That man is a sneak!!

Last Friday I had the pleasure of having lunch with my good buddy Rennratt.  It had been WAY too long since we'd seen each other, so we spent a good solid hour hanging out in the could-be-cheerier lunch room at her place of work, just shooting the bull and catching up.  It was lovely, and a treat.  I left there thinking 'we should do this more often,' which is a very nice way to leave someone.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled up to our house that evening after work and saw a car that looked verrrry much like Renn's on our street.  In front of our house, even.  "Hmmm," thought I.  "That car looks a lot like Renn's, but how can that be?  It's awfully far away from her home, and Biff told me he'd invited R and A to our house for a little birthday celebration tonight, not Renn."

Well, I have to say here and now, that not only is my husband a sneak, but my good buddy Renn is too, as not even the tiniest little SPECK of a hint was floated at our lunch earlier that day that she might just be seeing me again, very very soon.  Color me tickled pink at that particular turn of events, because  that means I can tell her secrets and there's a very good chance she'll keep them,  You know, if I had any secrets left to tell.  That I can remember.

You must understand that even though Renn and I work a 5-minute drive from each other (used to be closer, but I got a new job), we LIVE at least an hour from one another, and more like 90 minutes.  That's committment, to come to my house for dinner.

Nearly equally as committed is Sparky, who showed up next.  You might know her as JC?  Yes, that JC.  She is another wonderful friend I don't get to see enough of, though lately we've been trying to do stuff together.  Clearly, dinner and cake is a good enough reason for her to drive over an hour.  I almost jumped up and down as much as Biff at her arrival (I think he might have a crush on her, and that's oddly OK with me), and felt might good to have 2 such wonderful ladies under one roof, with us. 

However, I must say that Oldfriend (self-named, I didn't give her that moniker) is the mostest committed friend of them all, because SHE walked through the door after a drive of at LEAST 2.5 hours.  Seriously?  All this for some saag and chocolate cake?  Dang, my friends are easy.  And plainly love to drive long distances.


Turns out, R&A came over too, but they only live like 4 miles from us so I couldn't really test their committment to our friendship on distance travelled.  :)  Also, my friend Donna stopped by - she brightened up the environs with a gorgeous bouquet of purple hydrangea blossoms and her sunny disposition, but couldn't stay for dinner. :(

And lo, once gathered, we had good timez.  There was chicken saag, rice, slap-you-momma potatoes (Thanks Renn!), grilled veg salad (Thanks Beth!), bratwursts onna bun (to go with the potatoes), and a table big enough for everyone (except the boys, I'm afraid, but they didn't seem to care.  They just took their plates into their rooms and proceeded to continue killing stuff on the Xbox360).  A gigantic festive occasion balloon loomed over the groaning board, and we settled in to making merry.  Because, you know, people drove a long way to get there and needed to be making with the merry as reward for their efforts.

I should also mention here that these people know how to enjoy, talk, and laugh.  More than one of us was gasping for air during the making of the merry, which I do count as a very good thing as it was not a medical condition that left them short of breath but instead a piling on of goodwill and some very unusual use of language...  I should probably have used waterproof mascara.  My sides hurt the next day, if that's any indication. 

It was a big ol' good night, and I knew about NONE of it before it happened.  NONE.  Biff kept asking 'are you sure you didn't suspect anything?' and I could answer only 'nope.  I had no idea.'  I might be getting more dense as time moves on, but I prefer to view this as me just being very trusting and accepting and not at all sneaky or looking for hidden motivations or secrets.  And maybe, just maybe, I might be just a little dense.

Turns out, I like surprise parties.  Thanks, darlin' Biff, for a whopper of a good time, and to all other attendees for being so wonderful to this old gal. 
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Me last Saturday night

Then, the next night we went out to hear Biff's band play out.  Let's just say it's a darned good thing Oldfriend was there to act as designated driver.  I sucked down so much bourbon I even got out on the dance floor.  Let's just say that if anyone has pictures of that little incident, please burn or erase them.  And we shall never speak of it again.  Bad enough that my elbow made it into one pic...because the rest of me probably looked like that fellow over there.  Not an attractive pictures, I think we can all agree.

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Well, I guess it's time to wrap this up.  I'll talk about something other than my birthday at some point, but I did want to send out this Thank You to the Best Schmoompins in the world plus all my friends who make this life richer for knowing them.  I am truly blessed to have each of you in my life.