Oct21

Blog buddy meetup #… 7? 8?

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Blog buddy meetup #… 7? 8?

Maybe it’s 9? Whatever. A month and a half ago, with next to no warning, which I thought was pretty cool, Chel Owens alerted me that she was in the area!

So we took a hike.

We had a fun time chatting like old friends, as blog buddies always are, and traipsed along an ocean lagoon with our husbands and sons.

My little dude discovered layers of colored sand thanks to the sandstone above, which was fun for him to play in.

Chel later bought my novel, which I mailed to her, autographed, of course.

Oh my. What’s this package?
Oooh. Looks mysterious.
Let’s see what’s happening here.
Do you mind? I’m reading.
The next day, having not slept, eaten, showered, or changed clothes–finished and satisfied. Now where’s the sequel??

Not to worry, Chel. I’ll have copies of Wish You Were Here soon!

*Pictures courtesy of Chel Owens. Captions courtesy of Yours Truly, but I’m pretty sure they’re accurate.

P.S. Fun fact: when looking up the link for the sequel, I discovered Wish I Was Here has been translated for Kindle not just into Spanish, German, and French, but Italian and Portuguese as well. Who knew? Not me until now. And now you, oh fortunate ones!

As if meeting a blog buddy weren’t enough of a birthday month joy…

Ju-Lyn, my blog buddy in Singapore, remembered her birthday month twin and wished me well. (So thoughtful of her.)

And a local friend who has a long-standing record of the most random birthday gifts, gave me…

Napoleon and Pedro dolls from Napoleon Dynamite. Every year I get something like this. I have more than a dozen ND items.

Oh, but she isn’t finished yet.

My kids were a little disappointed it wasn’t the usual gummy eyeballs.

But, she truly outdid herself with this next one:

To be sure I’m fit to teach at the school, she said. I don’t even know where she finds this stuff!

What’s going on in the background there, you may ask. This same woman held a baby shower for her daughter. One of the shower games was to guess how many peanut M&Ms were in a large jar. I missed it by four. Peanut M&Ms are my favorite, so you darn betcha I was going to win that jar!

Once the candy was gone, I suggested we use the container as a family gratitude jar. We each had a color of paper assigned to us. By my birthday, the jar was full, so I declared one of my gifts would be going through our slips of paper and sharing some of the things we were grateful for. It was a fun family bonding experience. The jar is being refilled now.

One of mine, obv.
I also decided I’d reached the age where I could be honest: I don’t care that much about cake. Just give me the ice cream. So the kids created an ice cream bar of sorts.

The next night, I went to Chili’s with some Jiu-Jitsu ladies. Here I did get cake.

This looks like Darth Vader and Chewbacca had a dessert baby.
Oh good! Ice cream on the inside. Phew!
All courtesy of Her Royal Highness, who complained earlier today that my blog had died and needed to be resurrected.

Ever one to try new things, I believe this was a … shoot, guava? Something wild margarita. I think guava. It was delicious. That’s also the first time I’ve used a shaker. (I know, Mark. I know. I’m supremely lame. You’re too nice to say it, but I hear you thinking it.)

Oh yes, and among the birthday gifts from Hubby…

A lock picking set… because… I aspire to be a thief? I’m not sure, but it seemed like a fun idea to learn this skill. If my son gets his hands on this, I can see him getting into mischief. Why might I think that?

My son…

While his sister and I were shopping, he climbed up into this jacket still on the hanger and popped out at us, looking delightfully creepy. Also, my gosh, is he a cutie or what? Dang, with that dimple…

Now I’ve gotten you caught up on two big things. Stay tuned for more. Thanks for reading.

Which gift above did you like the most?

Last Q: Although once legal, the “fake to third, throw to first pickoff” move has since 2013 been classified as “balk.”

New Q: The 16th- to 18th-century Safavid Empire ruled over what today is this nation.

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57 responses »

  6. A birthday for a whole month? cool. Happy birthday!

    Everybody needs a lock pick set. Bonus points if you know how to use them. I went on a hike once — well I was told to take a hike — maybe not the samething.

    and Iran with parts of Iraq and Turkey.

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Doesn’t everyone celebrate their birthday for a month? I have yet to experiment with the lock pick set.

      Oh geez. Not only do you get the correct answer, you add bonus detail. Typical Andrew. Take a hike. 😉

      Liked by 1 person

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  11. Fun looking birthday. Chel is cool. My wife and I got to meet her and her husband and kids when they were in Colorado Springs for something or the other. She had a picture of your book on her blog the other day.

    Like

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  13. Most excellent post. And a belated (cakeless) happy birthday!
    Is it wrong to say I’m jealous of your zombie lollipop fingers? It’s not everyone who has a friend that thoughtful.
    Hope she found her way into your thankful jar.
    Love that idea btw.
    ❤️

    Liked by 1 person

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    • I usually give the weird scary candy to a friend who gets trick or treaters. We do not. I’m afraid I won’t be able to report back on how good or bad the zombie fingers are. 😛 But, yes, she’s a fun friend, especially because I never know what I’m going to get.

      Liked by 1 person

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  14. You guys could pass as sisters!

    Not technically a gift, but I like the Chili’s Presidente Margarita the best. Tara introduced me to those, and I swear, they’re like crack. We have a copycat recipe (and of course, we make them in a shaker), but it’s not quite the same.

    The marijuana test kit is pretty rad too.

    I knew it was a balk!!

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. Yay! Another blog buddy meet-up! (I haven’t forgotten about ours – I’m just posting in the order I took the trips, so it’ll be a while yet.)
    Great and fun gifts. If I hadn’t met you personally, I might be tempted to unfollow you now that I know your preference of ice cream over cake… 😉 but since I know firsthand how great you are, I’ll overlook it! Plus, your description of the cake as the dessert child of Darth Vader and Chewbacca is so fabulous I think you should find a way to weave it into your next book.
    Love the gratitude jar, by the way. Happy birthday!

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Dang, I narrowly escaped an unfollow! But you’re thinking about the situation all wrong: when there’s a party with ice cream and cake, you get all the cake you want with no competition from me and vice versa. We’re actually the perfect birthday party partners. Carry a fork in your purse at all times, just like I carry a spoon. We need to be ready when dessert happens!

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