Happy B-Day to Me!

Greetings all,

I have absconded my wife's blog-sphere to bring you this series (of really long-winded and full of specially selected verbage) - special announcement.

Today is my Birthday.

As if you didn't know. Anyway, I've gotten all sorts of congratulations (and tribute!) for surviving another year. And what a year it was. A wedding, a new job, a bumper harvest of goodies from the garden, a Brand New Car!, a huge house, and of course - an awesome new woman (Insert obvious joke here).

Well, this year for my birthday, we decided to have a good day. Come on, who doesn't want a good day for their birthday? And what a day it was.

We were originally planning to make this a wonderful weekend. We had made plans to go to "Peaks of Otter" on the Blue Ridge Parkway and camp for the weekend. Unfortunately, we made our arrangements right in the middle of a tropical depression. But, our spirits were undaunted. We went out friday night right when the rain started. We found the place easy enough. The parkway was beautiful. We couldnt see very far ahead due to the clouds and fog, but it was still beautiful - and wet.

We got the tent set up, and dinner cooked, and the dining fly up, and had a blast the entire time. And yes, it was still raining. We were dry, and happy. Camping still is fun. But we called it a day saturday after lunch. The rain didn't look like it was letting up, and you can only do so much around a camp-fire in the rain. We walked around the campgrounds (yes, in the rain) to look around and see what was there. We found a few other good sites, and a family of deer (who apparently don't mind the rain). After that, we packed up and came home. And it was still raining when we left. But we kept to our meal plan anyway and had chicken and italian dressing HOBO's on the grill. They were tasty, but a little charred. Oh well. We re-set up our stuff in the garage to dry out and called it a night.

Sunday was a new day. We started out with a classic flapjack recipe on the huge griddle. Tasty start to a good day. Then, off to a new church.

Let me tell you about this church. It was the Central Church of the Bretheren (in Roanoke). I didn't know much about this church before I heard about it last weekend. But seeing is believing. This church seems to be the absolute perfect combination of Episcopalian and Mennonite. They were missing a central altar (true to M), and had an Acolyte Torchbearer (true to E). Thinking back, we probably should have kept score to see which this church was more like. But anyway. It was a really good service. The congregation is on the small side, but they were very friendly. At least a quarter of the members said 'Hi' to us - I only really remember two people's names. We were invited to join the handbell choir, the chancel choir, the pastor for lunch on wednesday, and to a spaghetti dinner. It was a dramatic change from a church we visited recently where two (TWO!) people reluctantly said 'Hi'. I don't know if this will become our home church or not, but it is certainly a contender. Sunday school was interesting. Full of people who wanted to know us (and wanted us to join hand-bells too). Very friendly. Lana got to show off her knowledge of the new testament - and I was very proud of her. She even made the teacher pause for a minute. He was even surprised at her thoughtful, intelligent, insightful, and otherwise astounding answer. I'll say it again: awesome woman.

Let's see. after church we came home - putted around for a bit - and then went shopping for dinner. Half of the items Lana picked up for my birthday feast were un-pronounceable: Co-co-nut? what are those? Pea-cans? And something that sounds really gross: Feta. Is that foot cheese or something? I don't know. it came in a tub and was kept cold. Anyway. For fun, I picked up some stuff to change the oil in my truck (or is it a car? I still don't know). We came home, and began.

Began what? you ask? Well, the FEAST. And no, the oil-change stuff isn't on the menu. Lana must have spent about three hours putting around the kitchen. I tried to help, but even with my years of experience with a knife and a wooden spoon, she was concocting something truly obscure. But, I'll attest that it was wonderful and utterly deserving of seconds. She called it Mannacoti, but i've never seen manacotti (how do you spell it, anyway?) with meat in it. I fully recommend this recipe gets a gold star, and a place of honor in our cookbook. We charge $4.00 plus postage for a copy of the recipe. Or you can try bribing my wife for it. We also prepared a greek salad. This I knew was tasty, but besides the lettuce, and the olives, and having had it once before, I still couldn't tell you what was in it - but it was yummy. We broke into a bottle of "Rioja" wine - although it wasn't the best I've ever had, it was pretty good. I'm told there is a very authentic "German Chocolate Cake" in the kitchen. Lana baked it from scratch this afternoon. I know it has a bar of german chocolate in it so it must be good.

We've watched a few episodes of Star Trek : The Original Series today - second season (Thanks Ma!) I've read four chapters in "Brisingr" (Thanks Lana!) and tried really hard to get the oil plug out of my Murano (Thanks Glen - nice grip!). All-in-all, this was a wonderful weekend.

Well, that's all from me for now. I probably should let Lana have her laptop back.

Bye for now!
-Matt