Birthdays, Broken Ribs, and Broken Teeth

Kimberly's birthday and mine are (a few years) and one week apart, so after celebrating mine last week, it was her turn. Sadly, after the festivities last Saturday night, she tried to wrestle with me and fell off the bed, striking the corner of her nightstand and breaking three ribs in the process. So, she's had a rather painful week of it, though she's definitely improving.

On her birthday eve, we ventured to our regular Friday afternoon hangout, Hamlet Kitchen, where our friend Yvonne popped in to visit with us. Then we went for an excellent sushi dinner at Yamato Japanese Restaurant, which really hit the spot since it's been a long while since either of us have had sushi.

 

Yesterday, to begin her birthday festivities, we went up the street to visit briefly with friends Joe & Callie, who had helped celebrate my birthday last week. They have this thing called "Meat Day," for which they open their doors to just about anyone who dares enter, and Joe grills a variety of meats all day long. Brugger is not much of a Meatosaurus, but I am, so we sampled a few of the treats, which were awesome, and even Ms. B. approved.

 

From there, we headed to Greensboro, first to our regular hangout from our days in North Carolina, State Street Wine Company, and then for dinner at Pangaea Bistro, which we'd never tried before. Here, we met friends Terry & Beth, Joe & Suzy, and the "other" Mark & Kim. Yep! We definitely enjoyed the dining experience here...except, right at the end of the meal, I took a bite of very soft potato and broke a fucking tooth. Lower molar, busted right in two. So a trip to the dentist will be on the menu very shortly. Uggh.

 

To finish off the evening, we decided to return to State Street, where we hung out long enough to have another drink. We mellowed there for a good while so we'd have no worries about heading back home.

So, apart from unexpected body parts breaking, Brugger and I had damn nice celebrations this year. After all these years of birthdays, I think she's finally older than I am. Cheers!

New Banner for Authorcon

With Scares That Care: AuthorCon VI coming up next month in Williamsburg, VA, I figured I should make a new, updated banner for my vendor space in the main ballroom. In a vast area with several hundred exceptional writers packed in, visibility is paramount, and while I'll keep using my older banner for the front of the table, I hope a nice tall one will help pinpoint my location in the room.

The con runs from February 27 to March 1, 2026, at the Doubletree by Hilton Williamsburg. Scares That Care is a charity that, in its twenty years of existence, has raised and donated nearly a half-million dollars to organizations and families with a child affected by illness or burns, and women fighting breast cancer. A substantial percentage of the proceeds from AuthorCon go directly to the charity.

Yesterday, there was a geocaching event at The Cheesecake Factory in Greensboro, and since we needed to run a few errands down yonder, Ms. B. and I decided to attend. She tells me that I have been to The Cheesecake Factory before—a few years ago with friends—but I have no recollection of this. I suspect that she might have drugged me while she picked up copious amounts of cheesecake from the place and then, in case I had some vague memory of the dastardly deed, decided to bamboozle me by insisting I'd been there myself. I think not. We ate some good, if monstrously overpriced food. The geocaching company was excellent.

 

After the event, Ms. B, had some errands to run in town, including a trip to Costco. And once the necessities were concluded, we hied ourselves over to Cooper's Hawk Restaurant and Tavern to sample their spirits (excellent), and then State Street Wine Company, which, when we lived in Greensboro, was a nearby, always enjoyable venue to snag a few drinks. It is, of course, considerably farther away now, but whenever we visit Greensboro, if State Street is open, that's where you'll find Brugger and Rainey.

 

So, it was a nice outing to our old hometown. I'll be going back next week for a dentist appointment. Not quite so fun.

Yours Sincerely, Wasting Away

I guess you could call it a landmark birthday, basically by way of a Beatles song. That look of the dude in the photo is when your body turns 64 but the rest of you is something like half that. That's the lord's truth.

It was a pretty pleasant day, which helped blunt some of the stress I bitched, moaned, and whinged about about in my previous blog entry. Geocaching on my birthday is a longstanding tradition, so I headed solo over Burlington way to pick up an even ten that have been lurking over there for a little while now. Some of them were considerably more than a walk in the park, so I had a nice time of it. On a somewhat sad note, my old friend and longtime geocaching partner Old Rob is more than a little under the weather, and it has the potential to remain an issue for some time to come. I'm sending out every good wish for him, and I hope you will too, whether you know him or not. He's several years older than I, but I remember like it was yesterday when he turned 64 and placed a geocache titled after that same Beatles song. I believe it's still out there in the wild, so it's almost tempting — almost, I say — to revisit it for old times' sake. I've been revisiting quite a few older caches lately, some of my own to perform maintenance, and some others just for the sake of hiking.

After Brugger got off work the afternoon, we ventured over to State Street Wine Company for a few celebratory drinks. It's become one of our primary go-to establishments since it's so close to home and the folks there are very personable. Rather than go out to dinner (we have dining-out plans with friends Terry & Beth and Joe & Suzy on tomorrow night), Brugger and I made Thai spring rolls, which was my dinner request. They were awesome.

All in all, a mellow day, and under the circumstances, that was just what the doctor ordered. We'll see how it goes in the coming days and weeks. Peace out.