Monday

Well the morning started out with a wake up around 7:30 and temps in the high 60's. The skies were overcast with the threat of rain most of the morning. After our quiet times we decided to have a sausage egg biscuit for breakfast but it was nearly 9:30 before we decided to eat. I slathered mine with fresh ground horseradish and washed it down with a V-8 loaded with hot sauce. Wow was that ever dewisheous(Annsley) and it held me until we headed to Galax around 4 PM.

After breakfast and the cleanup I headed out to transplant a few volunteer cone flowers and Russian sage plants that sprung up in the driveway. The gravel drive was wet from the rain last night so digging them up was easy. I mentioned to Nancy that with the skies threatening rain and the lack of any sunshine it might be a good morning to do some fishing and she agreed. I dug up a bucket of fishing worms and loaded the tackle in the truck, then we took off for the pond over at out "mountain moms" place. Well needless to say the fish were biting like never before and pretty soon we had 9 bass in the bucket and I had missed a couple other ones as well. Helen loves fresh fish so we will have her and Joe over later this week for a fish supper. After the cleaning of the bucket mouths I headed in for a shower as we were meeting them at 4 PM for a trip to Galax.

We ate at Applebee's and we had a super meal with spinach/artichoke dip to start the juices flowing. I settled on the shrimp over pasta with artichokes and a yummy cream sauce loaded with garlic; almost like an Alfredo. Nancy had the blacken chicken over pasta with asparagus and portabello mushrooms. Yikes both of our dishes were superb. Joe settled for a burger and fries and Helen a tasty Oriental chicken salad. Thanks to Helen for footing the bill on my birthday. We had a great waitress and not only were the dishes hot and delicious but she was very prompt and friendly. She overheard it was my birthday and brought me a special dessert as well and wanted to know if the staff could sing to me; I declined the attention but did share the dessert with Nancy.

After eating, Nancy and I headed across the parking lot to Wal-Mart and did our weekly shopping again before heading out of town for the cabin. Nancy had made a chocolate cream pie for my birthday so we shared that with Joe and Helen before they decided to head for home. It was raining lightly as they headed out. Jodi and Gerald called shortly after they left and then headed up to play Spades with us until nearly 10:30. The gals won the first game and the guys took the second as it was a hotly contested card game fill with lots of banter.

Well it was a fun day especially since it was my birthday and I received so many well wishes and kind words as well as some funny cards, gift cards and a couple checks and some very serious thoughtful greeting cards. Many thanks to all who remembered me on this special day, LATER