Mon 07/13/2009 3:58 PM

early july weekend celebrations

I just realized I haven't written anything about how I spent my birthday weekend, let alone this past weekend.

The morning of the 4th (my actual birthday), we woke up early to try to catch the little neighborhood Fourth of July parade in my boss' neighborhood. When we realized we were an hour early (I blame my boss for that), we decided to skip it and take the dogs to the dog park instead. Unfortunately, Vixen took a spill off the back seat of the car on the way, and hurt her leg. When we got to the park and got her out of the car, she seemed okay at first, but after a few minutes she wasn't putting any weight on it at all, so we decided to head back home. (She is still limping a little bit now, but healing gradually.)

Getting my hair all windblown at Beavertail State Park in Jamestown, RI.

Chris kept insisting that he had failed at boyfriendhood and had made absolutely no plans for my birthday, and as the day wore on I was getting antsy to get out of the house, so we eventually got in the car and drove down to Beavertail Point in Jamestown. We took some pictures of the ocean, and toured the lighthouse and the tiny "aquarium", which was really just a room full of fish tanks of the size one would have in their home.

My cute little birthday cake made by Sandra and Tiana. Thanks, girls!

On the drive back, Chris tried to make it look like he was making a casual stop at Joe & Sandra's house to see what they were up to, but as I half suspected, we were actually arriving at my surprise birthday party - the third one to be held at their house! Sandra and Tiana, Joe's sister, made me a cute little cake. My favorite, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, with an added bonus layer of chocolate pudding in the middle, and a "30" written in strawberry slices on top. We spent the rest of the day there, enjoying tasty alcoholic beverages and the beautiful weather (which miraculously cleared up for the weekend after epic rain and thunderstorms for the past month at least). Then the four of us headed down to Newport to crash the party on Joe's dad's boat, and drink some more. (Those of us who weren't driving, that is.)

A delicious piña colada at Ballard's Beach Bar on Block Island.

Monday (the 6th) was my birthday gift from Chris: we spent the day on Block Island, off the south coast of Rhode Island. Now, while I do not have any tendencies toward seasickness whatsoever, I did learn that having a drink on the ferry at 10am with no food in my stomach was apparently pushing it a bit too far. No worries, though, I was fine once we got back on dry land. We headed right for lunch and more drinks (awesome mudslides at the National Hotel). Unless you're into lying on the beach all day, which I'm not, all there really is to do on the island is shop and drink, so that's what we did. And then we drank at the beach. We took the 5:45 high speed ferry back to the mainland, and had dinner at the Mews Tavern in Wakefield.

Me and my goofy boyfriend at the post-tournament dinner.

Last week was a nice, short, three-day work week, as I took Friday off to go help out at the second annual charity golf tournament in honor of Joe's mother, Kat, who lost her life to cancer two years ago. The weather again miraculously came through, as it had gone back to rain as soon as the Fourth of July weekend was over. The tournament went great; we didn't have quite as big a turnout as last year, which is understandable with the economy the way it's been, but still managed to pull in just as much money if not more. The dinner was more fun, an outdoor barbecue as opposed to an indoor sit-down meal. Emotions were very raw last year, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house by the end of the night. This year everyone was better able to laugh and have a good time, which I know is the way Kat would have wanted it.

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early july weekend celebrations

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