Details on Grandma's Birthday (Unmeaning Flattery)

Got the pictures today from Grandma's birthday celebration last Saturday. I'll post a picture each day for the next few days.

We enjoyed dinner at Chez Pierre. The night before, when I got carry out and reloaded on their amazingly flavorful house vinagrette (ingredients include balsamic vinegar, blueberries, manna from heaven, etc), I got a copy of their dinner menu and brought it home to Grandma. She picked out the Macadamia Crusted Halibut and I called the next day to see if they could prepare it in a low salt or even salt free variety. They happily complied. When I mentioned it was my grandmother-in-law's birthday, they said they'd write her name on the sidewalk.

Before dinner, I snuck off to Publix and got balloons and a cake. They would be waiting for her when we returned.

When we got to the restaurant, I saw the writing on the sidewalk, but when she didn't, I slowed down as we approached. She was oblivious. At the last minute, I knelt down in front of her and said, "Sorry, Grandma, I've got to tie my shoe." I untied it and tied it again. She still didn't notice.

As I got up, I pointed at the sidewalk behind her where two other names were written and said, "Hey, Grandma, someone else is having a birthday today and they wrote their names on the sidewalk." She looked down and nodded as I read the first name aloud, "Look, it's Hugh's birthday." Finger moving right to the next square in the sidewalk. "It's Nona's birthday too." She nodded as I stepped out of the way so I wasn't blocking her line of sight and continued moving my finger to the right until she was looking at the image for today's post. She made some undecipherable exclamation, slapped my arm playfully and smiled at me.

Notes for future posts: the five cats next door and Sheriff's adventures with them.

Various Artists "Desert Blues 2"

Second in a series. I discovered the latter one first, so it's always held my heart. Many are the times that Disc One runs on shuffle repeat and I wallow in the otherworldly sounds of African blues music for hours. Ecstasy. Momo Wandel Soumah's "Félenko Yéfé" is a show stopper. For real.

This music has appeared in 12 blog entries.

Amazon.com product link

Details on Grandma's Birthday

Wednesday 03/02/2005 12:23 AM