Betsey and Grace spent most of the day preparing for my birthday, but Betsey is still a student, so the first stop that day was the RC (Radiation Center). How many one-month-olds get to go to a meeting less than 50 meters from a nuclear reactor? I was hoping they'd give Grace a little dosimeter for the photo opportunity, but it didn't happen. All of Betsey's coworkers/students and the faculty at the RC were pretty impressed with Grace.
After their meeting, Grace and Betsey went to Fred Meyer, which was no big deal; they'd done that before. Hallmark, was a bit more difficult, since Grace decided to have a small screaming fit. She was probably protesting the societal pressure to subscribe to this capitalization of what should be a very simple thing of writing a note on a piece of paper to say you care about someone.
Once home, Betsey showed Grace that we can still do things the old fashioned way, and baked me a chocolate cake. The girls set about being domestic together, while I slaved away at work.
By slaving away at work, of course, I mean being treated very well by all my friends who were stopping by to wish me a happy birthday. My friend Dan usually bakes his friends cakes for their birthday, but he's been kind of busy planning his wedding. Instead, he went to Konditorei and picked me up a delicious and beautiful German chocolate cake, which I completely mangled as I tried to cut it. Nobody seemed to mind the mangling and ate it just the same.
June 4th was also the first Friday of the month, which meant that people from work would be trekking down to Calapooia for beer, tots, and conversation. Given the closeness to my birthday, the tots and beer were free for me thanks to the generosity of my friends.
When I finally arrived home, it was to my two favorite girls in the world. They both had cards for me (too cute) and I was very happy to find the house smelling like delicious baked goodness. I'm so thankful for the friends and loved ones that made the lead up to my birthday this year so wonderful.
Once dinner was eaten, Betsey had some lab work to attend to. She'd spent all day preparing for the couple hours after my return, but now had to pay the price. I took watch of our little one, while Betsey worked well into the night. The girl and I fell asleep on the couch, and Betsey managed to catch this very dark picture of us before the night was over.
1 comment:
Sounds like a pretty great birthday. Betsey, you are a saint for doing all the birthday prep at the expense of a very late night writing lab reports.
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