Vanessa's birthday! (she's 82)

Yesterday was bitter cold. It was 13 when it started to get light and I went downstairs. No one else was up, smart them! I turned up the heat and threw some wood on the fire. (it was not very effective, as my father pointed out when he redid it, because I didn't put enough kindling on. I know this, but the kindling was outside and I was not about to open the door!) I ate a healthy breakfast, measuring the amounts. When my Mom got up, we heated up the treats I had gotten for her the day before at Big City Bread: 2 mini-coffeecakes and 2 muffins. For one thing, it allowed us to turn on the oven, adding a little more heat. Fortunately, it was a sunny day and between the sun, the rejuvenated fire and the heat, it got quite pleasant in the house. I got the gift certificate for a spa visit that my sisters and I had bought and gave it to my Mom with her breakfast. She seemed pleased.

Ray and I went to Trumps, where the Athens Area Democrats were having their monthly breakfast. He had to pay the bill (he's the Treasurer). I sat in the car and prepared some deposits, learned my lines for the play this morning, and read some. It got so warm in the car in the sun that I had to take off my heavy sweater. When he came back, we went to get my iPhone! The place in Beechwood that he called still didn't have any, so we had to drive to oconee County (I hate buying things there because the taxes go to them). It was even cold in the store. The salespeople had their coats on. A nice woman helped me. She seemed to think I should be more excited... We looked at cases too, but I decided to wait until I had it for a while to decide what case I wanted (they started at $25). she copied my contacts from my old phone and showed me how to use it. $30 more per month for the data plan! I haven't played with it a lot yet, I am trying to be moderate and just use it as I need it. We did play with the GPS on the way home--pretty cool!

After lunch, we played Oh Hell most of the afternoon--hard to get my mother to say what she wanted to do, but she seemed to like that idea, even though she lost pretty badly. The 3 of us were close, all over 200 at the end...and I won!

She had picked Five & Ten for dinner and we enjoyed it very much. It was cold even in there and began to get noisy by the time we left (7:30). We were there early for the Prix Fixe--Ray's the only one who chose to get it. Vanessa and I split an entree (flounder with polenta and greens--yummy), as well as lobster bisque and Caesar salad. We each got our own dessert--apple streudel tart with lemon verbena ice cream for me. Excellent creme brulee for her. Ray had something called Jameson Pudding as part of his dinner--very light and fluffy.

We finished our game when we got home and I dozed through two episodes of As Time Goes By, staying up until 10! I think my Mom enjoyed her birthday.