All is good.

We celebrated my Dad's 75th birthday on his actual birthday, which is a bit
unusual awith our family. We usually celebrate birthdays on weekend
afternoons or evenings, never during the week. So it was just Dad's luck
that his birthday happened to be on Sunday this year.

Also, we celebrated my bro-in-law, Kim's the same time.

We didn't have a barbicue, it wasn't nice enough for that, we had lasagna
instead.

It isn't often we have birthday dinners, but the ones we have are during the
summer months so we can eat outdoors. Normally we have Brad (nephew) and
Barb's (sis-in-law) birthday barbicue at Audrey's (sister) and Dad and Kim's
bd barbicue at our house. But this year theirs was at Marvin (bro) and
Barb's.

Dad got a lawn dethatcher from us kids, and a botchy ball set from Mom. Kim
got some smoked salmon, and I didn't catch all the other things they
received. One thing that couldn't be missed was the electronic fart maker.
Kim and just about everyone else got a huge kick out of it, and it was funny
at first, but after a while, it was like, okay, enough already. I'm glad I
wasn't the one receiving that gift, it would've been something I wouldn't
have any idea what to do with other than hide it away and never use it.

There were two kinds of cake, carrot cake, Kim's favorite made by Audrey,
and a coconut-topped cake Mom made. It was the same type of cake she had
made for my birthday. It's good, but I hope to get something different next
time. Dad would've loved them both, but I don't know which one he had. I had
the coconut one since I dislike carrot cake, and I especially don't
appreciate cream cheese icing on it. Just white icing without the cheese,
yes, but IMO cream cheese and cloves/cinnamon/nutmeg type spices just don't
go together. I'm not all that keen on those spices anyway except for
cinnamon buns, rolls, and cinnamon toast, now that's good.

Our rendition of "Happy Birthday" was pretty sad, not just because everyone
but me sang off key, but because it was taken so painfully slow! The joke
was that Kim and Dad were getting older, so we had to sing it slower.

*Groan*

Cooper (six-month-old great-nephew) was so good the whole time, he bounced
on my knees and after some time he shrieked with excitement. That's so darn
cute when babies are having a good time. I wanted and tried to record him on
my player, but only realized too late that I'd forgotten to unlock it before
getting out of the car on the way into the house. So, that didn't get
recorded, and he was pretty quiet for the rest of the evening. DARN!

Today is gloomy outside, but there is contentment here. I'll go make myself
a hot drink once I finish writing, and then there will probably be more
email to check.