"What is that in that field?" "Peacocks."

Went to Papa's to celebrate his birthday. It was a low key affair with just Papa, Carrie, and me. And Sam the dog.

Papa and Sam liked the pizza and the pumpkin muffins. They have left overs to enjoy, too.

Papa was in good spirits today. He was full of stories and cracked us up. I think that's why his cat Sweetheart (also known as the Voodoo Queen) didn't come out; my cackle kept startling her.

At several points during the afternoon, Carrie shook her head and said, "Not like my grandparents". Well, to be perfectly honest, not many people's grandads rode a horse to the tavern (and not many people's sisters took a hayrack ride to a titty bar, but that's a different story for a different time). Carrie also marveled at the size of the house. It's incredibly small and they added onto it several years before my grandma died. My dad grew up in it. Both of his bedrooms were closets.

I won't even get into how fascinated she was by the bathroom.

We all had a good time, though. It was good to see Papa doing so well. Carrie and I left when my cousins came over to take Papa to dinner for his birthday.

Papa lives in a rural area and most of the drive is on the backroads through the corn and bean fields (okay, you could take the interstate, but there's really no fun in that). On the way home, Carrie did a doubletake. In the cornfield next to a house were about five or six peacocks. Apparently, she thought they only lived in zoos. If I had been thinking, I would have stopped and taken a couple of pictures.

Speaking of animals, Dad got a call tonight. It looks like we'll be dogsitting Zasu for a few days. She arrives tomorrow. Carrie is estatic.