and on – -back and forth, her calling me every possible variation of ‘weird’ that she could think of – – and me insisting that Applebee’s has chickens in their kitchen frying other chickens.

This is how she introduces me to her friends : “This is my Mom. She thinks Applebee’s has chickens in their kitchen who fry other chickens. Really.”

So now, I have a chicken statue. He’s dressed up like a chef . . with a little chef’s hat and apron. That’s the best birthday present, by far.

As for other news, aside from the importance of my birthday – – I dumped all of E.Webscapes and rebuilt it from scratch using WordPress 1.5. It loads much quicker now and gives me a place to blog about designs, web development and related issues. That blog has one, tiny little entry so far and I haven’t developed the whole of that blog – but it will evolve as time goes on. Just re-building that site was a chore and a half, I’m tellin’ ya! Why I decided to do it is beyond me . . but it’s done now, thankfully.

That’s it for my day. How will I spend the rest of my birthday? Working, of course!