The Big 4 0

Today is my 40th birthday. Bryon gave me the best possible birthday gift this year. A weekend of peace and quiet alone on the farm. A vacation in my own house. It has been perfect. Friday I went into work just long enough for the morning meeting then vacated the premises. I'd saved up some comp time from awarding scholarships after work hours and on the weekend and reclaimed my time after our meeting. I shopped a bit, had lunch with Leslie at Cafe Roswitha, had a wonderful 1 1/2 hour massage with Dawn's therapist, went to see Prince Caspian, ate sushi and then had a Seattle's Best Grande at Borders and perused books and magazines until my brain got foggy. I went home and watched my DVR'd Moonlight and went to bed at midnight. That was about all I could squeeze into one day!

Saturday was another perfect day weather and activity wise. I slept in until 9 am!!!! Woohoo!!! It was swell. I got up and let the chickens out into the sunshine, picked and ate the first strawberry of the season and headed to the Marshfield fairgrounds for the Fiber Fair. I spent about 2 hours there and learned a lot. I watched a lady spin wool into yarn right off a live angora bunny! It was bad for the crafty side of me because now I want an angora bunny and a spinning wheel...and maybe sheep...and a goat...okay, I already wanted those things but now I really do!

I also caught the wrangly mouse that had been living under my kitchen sink and in my trash bin. Uggg! Why do I always have to catch those damn things when Bryon is gone?!? I picked up the repulsive thing and dropped it into the trash alive still stuck to the glue trap. I know that wasn't very humane but I was about to either throw up or fling it across the room. Maybe both. Yuck.

When I came home from the Fiber Fair I got out the ladder and drill and finally hung up the flower baskets on the front of the house and filled them with flowers and dirt. They look nice! I planted a few more flowers, thinned the beets and radishes a bit more and fixed my favorite crockpot dinner to cook the rest of the day: chicken and mushrooms over rice. I think I overdid it a bit outside because I ended up with a headache but I managed to get all my magazines looked at on the porch while dodging dive bombing humming birds. We have about a dozen right now. Those things are so noisy you can hardly think out there! I managed though :) I've been having to fill the feeders twice a day! They eat a lot!

I had rented Fast Food Nation (a bummer and stupid show) and watched it too. It's for city people who don't know where their hamburger comes from. It was lame. Really bad acting too. they were going for some sort of yuppie Upton Sinclair thing but it was bad. Don't watch it. I have Martian Child for tonight, I hope it's better.

I woke up this morning, my birthday with a bad headache still but mercifully it's completely gone away. I tried making soap this morning. The old fashioned lye kind. It failed. I blame it on my 3 1/2 year old lye. I thought it was going to work but it separated. The book says that happens when the lye fails or you measure wrong. I didn't measure wrong. I was disappointed but I'll order some new lye online and try again sometime. I did find it helps to read the Fahrenheit side of the thermometer and not the Celsius side. I couldn't figure out why the damn lye solution wouldn't heat up and kept trying to get it hotter when it finally occurred to me I was reading the wrong side and it was just fine. Doh! Sometimes I have to wonder about myself. On a brighter note the homemade baking mix I found online turned out some delicious drop biscuits so at least that was a success today!

I've gotten several birthday calls today and it sounds like Bryon, Grace, Emily and Norma Jean are having a great visit in Nebraska. I hope I get to meet the girls sometime. Well now I'm going to go out and spread my netting across the strawberry patch so I can try to claim the next ripening berries before the squirrels and other sundry critters then I'm going upstairs to scrapbook until the sun goes down.

Life is good.