Home

After 3,440 miles and 18 days, I pulled into my own driveway this afternoon and discovered a delightful welcome home surprise in front of my garage. Not only did Billy plow and sand the drive following the New Year's Eve storm, he shoveled, too! I was able to pull directly into the garage and unload the luggage and packages from the car instead of having to first tromp through 6+ inches of snow, retrieve the shovel, and clear the parts that the plow doesn't do.

So nice!

New Year's in New York had its bonus surprises, too. On New Year's Day, I was especially delighted to find claireeddy, roadnotes, and baldanders when benyalow and I arrived at pnh and tnh's. The hours flew by in conversation and laughter with friends old and new. It was good catching up with lydy and others I last saw at P&T's 2007 Christmas gathering. The food and drink matched the company. Teresa made a fabulous cake. You know how so often one element of a cake is really good, but other parts are so-so? Terrific cake, adequate frosting? Delicious frosting, with the cake serving just as the delivery vehicle? Teresa perfected cake, filling, and frosting. Any one was good enough to carry the whole thing on its own. All three combined? It is to my credit that my second slice was smaller than the first -- it was by far the best cake I've eaten in years.

Claire's fruit cake was so good I asked for the recipe.

Fortunately, there was also a large bowl of colorful bell pepper slices. I kept munching on those to help manage my own consumption of the sweets.

I brought along some chicken soup cheese from DelBean Coffee & Cheese shop at Black River Falls Crossing (home of the giant orange moose) in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. I didn't find a website showing DelBean product, but the two examples I linked to are representative. It appears to be a Wisconsin phenomenon, so far at least. Chicken Soup Cheese is surprisingly tasty.

There's mail to sort, luggage and bags of goodies to unpack, and a fair bit of catching up on my plate.

It's good to be home. It always is.

50 Happy Birthdays...

...to pnh!

I am so very honored to have known you and been your friend through 22 of the 50 birthdays you've celebrated. Here's to all of them, and to the years and decades still to come. You've kept your sense of wonder firmly intact for this long -- I think it's safe to say it's with you for good. That's a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself, just like so many other things you do. Rock on!

A year at a time...

...is how thorintatge became 29!

Happy Birthday, Thorin. While I'll always remember you as the kid who reset every clock and alarm he could find every time he came to a Minn-stf meeting or other party at Toad Hall, I'm pleased and impressed to know even a bit of the adult you've grown to be. Thank you for your drumming and fractured Christmas Carols just 12 days ago, and for your LJ posts, too. It's always good to read what's going on in your life!