B's birthday weekend

My husband was born on Mother's Day.  And it hit this year on Mother's Day again (sidenote: the 8th is the earliest date Mother's Day can fall because it's the second Sunday in May).  However, I am not a mom yet (except to some plants on our patio), so there was no conflict of interest.  I let my wonderful husband choose all the activities for the weekend, and I think he chose pretty well!

On Saturday morning, we went kayaking on base (renting from the same marina where we took the sailing lesson).  Kayaking was also on my list (unbeknownst to B), so I'm happy I got to check it off!  I convinced him that we should get a double kayak just in case I had a panic attack again.  It was such a beautiful day here in Pensacola, and we spent a lovely two hours paddling around the Bayou Grande.  On our way back, we even saw some dolphins and paddled up near them.  That was definitely the highlight of the weekend!  In addition to the fact that it only cost us a whopping $4 to rent that kayak!  I would definitely love to go again--and maybe even get a waterproof camera along in case of more dolphin sightings.



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Saturday night, B chose a restaurant to go out to (more of a mom-and-pop diner near the Alabama line), and then we went to check out the Greyhound races they do here.  I know some animal lovers will probably get on me about supporting this, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but it was interesting to see.  I kind of have a "when in Rome" mentality sometimes, which is why I went to watch a bullfight when I was in Spain.  I had also been to horse races up at Colonial Downs in Virginia and actually enjoyed it a lot.  The Greyhound track here had the same kind of betting system, but the place was a freakin' dump.  It was a beautiful night, so I wanted to watch the races outside, not from behind the big window.  Well, the overhang from the roof was leaking and there was nowhere to sit outside near where the finish line was (most people were just out there to smoke), so we just stood there by our lonesome.  A poker room took up half of the building--which is apparently open 24 hours a day on the weekends--and there were tons of cars in the parking lot.  I guess most of them were playing poker because the people watching the dog races seemed to be few and far between.  We stayed for 6 races, placing dinky $2 bets on each.  We ended up spending a whopping $10 and leaving with half of it.  When we got in the car to leave, I commented, "I felt over-dressed in that place . . . and over-educated also."  Come to think of it, I feel like that a lot in this town.

These things were huge!

On Sunday, we did our usual church thing and then took B to get his birthday present.  A new suitcase, which he had to pick out himself.  After that, we came home and I made his birthday "cake": homemade cream puffs!  (and 2 eclairs).  I had apparently stumbled upon and bookmarked this tutorial online, which inspired me (don't know how I found it--I still don't follow that blog).  This blog doesn't actually give a recipe with measurements though, but I found this one in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and I highly recommend it (Betty didn't have one--shocker, I know!).  Yes, I mixed it by hand, and yes, it was a workout.  But it wasn't terrible.  I did use the pudding/Cool Whip combo for the filling and chocolate frosting for the top, because it was just plain easier and tastes just as good.

28 isn't too old for blowing out candles, right??