As I usually do on the weekends, I traveled down to my mom's house to visit the family. I usually on stay Saturday night, but since my Tuesday flight to Vegas was leaving from Charlotte, I stayed Sunday and Monday night as well.

Mom and my sis bought me a birthday cake-- chocolate cake and chocolate icing, with cream cheese between the layers. Yum E. AND they put Karsten on the cake instead of Toby. So that made me feel good. Thank goodness I didn't have to blow out 27 22 candles!



My mom didn't invite anybody over, as usual, but I called my uncle and he came over and my grandmother and granfather came over, as well as my dad, my youngest brother, two of his friends, my stepdad, this kid my grandma watches and one of my cousins, my sister and my niece and nephew. The cake was still too big for all those peoples, though. So I took some on the plane with me and ate it from a plastic bag. I was going to wait and eat it on my layover, but I was mad at the kid behind me. He kept kicking my seat, and asking his mom for a cookie. So I thought I'd eat the cake in front of him just because he couldn't have any.

It was the first time, I think, that I've been at my mom's new house in the spring. They bought it last February or March or something. I was in Vegas then. The little forest behind their house has this pretty groundcover (Periwinkle, Vinca minor) that has started to flower. It's much prettier than the normal brown litter. My niece, Kimber, wanted me to take her photo with the flowers.







Since I had a whole day (Monday) to waste, I took my three year-old nephew Colt (named after the gun maker, not the porn company) over to Crowder's Mountain to walk around the lake. When I was in high school, this is where I'd go when I would skip. (No... I never did that.) The trail around the lake is only about a mile long and he walked around it with no problem. He enjoyed seeing the turtles and chasing the lizards and watching the frogs hop into the water as we approached and hearing the geese honk. He also liked throwing rocks into the water and as I was gathering some up for him, I accidentally picked up an ant, too. I didn't notice the ant until the damned thing bit me. For such a little mouth, it hurt like hell.