Those of us who were free gathered together to celebrate Melanie's birthday. I will not tell you what birthday it was, but I will note that when I was a young adult, we feared this birthday above all others. The belief among young people was that no matter how good a person was before they hit this birthday, once they reached it, the ways of the world would overtake them and they could not be trusted after that.
Hell.
Melanie can still be trusted.
Now I will move write along, writing very little, because I have already spent quite a bit of time editing, preparing and placing pictures and I do not have time to write much. So I won't. Because if I write words that I do not need to write, it will just eat up my time, so why should I write such words that waste time when I do not need to write them?
So I won't write much.
Just a little bit.
Not much at all.
Because it would waste time.
And I do not have time to waste.
So I will write very little today.
I will just show you the pictures.
And not worry about writing many words.
That would be a waste of time when all that you need to know is in the pictures.
Well, maybe are other things that should know, too - like how to do math, for example.
Math is a good skill for anyone to have.
Here is Lavina, making frybread.
Once must have some comprehension of math to make frybread.
Otherwise, one might make 100 frybreads, when one dozen would do.
Or use 6 teaspoons of salt when one would be just right.
Kalib entered carrying his spatula, but then laid it down. I picked it up. He did not quite know what to think about that.
Melanie prepares her Navajo/Apache taco.
The tacos were damn good.
The day before, Rex had submitted his entry for a grant to help him with a sculpture that he hopes to create and then display at Burning Man in Nevada this summer. Unfortunately, due to some computer shenanigans, much of his proposal did not get submitted. Only a piece of it.
Anyway, this is model of only a piece of what he hopes to create. In the real thing, this salmon skeleton will be five foot long and there will also be a whole salmon, concrete, five feet long and a number of other elements as well.
His sculpture will cover some significant space.
I hope he gets the damn grant.
Melanie was presented with two birthday cakes, not one. I am not sure why. I did not ask. I know Charlie made one of the cakes. I'm not sure who made the other.
Lisa made the frosting.
We ate the cakes with vanilla ice cream and they were damn good.
Afterward, she opened gifts.
All of the gifts were damned good.
Charlie gave her a damned good book titled "Cats Are Wierd." Not withstanding the fact that it is a damned good book, I take exception to the title.
Cats are not weird. As you can see, Diamond is as normal as normal can be.
Bear Meach is not weird.
Melanie observes Bear Meach being normal as Rex and Margie wash dishes.
Kalib studies Poof. "This cat is not weird," he would have proclaimed, had the proper words come to him to thus proclaim.
Perhaps it is little boys, not cats, who are weird.
Jobe goes for Poof, who is not weird.
The Three Musketeers showed up: Carl, Charlie and Bryce. They did not bring their swords. I was disappointed. I wanted to borrow a sword to cut the cake.
As the party drew towards its wild conclusion, Kalib crawled up to see his mom.
Two of my children, paired off. Lisa came late to the party, because she is carrying such a heavy load between being a full time student and full time job, and taking on extra tasks to help pay for it all.
She must deal with stress.
And then, as always happens, the time came to say goodbye, see you later.
Always this time comes.
What a fine thing it has been these past 30 years to have Melanie as my daughter.
An absolutely fine thing.
Oh, dear! I was not going to say, "30 years," but I did.
Even so, I trust her.