Happy Birthday Mom!

Here is Mom at her birthday party.
It was Cousin Roy's birthday too
Mom is now celebrating in Peru

Yes, that's right, today is my Mom's birthday. We're not going to divulge any private information here, but this was a big birthday Mom. To celebrate, she and my Dad are in Peru. Even if on the other side of the equator, I still had a chance to talk to them on the phone today. It seems that in planning her birthday trip to South America, she neglected to realize that in the southern Hemisphere, June is the middle of winter. Oh well. It still sounded like she and my Dad were enjoying the trip. Today they toured Matchupitchu. Apparently Lima isn't much to see, and winter in Peru means rain.

If my Mom was disappointed with the weather, my Dad was thoroughly enjoying the history of the region. I didn't get very many details because international calls are expensive, and there's a delay in voice transmission over such a great distance, which makes talking on the phone a little tough. Anyhow, that was the Cliff's Notes version.

Some party guests
Dad is in the middle
I was a bit younger than most of the party guests.

Since my parents were going to be in Peru on her birthday, we celebrated the birthday last weekend. My Dad pulled off a logistical nightmare to make planning the Yankee's travel schedule look like a walk around the block, and successfully planned a surprise party. Unfortunately, I rode to third place at the Balloon Festival Classic, and was thus delayed leaving Saratoga. Then Becky and I nearly ran out of gas on the drive down, but that's a story for another time. Long story short, we missed the surprise, but I'm told that she was quite surprised. Well done Dad!

Mom, I wish you many happy returns.

Also, today is Brett's birthday. Happy birthday! I talked to Brett today as he was getting ready to celebrate with his brothers in Boston. Brett may soon be moving back to New York City to be the next Ralph Lauren, in which case I'll hopefully, finally have some clothes that fit me!

As you might have noticed, today was also the summer solstice. Here in Saratoga it stayed light until nearly 9 p.m. I wish it was this light all the time! Although I love summer, I always feel a twinge of sadness at the solstice as the shortening of the days means less time for riding, less time for tanning, and, worst of all, a steady decent toward the coldness of winter. I realize that it's fairly pessimistic of me to count down to winter after summer's just barely begun, but I can't help it. Anyhow, let's enjoy these long days while we can. I think in future years I'm going to celebrate the solstice like these people below.

Revelers revel on Coney Island
Funny, I don't see any men
perhaps they're all oggling from the sidelines

By the way, I found this photo on the Tugster blog, a blog about the New York City harbor.

By way of comparison, I spoke to Dante yesterday, who confirmed that up in Alaska it only gets dark for about three hours at night. And dark is a relative term. It's really more like an extended dusk until dawn. Now that's one way to get a lot of yard work done.