July 1 Was my Birthday!

Picture album: Linky!

Well, another year has snuck up on me. I’m now… 28? So… that’s… neat. I dunno. I guess after a while, birthdays don’t mean too much anymore. I’ve been able to drive for 12 years, been able to vote for 10, legally drinking for 7 years and the 26th birthday resulted in slightly lower insurance rates. So… what do I have to look forward to now as far as birthdays? Social Security? That won’t exist by the time I’m old enough… Retirement? That’s a long way off. Oh well. It was still a good day.

For a while, I’ve wanted to go around and take pictures of some of the Church signs around here… Something about being in this area of the US means that churches normally have some really GREAT fire and brimstone messages on their signs. One of my favorites that I’ve seen recently is “Stop, Drop, and Roll doesn’t work in Hell.” So After Virginia made me a lovely pancake and bacon breakfast in the morning, we laid around for a bit, watched the latest episode of True Blood, and hopped in the car to go take some pictures. For the most part, the church signs were disappointing. As a reminder for next year, I shouldn’t wait until my birthday to do something like this. As we get closer to Independence Day, the church signs become less fire and brimstone, and more patriotic. The below church signs are about the best we saw.

Hmm… Jesus wants to spend the night? Did his mother say it was ok? As long as it’s ok with his parents, it’s fine with me. Will he be coming for dinner? Should I set out an extra plate?

Here’s my little sinner. She’s definitely adding up to be big trouble…

Since Church signs were a bust, we stopped off outside of Damascus and spent a little time on the Virginia Creeper trail… or, the Creepy Virginia trail… It is a rather nice trail, but to take full advantage of it, some bicycles will be necessary… so, an upcoming goal is for Virginia to learn how to ride a bicycle.

After taking pictures and driving around, we cam back to the apartment, where Virginia made me a lovely birthday dinner of pasta and shrimp, and then topped it off with my favorite… A plain pound cake. No icing, no craziness. Just plain. Man do I love a pound cake. One of these days though, I might have to try making the Paula Deen pound cake… I think it requires a bucket of butter, a pile of Crisco, and maybe some bacon grease. It was a good birthday though, nice and laid back, relaxing, just how I like it.

We’re heading to VA for Independence Day and Virginia’s Birthday. I should have some good pictures and stories to post from that.

As an added bonus… here’s a picture of a bird taunting Gracie… the bird must have been around the block a few times… Gracie would attack the glass, and the bird wouldn’t even flinch… This went on for a good 15 minutes.