Celebrate, Movies, People

South of the Border for a Birthday

59 Comments

On a brisk Saturday morning,

Clif, Dee, and I headed south, south, south…to Massachusetts, to celebrate our son-in-law’s fortieth birthday. Mike’s actual birthday was at the beginning of the month, and he and Shannon had a weekend extravaganza in Boston, where they went to a French restaurant and were served food  that was oh so good.

Mike is a pizza hound, and the natural choice for our get together was, of course, pizza from one of his favorite places.

The pizza was pretty darned good as my Yankee husband would put it.

There was a toast to the birthday boy. Some of us had wine, and others had beer.

The dogs waited patiently for their pieces of crust. Somara in her comfortable spot on the couch. (Sorry the picture is so out of focus.)

And Holly at attention.

Finally, there was chocolate cake, and here’s a happy picture of Mike and Shannon with Holly in between.

For a special present, we all chipped in some money so that Mike could pick out a nice watch. He is still doing research on various watches and hasn’t decided what he wants.  No need to hurry because as Mike noted, this is a watch he will have for the rest of his life.

So happy birthday, Mike. It’s wonderful that we live within driving distance and could celebrate with him, Shannon, and the dogs.

****************************************************

Watching: Navalny

Navalny, a CNN documentary about the Russian opposition leader Alexy Navalny, is as gripping as any spy novel. In 2020, Navalny was poisoned in Russia, and what follows is so astonishing that I will end the synopsis here. Best just to watch this incredible story unfold without knowing too much. Navalny has been nominated for an Oscar for best documentary feature, and I hope it wins. This gripping movie is showing in theaters and is also available on HBO Max.

 

 

59 thoughts on “South of the Border for a Birthday”

  6. What a fun trip – thanks for letting us join in with the celebrations. Sending belated birthday greetings to Mike! The film sounds good, but I imagine we’ll need to brace ourselves to watch it.

  13. How wonderful that you were able to celebrate together. That pizza looks scrumptious — even better than the cake, although the cake had to be good. After all, it’s chocolate!

    Navalny is one I would watch, except I can’t — don’t have HBO Max. I could get it through Amazon Prime, but it’s $14.99 — no free trial. One of these days it may show up here in a theatre, or finally be made available. I’ll keep it in mind.

  14. Happy birthday to Mike! The pizza looks delicious, and the dogs are alert!
    I now have a big map of the USA states (given to us when we did a tour of the the US Embassy here in Canberra) Now I can look up Maine and nearby states. Very interesting!

    1. Many thanks! Yes, the dogs were certainly alert. Finding out about other places is another benefit of blogging. Maine is a small rural state and because of this, it’s not well known. But you now you know about it. And I have learned so much about beautiful Canberra from you.

  16. It is a great feeling to be with family on special days. We will celebrate our middle child’s birthday with him for the last time next month before he leaves to settle in Scotland. Our other son and his family live in Norway – we could at least travel to Cape Town last year to celebrate our daughter’s 40th birthday with her.

    1. Yes, yes! Get together for family celebrations is the best. Your sons are—or will be— certainly far flung. That’s hard. Glad to read your daughter is nearby.

  20. Your posts are always so wonderfully conversational. I look forward to reading what you’ve been up to. Any celebration involving pizza and chocolate cake sounds delightful. I’m glad you could all be together, and what a lovely gift Mike can look forward to one day soon.

  24. Happy Birthday to your son-in-law. How wonderful that you all were able to get together to celebrate the occasion. And what a great menu — pizza and chocolate cake. I’d have been lined up to share some of both!

  26. That pizza does look amazing, Laurie. How wonderful that you headed so far south (lol) to celebrate Mike’s birthday. It looks like you all had fun, including the dogs. 🙂 I hope he enjoys his new watch!

  27. Thanks for sharing the wonderful birthday celebration and photos!!🙂 It’s so wonderful you guys are able to visit more often. Thanks for the recommendation, I need something new to watch during our snowstorm on Friday.🙂

    1. My pleasure! Such a treat to be able to get together with them. I found “Navalny” to be gripping. I will be interested in hearing what you think.

  28. That is a fine beard and, I feel, the start of a new series. First we have Snow Gauge Clif, how about following up with beard watch? Each year we could watch as Mike changes into Santa . . .
    (I speak from experience, as you know.)

Comments are closed.