My First Real Sniff of Spring & Celebrating Mindy @ CBC

Turtling: the act of pulling ones hands up into ones sleeves, usually to avoid cold air.

I wasn't out of bed until almost 6am. All totaled, that added up to about 9 hours of sleep. Felt pretty darn good. The night before, I put fresh water in the coffee maker but failed to load more coffee. I made sure that I didn't inadvertently brew hot water then added fresh coffee to the basket. I hit the go button then started exercises.

It was Friday which meant it was a push-up day. Exercise was behind me 5-10 minutes later. Still had a few minutes before the coffee was ready. I played around online until then. Took Mindy coffee around 620am. I asked if Jacob was going to school. She said not. This will go down as at least his third multiday absence of the year. That concerns me. Thing is, he didn't get out of bed all day Thursday.

Fooled around online till about 650am, and then dug into a little work. Stayed busy with that until Mindy and Bella were downstairs. Supposed to be a gorgeous later winter/ early spring day with oodles of sunshine and temps rising into the mid 50s. Still hoping to ski Mad River on Saturday despite a warm forecast and a slight chance of afternoon rain. in fact, very busy weekend planned, beginning Friday evening and carrying on through late Sunday afternoon.

Mindy left for school at her usual time and Bella was out the door for the bus a half hour later. I walked the pug shortly thereafter. By then it was somewhere close to 30 degrees but in the sunshine it felt much warmer. For the first time in weeks, I skipped the base layer. Didn't wear hand and ear covers either. My fingers were a little cold at the outset but nothing a little turtling into my jacket sleeves wouldn't cure.

Ran three miles and was back home near 9am. It was another 15 minutes or so before I was settled and back at my laptop and busy with work. Stayed busy through the rest of the AM hours. My plan all along was to head to the Giant Eagle Market District around 1pm to pick-up Mindy's cake. Skipped a shower and headed there still in my running clothes around 1230pm. Went upstairs to check on Jacob before I left. Said he needed nothing. Earlier I had taken him a Gatorade and Ritz crackers.

Took notice of just how filthy the Accord is. Don't know that it's ever been that dirty. It was so nice that I put the front windows down about 6 inches and the opened the sunroof for the drive through Arlington to the Market District. A decent crowd already on hand, but nowhere near what I typically run into on a Saturday. Headed right for the bakery. Cake was ready and waiting. It was a custom decorated 1/2 sheet cake. They gave me a gander for approval. Neat! They added a mountain with a skier donning purple attire. Not the prettiest cake by any stretch but spot on relative to my vague, over the phone order. Grabbed some birthday candles and then a $25 Kohls gift card, this one for Lindsey. Headed back home.

Made myself a ham and cheese sandwich and dug into work again. Stayed busy for another hour or so before taking a second break, this time heading out into the yard for my first taste of yard work '14. Grabbed worked gloves, a Home Depot pail, and three pair of trimmers. I spent about 30 minutes hacking up skeletal honey suckle bushes along the pond and nearby one of only red bud trees. Before I knew it, I had a fairly large pile of branches, and certainly more than one would imagine from such a small area.

My plan this early spring is the cut back most of the honeysuckle from encroaching into the yard. Also amongst the honeysuckle were several creeping grapevines, and some as thick as a full inch and reaching high into the surrounding trees. Took some doing to pull them loose. I left the pile of trimming lie. I didn't plan on hauling it back to the compost pile. That would have to wait. I needed to get inside and back to work.

On my way into the house from the garage, I couldn't help but notice a small puddle of water in a place where it had no business being. I glanced up towards the ceiling quickly realizing it was the very location of the kids bathroom drain/plumbing. Crap! Really? I went upstairs to the kids bathroom to look for any signs of excess water from there. For a couple months now I've been aware that the bolts holding the toilet down were corroded and in need of replacement. In fact, we have a new wax seal and complete rebuild kit for the kids toilet. I spotted perhaps a little bit of water around the outside edge of the toilet bowl but nothing alarming. Looked like Jacob might've showered while I was away. If nothing else, it was a wake-up call that I need to get on that toilet repair and then investigate the water leak more thoroughly sometime this upcoming weekend. Back to work.

It must've been near 3pm when I finally got a shower. Felt nice. Bella was home from school at her usual time of 345pm, and then Mindy was home 30 minutes later. She brought home food for Jacob - Cane's chicken tenders. She picked up some for Bella, too. Apparently Jacob was finally feeling better and asked her to bring home food, which would be his first significant meal since Wednesday evening. I wrapped up my work day by 5pm.

May recall, we had the CBC patio reserved for Mindy's "halfway to 90" birthday party. We planned to leave for CBC between 6-630pm. The kids were going too. The kids asked their mom how many people were coming. She said there could be 10 or 30. You just never really know until the actual event.

Aside from getting the cake and then making sure the patio was reserved, Mindy handled everything else including sending out the invites via FB as well as picking up a few decorations and accessories. We were ready to go by 6pm. Loaded the cake and a bag of other party goodies in the back of the Pilot then headed off for CBC. The main parking lot was full, otherwise we likely would've parked there for proximity's sake. Instead, we took a spot in the far more common ancillary lot just across the street. I carried the cake.

When we were in on Wednesday Jen shared that they would be making use of the patio until about 650pm since Friday happy hour is one of their busiest evenings. We understood. Walked in expecting to hang out at the bar until such time as the patio was vacated. Instead, however, there were only two tables taken on the patio and one of them was Kim and her husband Charlie there to celebrate Mindy. They needed to leave in short order to catch Phantom of the Opera playing at the Ohio Theatre. We hung with them for a while. Beth and Robin let us know that they'd be our servers for the night. Mindy & I ordered White Rajah's while the kids ordered sodas.

Once the only other couple using a table on the patio left, we were given the go ahead to set up for Mindy's shindig. Mindy and I ran back to the Pilot to get the cake and decorations. Mindy and the servers got things set-up just the way she wanted them. Slowly but surely, shortly after 7pm guests began to arrive. Our servers, Beth & Robin kept the appetizers coming. End up with a quite a spread: wings, spinach artichoke dip, pork bellies, pizzas and more. The plan was for us to cover the food and then our guests to cover their drink tabs. We made that clear to Beth & Robin up front.

I didn't keep track, but there were plenty of guests coming and going. No surprise, most of the guests were Mindy's teacher pals, though a handful of our Barley peeps showed up too, like Steve Wonn, Grandpa Tom & Steve. Had to be 25 folks stop in at one time or another. As planned, the shindig wrapped up around 10pm. Darwin and his brother-in-law, Brian opted to stick around after the event migrating into the bar area. Asked me to stick around with them, but I couldn't. For one, I needed to drive Mindy home, although she wasn't in bad shape, and two, I was tired and knew I wasn't going to last much longer anyhow. I am pretty sure that my days of carousing late into the wee hours are past.

Home without any fanfare, we were soon off to bed. The plan was to be up somewhat early the next morning and then head to MRM for what would likely be the last time this ski season.