Happy birthday to me! (PS added) in Another Open Diary refugee

It's friday and the cupboards are pretty bare... and it's my birthday. John had to work a long hard day today, but he stopped at Publix on his way home and brought me home a gorgeous birthday cake, a little vase of roses (extra thoughtful because we don't have a vase to put flowers in and these roses came with their own specimen vase), and a roast chicken for dinner. After nine years of marriage he seems to have 'got it' - I am a romantic at heart and flowers and candy or cake from my husband make my heart sing... he also got me a little beanie baby yesterday, so I put it into the photo. I didn't want to sit home all day and he had another long drive with very little work so I went with him, and when we stopped to send his parts back at Fed-Ex, they had these adorable beanie babies by the counter... sorry the photos blurry but my hand is hurting badly today and I couldn't hold the phone still enough to take a good shot in the poor evening light, but of course I wanted to take the photo before we cut the cake. :) It was every bit as decadent as it looks too...

Now let's see if I can manage to get the photo to show up here from blogger so you don't have to go over there to open it...

PS. I just went onto Amazon and spent half of my very generous birthday money! It seems like a lot to spend in one fell swoop but I had most of the stuff already chosen and waiting in my gift basket for me to get some money to buy them! I ordered the lavender walker (I love metallic lavender just as much as pink and it's not quite so 'in your face'), a little solar-powered turtle lawn decoration (with glow-in-the-dark shells) to put by the front door, two cute birdy pulls for the ceiling fans, and lastly a $50 set of carpeted kitty steps for Scouty. She's heavy, short-legged, and I wouldn't be surprised if she's getting arthritis in her hips. She has increasing difficulty jumping/pulling herself up on things. She mostly uses brute force and her claws, and it's not good for her OR the furniture! I've had a kind of 'kitty step' of a couple of stacked boxes beside the desk, but sometimes she balks at using them - if she's going fast enough, she has no trouble jumping up them, but if she's slower she kind of gets halfway and then gravity pulls her back down to the floor and she sits there looking forlorn... If the steps work out we might get another set for the bedroom so she can get onto the bed without clawing up the quilt. Anyway, that's where half my birthday money went in five minutes... now I can't wait to get my toys! (and if I don't like them, I can always send them back and get a refund...)