Happy 78th, Mom!

Shall we go get a picture of you near the pony, like when you were 74?

Last year, many of you participated in Mom's birthday cosmos fun. Click this for the memories.

Many of you have asked how the cosmos are doing this year. Well, over summer and fall, Mom and I gathered (piles of) dried/drying cosmos and then later harvested the seeds into a bucket and dispersed many of those in the same plot. The rest we dispersed elsewhere in the yards (no sharing with any neighbors--no way!).

Here's a shot of the plot today. All of the cosmos started from seed, so by midsummer they should look even better than last year, me thinks.

(Click for a larger view.)



Well, in keeping with tradition, I played Happy Birthday on the piano for Mom, several hours after she'd already awaken. She enjoyed it. Okay, the reality is that her tradition is quite the opposite: seems like she'd pick some time waaaaay before we'd normally awake (when I think God is also still asleep) and rouse us with that loud tune.

Mid morn, we went to a memorial service for one of Mom's past walking partners. (Another was Dad.) It was good to reconnect with her sons (btw, there's a historical Phoons connection there), and certainly emotional to also remember our own losses as well as their family's.

In the afternoon, we headed to the hills for a hike. I showed Mom the hidden-from-the-path grotto at which I had phooned a couple of weeks ago. I noted how I had had to run from the camera, along the fallen tree and up a distant branch before the timer went off. Now on that branch again, something caught my eye: a geocaching cache, of all things (where you use a GPS device to find stuff hidden by others, all around the world).

Evening was quickly upon us. A late-arriving guest delayed our plans for dinner. Finally on the road, we thought it too late to cram a big meal into our bodies ("we'll have trouble getting to sleep"). I joked about just going and getting dessert at BJ's Pizza. Mom said "Yes!" "So, dessert instead of dinner?" "Sure, it's my birthday!"

We each got one of these. Brownie baked in the tin, topped with ice cream and covered with whip cream. Ohhh, yeah.

Okay, now we're nauseated. We could each only get through half; we brought the rest home.