mamadeb

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the birthday greetings, plus the mazel tovs for my mother. I had an interesting day yesterday.

It started with presents, of course.

Then I picked up a rental car. I loved this car, a 2006 Camry, if only because of the automatic seats. I was able to get the seat just the right height and just the right distance from the gas/brake pedals and, of course, the back straight up. It was more cool than the day I discovered that shoulder belts are adjustable so they don't have to cut into my neck. So I could see and I could reach the pedals and I was comfortable.

And then, unfortunately, we went to a funeral. This was for a friend's grandfather, but there were family issues and we thought he'd like to see someone NOT family there. Turns out that his grandfather was a big guy at his own shul, and therefore the funeral parlor chapel was PACKED. Which is a testimonial to the man. And the eulogies from the sons and grandsons and wife were tear-filled and heart-felt, and the family issues didn't come up - my friend wanted to mention them but he was talked out of it. And a good thing, too.

(Minor adventure in parking before hand - the funeral parlor lot was filled so I was directed to a nearby free municipal lot, just in back of the parlor, but I parked nose-in, and I was supposed to back in. I tried that, but I've never backed into a parking spot and I was nervous and driving a rental car, so I gave up. I found street parking fairly close by. Parallel parking I can do.)

Then we were off to Queens for a housefilk at

sdelmonte and

batyatoon's. The place was packed with people not just from NY but from New England, too, so it was a lot of fun.

debwunder taught me to spin with my new spindle. And, when it came time for dinner (during a Contata concom meeting), the hosts paid for my dinner as birthday girl. I also got treated to "Happy Birthday, UH!", which I'd expected but was cute.

There was also the long distance filking - M.A.S.S. F.I.L.C. was having a meeting at the same time, so we called them and sang "Swing Low, Sweet Double A" to them, and they, after we arranged for two cellphones with speakers, sang "Barrett's Privateers", where we proved it's impossible for filkers to hear that song and not sing with it.

Finally, we drove

mikestruffles and his son Liam home, where I proceeded to hopelessly tangle my sock yarn.