Good Morning Sunday, December 7, 2014 – My Birthday!

Hello Everyone,

So today is my birthday.  Yesterday was Polly’s:

Polly’s Party

John set up a “surprise” party for Polly at Island Gypsy Cafe on Isles of Capri.  It was a blast and I rode Red down there.  A beautiful day for a ride!  I didn’t realize it belonged to Jerry A. of “Handsome Harry’s” fame and “Tommy Bahamas” before that.  There were a lot of people from the Naples Group that were there and then we were back together at 6:45 PM for a BB Study.  So I guess they are going to be my “new best friends” group.  The food was great and John did a wonderful job making it a real surprise for her – she had NO IDEA!  They were late arriving because Polly kept changing the “route” down to Isles of Capri and John just let it happen.  By the time they arrived, most of the appetizers were gone.  The food was great.  The weather was beautiful and the views from the restaurant were superb.  Karen Brock took some great pictures of the place.  It’s an interesting little area of paradise down there.  Lots of rustic stuff with a smattering of over built mega things.  I really love John and Polly.  They are a great couple!  I am blessed to have them in my life and I know that they will be there for me if I ever need anything.  It’s so nice to have loyal, supportive friends – including you Steve!

So for my birthday, I’ve been invited out to dinner by my cousin Dick.  He and Doug just got down for the “winter”.  He said there are still some finishing “touches” needed in their new place and they are kind of “camping out”.  Some of the appliances need to be installed and a few other things.  I was trying to figure out where we should go for dinner and I’ve decided we should go to Carrabba’s.  That is about half way between my place and their place.  Plus I love Chicken Bryan and I haven’t been there in a while.

I just realized that next Sunday I’m supposed to “set up” for church.  It is also the Sunday that Bill and Cathy will be here to go to church with me.  I think I’ll try to switch with Esther and Phil for that Sunday.  But I suppose Bill and Cathy could help so they would see what it is like to have a small church like we have where we do everything to get it “up and running” each week.  I’ll see if Esther and Phil will switch first and then deal with the other stuff.  Oh that reminds me.  Time to put the reminder on FB for church and for Reeder.  I had a little trouble getting that done this morning.  My iPhone kept “stalling” and so I finally did it through my computer which is faster, but difficult to find the picture.  Finally got er done!

So next Saturday our neighborhood is having a “holiday” get together at the pool.  I didn’t make the last one they had – Gratitude Dinner day I think.  Anyway, Bill and Cathy are coming in that day, so it might be nice to include them.  We’ll see how it goes.  They may not want to go and I’m not sure I’ll go either if they are coming in.  I guess we’ll figure it out later.  I’ve got to figure out what I’ll be doing when they come here.  I can’t take too much time off because I have 4 days coming up shortly at Christmas and New Years.  Maybe I should try to get next Friday off and we can drive over to Westin.  But then again, maybe it would be good for Jon and Ale to come over here instead.  It looks as though their kitchen “re do” is done.  At least I think that was what I was seeing on FB the other day.  It really looks beautiful and I’m sure it would be nice to have Dick and Doug go over with us so we can have a “Holiday” reunion without having it be “Christmas”.  I always have trouble with Christmas.  I don’t like shopping and so I don’t have much imagination when it comes to “gift giving”.  Gift Cards is what I usually do for everything.  I let the receiver get what they “want” with the help of a gift card.  I still think that is “OK”.  I’ve been thinking about my “work” people too.  Usually I give a Christmas Card I design to everyone, but I don’t think I’ll do that this year.  Instead, I’m going to make some cookies.  I bought the GFS frozen cookies and made a batch last night for the Naples Group.  It was pretty easy.  I just ate 2 of them – the broken ones.  I found that they needed to “cool” a little on the hot cookie sheet before I could take them off and put them on the “cooling racks”.  It’s been a while since I made cookies so I guess that is how it’s always been done.  Anyway, I finally got them cooked and cooled so I could take them to the meeting.  Next Sunday I’m supposed to take cookies to church for “Fellowship time” after the service.  So that is something I’ll be doing on Saturday morning next week.

OK so now I think I’m about done for today.  Need to start getting ready to go to church.  I hope Rose drives ok and the light stays off.  It’s a little foggy this morning so I don’t think I’ll take Red this morning – although this afternoon it will probably be a beautiful day.  So have a great day today.