Last night Mike, Michael and I met my Dad and Mickey (my stepmother of 30plus years) at a steak house called "Linda's La Cantina" to celebrate our birthdays. I had not given Dad his birthday present, his BD was march 15. they had not given me mine either,my birthday was march 28, so we decided to have this late celebration. Actually, Michael got his BD present from them too, so it was a triple birthday! We all got steaks and they were terrific. Mike's was 16 oz and Michael's was 18 oz! The rest of us had a more reasonable 8 oz. We gave Dad a bottle of good wine and the new James Bond movie. (He took me to the first one which was (unintentionally) my intro to the subject of sex.) For some reason, going to Bond movies was one of the few things my family did together. I remember all the men would race their cars engines and make the wheels squeal as they left the parking lot. Dad is 87 and is losing his mental function. He can get around slowly with a walker but is very hunched over and always in pain. He had a stroke about 5 years ago which made him unable to write and began the process of losing his ability to speak. It makes it very hard to have a conversation as he is also hard of hearing. We end up talking to Mickey, but he wants to be included and he will say "HEY!" if you don't include him. I think that shows he is still there and needs people.
It was good to go to something different than the chain restaurants that are on this side of town (although I wouldn't complain about going to any of them!). Michael and I got a little cash for our presents and I got a silver bracelet that is beautiful. We topped off the evening with a quick trip to Sci-fi City to get comic books.
