Happy Birthday, Mr. ShellHawk!

Saturday night saw our house full of smiles, laughter, amazing food, and wine for my husband's birthday. His birthday is actually today, but it was obviously better to have the party on Saturday. Since it was such a special occasion, I had the party catered by our friend, Dominick, who is the most amazing Italian chef, ever! I include a link to his restaurant, but honestly, almost nothing that we had was on his menu. Mr. ShellHawk is very picky about his Italian food, and Saturday's dinner got his stamp of approval, much to my relief! Everyone else stuffed themselves to the gills, too.

Mr. Macabre will be happy to know that his post about his find in the Hobby Lobby was sent to Mr. ShellHawk, biologist, and subsequently sent to a bunch of his biologist friends. As a result, Mr. ShellHawk got not one, but two Skeleton Pellets packages for his birthday, one including the sanitized, synthetic owl pellet containing the skeleton of a European Starling, the other a mole. Christmas Ape, who also attended the party, was quietly horrified.

Mr. ShellHawk was a little disappointed to discover that it hadn't been a real skeleton and a real owl pellet, but he's looking forward to getting in there and reassembling the skeletons, anyway.

Amidst the numerous bottles of wine and top shelf liquor he got for his birthday, he got this gift from me: a printed photo album containing a short history of his life. I was a little bummed to discover I left out a few pictures I had intended to include, but he loved it anyway, and was surprised and pleased to see some pics he had forgotten about. Below, he shares his birth certificate with the crowd of partygoers.

After sending our overnight houseguests home on Sunday, we shared mimosas with Neighbor V and her husband, and later grabbed a power nap on the couch. All in all, I'd say it was a great weekend.