One of the many things I love about Europe, and now Quebec, are the adorable store signs. The one above wasn’t one of those, but I just couldn’t pass it up. It was painted on the side of a building in Montreal and I think it is the cleverest thing. I have saved the best for last, be certain to scroll to the end… enjoy!

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For my actual birthday dinner a week ago today, Dave and I went to Chef Martin Picard’s world-famous Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, Canada. Au Pied de Cochon which translates to “The Pig’s Foot” was famous even before it went into the stratosphere of “famous” after Anthony Bourdain featured it on his show over 2 years ago. The entire video is quite fun to watch, but if you want to cut to the chase, go to marker 9:05 to watch the “duck in a can” being served to Mr. “already stuffed beyond imagination” Bourdain.

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STAND UP and…

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My gorgeous friend forever, Laura, and me – Happy birthday to YOU!

Before I get to the details of the surprise party mentioned in yesterday’s post; I want to send birthday wishes to my dearest friend, Laura Heffron. Laura and I (pictured above) have been friends since high school, when we discovered our birthdays were only one day apart, added together, we have been alive for 100 years!  Laura was my maid-of-honor 25 years ago and is Marissa’s godmother. I was a bridesmaid at her wedding and am godmother to 2 of her 3 sons. Happy Birthday, Laura! I love you!

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Today is my birthday. Normally I wouldn’t make a special note of it (yeah, right!) but today is a big one. I’ll let you figure it out from the picture above. It’s already been a week-long celebration. My sweet sister, Sloane, took me out to a very special dinner at Elements at The Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain.

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I exercised my “God-given” right to brag about my child back on September 30th and told you that Connor was going to have a comic strip in the NAU weekly newspaper… remember that?  Here is a follow-up – above are the first two of his Ticks and Lima Beans strips published. Yeah, Connor!

David had business to attend to in Flagstaff on Monday, so we spent last weekend there, visiting our artist and humorous son. It was such a joy and relief to get out of the warm, honestly – more like hot, weather in Phoenix! We did a little eating, a little sightseeing, and I did a little cleaning of the nasty dorm room – eww!

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Happy birthday to my husband of 25 years, David! As is our tradition, I will be taking him out for a birthday dinner at a “surprise” restaurant. Since I can’t say where that is yet, I shall post a few pictures instead. The one above is Dave with two of his favorite people in the world, Connor and Marissa. The first one below is from October 1985, the first year of our marriage.

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Sometimes a proud mom just has to brag about her children. Today is one of those days, so please bare with me. The picture below is from Connor’s 18th birthday (he is now 19  1/2 years old) and he had just blown out the candles from his favorite kind of cake, which would best be called “chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate!” I am posting this picture and the recipe for the cake, not because we celebrate half birthdays around here,  but because I want to tell you how proud I am of my son.

Connor will have a weekly comic strip in The Lumberjack, Northern Arizona University’s newspaper! So very cool! His older sister, Marissa, who recently graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Arizona, wrote for her newspaper, The Wildcat, and now Connor will be published too. Marissa is equally proud of her “little” brother, as you can see by yesterday’s post on her blog, as seen HERE.  Yes, she beat me to it, and that kinda makes me doubly proud of both of them. xoxo

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