Ricky's Birthday Celebration - March 10, 2006

Hard to believe another year's gone by! Ricky's another year older. . .whew, what does that mean for me. Naw, it can't be, I'm not getting older. . .I feel as young as the day Ricky was born. Ricky's just catching up with me!

Rocke and I enjoy sending Ricky a "Birthday Cookie Bouquet" every year on his birthday to help him celebrate his special day. This year we sent it to his office, the day before his birthday. He would be taking Friday, the 10th of March, his birthday, off from work to enjoy his "special" day!

Thanks to Ricky's Blog, I was able to keep in touch with him on his birthday. He had a good time on his birthday, choosing to spend his special day with a special friend, Ann, doing some fun things he wanted to do. With his birthday falling on a Friday, he and Ann turned it into a long weekend celebration.

Ricky likes going to Trinity Park to a feral cat colony to feed the stray cats. With a spare bag of cat food off Ricky and Ann went to have some fun. They only saw around a dozen cats on this trip. As usual, some were friendly and some were shy, but most were in between - choosing to keep a distance of a few feet. Ann decided that one in particular was friendly enough to take home if someone were inclined to do so.

Ricky wanted to go by the Wild Bird Center to purchase a hummingbird feeder for Ann. She thought it was weird that Ricky wanted to buy her something on his birthday. He picked up his favorite type—one that was easy to clean from Aspects, Inc. called a HummZinger before moving on to enjoy their next activity.

For lunch, they decided to go to Clown Burger, Too. According to Ricky and Ann, "you can describe it, but you have to experience it" to know what it's all about. It's a small hole-in-the-wall burger joint—the original has been around since 1959. Ann did a great job in telling the story about Clown Burger, Too and their experience at this primitive, a bit dirty and just plain weird restaurant, on her blog. Check out Ann's Blog and read her in-depth look into Clown Burger, Too.

After lunch, they headed to the Museum of Science and History. There, they went to a couple of exhibits, checked out the planeterium and watched Roving Mars.

For dinner, they headed down to Babe's Chicken in Burleson. Fried chicken is one of Ricky's favorite meals. They decided to sit at a table with "Nate"—a cowboy dummy in a chair. I'm guessing since it was Ricky's birthday, a waitress came out and put a chicken hat on him, put a cone in his mouth (for a beak) and had him dance like a chicken while they sang to him.

After that, it was back home for champagne, beer, and presents.

Ricky and Ann continued to celebrate his birthday on Saturday by having lunch at Uncle Julio's, a fine Mexican Restaurant. After that, they went to see Patterns of Progress at the local Amon Carter museum, visited Ricky's kitties, Tigger and Li'l Bit, then went to dinner at a local I-talian restaurant, Sardines. From there, Ricky wanted to go to J&J's Blues Bar to see an artist by the name of Jr. Boy .

They got home around midnight. The band had inspired Ricky to practice his guitar, so he sat up his guitar and amp on the porch and Ann brought out a bottle of champagne and Ricky's birthday cake. What a great way to end a weekend long, birthday celebration!