Thirty-Six...

That was the number of the birthday I celebrated this weekend.  Saturday was the official day but it was officially observed today.  I spent Saturday pretty much as I would any other weekend day.  I took Chili-dog for a walk in the morning, ate breakfast, cut the grass, indulged in my favorite lunch from McAlister's Deli, then pulled out my patio furniture and placed it on my deck.  Later I drove out west to explore the newly-opened Rock Hollow Trail that branches north from the Al Foster Trail, which I blogged about recently.  Rock Hollow goes up, up, up, folks.  It was a cool, mid-60s day with a slight breeze and my legs weren't quite prepared to pedal up the ascent.  I made it up about 3/4 of the way before giving up and coasting back down.  One thing I discovered, though; the stillness.  The quietness.  Almost to the point of creepiness.  I stopped and just listened to the solitude, surrounded by sunlit trees.  If one wanted to get away from it all and just think or get alone with God, that would be the place to go.

Today, I got a nice birthday lunch and family time at the parents' house.  My mom fixed her famous potato salad (famous to me, at least!) and my favorite strawberry cake for dessert.

One unwelcome aspect to this weekend was the sudden allergy attack that hit me.  I felt out-of-sorts pretty much all day Saturday and overnight into Sunday.  Here's hoping it leaves me and that right quickly.

I received a 10-game Cardinals season ticket package for Christmas and my first game was last Wednesday night.  I took my dad and we enjoyed a win over the Astros.  I was not lucky enough to be in attendance at the 20-inning debacle they engaged in with the Mets yesterday.  My friend R. was there on one of her season ticket days with three of our mutual friends from church and they stayed for the entire 6 hrs, 53 minutes of fun.