5 Things Friday – Happy Birthday Ted!
- First off, Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, Ted! We will celebrate by taking it easy today, probably going to a movie in the afternoon, then out to dinner tonight. Tomorrow will be a birthday party, with his family and a couple of friends. It should be a fun day! This picture is from Maui in 2021. We went to an early dinner (only reservation I could get was happy hour, the place was very popular) there, and enjoyed the beautiful view. Ted especially loved the gallery downstairs, which sold prints of famous musicians.
- Usually we have beautiful weather for Ted’s birthday, and all week it has been beautiful. Today, for example, is sunny and the high is supposed to be mid-70s. Tomorrow? 85% chance of rain, high of 58. UGH. I normally wouldn’t care, I love cool rainy weather, but there will be about 14 people here, so I was counting on the 6 seats in the back yard. Oh well. Ted says not to worry about it, so I’m not going to worry about it. Our menu is going to be ‘Mediterranean feast’. I’m going to grill lamb, and then everything else is either brought by someone else, or I’m buying it. EASY!
- Speaking of birthdays, Aunt Flo’s 100th birthday party was lovely. It was great to see the family that I love, and get some gossip about the family I dislike. And nice to see the family that I don’t know that well, but I like. I think Aunt Flo was a little overwhelmed, but she was very happy, and enjoyed everyone being there.
- Blogging – Well, I haven’t been around much recently, and there’s no real reason for it other than I’ve been feeling kind of quiet I guess. BUT hey, some of you use a prompt of a Virtual Coffee Date sometimes, and you write about what’s going on in your life right now. When I first started blogging back in 2005, I did it because several of my IRL friends had blogs, and it was fun to keep up with them that way. Well, they’ve quit their blogs and moved away, and we don’t stay in touch the way we used to, so last week I wrote a long ‘Virtual Coffee Date’ text and sent it to them. They LOVED the format, and wrote back to tell me what’s going on with them. Thank you blog friends, for helping me to nourish my IRL friendships!
- I’m still doing Yoga every day. January, I did Yoga with Adriene’s 2024 30 day journey, Flow. February I went back and did her 2015 sequence, which was the first one, and didn’t have a themed name. I missed Benji being there, but she got him in December of 2014, so he’s just a puppy. March was 2016 (Yoga Camp – No Benji), and April was 2017 (Yoga Revolution – No Benji until the end of the month). Now I’m on the 2018 sequence (True), and Benji wasn’t in Day 1, but he was there for Day 2, plopping himself down right where she needed to be. I haven’t seen any of her videos from when she had Blue, Benji’s predecessor, so I don’t know if he was in her videos or not. One thing I really like about daily yoga is learning to concentrate on my breath. In one video, she said something off hand about the ‘ocean sound’ of your breath, kind of like when you put your ear to a seashell. I love that and it has helped me to practice my ujjayi breathing.
I hope you’re having seasonally appropriate weather. Happy Birthday to Nance, whose birthday I remember because it’s the same as Ted’s. I’m going to try to be better about coming around and seeing what you’re all up to.
32 Comments
Ally Bean
Happy Birthday to Ted. It’s nice that you make a deal of it. We just kind of igore our birthdays.
I don’t remember any ‘Virtual Coffee Date’ blog posts and feel like I missed something. I was oblivious to what other bloggers were doing back then, just going my own way. Now with rss feeds I know what everyone is up to all the time. ‘Tis more fun this way.
I admire you for sticking with Adriene’s yoga classes. I don’t know why I resist starting them, but for some reason I feel like I’d disapoint myself if I didn’t do it every day, which is nuts I know.
J
Thanks Allie! The ‘Virtual Coffee Date’ is newer, some of my current blog friends do it. I guess they don’t call it that, they just start their posts with, ‘If we were having coffee…’ and then talk about whatever is going on.
Ally Bean
Oh I remember that. I did that years ago with a blogger named Diane who hosted it weekly. Natalie does it now, I think.
Jenny
Happy Birthday to Ted! And happy belated birthday to Aunt Flo- that’s something aspire to. I hope the party tomorrow goes well- it figures the weather would take a nosedive. But I like your husband’s attitude- yes, don’t worry, everything will be fine!
J
Thanks Jenny! The party was lovely, and though it was pouring rain outside, everything was indeed fine. By Friday it’s supposed to be in the mid to upper 80s. The weather cannot decide what it wants to do. Though of course it’s dry here, not like where you are, so I won’t complain.
Birchie
Happy Birthday to Ted!!!
I’ve been feeling “quiet” blogging wise for the past few weeks. It’s fine.
J
Thanks Birchie, for your wishes and your understanding as well.
Margaret
Happy Birthday to Ted! Those are the best kind of celebrations where there is low stress on the food prep. The weather has been unpredictable here, but gorgeous yesterday. We’ll have a mix of sun and rain in the next week; I like that although many don’t. The Virtual Coffee Date is an excellent idea! Fleetwoods burned, right? I ate lunch in Lahaina but not there.
J
Thanks Margaret! Yes, sadly Fleetwood’s burned, along with so many other businesses (and homes). So horrible.
Daria
Happy belated birthday, Ted! We are *almost* birthday twins – I am May 2nd! Oh and aunt Flo, of course.
It’s perfectly fine to take a little break from blogging. I have never done a virtual coffee date on my blog- yet. Maybe one day. Maybe even today 😉
J
Thanks Daria! Happy belated birthday to you, too!
Elisabeth
Happy Birthday to Ted. I think it’s just fabulous when people make a big deal about birthdays. I’ve only had one really big to-do, but I still think about it often. It made me feel very special.
I’m about to take a little bloggy break – maybe two weeks? I just need to rest my mind (and fingers…haha).
J
Thanks Elisabeth, Ted’s family is big on the get togethers, and it is fun. Growing up, I think we maybe had one birthday party. Celebrations were definitely quieter, and usually meant going out to dinner more than a gathering.
Melissa
I hope Ted’s birthday celebrations were fabulous. That is such a good idea to send a catch-up text of your normal goings on to your friends you can’t see face to face. I keep thinking I should get going on some yoga and am keen to give the 30 day challenge a go at some time but at the moment I have hurt my foot so need to be careful there.
J
Thanks Melissa! Yes, you need to be cautious when it comes to injuries and any new activity. I think for me, if I hurt my foot, I might do my yoga around it if possible, but only because I’ve been doing it for awhile and I think I could probably modify a bit. My friend does chair yoga, her wrists don’t let her do the down on the floor poses.
Kyria @ Travel Spot
Happy Birthday to Ted! A fellow Taurus! I love that you used a blog “meme” to keep in touch with your IRL friends! I actually have a calendar reminder/task every week to “keep in touch” where I just shoot a text to one or two people each week to let them know I am thinking about them. I find it has been good, and also that other people don’t reach out as much sometimes, so I try to be the instigator when I can.
J
Thanks Kyria! Yes, it’s easy to get sucked into being busy and lose touch with people that you care about, which is sad. Good for you for keeping in touch! I like the reminder idea.
Lisa’s Yarns
Happy birthday to Ted! What a great picture of him. He is so handsome! I hope the weather turns out better than expected. It is tough to deal with rain when hosting a group but I am sure you will make it work. After all people love to cluster in the kitchen at gatherings it seems!
A lot of my blogger friends have stopped blogging too. I miss them so much. I should start a group text for updates. A group of us had a private group on Facebook but I am no longer on FB so am extra out of touch.
J
Thanks Lisa, we survived without the back yard seating, and even had a fire in our fireplace. Crazy for May. Of course today the weather is perfect. Oh well. I miss some of my old blog friends whom I only knew that way…sometimes I go back and look at old blog posts and I think, WOW, I wonder what happened to X? And sadly there’s no way of knowing, especially for those who did not blog under their real name.
nance
Thank you, J. How thoughtful you are!
Happy Birthday to my Birthday Twin, Ted. It sounds like he had a nice birthday celebration. Mmmm…grilled lamb. I love that, too.
I’ve had a computer catastrophe–among other occurrences–which has kept me away from my own blog and made commenting on others’ sporadic. I’m just now getting a new laptop up and running. I hope to get things back to normal around here soon.
Your commitment to yoga is impressive. Good for you!
J
Nance, I am chagrined to say that I overcooked the lamb, mostly due to negligance. There was plenty of other food, but if you didn’t like your lamb well done and kind of crispy, this was not the lamb for you.
Oh, computer woes are so frustrating! I hope your new laptop works well and you can post and comment to your heart’s content.
I know I talk about my yoga a lot, but I have been really happy with it. Definitely a change for the better in my life.
NGS
Happy birthday, Ted! My own Ted has a birthday later this month, so I hope to replicate your chill celebration.
Blue did sometimes appear in the videos, so if you go back and do some older videos you might catch a sighting!
J
Happy Birthday to your Ted as well! For some reason I feel like he is also an Edward, like my Ted. Did I make that up?
I’ll keep my eyes open for the older videos and see if I can spot Blue. <3
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Happy Birthday Ted. Sounds like a great party you have planned. I love grilled lamb.
What a wondeful idea to take the coffee dates offline and send it to people IRL to stay up to date. It is s hard to stay connected in our busy and loud world.
I am very ver impressed with your daily yoga. I always wanted to go through Adriennes 30-day things. I have done a couple but neve managed a full month. I used to have list that indicated how long each sequence was and what body parts it was mainly for and which ones i coudl do with a migraine. unfortunately I somehow deleted it and now I am always overwehlemed when i want to choose one. Do you have a favorite? One that is more simple and for beginners?
J
Unfortunately, I overcooked the lamb. 🙁 There was plenty of food though, and some people LIKE crispy well done meat, so it wasn’t a total loss.
Regarding the yoga, no, I don’t have any classes that I think of as favorites. Most of her classes are pretty easy, though occasionally she throws in a difficult pose or a challenging class, and I just modify for my ability. You could try going to one of her 30 day classes and seeing if the Day 8 class is good on a rough day. It’s restorative, so mostly breathing technique and very gentle stretches.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Oh I was not aware that Day 8 usually is a more easy one. I need to remember that.
Ernie
I read this post while on the bike. I find it too hard to comment while on the bike, and then I got distracted so playing catch up on all the blogs I read the other day. Sounds like watching a workout video with the bonus of anticipating what a dog might do during the course of the class would keep things interesting. Happy birthday to Ted. I love that you reached out to retired blog friends and reconnected. I hope the weather people were wrong and the birthday wasn’t full of rain.
J
Ernie, I’ve definitely been there about the commenting, especially blogs where the post comes to my email. Plus I can’t comment on so many using my iPad, I have to pull out a separate computer that I use just for that purpose, so sometimes I read a post and then either forget to comment, or it happens a few days later.
It poured all day for the birthday party. Sunny the week before, sunny the week after, just one day of rain. You know what? Ted was right (he usually is, don’t tell him) and everything was fine.
San
Happy birthday to Ted. I hope you had a lovely get together for his birthday.
And I love that you sent a “virtual coffee date” email to your IRL friends. Blogs have made it easier to stay in touch, but only if people actually blog LOL (so it’s nice you were able to connect with old pals that way!).
J
Thanks San! We did have a lovely celebration, though it was blustery outside. We had a fire in our fireplace, which is unusual for May around here (as you know).
I miss my IRL friends having blogs, it was great to keep in touch that way. Such a different way of communicating.
Anne
Happiest of belated birthdays to your Ted. Not Engie’s Ted. 😉
That is a wonderful picture. And I am sure, whatever the weather was, it was a wonderful party, too. 🙂
J
Thanks Anne! My Ted had a lovely birthday, and yes, the party turned out well (though I overcooked the lamb. Boo!)