The 17th of Ireland

Thank you everyone for the many birthday wishes.  Got phone calls from all 3 of my kids.  Thank you for the birthday cards, the one Roger &; Vanessa sent with Marg and the two that arrived by mail; one from Char &; Phil, the other from Bill & Patti.  It is a great comfort for me to know I have not been forgotten, LOL!
  We started off working up at the unit.  I finished up the stuff in the bathroom and then we got the new vanity in the room.  Cut the hole in the bottom for the plumbing lines, almost perfect as it turned out.  One of our neighbours, Sheldon, stopped by to drop off his brad nailer.  As it turns out, it is a very good one and the delivery was an unexpected bonus.  I have had so many offers of tools, just another reason why we are in this park; the people are great.  Marg painted the walls with a primer, as the paneling has some kind of wallpaper finish on it and I am concerned about how well it covers.  While I was out, she caught her hand on a nail just as Kenny came along and by then was bleeding pretty bad.  After a bit of panic, he came up with a band aid [plaster for my UK family] for it to stop from getting blood all over.  When she got back the to m'home, I got her to put iodine on it and she said that hurt worse than the cut in the first place.  Suck it up buttercup, it's for the best.
  I picked up some quarter round that is a pretty good match to the laminate and started putting it around the living room.  I have seen several examples in other units of using this and think it's going to work better than baseboard.  While I was out working with the power mitre saw, a small lizard was in the back of the carport in the cool shady area and tried to escape by running up the wall  and then all around the place.  Researching it later, it turns out it was an Arizona desert Whiptail lizard and is a member of the Gecko family.  It seemed to be all tail, as the tail was about twice the length of the body.  In the end it ran along the wall of the Arizona room on out back, causing quite a fuss with the neighbours dog.
  It seemed like we were just getting started when it was time to quit, so we could have showers before the dinner.  Tonight half of the Phoenix area was eating corned beef and cabbage, something of a tradition in our RV park.  The table we sat at filled up quickly and was  fun bunch.  The meal was great and there was lots of food, followed by a dish of ice cream with crème de menthe on it, for the green touch.  There were probably 150 people in the rec hall for dinner.

  In addition to beer, I took my shot glasses and a bottle of Crown Royal.  They created quite a stir as no one had ever seen anything like them before; nor were they familiar with the origin of the term shot glass and the idea of numbers on the bottom of each glass that you could read after drinking the contents.  Doris was number one and she wouldn't let anyone forget it.  Most everyone at the table had a shot, some like Kenny two and then Stan, Jerry & I were in the multiples.  Jerry claimed 6, but who's counting?  Gave shots to 3 different Smith's, so felt like I was sharing with my son-in-laws namesakes anyway.  The whole thing was a big hit.

  After dinner we went to Bingers for a patio party.  Pretty funny as the pastor and his wife came over and joined us for a while.  I think Jerry was concerned with his whiskey breath while the pastor was there, but that ship had sailed long before.  Then Marg had cheesecake for us back at the m'home for birthday cake, thanks darling.  I think I am weary now, I think bed is calling me.  Oh yes, it was a beautiful warm day, 86F/30C I think.