Happy Birthdays All Around!

Whew! It's been a busy few days. On Thursday, we rushed across town early to get to our favorite restaurant, Carlsbad Tavern, to help celebrate the birthday of one of our friends, Dee, from the Dynamic Mini Collective's Desert Rat Pack. It was a lot of fun - as are nearly every official club event (which this was not), with about 20 people there, mostly from our club and some friends of Dee's. We also got to see Scott's '07 MINI, my first glimpse of the new body style. Let me just say that it will take me a while to get used to both the new body style and Scott in a hardtop because he's only had a convertible since I've known him. I'm sure once it is broken in that he will drive this one like he stole it too!

Saturday was the birthday of one of my dearest friends, Laura in Colorado, the Uber Mom/Dog Mom. We built a house together, raised our dogs and her kids together, entertained our mountain neighborhood, and went through several harrowing experiences with forest fires that were just too close to home - literally. I didn't have to do anything more strenuous than send some email and call her, bless her. Talking to her is always a joy, fun, and really so comforting to me.

I am fortunate enough to have several friendships where, no matter HOW long it has been since we've last seen or talked to each other, we just reconnect easily and seamlessly as soon as we're in contact again. Laura is one of those. We will always be friends and sisters of the heart.

On Tuesday, I arranged for several of our friends to join us at our favorite close-by restaurant, Outback Steakhouse, for dinner to celebrate my sweetie's birthday. (We originally went there for the steak and now are nuts about their green beans, but we really go there for the people!) We sat at our table with the boomerang with our names on it. He may be 39, but he's 28 forever in my eyes. I am not prejudiced in any way when I say that he is the best, the smartest, and the most handsome guy on earth. In fact, I could be understating it. ;-))

Then of course, we had our Ollie's birthday on Wednesday. I managed to gather the girls together at our local Borders for an evening of knitting, coffee drinking, yakking, and most importantly to Ollie, the original whatchagotgimme woman, showering Ollie with presents. Maggs got her the funniest, most awful card about stuff that comes out of a cat's butt. (Knowing Maggs and Ollie made that even funnier.) The rest of us were predictable with knitting shop gift certificates. She loves those.

Then I got to meet the lovely Kathleen from my abc_decos Yahoo group so that I could give her a HOMER, a deco that is full of artwork by various artists within the group. We both brought stuff to share in a big show n tell. I sent her home with another of her books that was only half done but she hadn't seen it in a LONG time. That was tons of fun and we'll meet up again.

And today, I get to say Happy Birthday to my good friend, Mel. Mel is the glue that holds our little group of friends together. The Divas somehow felt complete when Mel joined us. We've been lucky to add our Dale to the group since then, and our Vita who has now left us for Colorado and family. (Reminder to self, go visit Vita when it gets hot!) Our Mel is a gorgeous girl, fun to be with, a great mom, beautiful inside and out, one prolific knitter and a biker chick!

Mel, Happy Birthday, sweetie. You're the best! Ollie and Dan, you are welcome for the birthday soirees. Now, we're just waiting for our Pippi's birthday in June. Whew, it was fun but I think I need all these birthdays strung out a little more! Love, Wabbit