Dad's birthday in Rochester

Dad's birthday was this past Saturday, and we hadn't seen my folks since Christmas, so we decided to head up for a visit. It was going to be a surprise, but mom figured she should let dad in on it so he wouldn't plan any golfing for the weekend. Turns out the weather was crap the whole weekend (up until Sunday afternoon, our return) - no risk of getting outside for some fun!

I'm just going to fly through with some BRIEF captions for allllll these pics I just uploaded!

Here's a pic Brett took of me as we were driving up. I didn't know he was taking a picture, or I would've tried to be more photogenic. We have a video that starts off looking like this - it sort of pays tribute to the late, departed "Drive" tv series. That'll come later - YouTube's REALLY slow with the uploads tonite!


Mom picked up two desserts from Wegman's for dad's birthday (rather than make a cake, which he really didn't want this year). The first was a fruit tart, which was REALLY REALLY good!! MMM! And you can pretend it's healthy with all that fruit. Here she's torching the candle on top.


Dad posing with what they call the "fruit jewelry" from Wegman's.


And blowing out the candle.


Brett partaking of his version of birthday dessert since he doesn't eat anything with fruit on it.


And the next day was actually Dad's birthday, so he got the other dessert - the chocolate dome from Wegman's. We shared this with mom and dad's young and very cool friends, Andy and Kelly. They have a LOT of interests in common with us (computers, gardening, chickens, bee keeping, biology, cooking, tv gadgets, Battlestar Galactica, home canning, etc). Andy also likes to hunt - something we're not so into. Anyhow - good to have them there to share the dome with - VERY rich stuff!


While roaming the back yard, dad showed me the duck nest - there's 10 eggs in there. The mom duck flew off, but came back later.


Backyard view of the house.


Andy sold dad his smoker so he can get a new one. Here's dad trying his first meat-smoking, and mom, um, supervising?


Dad checking out his weinies.


I guess when you smoke meat, you smoke A LOT at once (since you have all that space and it's sort of an all day affair. There was beef (with bacon on top), a variety of weinies (including Zweigels - a very popular brand in Rochester), and pork loin. All good stuff, and I know dad'll continue to refine his meat smoking techniques!


Brett enjoying a Zweigel's red hot...


Mmmmm, good hot dog!


Lounging around Saturday...


The girls - Ming in the background, and her mother Murphy in the foreground. Murphy's turning 19 this year, and Ming's a year and a half (?) younger...


Mom reaching out to Ming...


Murphy up close....poor old kitty!


Brett up close....poor old boyfriend.


Cute kitty!


Old paws.


Old, but still very fluffy!


Dad making waffles this morning, and mom fixing her plate...


Mmmm cantelope!


The girl's lounging around in front of the fire - AGAIN!


Mom let us have their old red leather chair - she and Brett have been in negotiations for years on this. We brought it back this visit (yes, more stuff as we should be decluttering for condo showings), and Simon really took a liking to it!