Venus, Saturn, & Regulus

Hey, 9:00am comes quickly around here, especially when there’s so much that I want to get completed before hand. This being the first Sunday of the month, we had plans to meet the family at the Hilliard Frisch’s at 9:00am. That meant I had to be up by 6:30am to remain comfortably on task. Success! I was up at 6:25am no worse for the wear.

I prepped the morning’s coffee then got started on my exercise routine. I almost talked myself out of push-ups and curls but ended up completing them after I returned from walking Ykraps. I was treated to an amazing cosmic view on my walk this morning. There was a crescent moon nestled between a very bright Venus, Saturn, and a brilliant star named Regulus. I read about this rare occurrence on Yahoo the morning before but had forgotten about it until my eyes gazed skyward. Very cool!

After my exciting walk I returned home to enjoy some coffee and read the Yahoo headlines. I didn’t spend too much time, relaxing, however. I had to remain on task. I dressed and left for a run around 7:20am. Mindy asked to be woken at 8am. If I timed this right, I wouldn’t have to wake her until I returned, and that would still leave me enough time to shower, dress, and drive to Frisch’s.

I implemented the plan flawlessly. And the run was quite comfortable without a shirt. It was 72 degrees at 7:30am on October 7th. Holy smoke Batman! I delivered Mindy’s bedside coffee at 8:05am. She promptly upped and got in the shower while I completed a few miscellaneous chores downstairs. Around 8:20am I headed up to shower and dress. I was back downstairs by 8:35am while Mindy put the finishing touches on her own prep. I spent the next ten minutes unloading the more than full dishwasher. Finally, around 8:45am Mindy was ready. She asked if we could drive the BM’er, so drive the BM’er we did!

It was a gorgeous drive west to Hilliard. We arrived at 8:55am. Bob, his family, and dad were already there waiting by the door. We had neglected to call one another to confirm plans, but Bob and I did speak about ten days ago and loosely agreed to still meet on our regular schedule. I didn’t feel the need call. Missing again were Tommy and Shawn, both of whom have been told of our regular meeting. We carried on without them. We were seated at our regular table too. There were nine of us. Dad ordered an entrée. The rest of us partook in the breakfast buffet. Bob and family reported boating on the river Saturday afternoon. They also announced the coming of baby number three. April hand delivered Mindy’s jewelry order.

We enjoyed our Sunday breakfast. We were there only an hour. It was just before 10am when we headed our separate ways. We stopped by Kirkland’s but they were not yet opened - not until noon. We headed on home with a lot yet to do. The first thing I did was take a brief nap on the sofa. My tummy was full of heavy breakfast food (sausage, bacon, gravy, eggs, and French toast). I’m not used to that. Mindy wasn’t amused that I was slacking when there was much left to do in preparation for Bella’s celebration. After napping for a short bit I headed out back to water the flowers. I think sometimes Mindy forgets that that is a chore too. I took care of a few other chores before the two of us took a brief break just ahead of the kids return home fro ma weekend with dad around noon.
I iced and popped the coolers. Mindy left to pick-up a prescription. While she was gone, Jimaken returned somewhat unexpectedly with a big bag of ice. I got out another cooler for water and juice bags/boxes. Jim went up stairs to spend time with the kids. We had an hour before everyone was expected to arrive. Mindy returned ten minutes later and began laying out all of the eats/snacks and party favors. I set up the out door table, strung spider webbing on the pergola, and hung the pumpkin piñata from the maple tree.

Come 2pm our guests began to arrive. Soon our house was full of guests, mostly Mindy’s family save for some neighbors and their kids. Still, we had quite a house full. Being so warm outdoors – the high hit 93 degrees – not too many were eager to spend any measurable time outside on the deck. Everyone was gathered tightly in the family room and kitchen. Mindy got the kiddie games going along with the usual birthday party traditions. Soon Bella was tearing into her enormous pile of gifts. She got more crap than most kids get at Xmas! This reminded me how vigilant we must remain in our ongoing quest to weed out the old toys lest we will soon find ourselves inundated. J

About half the crowd stuck around to enjoy some Minelli’s pizza we later ordered. We used our collection of coupons to get three free. I forgot to mention that I was stung by a yellow jacket while photographing the kids whacking the piñata. If you haven’t been stung in a while, you’ve probably forgotten just how painful. Trust me – it hurts & burns like hell! Our guests all departed around 5-6pm. We were left with quite the mess.

Mindy & I walked Ykraps just after 6pm. We congregated with the neighbors for a few minutes discussing the one neighbor about to abandon us. I was feeling very tired – exhausted after a long day. Mindy diligently kept to the clean-up, even mopping the tile floor. We called the kids home a few minutes later to get baths. While Mindy bathed the kids I tuned into baseball – the Indians/Yankees game. At the same time I caught a little of the Sunday Night Football game. We were in bed before 10pm.