Birthday

Was yesterday. Nothing notable or special, like most of my birthdays. In fact, I can't recall anything special about any of my birthdays that connect with a particular "milestone" year. This is mainly due to the crappy timing of it - people are out of town somewhere with family (in college or early working years), or the people you work with are not working due to vacations. Friends often are saving their partying for the following night, New Year's Eve (aka Amateur Night), and money is tight due to the Christmas binge.

I made a nice chocolate cake from scratch. I remember thick dense chocolate cakes from my childhood, and this one was moister and not quite so dense. I used cake flour which probably lightened things up a bit. Dinner was a nice chicken stir fry with the obligatory spicy peanut sauce. Lots and lots of veggies - bok choy, broccoli, red and yellow peppers, onions, finely diced jalapeno, ginger with black bean marinade on the chicken. Yum!

Sisters-in-law gave me Rock the 80s Guitar Hero, so I have a whole new bunch of songs to work out on. Plus it is their generation so they can sing along. Last night, too, my wife took up the guitar and was getting into playing the three chord staple Smoke on the Water. A game for the whole family indeed.

Today, not so fun. Mother-in-law has a lot of back and leg pain, and the only option is looking like spinal fusion surgery. I was sent as a stabilizing force - in other words I was not likely to start crying when discussing risks and options. She is walking with a cane, but soon might be wheelchair bound. The surgery is major and would last over 5 hours, with weeks of recovery, but it would hopefully relieve her of the constant pain. On the other hand, she also needs/could use knee replacement, and letting leg muscles atrophy during recovery from the back surgery could just make that worse. She has been talking about moving into a home - or assisted living if that makes it better. I don't like the idea. It seems like the people in those places are not just lacking mobility but many are not quite all there in the head, which is not mom.

Now to call a friend to drag her to the Y to work out. Tonight we are visiting some friends having a family game-night get together for New Year's. Not sure how long we will stay, as youngest doesn't stay up past 830 much of the time. It promises to be fun, though.