Story 20Nov2020: Susie’s 60th

I did not write the blog last night as we left Susie after 8PM. I could not write it this early morning as I just dropped Barb, Susie’s sister, at PDX (our airport) to return home in Michigan.

Going backward, I went to bed at about 11PM after reading for a while. I am enjoying A Master of Djinn and would recommend it, but it keeps me up. The story is about a queer devout Muslim woman agent in a modern-thinking Egypt in a world where magic and Djinn have returned and made Cario the center of magic. The story is set in a steampunk post-modern 1920s world (without WWI), where folks are healthier and happier. The author laughs at the story sometimes, once with a comment, “here comes a Villian monologue,” just as the villain, now revealed, is monologuing. But I like it, and the setting, a very positive view of steampunk Islam, is refreshing and new to me. Recommended!

Barb and I returned to the house and had a late dinner. I discovered that all my bread, except for three bagel-like bread products, were furry (how did that happen?) and soon joined the trash. So I toasted the bagels, cooked them in butter like I was making a sandwich, and added ham and cheddar between the bread when hot and toasty. I then covered, pressing the bagels a bit, adding water to a hot pan, and steaming the sandwiches hot. I did this three times, as bagels are thick, and flipped them once. My ham and cheese bagel sandwiches were good.

Before returning to the Volvo Cave, we spent the late afternoon with Susie at the hummingbird house. Barb assembled the new bookcase we picked out yesterday, finally agreeing to use the drill to drive the screws. We also hung some pictures and other items on the wall (the heavy pic fell later, so we will need a nail or other fastener to hold it).

We opened all of Susie’s gifts from my Aunt Kathy, Susie’s sister, and Susie’s mother. Susie loves to get new things. Then mostly, Barb decorated Susie’s room now that we had new places to put things. This included adding many new owls to the light tree and various new shelves.

I set up the screen I keep there, and we watched the old movie and musical Paint Your Wagon with Clint Eastwood singing and playing the kind-hearted (!) love interest in the story. Lee Marvin plays the defacto twisted leader of the mining camp and steals the show; his melancholy song is one of the best.

Once the movie finished, Susie had a late dinner of chicken soup and some apple sauce. She was tired out but happy to have spent so much time with her sister, Barb. Susie had a wonderful 60th Birthday.

Moving back to the morning, Barb and I got ready after rising early with me writing the Saturday blog for more than an hour. We then headed to the hummingbird house and collected Susie for her Birthday visits.

We made it into the church just as the service started. Joan Goldhammer gave the sermon focusing on Jesus’s hard saying about hypocrites but pointed out that some of the folks called out were also those that preserved the oral traditions later. That Jesus was calling out the extreme faults of his day, not against groups or beliefs. From what I summarise, we need to remember to not play at being good but actually try it.

Susie had two birthday cakes, and we sang Happy Birthday to Susie at church. One cake was chocolate and the other vanilla (perfect, and thanks to Dondrea and others who made this possible). The cakes said, “Happy 60th Birthday Susie,” and I managed to eat a ‘0’ from the white cake and then a ‘6’ from the chocolate cake.

We next headed to BJ’s Brewhouse, where Barb and I got lunch, and Susie had a few bites to eat. Unfortunately, service was a bit confusing, and BJ’s was backed-up, so our food took some time, but it was not a problem for us. Next, we headed back to the hummingbird house.

We later got the residents together and had ice cream to celebrate Susie’s birthday with them. We had four pints of Salt and Straw ice cream, and everyone got some, some multiple types.