Irremovable Concision

Well today was weird as hell, but I guess one can expect that on one's birthday, eh? Thanks to Facebook's automatic birthday alerts I heard from people I don't even know! I got text messages throughout the day, several of those automated birthday cards where the golden retrievers write their message by peeing in the snow, and my dear old friend from CA called from the bathroom stall from work! Usually *I* am the one in a bathroom stall when the phone rings, instead this time I was the lucky receiver of the call. Oy. Then there were all the regular Facebook hiya hiya's which I couldn't even read because my wall is blanked out. I don't know why.

But today I went up to Newburyport, a town I love, to join my daughter at her stand in the Farmers Market there to see her skin care stuff. By the time I arrived at 9, she was all set up in a nice space with a cool breeze. They have this in a little shopping center parking lot that is a wonderful place, very contained, with lovely exhibitors as well as the shops that are there permanently. And there within a foot of my shoulder was the chorica sausage guy grilling away with high smoke. He offered egg and chorica breakfast sandwiches or omlettes and the smell was driving me crazy until I finally gave in. Met lots of people, even more dogs but dogs don't have pockets for their money so we had to ignore them for the most part. OK, so you have chorica man to our right in your mind's eye now, right? Well right across from us was the band set-up, three women and a guy in a Red Sox hat with all their acoustic equipment. Actually they were pretty good but after the first three tunes the noise starts to grate- you can't hear the customer's questions and I know they can't hear our explanations. We had to go into smile-and-nod mode. The best part was watching the toddlers rock out to the music as some of them had their boogie pants on and really got down! One little girl, about two years old had been obviously doing ballet because she went into pirouettes and had darn good form for a little fat kid. It was sure fun to see them.

Produce looked wonderful at every booth, an there were two wine producers too. They also allow in a few craft people so the offerings were certainly varied. By noon the chorica man was in high gear and I was coughing up asbestos from his smoke, plus the sun went high and the wind died down and it got really hot. Several of the products melted, as did I. I was darn glad to fold the tent and move on.

TY was going to take me to the North End for a great dinner but come to find out it's Feast Day in there and shoulder to shoulder in the streets and restaurants which I just couldn't get my head around, so we bagged the great dinner in favor of another night, soon. And instead Nate came over and I cooked---- drum roll--- you might not be expecting this one--- hold on, are ya ready???

Country style pork ribs.

Stop it. I didn't have ANY pork yesterday at all, and today only a bit of chorica. It's my birthday, I can eat pork if I wanna. I just can't eat cake, drat the luck.