Happy birthday to me!

Well, yesterday anyway. :) I’m taking a quick lunch before heading back into the fray, but I thought I’d fill you in on the last couple days…

On Tues I went to Long Beach and had Taco Surf with Lauren, Brad (Lauren’s BF), Emily (Lauren’s sister), Antonio (from Croatia), and Kayla (works at Best In Show Daily). We all got along famously and had a great time. The tacos were so-so but the company was top notch, so I can’t complain. :) Kayla had to leave but we were then joined by Berto, Brad’s friend.

The plan after tacos was to go paddle boarding, but when we got there it turned out you had to get certified and blah blah blah so we just went kayaking around Naples Canal instead, drinking “lemonade” (errr, beer) as we drifted with the current. When we got back we all laid out on the beach and worked on our tans as we talked about everything and nothing.

If only my legs weren’t the same color as the sand, I wouldn’t have to wear panty hose at shows

None of us were very committed to any one idea after that, so some of us got Starbucks while others ate more food. Then we all got In N Out (yeah, the guys ate a bazillion times) and hopped into the jacuzzi. Finally I had to leave for the drive home, but only 10min from home I found an Aussie running around an overpass. So I picked her up, called her dad, and sent her on home. A long but very fun day!

Yesterday was my birthday, which was surprisingly awesome. I say surprisingly since I don’t have many friends here, all my family and long-time friends are far away, and I had no plans. First I was greeted with a dog that looked too cute to be real. He obviously used his allowance for injections of Cute-ox.

Whaaat, he’s too cute to be a real dog!

I got dozens of well wishes on Facebook, and it might sound silly but that always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. :) Then I got flowers with a balloon from my mom and grandma, which were beautiful.

Flowers from Mom and Oma

Then I got flowers from my sister and her boyfriend, very lovely.

From Regina and Charlie

I even got a cake and card from Val! And a card from my dad too, possible more on the way from other folks. All in all a great birthday. :) Isaac couldn’t send me flowers because he spent $200 on gas last week (unwillingly) and more on parts for the various broken cars (willingly), but he did text and call. :)

Even though it was my birthday and my day off I washed three show dogs in anticipation of today being insanely busy, but to make the day a little more special I took myself out to the movies. Yeah, a movie by yourself might sound weird but it was actually pretty cool. I could see anything I wanted! I decided to see Rock of Ages, which probably nobody but me and my mom actually want to see. It was a fun movie with great music, plus I thought Tom Cruise (who is totally a weirdo in real life) did a good job.

For dinner I got ribeyes at Costco, sauteed some asparagus, and ate some cake. A very good birthday! And a big thank you hug to everyone who made it so special! Now I have to go help bath more than a dozen dogs, plus finish getting the truck ready and go buy food for some of the show dogs. An assistant’s job is never done… ;)