darkemeralds. So begins my 56th year

My sister and her BF invited me on an impromptu drive out the Columbia Gorge in the morning. We stopped at Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint...

...where it was extremely windy.

We made a brief and chilly pilgrimage to Wahkeena Falls (the place where my father's ashes were long ago scattered).

The sky was wonderful.

And so is my phone! OMG! I got to exploit some of its massive powers:

Mike: "Is that Washougal over there?"
Me: "I have an app for that...let me check." *turns on GPS* *looks at map* "Why yes! That is Washougal over there, Mike!")

Mike: *points to map window sticker on a parked car at Wahkeena Falls* "What country is that?"
Me: "I have an app for that." *turns on Google Goggles and scans the window sticker* "Why, that is Vietnam, Mike." *checks Google maps* "Along with Cambodia and Laos."

My birthday evening consisted of a quiet dinner with my mom, whose options for getting out and about when the wind is cold are limited, so I fired up the car and brought her over and served up some rich, hot boeuf bourguingon and smashed spuds, and we had a celebratory scoop of ice cream, then, whee! went shopping at Fred Meyer's, where I purchased a glamorous new iron. (You know...that thing you plug in and use to make wrinkles go away on your clothes?)

Dinner was agreeably interrupted by a call from my old pal John in Hastings (as in The Battle Of), who had stayed up till 1:00 a.m. his time in England to call me at an hour convenient to me. He always was a gentleman, that one.

vampirefan and I chatwatched Friday's Supernatural with much "WTF"ing and "Huh?"ing (still confused--another muddled-feeling episode, I thought). It is always fun to chatwatch with

vampirefan.

My niece in New York City called me at 9:00--midnight for her--as she was on her way home from work. She sounded a bit discouraged at the difficulties a 20-year-old faces in starting life in a new, huge, and expensive city, but it was wonderful to hear her voice.

I rounded off the evening by recording an hour of Blue Skies From Rain, then watching the Merlin season finale, which I liked a great deal (though I was hoping Merlin might come out of the closet, magically speaking, and I find that I cannot explain Gwen/Arthur by any of the evidence the show has presented to me so far). I'm excited for Series 4, which I understand is more than a year away. Ack!

Not exactly a party animal, I know (well, I never was), but I had a lovely, lovely day from start to finish, and I hope everybody else's birthdays will always be as nice as mine was yesterday.