TG came home with these on our anniversary
Before July gets away from me -- yes, it is running from me, as fast as its little July feet can carry it -- I must tell you about our June.
As in, the part of June that commenced when Mari and Bob's visit was over.
June used to mean three things to me: our wedding anniversary, the start of summer, and my mother's birthday. In that order.
Our Andrew was in Greece for much of June. Here he is at the Parthenon.
Until Dagny came along, and then our Chad joined the family, hers was the only June birthday in our immediate family.
Had she lived, Mom would have turned eighty-six on June twenty-fifth.
However, branching out on the family tree, there is also our brother-in-law Pierre-Philippe, who turned seventy on June second (he was born in France on the coronation day of Queen Elizabeth II); our sister-in-law Marcia, who turned seventy on June twentieth; and her daughter, our niece Angie, who turned fifty on June twenty-fifth.)
Uncle Chad and Aunt Erica gave her a lava lamp
But in 2014, on June the fourteenth -- Flag Day, and also, Dagny is glad to say, President Trump's birthday -- into the immediate family was born our Dagny.
Then in 2018 our Chad joined the clan by marrying Erica. His birthday is June twenty-sixth.
So it was that not much longer after the door had shut behind our early June houseguests, we were gearing up for Dagny's birthday celebrations.
I wish everyone had a Hungry Howie's
Of necessity, there were two parties: one on her actual birthday, which was a Wednesday, and the real party on the following Saturday.
So that everyone could come and celebrate with us.
On the actual day, as every Wednesday, in the evening we had prayer meeting.
There were many birthday presents
I brought Dagny's birthday balloon right into church with me and planted it (at a low altitude, where it would not be a distraction) beside the pew where she and her mother sit.
After church, we all headed for Waffle House.
More balloons had materialized -- ones that had stayed in Audrey's car during services -- and Dagny brought the whole bunch into the restaurant with her.
Dagny wasn't sure what to make of that stuffed tardigrade
This garnered a great deal of attention and many congratulations from other diners, for the birthday girl.
Waffle House is likely one of the top ten friendliest places on earth. I hope you get to experience having a fine meal at this culinary temple someday.
Example: A while back, TG and I had a meal at our Waffle House on a Sunday afternoon. We were accompanied by our friend Andrea from church, who was spending the afternoon with us.
Her mother saved the day by giving her a big Squishmallow
When our feast was concluded and Margie (we know all of the waitresses by name) approached our table to (we thought) lay down our check, she instead told us:
Your bill has been taken care of.
We all looked around. By whom? When? We asked.
You can't put too much pepperoni on a pizza for me
They're gone already, Margie announced in her forthright way, and left us to ruminate on that random kindness.
Not being required to pay the bill, we left Margie a nice tip instead.
The experience had an impact on me. So much so that, last Christmas (which you will recall fell on a Sunday), we stopped by Waffle House on our way home from church to give a card to Ashley, our favorite waitress.
I consider this to be the OBP (Official Birthday Portrait) ... taken on the day she turned nine
It contained a fifty dollar bill. I only tell you that because we felt we should be thoughtful of her in the same way that an anonymous person had been thoughtful of us.
And it seemed to mean a lot to Ashley (who goes by Ashes) and it was nice to bring a smile to her face on Christmas as she worked her shift at Waffle House.
So anyway, into Waffle House our whole gang trooped at about eight-thirty on the night of Dagny's actual ninth birthday.
There was no shortage of birthday cake
She opened a couple of her presents -- including the ultra-weird and completely unexpected plush tardigrade I got her -- and decided to leave all the rest until her big party.
We had a nice time and Dagny was treated to more Happy Birthday wishes from fellow diners as we left to go, each to our respective homes.
On the following Saturday, Stephanie and Melanie and Allissa and Andrew drove down from North Carolina for the day, and all the rest of us were there except for Andrew and Brittany.
This stuffed corgi belongs to me. Her name is Candy, just like one of the late Queen Elizabeth's favorite corgis.
(Andrew was actually in Greece for a two-week assignment with his unit, refueling and otherwise providing support to the Hellenic Air Force in that country.)
He sent us pictures of himself with his buddies at the Parthenon.
He also told me he got me two rocks from the shore of the Aegean Sea. I asked him to bring me something.
We all had to choose at least one sticker to wear
No I'm serious; I did not want a souvenir that cost anything. I asked for a rock.
I can't wait to see it and best of all, there is another one to go with it. Two Greek rocks.
Anyway at Dagny's Saturday birthday party, the theme was Corgis. She loves Corgi dogs but she can't have one, so the next best thing is Corgi stickers and stuffed Corgis and a Corgi-themed birthday party.
It's not a party without the bucket filled with ice and sodas and waters both still and sparkling
There was no swimming (the kids were not interested on this day) but Audrey ordered enough pizza for everyone to eat their fill.
She'd also ordered a cake from Costco.
Before everyone left at the end of the day, his three daughters gathered around TG and gave him his Father's Day gifts.
Audrey carried the corgi (and friends) theme all the way through
(Erica and Audrey would see him at church on Father's Day, but we had no plans to get together.)
(The next day, Father's Day, June eighteenth, there were dad pictures all over the big table in the church lobby. I brought a portrait of my dad to display with them.)
When Dagny's big birthday party was over on Saturday the seventeenth, she went back to North Carolina to spend a week with her Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Joel, and the tar heel cousins, and go to Vacation Bible School with them.
Allissa was with us for an entire week
When Audrey met Stephanie halfway the following Saturday to get her daughter back, Allissa came home with her and spent a week with us.
It was a busy time.
I should tell you at this point that on June sixteenth, two days after Dagny's birthday but the day before her big birthday party, TG and I celebrated our forty-fourth wedding anniversary.
I got TG this t-shirt for our anniversary
We made plans to go downtown and have dinner at Black Rooster. Their tagline is It's Frenchish.
Frenchish or not, we enjoyed it.
Also TG brought me two massive gold number-four balloons. Forty-four. Four is my favorite number and I am equally enamored of forty-four so that was just about a perfect gift.
My late father's portrait was displayed with those of many other dads at our church on Father's Day
I got him a special t-shirt.
A week or so later, it was time to celebrate Chad's birthday.
For that, he requested that we all go out to Texas Roadhouse.
There was a banner of corgis wearing birthday hats
We hadn't been there in a while, so we were all in one accord that that sounded like a good plan.
Our party were seated immediately with no waiting, which has not happened in several years.
But then again, it was a Monday.
Dagny is all in for present-opening time
We had a delightful time and a delicious meal together, served by a courteous and competent young lady who was as pleasant as she was professional.
Afterwards, we went back to our house for cake and presents. Erica had made a chocolate sheet cake and I once again decided that if there could be only one dessert in the world, for me it would have to be chocolate cake with chocolate icing.
To fully appreciate that sentiment, you would have to know how I feel about banana pudding.
Allissa was with us for Chad's birthday celebration at Texas Roadhouse. Baby Rhett was ecstatic.
But I digress.
Those observations of the June birthdays of our loved ones concluded, we began looking forward to the Fourth of July.
Our church has a supper on the Sunday night before the Fourth, and it's always a great time.
Erica loves to bake cakes and she had a great time making this one for her beloved
This year there was a fantastic hamburger supper with all the appropriate trimmings and sides, plus homemade desserts brought by church members, and everyone enjoyed it to the nth degree.
On the Fourth itself, we again gathered around the pool for a hot July day of swimming and eating.
There were hot dogs and hamburgers done on the grill, barbecue baked beans, potato salad, deviled eggs, cucumber and tomato (both homegrown) salad, and lemon icebox pie.
Dagny goofed around with props at Chad's birthday party
This is the pie (actually it makes two pies) made by combining one fourteen-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk, one eight-ounce container of Cool Whip, and one twelve-ounce can of frozen lemonade concentrate.
Let the Cool Whip and the lemonade concentrate thaw first.
After whisking those three ingredients together, pour the resulting thick lemony goodness into two six-ounce store-bought graham cracker crusts.
We had simple but sumptuous vittles on the Fourth of July
Or make your own graham cracker crusts if you prefer.
Put the pies in the freezer until time to serve.
Do we live it up or do we live it up?
TG had failed to buy fireworks this year so, as the dusk gathered, he was reduced to lighting some leftover poppers from years when he did buy fireworks, and throwing them into the area over by the privacy fence, and waiting for the bang.
This day rolls around with alarming swiftness each year
That was it for our pyrotechnics ... all noise, no display.
Dagny, sitting beside me on the swing, jumped several times even though she was watching him throw the things. Try as I might, I could not figure that out.
Rizzo paced and growled and fretted and barked and otherwise displayed canine anxiety of the highest order.
Rizzo would join this queue in a heartbeat
He's one of those dogs that despises fireworks. All that evening -- and for several evenings before and after the Fourth -- he glommed onto me and whined and carried on and looked as though he was going to cry.
Two or three times I had to move his crate to the TV room at bedtime, put him in it, and put a blanket over the top before he would quiet down.
Our friend Andrea from church gave us the cucumbers and TG grew the tomatoes
Sweetness -- my cat -- never lifted a whisker, on any evening. She is apparently immune to any variety of fireworks-induced panic.
I wish I had her blood pressure.
TG and me after church on the second of July
After darkness fell we went inside and watched the fireworks display from Washington DC.
Happy Birthday, America.
So now it's come around to mid-July, and even if you are not here, the heat and humidity is.
August is knocking at the door; sooner or later it will have to be let in.
We will be ready.
And that is all for now.
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Happy Wednesday
