Gazpacho!

Yesterday, after work, we went to ACME Food & Beverage Company, to celebrate my mom's birthday. Before that, I met my parents at the new house, so I could see the latest progress. The windows were all clean, the counter tops were on, and several lights and ceiling fans had been installed. It's just looks amazing. It's also nice to be able to go there as it's getting dark and still see inside.

We had another delightful dinner at ACME. I had a small plate of fried calamari and fried green tomatoes. It was a nice combination, served with a basil and chipotle dipping sauces. For dessert, I had another strawberry and rhubarb cobbler. It was a late meal, because I didn't even leave work until 7:30.

The final activity of the day was giving my mom her birthday presents. My brother and I got her some Nikon Eagleview 8-24x25 Zoom II binoculars. I have a pair of Nikon 9x25 binoculars that my parents gave me about twenty years ago, but I'll be taking those with me when I move. I wanted to get something a little different, so I thought she might want to try the zoom. I've only looked through them in the house at night, but I was very impressed. I'm looking forward to looking at some turtles across the pond this weekend. My dad got her
a Night Owl Cyclops Compact Night Vision Scope. As far as I know, none of us have tried it out yet, but it looks very cool.

Today I went to Fowler's for lunch with JJ. It wasn't easy making up my mind as to whether I should go. It was such a beautiful day for a patio lunch, but I had way too much to do. I'm glad I made the right decision, because I had a great time, as always, and they had wonderful gazpacho today.

My mom has had an interesting week. Her driver's license expired on her birthday and she went to the DMV to get a new one. When she got her first driver's license after getting married, they shortened her name on the license, because it didn't fix in the space allotted. February 2nd, they tied their database into the social security system and they now require the names to match. They would not give her a new license unless she brought something from the Social Security office that said she was really the person with that particular number. That meant that on her birthday, she had to spend time at the Social Security office trying to get her name changed and then today my dad had to drive her back to the DMV to get a license. Obviously, this is going to be a problem for any woman who has changed her name in any way. One would think that they would be able to warn people when they mail out reminders that the license has to be renewed. I'm very thankful that my full name is only ten characters long!