A Look Back to Dan's 80th Birthday: 2007 *

When Dan turned 80 in August 2007, I arranged to get a few family and friends down to Westmoore Family Restaurant for a surprise party for Dan.  Dan thought we were just going down to meet his daughter Mary and son-in-law Dave for dinner which we often did, so he was quite surprised to find a number of folks there to celebrate his birthday.






Dan had always enjoyed limericks so I asked friends and family, even those who couldn't be at the party to write a limerick for Dan for his birthday.  I received over 80 limericks from all over the country.  It was great fun and Dan enjoyed them immensely.  Here are a few of the limericks.

Joe Richardson who was with Dan during the crocodile attack sent in several.

Many of his graduate students sent in limericks.

A friend and colleague of mine from Louisburg who himself was a great lover of limericks sent in this one.

Even my grandchildren who were then 12, 10, 8, and 6 wrote one with my help.

Patrick had fun with this.

Friends James and Virginia Tucker from Greensboro.


                     While Cruising an African loch,
                      Dan encountered a hitchhiking croc.
                      He said, "Tell you what, keedo,
                      I'll get into my Speedo
                      And race you from here to the dock."


From Sally Kendall (the Da-Bob was Bob Kendall a graduate student of Dan's.  Sally was a graduate student in botany at Duke.  Sally and Bob have now been married 50 years, and are our wonderful friends living in Maryland.




                In order to fill his life's mission
                of drilling deep lakes with precision,
                he hired Da-Bob,
                who made my heart throb.
                To me, twas his finest decision.
                   
                     
This was a really fun birthday party, and Dan thoroughly enjoyed all the limericks that were written in his honor. 


*  I wasn't blogging back in 2007, so I did a look back on this one.  Today would have been Dan's 89th birthday. 

Gadding About at Duck Donuts in Raleigh

Duck Donuts (I think they began in Duck NC in the Outer Banks.)



Ordering at the counter.

I'm not really that much of a donut fan.  Every now and then when I drive by Krispy Kreme and they have their HOT sign out I may stop for a donut.  But the other day grandson Brooks introduced me to RISE biscuits and donuts, and then someone told me about Duck Donuts and I was very much in need of a trip out of the house this afternoon, so I convinced Debbie to go try Duck Donuts over in North Raleigh.  We picked up my friend Marcia on the way. 



A dozen Duck Donuts.

They have an amazing variety of donuts and you can order to your specifications.  We bought a dozen with a variety of flavors, icings, toppings, etc.  We each had one there.  Marcia took two home with her---another for her and one for Bob.  I kept two here at the house and I sent the remaining five home with Debbie to share with her family. 

Marcia's glazed donut.

My donut with vanilla icing, peanuts, and drizzled with salt caramel. 

They had a special donut, but we didn't try it.

M

Got a small box to send donuts home with Marcia.

I've got to get back in my routine of Eating Less Sugar.  I usually only eat dessert on Sunday, so a friend texted me and asked "Is it Sunday today?"  As I recover from my knee surgery, I told her that every day in August was going to be "Sunday"!  Oh, I will probably use a little self control and not have desserts every day of the month.

Organizing my Frozen Meals While Recovering from Knee Surgery

Frozen Homemade TV Dinners ready for a quick meal.

While I have been recovering from knee surgery (complete replacement of my right knee), I have not been gadding about, but rather have been confined here at home.  My recovery is going quite well, but I miss getting out and about.  I have been doing some things that I CAN do while confined to the house, especially with the help of Debbie.  Debbie was one of Dan's wonderful caretakers, and she has stepped in to give me some part time help as well. 




Frequently I cook more than one or two people can eat, so I freeze the extras as dinners that I can pop in the microwave or in the oven and have a quick meal. I have three different containers that I use for this. 

These can be heated in the microwave.  I like the "cup" for freezing a couple of servings of soup.

This compartmentalized aluminum container must be heated in the oven, not the microwave.

 If you are like me you find things stashed in the back of the freezer that has time expired or has mummified.  So I used some of my time the other day,with Debbie's help to, organize my frozen meals. 

Frozen meals organized in the fridge in the garage. 

My updated list of what's available in the freezer for a quick meal. 

I keep a list posted near the fridge in the garage so I can mark off meals as they are used. 
And I can add meals as I prepare more.  Sometime the kids or grands come over and grab a meal and forget to mark it off, so every now and then I have to recheck the inventory and update my list.  Debbie and I did this the other day, so now I have an updated list and a pretty good supply of frozen meals which is handy because I'm not doing much cooking right now.

Gadding About With Uber

I'm not allowed to drive because of my surgery 4 weeks ago.  Knee replacement.  Although my son or grandsons have been driving me around I wanted to try my first Uber experience.  So I signed up and it worked beautifully.

Uber will be here in 3 minutes.  Wow!!!!

I arrived for my appoinment with Rana half an hour early.  I requested Uber plenty early.

.

Kent was a good driver and very helpful.  5 stars.

Getting my hair cut at my hairdressers' Rana.

When I was finished I requested Uber to go back home


Back home in 7 minutes.

Safely back home with driver Terrence.  Great ride.  5 stars.

It's good to be gadding about again.  And now I can use Uber just like my young grandsons.  Maybe I should sign up to be a Uber driver to make a little "mad money" and to add a little excitement to my life!

Blogging hiatus for a couple of weeks

Recovering from knee surgery and won't have time or energy enough to be gadding about.  Check back in a couple of weeks.