Awards and Lingering Birthday

Over the course of the last month, three lovely bloggers - Miss Laurence of Be Crafty Be Happy, Brittany of Adeline's Shabby Cottage (Hmmmm, so why isn't it Brittany's Shabby Cottage?), and Deb of Red Shoe Ramblings all awarded me a "You make my day Award".



Awwww, shucks. And thank you. It's nice to know I'm not just filling up web space with my babbling. I know how much I depend on and appreciate all the inspiring, thoughtful, and amusing posts that other bloggers spend time to share, it's lovely to know that I'm giving a little bit back again.

So, that brings me to the question, which lovely bloggers do I pass this award on to in return? Really, if I read your blog, then you surely deserve it. But maybe I'll mention a few bloggers that aren't quite a visible. Those that are tucked away in little side streets of the blogging community. My daughter-in-law's blog, Creative Slave gets an award. I adore access to the little everyday stories and faces of those I love. Let's see........

hmmmmm....

....oh, this is too hard! I just want to give it to you all. There are those of you who always have photos of your beautiful children to brighten my day. Some of you help me get my Francophile fix, or my book fix, or my art fix, or my wierdness fix. You ALL make my day. Sigh. I fail as an award giver, don't I. I'm sorry. It's like being asked to pick my favorite child. Can't do it.

So. Moving on.

I posted last week that it was my birthday and then I didn't mention it again. But it's worth mentioning that I had a lovely birthday. All my kids called to wish me a Happy Birthday. Friends sent surprise boxes and treated me to dinner. Hubby showered me with presents and flowers and took me out to eat at the restaurant of my choice. Actually two. We went to our weekly tea room date on my actual birthday and we went out to one of the nicer restaurants in town (in Susanville, this really means putting on a clean shirt and your nice boots, but still) where it turned out the owner, who is also my son's English teacher this year, was celebrating her birthday too. Small towns are all about intertwined relationships. It's nice that way.

It was a toss up between going to this restaurant or the new French restaurant in town. I wanted to go to this particular restaurant because I wanted to order their creme brulee, something I've never tried before. So I did. Try it. And I'm already looking forward to enough time passing so I can say "Hey, let's go out and order creme brulee again!" Cracking the sugar "glass". The creamy decadence of it all. Let's not discuss calories. Let's plug our ears and go nanananananana and pretend that it can't possibly have any of those. YUM.

Then late yesterday afternoon I decided there was no harm in slipping into the French restaurant for a late lunch. I'd had a birthday tea and a birthday dinner and a birthday dessert but I hadn't had a birthday LUNCH yet. I had a nice fat notebook and a good book to keep me company but instead I bumped into the owners of the tea room, such a nice couple, and they invited me to join them. Since they are also restaurant owners, I guess it was sort of a professional courtesy thing, we were all treated to dessert afterwards. I selected the chocolate mousse and expected a light whipped parfait glass of mousse. Instead what I got was a baseball sized ball of the richest, darkest, creamiest, CHOCOLATIEST mousse I've ever seen/tasted! I worked on it best I could and brought the rest home. It's so rich I've managed to stretch it out into four helpings. Again, I'm sure it contains no......calories.... shhh. I didn't hear that.

I've managed to stretch my birthday on and on and on.... I was still finding reasons to celebrate today. Another birthday card, from my sister, was waiting for me in my mailbox. I've got all sorts of lovely boxes and cards laying about opened and perused but waiting for me to enjoy again when I finally get around to unpacking them and putting them away, displaying them, using them, reading them, or eating them, as the case may be.

I've also used the birthday justification to catch up on some book and video buying. My latest finds:



I'm on an old movie kick and I love Audrey Hepburn. The first one is a five movie collection which I found at a real bargain price locally. The second, Charade, is one of my favorite movies of all and I managed to win it on eBay for half the cost of new. I've got a lot of movie watching piling up - not only these but also an entire season of both Doctor Who and Blood Ties, which I coudn't manage to keep up with in live time. Once I get caught up, I'm also on the lookout for:




Yeah, I know that last one isn't an old movie. But I so want to buy it when I can find a used copy. When they come out on video, I also want to own Enchanted and The Golden Compass. Going through my old VHS movies, I was able to clean out practically half the tapes we had stored but it also gave me the bug to find and replace all those t.v. taped poor quality favorites with DVD versions. Maybe I'll do a entire post on my DVD wish list some time in the future.

But one last movie mention - we bought a used copy almost a month ago and just a few nights ago finally found the time to all watch it together:



I knew I needed to see this one but wasn't sure if it would be as entertaining as I hoped. Well, it was. It's a keeper. Hubby loved it too. Even the teen boy enjoyed it although it probably helped that this particular teen boy had been to Paris and so had some personal interest in the theme. If you haven't heard of this movie, and it's likely since it's not a mainstream blockbuster, it's a collection of five minute love stories, each set in a different arrondissement of Paris, each done by a different well known director. Yep, you heard me right - each story is only five minutes long. Go find it.

Back to my birthday, my mom's card hasn't arrived yet. She's the woman that taught me that when giving gifts or sending cards, it's important for the gift or card to arrive on the date of or at least in the same year as the event one is celebrating. Yep. No hurry. When it arrives, she tells me there will be a check included. That will be perfect for funding my new DVD collecting. Lucky, lucky me. Hey, with any luck I'll be able to stretch this birthday thing out for weeks, maybe months, to come!