I leave Isabelle alone in the minivan to go into the store for five minutes:
There I am doing my model walk:
Into a store that I love and the young'uns dislike:
Three hours later, I can be seen with a big smile and a mega juicer:
And Isabelle has devoured the groceries:
The end. By the way, the maga juicer works great!
I had to vacuum under the couch, so I rearranged the furniture. It took me just a few minutes. It is so easy to whip things around on that smooth wood floor. I wanted to try out something different, and I love it. I can now see out all of my windows. I can't get enough of the windows. You wouldn't believe how much sun comes in during the day. I soak it up, sometimes falling asleep in the warmth. Pompey does the same thing downstairs in front of his windows.
We dressed up fancy and paid big bucks. See my indigo cauliflower? I had trouble eating it because of the color. It was one part of the worst vegan meal that I've ever had. I was relieved that I had been able to squeeze a granola bar into my tiny party purse.
The veggies that I fed Mr January yesterday: daikon, beet, radish, cucumber, kale, apple, carrot, onion, asparagus. Some raw, some juiced, some cooked. The day before that: apple, carrot, kale, butternut squash, broc, beet, turnip, avocado, onion. He glows.
By the time day three rolled around, we were beat. We spent all day (Saturday) in bed. We watched a documentary on the White family of Boone County, WV. Pretty horrifying. I cheered when CPS took the newborn baby "probably because they found drugs in it". Who calls their newborn daughter "it"?? Late that evening we headed out to a new-to-us venue to enjoy the Bob Marley Birthday Celebration. It was quite barn-like, that venue. I couldn't take the music for long because my ears were still hurting from the night before.
On Sunday, day four, I finally got to meet our visitor. He's in from Reno and he's a house painting, flight training, cake decorating, martial arts instructing, tuxedo wearing, singing, trumpeting dude who used to live with a mountain lion. 
And then a short visit to Waffle House where my earrings were admired while we listened to the owner and the manager plan their Sam's Club shopping.
Best four day birthday celebration ever.
Day two was my actual birthday and a Friday. Sebastien stayed home from work, making it one of my best birthdays ever. He did the morning school run and brought me flowers (jonquils) and a dorky princess card about birds weaving ribbons and pearls in my hair. MY hair! A princess, I am not.
We went out to lunch at one of my favorite spots and then did some errands. While doing the errands, I found orange towels. I've been looking for them forever! They are a bright orange, not a darker autumn orange. I'm excited.
After lunch we went gallery hopping and saw some great art. This is one of my favorites from the art league show, but you can't really see what's going on in it. 
I also really like this sculpture, but can't figure out where I would put it. I have a painting by this artist.
Then we braved the cold and rain to go to the bookshop. I got the last signed copy of Keija's book, The Ruins of Us. Keija works at Calvin and Isabelle's school, and her novel is getting outstanding reviews everywhere. I'm looking forward to it, especially after being disappointed in literature lately.
Chocolate peanut butter ice cream and then a rest before the evening activities. We over-rested and missed the classical concert. Oh, well. You can't do everything, even on your birthday.
We met friends at an Italian restaurant for food and music. Great conversations too. The music maker sang Happy Birthday to me when we arrived. 
I was then all pepped up for our next event: Dr Zhivegas at the Blue Note.
We saw some friends, and some of those friends ended up on stage:
This concert was hilarious because of the people in the audience. There were many drunk women on first or second dates whose escorts were very, very happy while we were rather grossed out. There was one group of four women whose dancing could only be described as aerobic. I suspect that they are a group who dance together for exercise and weight loss. We were a little wary of being hurt by them. They also had on very weird 80s-type clothing. One had on a older style jean skirt and purple tights. One had on satin pants and sported a perm. All had on very sensible shoes, like orthopedic ones. I had to employ defensive dancing measures all night long to protect myself; that brought back some memories.
It started with home-made rootbeer (very good!) at the neighbor's house. It was Pompey's first playdate with the neighbor dog. He failed and had to be sent home. Little Jack ate all my chips and told me that I couldn't have anymore (after he had given me three) because I had had enough.
After dinner we headed over to the Blue Note to see the Bicycle Dreams documentary. It was too cold for me to ride, so my bike was in my garage and not in the VIP bike parking.
The movie was full of crazy people who rode across the country in ten or eleven days. Ouch. I cried in the middle when something bad happened to my favorite cyclist.
After the movie, we hung around for cold pizza and drinks. Some bands were going on next. We listened to the soundchecks and then left when the place started to get crowded with young people who reminded us of our children.
And then we went to the Vault for drinks and vinegar fries. That topped off the night nicely. Seb was planning to play hookey the next day, so we were able to stay out as late as desired.
My bike all ready to go. I accidentally left my bike lock at home, so I couldn't go shopping and fill up those baskets. It's a RANS Street crank-forward. The pedals are not right underneath my body like on a regular bike. The design has many advantages.
Rollercoaster hill. It's a bear to ride up, especially at the end of a ride.
The trail goes around a lake. There is a leash-free zone, so we usually see dogs cavorting and swimming.
This is what the trail looks like as it goes through town. It's pretty quiet on weekdays. A lot of people work or go to school during the day, leaving the trails for people of leisure like myself.
There are creeks and bridges and tunnels. Sometimes the tunnels are flooded a bit. I try to wear dark clothes because I don't have fenders to keep the mud off my back.
The worker man was moving some leaves and other things around in the gutter to facilitate water movement. 
Where the trail ends downtown is a park with the marathon sculpture. I like it. It's where I usually take a break, have a drink, and eat some food.
The rest of the ride takes me on city streets to home, about three miles or so. No photos because it would have been dangerous. I did get three phone calls today. Not the best time to have a conference with my daughter's academic director, especially with a bus passing by and cotton stuffed in my ears.
That's twice as much as I put in a smoothie, and it made half as much juice. I felt so great afterwards, like I'd had a blood transfusion. And I actually know what that feels like. Now I do about this much for one drink:
The idea is to get more nutrients in, and it is working! We are flying through the produce here.
Freddy had moved the couch to use the telescope to look out the western facing window. We move the poufs to where we need them for our feet, our seats, our stuff. I move the chairs around to catch the sun during the day to warm me up while I do crossword puzzles. It's different to have such transient furniture, but I'm liking it.
Another rocketeering episode. Calvin went through his rocket phase long ago. Four years ago, we shot off Calvin's old rocket because Freddy's little toy (Chuck) wanted to be an astronaut.
Well, he still is an astronaut, because he never came back from that trip. Freddy now has rockets, one he bought and one he got for Christmas. 
But we had a problem. In our old town, we had our 40 acres, and that is where we usually shot off our rockets (in an open field by the street). For back-up, we had a few acres at the airport and a few acres of farmland. In our current town, we have a house in a hilly, woody area. Not ideal. And it is illegal to shoot them off in a park.
So off we drove to a friend's quarry. I will forever pity my friend for all the quarry dust/muck that she has to clean up.
And up they went, flying high in the sky, and maybe seeing Chuck while they were up there.
I'm an answer! I didn't fail at taking all the vitamins. All fifty or so. Fruit and veg: apple, spinich, carrot, lettuce, raisin, sprouts. I hope that tomorrow is a better day.
I am so tired of trying to get the boy to write his essays. And of editing the essays. And of sitting at the computer inputing the info. We are so close to being done though. Tomorrow I do a final read of the last $164,000 essay and then send it in. Then we drop down to some lesser amounts, hopefully using essays that are already done. I hope that this work pays off.
Happy anniversary to us. Seb and I made it to 20 years and one day. Nothing can stop us now! We invited everyone to a party, and about 50 people came. It was fun. Nothing broke, although one of the stereo speakers bounced itself off the desk and onto the wood floor.
Someone took a photo of Ben and Erica, the only good photo of the night. All my other photos were of Jim and Kristi, the two who usually grab my camera when no one is looking.
I can't remember who gave me these flowers. I do remember that Melissa and Teri helped me cooked pesto pizzas and that Sue was my second pair of hands in setting out food and pouring drinks. Actually, she was the main pair of hands and was a wonderful help. I sliced off a bit of the top of my thumb during party prep, so when I wasn't meeting and greating I was changing my bandaids.
I have no idea what is going on here, but I'm pretty sure that is Jim's happy face.
