Posted by
Madeline's Dad on Monday, May 05, 2008 8:18:21 AM
A quick recap of the weekend events at WAMK World HQ. Sunday marked the 41st anniversary of my birth, so Friday at 5:00 marked the official beginning of Birthday Weekend. It started off with a lovely rendition of "Happy Birthday, Daddy" sung by my beautiful daughter. Nothing makes for a better moment, than to see your young child with a big grin on her face, singing to you.
We whisked over to Geno and Mrs. Geno's new digs (they moved a few days ago), helped them resolve a few furniture-moving issues, got the computer up and running (now Geno can get his daily does of WAMK!), got the cable all squared away, and relaxed for a bit. Then we picked up a bite at Pei Wei, and back to the house.
Saturday was great, thanks to Max (one of the WAMK watchdogs) letting me sleep in. He generally starts making noises for breakfast around 4:15 every morning. Clearly he knew it was my birthday, and he let me sleep til after 8:00. Good dog. I was awakened by another rousing redition of "Happy Birthday, Daddy" from Madeline, and we all hung out in bed, and watched some TV. We got dressed, and headed to the Denver Diner, one of my all-time favorite greasy spoon restaurants. When I used to live downtown, my old neighbor and I used to hit that place at least once a week. It's been about a year since we last stopped in, and the place hasn't changed a bit. Most of the staff is the same since I first started going there, had the same delicious country fried steak and eggs as always, and throughly enjoyed myself. We headed back home, dropped off the girls, and I made my way to my second home to pick up a few things, including this gorgeous piece of machinery:
My girls got me a new mower, a sweet Toro ride with high-wheels, front-wheel drive, and a swanky hose attachment that allows me to hose off the underside without getting wet. Needless to say, I broke it in on the grass on the WAMK Estate. Easy to start, easy to use, and much quieter than the old clunker it replaced. Got a call from JDJ (who had just finished a 10k in the cool pines of Prescott, AZ). We watched the Kentucky Derby, as we do every year, and went from excited to sad, as Eight Belles went down after the race. Kudos to NBC to not show the horse suffering, by the way. Mr and Mrs Geno joined us for dinner, and wonderful flank steak that the fetching Mrs. P had marinated all day. I popped it on the grill, and we enjoyed it along with a few glasses of wine. The evening was capped off with a delicious ice-cream cake (with Madeline helping to blow out the candle!).
Sunday morning found a few messages on the voice mail: birthday greetings from my folks in AZ, a song from GWK (world-renowned, by the way!), a message from an old co-worker, a text message from an old roommate. We had breakfast, then went over to a local park to get Madeline's pictures taken. She had a fun time, running around while the photographer did her thing. We got a ton of cute pics, which I'll share soon. Back to the house, where I spent the afternoon installing a solar-powered motion detector light on my shed (some punk had the guts to come over my fence in the dead of night last week, and help himself to my old weedeater). Later in the afternoon, we headed out to Morrison to my favorite Mexican restaurant for some birthday margaritas and food.
A great weekend, a great birthday, and wonderful weather. Now it's back out on the road (Houston for a few days), and the countdown til next year!