All birthdays must end. The build-up is great; the day is wonderful, culminating in cake and ice cream. And then it's over. No more pampering; phone calls or e-mails. And this year was no exception to any of that. It was wonderful. Why can't they last a whole month? Thanks so much for all the notes and Facebook entries and calls and presents and pampering.
I had to hustle back to Washington in order to take full advantage of all the festivities. I had only been in Pittsfield for a couple of nights, as Peter convinced me to stay in Hightstown and go to a Princeton-Penn basketball game. Good thing. First because they needed all the cheering they could get to win in overtime. And, it snowed and the wind blew so much in Pittsfield, I'm sure it would have been a hard drive up and an even harder time getting into the house that night. So I had the warmth of comfort of Meadow Lakes instead. Thanks Grandma. She, by the way is slowly recovering from her pneumonia, but is very cautious about pushing too hard.
The next day it took me an hour and half to shovel two weeks of snow for a walk around to the front of the house. The mailbox was all but covered up. But there's progress; it's hard to believe the workers are out there in the cold and the snow. And it's not all work, as I joined John and Marilyn for a dinner at a new Indian restaurant in town. Nice.
Joe and Margaret joined us for the festivities Saturday night - meatloaf!! Joe is busy, at work and at school. He found a new place where he will move in April. Margaret is also busy, studying for the GREs and getting ready for trips to New Orleans and possibly overseas with a group of Iraqi teachers.
We spoke with Annie on Sunday and got an e-mail from her today, that she started her new job. She had lots of stories from her trip to Shanghai and from Chinese New Year. But you'll have to go to her blog to see the video for yourselves (3rdculturekidinthe3rdworld). Wow.
We heard news from Dundee, which included a happy Super Bowl Sunday (remember that?) and season ending basketball games for Danny and Claire. We also heard Claire is beginning to get mailings from colleges. Claire, you're growing up!
David calls every now and then, usually in the middle of a blizzard after a 6am meeting in Syracuse. I think he has a dog sled instead of a car to get him back and forth in that part of the world; a dog sled with bluetooth anyway.
Did everyone have a great Valentine's Day? Did you know that spring training starts this week? The days are getting longer and that means, even though it's the middle of February, we are seeing warmer days, at least here (it was -15 in Pittsfield last Friday morning.)
Love from down here.
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