Great day today! Filled with my favorite things!

it started with the Squealer.

I had carefully noted on the way out in the morning our dire beer siteeation consisting solely of a few cans of Beast, and knew i wanted to have some for when i got home. Beckie gladly traded off 30 minutes of me watching G for me to run to Trader Joe’s on the way home from the race, and I cleared them out of all their $5 Stockyard Stout. all of it. every 6-pack.

some quality time with everyone, a shower, a nap, and G and me and Kila rode off to the park for some typical park goodness. i was so tired and faded and willing to do just about anything other than work hard at resisting my tinyDemon that the 3 of us had a jolly time. G got up on top of a 5 foot boulder – this felt sketchy, but i made her hold my hand, and while it would have saved her life it still would not have been pretty had she fell. But G definitely respected the threat in her surroundings, so it was a good sampler of baby gnar; I’m highly optimistic. The roll up the hill from the park sucked and only my new-found commitment to not being a slow fatass kept me from rolling in the little ring. that, and some power-assist from the dog. G ate while I cooked in case we decided not to do dinner, then a bath. Excellent times. Did I mention i was carrying a really good buzz?

We rallied to go to dinner at Red, White and Brew. Its been about 6 months since we tried a nice dinner with G – just not worth the effort to fight against her and ruin an evening. But she was in a good mood, and I wanted some basil pesto tortellini for my birthday, and we brought crayons. Things went surprisingly well, G was a monster, but she was our monster. And she mostly kept her voice down and her spills to a minimum. Her shirt may need to be burned, but food is meant to be played with if it keeps her quiet.

Back home and it was time for cake and presents. Well mostly a present to myself (which does not work with many Shimano pedals, another reason to hate Shimano), and a safe (yes, a small safe) that beckie wanted for herself.

present to myself

cake with very tiny gauges left from very tiny fingers

G wanted to open my presents. She doesn’t understand that sometimes presents are given to others and not t her, but since i bought myself my own gift i was not going to split hairs and argue. So she did me the favor of unwrapping, while I had cake and ice cream to look forward to. G wanted to blow out my candles too, which i was slightly irked by until i realized that candles are effectively an infinite resource, and wishes are bullshit anyway. So we lit the candles, and she blew them out. And we lit the candles, and she blew them out. And we lit the candles, and she said “blow Daddy.” and we lit the candles, and she said “blow Mommy.” and we lit the candles and took turns blowing them out one by one.

birthday.