I slept in again today. I knew that the last few months I was tired, but I had no idea I was THIS tired. I didn't wake up until 10:30 a.m. Then I had to hurry to get ready to go out to Lancaster County. I met my brother, Larry, and sister-in-law, Kim, at Miller's Restaurant for dinner.
Since Larry's last name is Miller, and he made the reservations, it was strange to walk in and ask for the table reserved for the Millers. "Yes, this is Miller's," said one lady at the front desk. "No. Larry Miller. He has reservations for 2 p.m.?" "Oh. Oh, yes. They are already here. Go right on back."
And there were Larry and Kim. We had such a good time celebrating our birthdays. I had the fried chicken entree, but the other three did the smorgasbord.
Here's Larry and Kim.
And here's me and Joe.
At the end of the meal they gave Larry a cake with a lit candle and we sang to him.
When we were finished eating we looked around the gift shop. Joe got a dozen sticky buns for church tomorrow. I'm looking forward to grabbing mine.
I sat on a bench in the lobby while I was waiting for everyone to finish. Of course I had to take a couple of pictures.
The hostess stand is the front of an old car. It was decorated with a lighted wreath.
They had a cute little lighted tree in the lobby.
As we were walking towards the cars, Larry and I both saw the view of the Amish farms and said together, "I see a photo." It was funny that we both saw the same thing at the same time. So as Joe and Kim stayed near the cars and talked (and it was COLD), Larry and I grabbed our cameras and hurried down to the field. We snapped away for a few minutes and got some really good pictures. How different from this time last year. Then it was all brown and frozen. Today it was cold but there was grass growing.
You can tell the sun was just setting and the light was wonderful. Unfortunately I had just taken my 4:00 p.m. photo for the day and didn't readjust the camera settings. These could have been so much better.
And here's the 4:00 p.m. photo of the day.
One more day of this holiday weekend. I keep thinking that I have to go back to work on Monday. I even thought, "Well, I work late on Tuesday so what is quick and easy to have for dinner." Getting used to not working is going to take some time!
Kathy
My motto for this year is "New Year, New Life". Everything will be new for me this year and I'm looking forward to it.
I woke up early today and turned over and went back to sleep. I didn't stay up for midnight last night. I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I had a really bad headache and took some medicine. Well, that put me right out. When I finally did wake up I still had the headache, but not nearly as bad.
It was a lazy day and I didn't get nearly everything done. In fact, I did almost nothing. And I'm still tired.
I didn't get to see the fireworks last night, but got some pictures of them from the news station's website. They were pretty.
The roses Joe gave me for my birthday are almost all opened up. They are beautiful. I think opened roses are prettier than rosebuds although both have their beauty.
Last night I had gotten an email from the head of our elder board saying he had gotten a phone call saying the sign in front of our church had graffiti on it. He asked me to go check it out. I took Joe with me and we headed over there this afternoon. It had graffiti all right. On both sides.
We called the police and they were out within minutes. Both they and we consider it a hate crime. So there was another special unit called in. Those detectives thought it was just some kids thinking they were funny, but they wrote up a report and are going to be keeping an eye on the place. They also found a lot of drug paraphernalia so they are going to drive into the lot on a regular basis at night to see if they can catch someone.
So is this my new life? If it is, I'm in for a lot of excitement.
I am going to try to take a picture of the sky at 4:00 p.m. each day in January. We'll see how far I get. Here is today's picture. You can tell it's been cold and overcast all day.
I made our annual New Year's dinner -- pork chops, brussels sprouts and sweet potato patties. We had sparkling grape juice that we were going to have last night at midnight, but fell asleep for. And finished up my birthday cake for dessert.
As we were finishing up dinner I heard the Mummers coming back. They were marching down the street and playing their music. I grabbed my camera and ran out. Unfortunately it was so dark all you can see are shadows and lights. But the sound is still good.
So that was my first day of the new year. Tomorrow it's out to Lancaster to share a birthday dinner with my brother, Larry. His birthday is Sunday. Hope you have a good evening.
Kathy
