let the festivities begin

What's today? Wednesday? OK - we're leaving tomorrow morning on a quick road trip to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Canyon de Shay), to celebrate Rick's birthday. We haven't been out of town all summer. Fortunately, there's a lot to do around here, so we've been pretty well occupied, but sometimes you just gotta get outta Dodge, you know? Besides, this is a significant birthday, and deserves to be recognized with a little more than a howdy-do and a beer on the patio. Yes, all birthdays are significant. They mean we're not dead yet, which in itself is always worth celebrating. But we think the ones ending with "oh!" are even more worth making a big deal over. So here we go, off to explore another southwest canyon. It's not the Grand Canyon, but I bet it will still be just grand.

We began the festivities last night over a fun dinner with our dear friends, Deborah & Thomas, at Doc Martin's in the Historic Taos Inn. Man, they make a good chile relleno, all crunchy and crusty on the outside with nuts and crumbs, and cheesy-gooey on the inside. Perfection. Craig, the Wine Guy, turned us on to a wonderful tip. German reislings are perfect with spicy food. I can't remember why, but he was right. Try it out. But be sure you're drinking German with your hot food, or it'll be too sweet. Ick.

So anyway, here's Rick, the Birthday Boy, waiting in the driveway for D&T to pick us up last night. He's with his favorite sunflower. I have no idea how he can choose one over all the others. Maybe it's a height thing. Rick is 6'4", and this flower can just about look him in the eye. It has cute bangs too...



And here he is at dessert time. Of course we sang to him. The regular Birthday Song, and a bit of the Beatle's one too.



So that's it for a few days. I'll be back Monday with pictures of the Canyon, and beads on my website. See you then!