The birthday barbeque was a lot of fun. The first thing Mimi did was go over in the side yard and fill a bunch of water balloons. There were 3 friends with Gemini birthdays close together and we celebrated them all.

I took a lot of pictures but the ones I took inside didn't come out, Noel and Valerie will be soooo disappointed. Valerie is a photographer and she hates having her picture taken, Noel is her husband and he hates it too but probably for different reasons. My guess is if you are married to a photographer you get really sick of a camera pointed at you all the time.

I'm also disappointed that the one picture of Gage and his grandpa Sky (one of the geminis) was blurry. With my old eyes it looked so good in the camera.

However, I got this one of Diane, another of the Geminis, and Gage. Diane was showing him the wonders of water balloons, he caught on quick.

Great food, good people and lots of laughter. All birthdays should be like that.

We had a couple of days last week where the temperatures were around 117°, that slows you right down. Not a lot got done those days except laying around in the pool and on the couch in the AC.

Since then it's back down to 106° and it feels nice and cool. I don't think Mimi and I have to worry about losing our 'thin blood' before we return to the Yucatan in August. Even though this is a "dry heat" I think we will be well prepared for the heat and humidity of the Yucatan in the summer. I always forget to take a jacket when I go shopping - come on, who can remember a coat when it is over 100° - and I freeze trying to get the groceries I need and get back outside where it's warm. It's painful standing in the deli section with the coolers around you and I never go into the freezer area. That's also because if I bought anything frozen I'd have to buy ice and get the cooler out to get it home. Yep, our jeep does not have AC. I'm a real desert rat driving around out here with the windows down, I rarely see another car that isn't buttoned up.

Here's a last shot from the party, my niece Poppy, Gage's mother. Just because she is looking so wonderful and it is so nice to have her healthy and happy.