Too much birthday

Way back when Jillian was a little girl she loved the Berenstain Bears books.  One of those books was "Too Much Birthday".

That's kind of how I'm feeling today.  Big birthday celebration this past weekend.  Lots of food, drink, and cake!

It all started Friday after work when a new friend invited me to Phantom Canyon for beer and billiards.  Billiards?  I have never picked up a pool cue in my life, but I told her I was game for it if she was up to teaching me.

It was so much fun!  I can't believe I've let the first 55 years of my life go by without having played pool before.  She was an awesome and very patient teacher too.

Afterwards we walked downtown to a great restaurant where I had salmon tacos.  Yum!  The best part of the evening was getting to know Leigh better and realizing how much we have in common.  It's great when you find a kindred spirit...doesn't happen very often.

Saturday morning starting with a gift of super hero, wonder woman socks for the St. Patrick's 5K that the city put on for my birthday.  I'm pretty sure that socks with capes make you run doubly fast.

 

There must have been a printing error on the shirts this year because nowhere on them could I find "Happy Birthday Ellen".  I hope they get that fixed before next year.

 

 

It was a little chilly at race time at 41 degrees, but it warmed up quickly.  Mr. Beans isn't pictured with us because he wanted to start up front where the 5 minute milers start.  The only problem was that he ran about a 13-14 minute pace and he only finished 8 minutes in front of his "old" Grammy.  I'll catch him yet!

 

 



Here's an action shot of my really cool socks.  Shiloh was wearing his Robin socks.  We were super cool super heroes!

 

 

This is, of course, one of my favorite signs along a race route (sorry about the shadow).  This race has been going on for years and it's the only one I go to that doesn't have a single water stop or water/snacks at the end of the race.  I really think they could improve in that area.

 

 

There's Jillian trying to catch me.  Run faster!  This was Jillian's last St. Patrick's race in Colorado Springs.  We aren't going to talk about that now though (heart is breaking). 

 

 

Here's Mary crossing the finish line.  She's looking to see who's behind her too.  Mary did a fantastic job and took about 10 minutes off her time from last year. 

 

Afterwards we had margaritas and Mexican food and watched some of the parade out the restaurant's window.  It was 11:00 by then, plenty late enough for a margarita don't you think?  Then we had to make our way back to the car which was on the other side of the street across the parade route.  I'm not sure I've ever seen so many people downtown.  Luckily, the parade was quite lame and there were huge breaks in-between entries so we were finally able to get across.

 

 

 

Mary made me a delicious birthday cake and made me take it home.  Irv made me a red velvet birthday cake too.  I guess I'll be doing a 5K every day for the next month or so to work all the cake off my hips!

 

After getting cleaned up, my coyote and I went to our painting lesson.  My teacher says I'll be finished with it in two weeks.  Thank goodness--I am so tired of painting fur.

 

I met Irv for dinner at PF Changs and then we went home and had more cake.

 

Needless to say, yesterday I just stayed home and tried to come down from my food/sugar overload.  I never eat that much in a single day.  It was fun, but maybe too much birthday.  That's crazy...you can never have too much birthday!

 

Thank you everyone for making me feel so special on my b-day!