Happy Birthday To My Sweet Susie!

Please permit me another little side trip in this journey to wish my sweet, wonderful, patient wife, Susie, a VERY Happy Birthday.

I wrote about her last birthday HERE, so you can return to that particular magic moment.  Her spirit of adventure and willingness to try new things keeps our lives exciting and new.

I'm the luckiest guy in the world - I have a woman by my side (almost 50 years) who supports me, loves me and tolerates me under any conditions.  AND, this week she retires from a job she has loved for more than 40 years, so she will be underfoot all the time beginning this weekend!  Yea!

Happy Birthday, Honey... You make my life complete.

A Joyous Side Trip

A PERSONAL DETOUR
As you regular readers already know, sometimes this blog will take a personal side trip - just because I can and I want to.  This is one of those times.

A LONG, LONG CELEBRATION
For the past several days my sweet and very patient wife and I have been celebrating her birthday - which actually fell on Tuesday, the 29th.  I'm not going to tell you how many birthdays this represented, but there's a clue further on down.  Suffice it to say, I was unable to get a fire permit for her cake, so we had to make do the best we could.

A SPECIAL CITY
Our birthday adventure began with a trip to our favorite big city - San Diego.  We did what most tourists do - went to the zoo!  It was a perfect day - except for the 17,000 other people on the grounds, elbowing each other to see the marvelous critters and playing destruction derby with their strollers.  We love the zoo.  We love the special critters and the effort made to create good habitat for them.

AND MORE
We also took in big chunks of other parts of Balboa Park, including the Natural History Museum, where we learned about Fairy Shrimp (are you listening, Steve?) and the plight of Whales in 3D.  We enjoyed all the venues and the street musicians adding melody to the perfect weather.  We loved the flowers. We loved eating hot dogs off a cart and devouring ice cream cones before they ran down our arms.

GREAT GRUB AND A "CAKE"
We celebrated her birthday early with a marvelous dinner overlooking the harbor, where we could see aircraft carriers docked and watch other warships come and go.  She got her first "cake" - actually, a chocolate souffle' - for dessert Saturday night.

SURPRISE AND MEMORIES
On the way home from that wonderful weekend we stopped for an Easter brunch at her brother's house in Laguna Niguel - which actually turned out to be a surprise birthday party for my Sweet Sue. The topper for that party was the fantastic memory book created by six of our nieces and nephews, including some wonderful old images and personal remembrances of Aunt Susie from each of them.  They are wonderful young men and women.  Here are a few of those pages...

MORE GOOD FOOD AND JOY
Then, Tuesday, she and I had lunch and dinner together.  At the latter - one of our favorite local spots - she was presented with a hot fudge sundae with candle as the staff and patrons (much to her chagrin) sang Happy Birthday to her!

THANKS TO ALL
So, thanks to all our Facebook friends who sent my Sweet Sue birthday greetings throughout the day, and to our family and friends who have made it a VERY special birthday, with cards and flowers and gifts for the birthday girl.  It was a wonderful day for a wonderful woman.  It's the great joy of my life to have her by my side, supporting my efforts in all I do.

Marking Another Milestone...

PRIORITIZING...
OK, you're on your own this weekend.  For the next few days I belong exclusively to my sweet and very patient wife as we celebrate her birthday.  With this many years it takes several days to properly celebrate it.  I'll be back next week.

'TAINT FAIR...
This just doesn't seem fair, since each of MY birthdays that we celebrate mark a date when I'm clearly getting older, while she, on the other hand, just seems to get younger!  It's not fair, I say!

WHATEVER SHE WANTS...
So, we will celebrate her birthday this weekend with things SHE wants to do, which will almost certainly include seeing a chick flick or two and having more than one meal out.  Sadly, because of the extreme drought and attendant fire hazard, I was unable to get a fire permit for her cake, so this one will just have to do..  (Yes, that's going to cost me, for sure.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET SUSIE,

AND MANY MORE, TOO...