Birthday

Today I turn 27. I think about birthdays a little differently after having a baby. I think my mom should get at least half the gifts I do. Josh, Ben and I went to the I-44 Swap Meet and then to the Dickerson Park Zoo.

The swap meet was pretty weak today. It's been really hit-or-miss the past few years and I'm not sure we'll be going back for quite a while. You pay $2 to park and it's similar to visiting several dozen yard sales all in one place. Sometimes people sell fresh produce, plants and live animals. Not today, however. I take that back, one guy was selling produce that still had the stickers from the grocery store - not sure what was up with that. We did take home one treasure, a Michaelangelo's David head for $8. We have a modest collection of heads on our living room bookshelf and we haven't made an addition for quite a while. David's eyes are really creepy, but he'll be far enough away I won't notice soon enough.

The zoo was fun but packed. We had a hard time negotiating the paths with the number of people so we didn't make it through the whole park, but I'm sure we will next time.

My parents came over in the afternoon and we took a walk through the woods hunting for wild blackberries. We found about 2 cups worth yesterday and another 2 cups today, give or take. Josh found a great recipe for making fresh blackberry soda and we drank that with dinner last night and tonight. I am hoping he will write a "guest" blog entry about it soon! The hardest part of blackberry hunting was keeping Josh (and myself) from eating all of them before we made it back into the house. The vast majority of our berries are not yet ripe, so we are planning on having a summer full of foraging. Gooseberries are also up for consideration but we still need to learn a little more...


Josh cooked a fantastic dinner - chicken stuffed with prosciutto and fresh basil from the garden, spicy green beans, asparagus, salad and rolls. Eating that great meal outside with the blackberry soda made for such a great birthday!