Stars make a happy birthday!

It's my birthday (why, thank you), and the fabulous Rich took me (or agreed to go with me, which is pretty much the same thing) to the Dallas Stars' practice and scrimmage this morning. The practices and scrimmages are open to the public all week (maybe all the time, I don't really know), and there are lots of fans showing up. After all, [ahem] it's been a long summer for us.

In any case, thank you Richie! It was lots and lots of fun!

Shingles and nothing to do with a roof

Don't feel like blogging. Have shingles. Ouch. (There won't be any photos with this post. Really.)

My sister has them, too. We've neither one of us had them before, and we were together last weekend. Shingles are impossible to 'catch,' so it's just a bizarre coincidence, but still very, very odd. And...ouch.

Actually I've revived the 'oooph' noise. After my mastectomy, in preparation for breast reconstruction, once a week my plastic surgeon injected saline into my tissue expander. It wasn't excruciating or anything, but it was uncomfortable, and I usually spent the rest of the day exclaiming the occasional involuntary, "Oooph." That pretty well said it all, and it's apparently back.

I don't have a bad case of shingles, but it's bad enough and painful enough to make me feel very, very sorry for people who do have a bad case.

Oooph.

Bananas

Net-Not (or Not-Net; I still haven't decided) was fun this morning. Somehow we started talking about bananas. It turns out that everybody has their own idea of when a banana is perfect for eating, and everybody's idea is different.

Dorothy thinks they should kind of crunch when you bite them. Barry and Linda both like them a little riper than that, but still with a nice overall green tinge to them. I like them when they're all yellow, with lots of speckles (which means, people, that they're going to be sweet; those speckles are caused by sugar, for Pete's sake!). Barry throws them away when they get speckled. Linda recalled that her grandmother ate them peels and all!

In a group that tends to discuss current events, the state of the economy, and other grown-up topics, it was a nice, ever-so-slightly goofy topic.

Next week they're going to report on the five foods they just won't eat.