This has been one, dedicated balloon. It should look familiar. My sister brought it for MY birthday back in November, and not only did it last through the month of November into Christmas, but it made it through Dad’s birthday in January AND Mom’s in February.

Talk about value for your balloon dollar.

But, yes, yesterday was Mom’s birthday. (Go wish her a happy birthday!). She was feeling guilty (!) about the fact that I was cooking dinner and making dessert, so she sent Dad out for donuts for breakfast. It turns out that it’s Dunkin Donuts’ birthday, too, so their cups already said Happy Birthday on them … though, Mom tweaked the year on hers.

Then, we waited for the family to arrive. Can I just say that I love it when Chappy sits UNDER the desk to watch out the window?

When the chair is in JUST the right place, he can see out without getting a crick in his neck, but looking backwards (like, say, if someone’s taking your picture?), he’s got to duck.

And yes, I think he IS silly, but wouldn’t change a thing.

We had beef stew for dinner (Mom’s choice), and homemade breadsticks from my sister. Then at least some of us settled down to a good game of Sorry. (I think it’s cute that Chappy wanted to play, don’t you?)

Then there was cake and presents. (Well, little individual ice cream cakes–brownies on the bottom, raspberry jam, and vanilla ice cream.) And the present? Mom was SO surprised that I gave her my Redhook! She really, really loved that sweater when she saw the finished product–little knowing I was planning on giving it to her.

And, naturally, I used the buttons that she liked the best. It seemed only right!

I’m not participating in the Knitting Olympics this time around. I won my Gold Medal in 2006, so I’m good. But I AM working on my new sweater anyway. This is the “replacement” for my Celtic Dreams, using the reclaimed yarn when I ripped out that sweater last month.

We had the extra fun, too, of our water being turned off for a couple hours. Two Fridays ago, they were supposed to turn it off to replace some kind of building-wide valve to improve water pressure–but they didn’t. Then they rescheduled for last Friday, but, well, there was too much snow on the ground, so that didn’t happen either … meaning all the extra pitchers and thermoses of water Mom filled turned out to be unnecessary.

But then, this morning? 9:00 on the dot, just as I was making my breakfast … no water. But we never got a notice that it would happen today! Luckily, it was only off for about two hours, so that wasn’t too bad. (Though I wouldn’t have drunk my usual, large glass of water at 8:30 if I’d known!) But still … you have to wonder why they’d reschedule to a day when schools and at least some businesses are closed, but not actually tell people?

Chappy, meanwhile, wants you all to know that he’s tired! Not only did he have to be cute and charming and generally entertaining yesterday while the family was here … with barely a nap to boost his energy levels … but he’s got to watch after me today, because I’m lucky enough to have the day off from work. This means that he IS getting plenty of nap time, but there are more trips up and down the stairs.

Finally, I want you to know how smart Chappy is. The other day, when Dad and I were taking him for a walk and regretting the loss of a yard for him to romp in the snow in … because you KNOW how much he loves romping in the snow! I said that I DID think that we might be able to use the playground up the street. It’s fenced in and doesn’t have any “no dogs allowed” signs, and they don’t shovel it out, so … why not? But that was the other day, on a lunchtime-from-work walk so we didn’t have time to stop.

Today, we were walking past it and suddenly Chappy PULLED me across the street over to the playground. In the three months we’ve been here, we have literally been there ONCE, and Chappy was never off-leash. We haven’t even walked on that side of the street or peered in the gates since. Until today, the first walk he’s had since Dad and I had that conversation, when he insisted.

I tell you, dogs know a LOT more than we give them credit for. How else do you suppose they’ve trained us so well?

Because, yes, like a good, well-trained Mom, I took his leash off and threw snowballs for him. He loved every minute of it and practically skipped the rest of the way home, he was so happily prancing.

Man, I really do love my dog.

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