Here we are at another Friday. Time to pause for a few moments with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to think over the past week and remember the good parts.
1. Jason’s birthday. Always a joy to celebrate his arrival into this world.
Mittu made the cake. Isn’t it cute?
And, because this is the kind of family we are, I have to include Jesse’s photo bomb. 🙂
2. Lunch with a friend. I think this is the first time I’ve gone out with this friend since last fall—because she had a baby in the meantime. 🙂 We’ve been in touch and seen each other at church, but it was good to have an extended visit.
3. A technology fix. My toolbar on my blog went missing, and every time I replied to a comment on my blog, it made me log in again. I asked my oldest son about it, and he sent me this article about Firefox’s Total Cookie Protection. I had gotten a notice from them asking if I wanted to turn off sites’ ability to use tracking cookies. Well, sure. But evidently it’s a little too aggressive. The article showed me how to disable it for individual sites, so I did that on my blog. My tool bar came back and I was able to comment normally again. Plus it seemed to fix the problems I was having commenting on a few sites. It’s definitely a first-world problem, but an annoying one, and it’s such a relief to have it fixed.
4. Safety and electricity. Wednesday night, we had one of the most intense storms I’ve experienced in a long time. Torrential rains and almost constant flashes of lightning, but not much thunder. We lost power for almost 24 hours. A neighbor’s fence was damaged on one side of his yard. A lot of people reported downed trees and branches and flooded roads on our community Facebook page.
We’re pretty well set when the power goes out. Jim has all kinds of camping equipment, and he powered up the RV Thursday morning with its generator for a few hours in order to do some work and have access to make breakfast, dry hair, etc. But it’s still a relief to have everything back on and back to normal.
I’m also thankful he was here. He was due to travel this week, but his trip got canceled.
5. A new discovery. Jim was on the patio one day when he noticed a weird bug flying around and sipping from some flowers in one of the planters. He filmed it in slow motion and showed the rest of us later. It looked like a cross between a hummingbird, a bee, and a moth. Jason looked it up, and it’s a hummingbird moth. I had never heard of them before. Ours was a pretty good size and had clear wings and looked like the ones in these pictures. I wish I could put Jim’s video up, but this is one I found on YouTube:
It’s fun to discover wonders in your own back yard!
Bonus: We watched Timothy for a few hours Monday night while Jason and Mittu had a meeting. He and Granddad enjoyed some Kinect Sports (video game) competitions.
How was your week?
Stray Thoughts 
Love reading your favs. 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!
I enjoyed the photo bomb picture. lol
I’m sorry to hear about that storm you had. Being without power is never fun. Several years ago when Hurricane Sandy went through we were out of power for a full week.
I’ve not heard of a hummingbird moth before. Very interesting.
Wow, cool that you had that exotic creature in your own backyard! Your boys look so much alike (esp. with the similar facial hair) that I had to do a double-take to distinguish birthday boy from photobomber 🙂 On a topic from my place — I had to smile at your comment about kids on field trips. In my days as a teacher, I definitely noticed many times that most kids tend to take museums at a slow run. It’s really frustrating for someone (like me) who wants to read all the info, etc!
Happy Birthday to your boy! Love that picture of the three of them. And of course, you have to laugh at the photo bomb. Mittu is always amazing with her cooking and baking.
Your lunch with a friend reminds me that I need to set up a coffee date with a young mom friend.
Happy weekend to you!
LOVE the photo bomb pic and Happy Birthday to your other son. That cake IS adorable! so creative!!
Ew….that bug……kinda weird! God made some interesting creatures didn’t He??
Lunch with a friend is always a blessing in my book!
HAPPY WEEKEND!
Belated birthday wishes to your son – great cake! Hmm think you can keep the bug thanks lol. Glad you have a back up when the power goes down – I don’t think we realise how much we take it for granted until it’s not there. Enjoy the weekend.
I’m glad you weathered the storm Ok, Barbara. We’ve had those hummingbird moths here but it’s been a few years. I much prefer actual hummingbirds! Happy birthday to your son … the cake is amazing!
Sounds like a good week. I love that birthday cake. Looks like your family was having a fun birthday celebration. Glad you stayed safe in the storm. We have been getting some intense rainstorms this summer as well. Enjoy your weekend.
Happy birthday to Jason! I often have trouble commenting on blogs when I’m in Safari, but not in Chrome. I assume it has something to do with a cookies setting, but I can never figure it out. Maybe I need to check your Firefox link to see if it gives me some new ideas to try! 🙂
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