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Sue's Birthday Celebration 10/21/18

To start Sue's Birthday Celebration off properly, we loaded Beau into the car and headed off for a hike up Blue Job mountain in Farmington.

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Sue and Beau bearing up under the blasts of cold wind on top of Blue Job mountain.

It was a really windy and blustery Fall day. Temperature was only 38, and with the wind blowing, we both took jackets with us. And good thing we made that decision as it was really cold on top of the mountain.

The wind must have been howling all around us at 25 to 30 mph, maybe a little higher in gusts. I had to pull the hood of my jacket over my ball cap to keep it from flying off. Even then, there were gusts where I had to hang onto it or the wind would have blown my hood right off, and the hat with it! It was cold!

Around 1:00 pm, we took Beau with us for a magical run to the dump (which he really likes to do!), and then to the store to do the food shopping. Of course, Beau raised a huge stink, barking his fool head off, as we walked away from the car. But he seemed fine when we came back.

Later that afternoon, I got a fire going in the wood stove, and we settled into some fierce, trash-talking backgammon over a wonderful bottle of William Hill Chardonnay. I started food prep around 5:00 pm and though the recipe said that it only took 30 minutes to cook, it took me the usual hour and a half. No matter what I fix, could be just pork chops, it takes me an hour and a half....

In my defense, I was fixing Shrimp Fra Diavolo, and it took a considerable amount of time to shell and devein a pound and a half of shrimp. But that was fine. Sue and I just chatted and sipped our wine as I made a marvelous sauce mixture. It had oregano, basil, parsley, garlic, crushed tomatoes, and onions with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes all served over a bed of couscous. Both the basil and parsley were from her garden, and the smells were fabulous as I chopped them all up. As a side, I steamed a couple of heads of broccoli in a broth of cardamom and thyme.

After dinner, we watched one of our favorite movies, the marvelous 1981 movie, On Golden Pond with Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn.



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Sue found this old foundation off in the woods on the way to the trail.


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Beau can't stand to be out of the picture.


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Beau under a beautiful canopy of Fall color on the trail up Blue Job.


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Another rock foundation.


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A little further up the trail toward a wet muddy area that Beau tromped right through.


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Sue had lagged behind us so that she could get this shot of Beau and me before he charged down to her.


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Spectacular view from near the top of Blue Job.


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Sue and Beau bearing up under the blasts of cold wind on top of Blue Job mountain.


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Beau as King of Blue Job - until the wind really hit him, and he came flying back down to us.


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It's just so pretty up here....


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Sue buttoned up against the cold on the way back down the trail.



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