Weekending- Fifty is nifty as long as there are celebrations that include cake with thick icing

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

We had a nice weekend with a track meet and two more celebrations of my birthday. For the celebrations this weekend, I was actually fifty. Last weekend, I was still forty nine 😏

Friday late afternoon/ evening, Alyssa had a track meet nearby. It wasn't at home but it was at a school that was only about ten minutes away. It was a decent sized meet with ten schools competing in it but not all teams had individuals or relays that competed in each event. Alyssa was only in one event- the 4x800 relay. All the praise hands because that event is the first running event at every meet so I knew that her run would start when the running events started. The weather was less than ideal- not freezing cold but rainy. I was glad that I didn't have to sit in the bleachers for long- I knew that I'd leave as soon as her event was finished.

My title for this photo is, "A Track Meet in April in Ohio."

For the 800 relay, all ten schools in attendance had boys competing in it but only six schools had a girls 800 relay team. The meet organizers did something really odd. They had the boys and girls run the relay at the same time rather than have the girls run the relay and then the boys. Since there would be 16 runners total for each leg of the relay and a track has eight lanes, two runners at each lane ran. I guess it was done that way to save time? I've never seen or heard of that before. The girls and boys weren't competing against each other; they were just both occupying the track at the same time. 

I don't *think* it's controversial to point out that high school boys are faster than high school girls? A cursory glance at any high school meet's results page with times listed reveal that.  I've looked at many results pages and I am familiar with some of the typical "good" times for events and know that boys "good" times in an event is much faster than girls "good" times in the same event. Yet, it was still jarring to see the boys dominate on the track when the event started and sixteen runners- ten boys and six girls- began their run of two times around the track before handing over the baton to the next person. As I watched the athletes run, I could not help but think about the controversies surrounding boys/ males competing against girls/ females in athletic events.  Biological males can believe they are girls, cats or cornfields rather than males but I don't believe that means they should be allowed to compete with biological females in athletic events. I'm thankful for women like Riley Gaines and politicians who speak/ vote on behalf of female athletes (eg the recent The Protection of Women and Girls Act (the House voted on this 100% by party lines (I'll not comment on which party voted which way))) and common sense because common sense seems to be... not super common in certain circles. 

Back to the track and Friday evening, Alyssa ran her two times around the track pretty well. She had caught a terrible head cold at the worst possible time- Thursday morning her throat hurt terribly and then she started coughing later Thursday and into Friday. She did not want to let her team down so she ran the relay but decided against running the 800 meter open as she was going to, pre- cold. She had to stay for the rest of the meet, poor thing, in the rain to boot but she made the most of it. 

After Alyssa's event, I left the meet and went home. I had homemade pizza prepped in the refrigerator that I popped in the oven for dinner.  Donnie came home from work- the time that Alyssa ran precluded Donnie from watching her- and we ate. We relaxed the rest of the evening and waited for Alyssa to come home from the meet to catch up with her. 

Cool Saturdays, temperature wise, returned. (Last Saturday was hot but every other Saturday since about last October has been cool or cold...) Had a cold run and then a hot shower before running some errands with Alyssa. Donnie had to go to work in the morning for a board meeting. In the afternoon, I worked on a birthday gift. Later, Donnie and I went to dinner with two couple friends to celebrate my birthday. We had a great time with many laughs, good conversation and decent food (the food was just so-so at the restaurant). But there was cake with thick icing so all was good by the end!!

I made this gift card/ snack bouquet as a birthday present to a birthday boy whose birthday we were going to be celebrating on Sunday (along with my birthday). He's facing a surgery soon so I wanted to give him gift cards to eat out and healthier snack options.

Saturday evening dinner...

Nicole brought a cake from a local bakery called ele. So good!

Sunday morning was church followed by relaxing until it was time for one more get together for my birthday. We met some of Donnie's family for dinner in West Chester. We went to Agave & Rye (again- I had just been there the previous Friday) and then we went to Mark and Cindy's house to have cake and open presents there. 

The birthday kids- Mark and me. Mark's birthday is today. Cindy bought a cake from a delicious Cincinnati bakery called Servatii. Yum

Alyssa and her boyfriend came to dinner with us and back to Mark and Cindy's house.  I asked Alyssa if she'd take a picture of all of the adults. Not pictured are Donnie's sister and her husband Don who went to dinner with us but then went straight back to their home after dinner. It was nice catching up with everyone and of course eating more cake.