Snow, Kid-Friendly Restaurants, X & Something For Dale

Whoohoo!  I almost got my wish.  Woke up to snow on the ground this morning, one day before my birthday :)  I always wish for snow on my birthday.  It is most definitely the birthday present of choice.  As a kid, it was the one good thing that you could get for your special day if it happened to fall in the middle of the freakin' winter.  Pool parties, picnics and such being sort of out of the question.  

There was one winter that actually stopped me from wishing for it for a few years afterwards.  My 9th birthday.  It started snowing like crazy on Saturday the 25th.  I had a party that afternoon.  We lived on a big hill then.*  By the time everybody was ready to go home, a couple of dads with four wheel drive vehicles (much rarer then in the late 60's than now) had to take everyone home.  I watched my dad and little brother slide down the hill past our driveway twice before they managed to turn into our drive to park.  Woke up my birthday morning to three feet of white!  It took us all day to tunnel across the street to my friend's house.  We got a full week off of school before it warmed up and melted away.  

Today's snow is already melting away.  They're saying it will get cold tonight and that ice on the roads is going to be a problem.  They're kind of wet now.   Maybe a little snow will stick around and be preserved by the cold tonight.  Not supposed to be getting any more.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and cold and I don't have to work! 

Little Brother is coming up from Eugene today to pick up my sister in law at the airport.  We'll all meet up at a kid-friendly restaurant, Red Robin this time, as there is one out by the airport and he'll have my nearly 8 year old nephew with him.   Dad's coming over from Vancouver as well.  Should be fun and I was thinking about heading out to IKEA anyways.  It's right there too.

Already celebrated my birthday earlier in the week with friends.  The Knitters played Dante's last Wednesday.  Great show!  Was the first time I'd heard them live.  The 4th John Doe related gig I'd been to here in the last year and 1/2.  Heard him live at Dante's solo (with all the hipsters talking through his set - grrrrr), then X had a sold out all ages show at The Crystal Ballroom (glad we were high up in the balcony with good sight lines and out of the mosh pit for that one), then John Doe and Kathleen Edwards at The Aladdin in November (OMG!  their final encore was off-mic standing on the very lip of the stage doing "When Will I Be Loved?"  Freakin' awesome!) and last Wednesday's show from the very front, right under DJ's snare and washkettle kickdrum and mere feet away from Exene rockin' the country girl look in black and white gingham, red tights, a beaded black vintage sweater and two gauzy nylon aprons, one signed by Eddie Vedder and someone else who I couldn't quite make out.  I wish now that I had taken a picture.  She'll be 53 in a week (a fellow Aquarian) and you can see the years on her but she still kicks ass!  And I just bought tickets for X at The Crystal again on April 9th!!!  

Note to Dale:

Robin Williams came first.  And he's still the hairiest.  Bono's.  Just.  What?  I have no idea.

   

*our hill was one of the 10 sledding hills.