I am sitting here at my brother's computer, here in Houston, to post to my Blog. I have been gone since Friday. It's been a long, fun week-end.

I came out for my nephew's 11th Birthday. He had a sleepover at his Mom's and none of the kids got any sleep. We were waiting for him at Sk8 Park in Spring the next afternoon, when his Mom brought him in. He looked like he had lost his best friend...but no, he wasn't depressed, only totally exhausted. He started waking up when his friends started to arrive. I wanted to make sure that I got some skating in myself.

But I started blabbing with the parents for a long time and decided to go and pick up the skates just when they started serving the Pizza...... When the pizza and the coke had all been consumed, the kids headed out to the skate rink again and I went for my skates. I was out there only a short time, just getting my sea legs again , after a long absence from skating(inline), when they announced the Birthday Kids were going to be served Birthday Cake. And soon after that the opening of the presents. It reminded me a little of the Chuck-E-Cheese party they had for my nephew about three years ago...except there was no Chuck-E-Cheese....just a tall fuzzy yellow creature who lured me into the partner dancing phase of the Hokey Pokey. (there were not too many other crazy adults out there on the rink then.) But that was the first opportunity for me to finally get out there to skate.

My brother's fiance took some pictures with her Digital Camera of the day's events, including me in a cozy hug with the Big Yellow Fuzzy .

After the Skate Party we headed home with a totally out nephew, who was deposited on my brother's bed.

I finished wrapping his gifts, and then we all left again for a dinner at Shogun with some parents and kids to celebrate my nephew and another 11-turning child named Meagan. The Shogun chefs were at their performing best flipping grilled chicken(at your table) into the kids' open mouths. That woke up my nephew, as he had been sleeping through the hor'd'oeurves.

I will be leaving tomorrow, Monday to get back home. As I sit here typing away, everyone else is asleep at almost 11:30. For me it still feels like 9:30. (I can never adjust to time zone changes.) Their two cats, Toby and Wolfie are keeping me company. Or rather they are 'sleeping me company'. I will be reluctant to leave because of missing everyone again. But I also miss Luigi and Sammy( my cat) as they did not travel with me.

It's been a nice week-end and although I think of Zeenie on and off and cry intermittently, it was the kind of week-end that kept my mind and body active and a nice reprieve from my mourning.

Thanks for a great week-end!!! Nice to see y'all again!!!!

SleepOver:

Greg
Elizabeth
Ryan
Kim
Corey
Shane
Richey

Sk8 Party:

Pam
David
Pam's in-laws

Shogun:

Mimi
Lee
John
Scott
Kirsti
Meagan