A post in which we go to Columbia

Tuesday, February 7 is Cole's birthday. Although I had spoken to him on the day, what with the squinky arm and all I didn't get a card in the mail. I had heard from Lisa that we were tentatively scheduling a birthday lunch for today. When I talked to Eve yesterday, she said they planned to leave at about 10am. I accordingly set my alarm, got up, had breakfast and my pills, and got ready.

Then I found the texts from Eve from the night before that first everything had been up in the air again (both Lisa and Cole suffer from a real problem with scheduling), and then that the time had changed. We were having an early supper, and weren't leaving until 2:30pm.

Now there was a golden opportunity to make lunches for next week, or at least go to the grocery store, both of which needed to be done. Unfortunately I ended up squandering that time fooling around online. It happens.

We drove down and met Lisa, Cole, and Ava at a Japanese restaurant (huzzah!). Lisa looked great. Cole, bless his heart, has inherited the skin and acne problems prevalent in my mother's family (as did I). He's going to be a good looking boy when he grows out of it, but his face is pretty torn up at the mo. But he seemed happy to see us, and I was silently thankful for his evolving tastes. The meal today made up for spending his first birthday party at Chuck E Cheese being entertained by frightening animatronic animals that disconcertingly looked as if they slumped dead on the stage between shows.

We enjoyed a pleasant meal, and Ava seemed blessedly pretty normal after spending the weekend with her dad. She's been strangely subdued after her visits, and we've been worried. Maybe there is nothing bad wrong there and she's adjusting.

Today, she was climbing around like a monkey as usual, but suddenly stopped and said, "Uncle Steve!! You're fuzzy!" Then she started petting my head, chanting "Fuzzy, fuzzy, fuzzy!" Not only was it preciously cute, it emphasized that yes, blessedly, my hair and my beard are making appearances of trying to grow back out! I've really missed them. I'm also looking forward to having eyebrows and pubic hair again. I'm just sayin.

By the time we drove back home (Dad drove, in deference to my arm and the long ride) I was pretty tired, but I still had errands to run before I could go to bed. I stopped at two stores on my way home, ran to the post office, and then improvised something to take for lunch next week before I turned in.